Sage DPS Rotation for Healers — Dawntrail 7.1

Sage shares the basic foundation of all healers' damage kits. It has a standard single-target damage spell ( Dosis III), area-of-effect (AoE) damage spell ( Dyskrasia II), and damage-over-time (DoT) spell ( Eukrasian Dosis III). Generally, you want to keep Eukrasian Dosis III applied and cast Dosis III until you need to refresh the DoT.

However, Sage has a few unique features, especially Eukrasian Dyskrasia, an AoE Damage-over-Time skill. This gives Sage a unique playstyle compared to other healers, despite the underlying similarities.

Sage has a relatively simple opener, with only a couple variations. In most party compositions, you will want to prep your Eukrasia prior to pulling, so that you can use Eukrasian Dosis as soon as possible after the pull. Toxikon II is used as the first damaging skill, as its long application delay allows you to minimize the delay between the start of the pull and applying your DoT.

After applying your DoT, use Dosis III until raid buffs are up. Once buffs go out, use both charges of Phlegma II with Psyche weaved after the first Phlegma.

While this can vary depending on party composition and fight length, you will generally want to use Dosis as a filler until the final GCD of raid buffs, and then use that last GCD to refresh your Eukrasian Dosis III. DoTs in FFXIV snapshot buffs when they are applied. This means that all 10 subsequent DoT ticks will receive these raid buffs, which generally outweighs losing a few ticks from the initial DoT application. This also applies to every subsequent two-minute buff window. In other words, you pay the upfront cost of losing a few ticks, but receive significantly increased potency in every two-minute window.

Eukrasian Diagnosis and/or Eukrasian Prognosis II should be used pre-pull to shield damage, as well as to regenerate the Addersting charge consumed by the pre-pull Toxikon.

Outside of two-minute burst windows, you will have one Phlegma II available for free movement, which you can use at any point between 40 and 80 seconds after using Phlegma in the opener without overcapping. You should also make sure that you use your Psyche as close as possible to every time it comes off cooldown. If you delay it, then it may drift out of burst windows.

Apart from that, try to keep 100% uptime on your DoT, and keep your GCD rolling.

Also keep in mind that Pneuma deals the same damage to the primary target as Dosis, so it can be used as a damage-neutral heal.

1. Dyskrasia II is a DPS gain on three targets, but is a minor loss on two.
2. Eukrasian Dosis III does not stack with Eukrasian Dyskrasia. This means that you must choose one or the other. While Eukrasian Dyskrasia applies to all nearby enemies, the increased damage of Eukrasian Dosis may still make it worth individually applying it to every enemy, especially against smaller packs.
3. Phlegma and Psyche deal significant amounts of AoE damage.
4. Toxikon II is an overall DPS gain in multi-target situations, but it deals slightly less damage to the secondary targets than Dyskrasia II. Its most effective use in AoE is to target an enemy with more HP than the others. The damage gained against the primary target makes up for the 5 potency lost against the secondary targets, but only if it is beneficial for the primary target to take more damage than the rest of the enemies.
5. Pneuma's damage is similar to that of Toxikon II, but it deals more damage to the secondary targets than Dyskrasia II. It is still primarily used for its healing in most raid environments, but in a dungeon, it can be a very effective source of damage while also healing the tank.

The overwhelming majority of your personal damage is directly tied to maintaining your GCD uptime. With Kardia, a significant amount of healing is also dependent on your GCD uptime. More specifically, Kardia is dependent on your DPS uptime because only damaging GCDs trigger its healing; GCD heals do not.

Be aware of your positioning and any movement that is required to dodge incoming AoEs or handle mechanics. All Eukrasian spells are instant casts, so if you need to use a GCD heal or refresh Eukrasian Dosis III, it can be a good opportunity to move.

Take advantage of slidecasting and the short cast time of Dosis III to move for mechanics and dodge AoEs. "Slidecasting" refers to the ability to begin moving before your cast bar has completed without interrupting the cast. The timing of this window can vary based on your latency to the server, so you will have to experiment to familiarize yourself with it.

Generally, it occurs about half a second before the cast bar is finished. With a short cast time like Dosis III, that would be around two-thirds of the way through the cast bar. This window, combined with the roughly one second before you must stop moving to begin your next cast, gives you a lot of freedom to move around without losing any casts.

Icarus can be used to quickly dash to an ally or enemy. This is excellent for quickly repositioning for mechanics or covering large distances when you do not have enough instant-cast spells to maintain uptime. However, the farther you go, the longer the animation lock is. When used across long ranges, it may result in some GCD clipping, but it is still better than losing casts if you have no other alternative.

Phlegma III can often be used for mobility, depending on the timing and your positioning. You want to use at least one Phlegma III during each two-minute raid buff window. You will have to spend at least one charge of Phlegma III between those buff windows to avoid capping on charges, and those casts can be freely used for movement if you can position yourself close to the boss before you will need to move.

Toxikon II is primarily a mobility tool because it is damage-neutral on a single target. In fact, the entire Addersting mechanic is mostly for mobility. The only way to get access to Toxikon II in the first place is to gain a charge of Addersting when the shield from Eukrasian Diagnosis (also an instant-cast spell) is broken by damage. Together, they should provide Sage with plenty of on-demand mobility, at least in theory.

However, in practice, it is unlikely that you will case Eukrasian Diagnosis in a raid environment often enough for it to provide a significant source of mobility. Under some circumstances, it might be more practical to cast it during downtime (possibly on multiple people) to get the Addersting charges in preparation for a future mechanic that requires a lot of movement.