Sage DPS Rotation for Healers - Dawntrail 7.0 (2024)

Last updated on Jul 10, 2024 at 22:35by Wynn10 comments

On this page, you will learn how to optimise your DPS opener and rotation inboth single-target and multi-target situations. We also cover the use ofyour cooldowns, to ensure you can achieve the best use of them every timeas a Sage in Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail (Patch 7.0).

Sage shares the basic foundation of all healers' damage kits. It has astandard single-target damage spell ( Dosis III),area-of-effect (AoE) damage spell ( Dyskrasia II), anddamage-over-time (DoT) spell ( Eukrasian Dosis III). Generally, youwant to keep Eukrasian Dosis III applied and cast Dosis III until you need torefresh 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 toother 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 applicationdelay allows you to minimize the delay between the start of the pull and applying yourDoT.

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

While this can vary depending on party composition and fight length, you will generallywant to use Dosis as a filler until the final GCD of raid buffs, and then use that last GCDto refresh your Eukrasian Dosis III. DoTs in FFXIV snapshot buffs when theyare 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 alsoapplies to every subsequent two-minute buff window. In other words, you pay the upfrontcost of losing a few ticks, but receive significantly increased potency in every two-minutewindow.

Eukrasian Diagnosis and/or Eukrasian Prognosis II should be usedpre-pull to shield damage, as well as to regenerate the Addersting charge consumed by thepre-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 openerwithout overcapping. You should also make sure that you use your Psycheas close as possible to every time it comes off cooldown. If you delay it, then it maydrift 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 asDosis, 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. Thismeans that you must choose one or the other. While Eukrasian Dyskrasia applies to all nearbyenemies, the increased damage of Eukrasian Dosis may still make it worth individually applyingit 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-targetsituations, but it deals slightly less damage to the secondary targets thanDyskrasia II. Its most effective use in AoE is to target an enemy with moreHP than the others. The damage gained against the primary target makes up forthe 5 potency lost against the secondary targets, but only if it isbeneficial for the primary target to take more damage than the rest of theenemies.
5. Pneuma's damage is similar to that of Toxikon II, but itdeals more damage to the secondary targets than Dyskrasia II. It is stillprimarily 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 tomaintaining your GCD uptime. With Kardia, a significant amountof healing is also dependent on your GCD uptime. More specifically, Kardia isdependent on your DPS uptime because only damaging GCDs trigger itshealing; GCD heals do not.

Be aware of your positioning and any movement that is required to dodgeincoming AoEs or handle mechanics. All Eukrasian spells are instant casts, soif you need to use a GCD heal or refresh Eukrasian Dosis III, itcan 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 completedwithout interrupting the cast. The timing of this window can vary based on yourlatency to the server, so you will have to experiment to familiarize yourselfwith it.

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

Icarus can be used to quickly dash to an ally orenemy. This is excellent for quickly repositioning for mechanics orcovering large distances when you do not have enough instant-cast spells tomaintain 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 isstill better than losing casts if you have no other alternative.

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

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

However, in practice, it is unlikely that you will case EukrasianDiagnosis in a raid environment often enough for it to provide a significantsource of mobility. Under some circ*mstances, it might be more practical tocast it during downtime (possibly on multiple people) to get the Adderstingcharges in preparation for a future mechanic that requires a lot ofmovement.