Introduction

While Sage starts out at level 70, you may find yourself synced to lower level ranges when leveling through roulettes, and this guide aims to cover what options you have at each level range. Even if you want to level Sage exclusively using 70+ content, you can use this guide as an explanation of your large mitigation/healing toolkit and how they work together with a focus on healing dungeon content; though the guidelines introduced are applicable to all PvE content in this game.

Gear and Job Quests

When leveling, prefer equipping higher item level gear, as they come by from dungeons or Main Scenario Quests (if Sage is the job you go through story quests with). As most of your gear will be replaced every few levels, it is not worth melding materia into any of them.

Your starting job quest will reward you with an i385 weapon and i385 left side gear. While these are sufficient to start the leveling process with (provided that you have a reasonable set of right side gear), you can easily obtain i400 Augmented Scaevan gear using poetics from Rowena’s Representative in Kugane. Similarly, at level 80, you can obtain i530 Augmented Cryptlurker gear from Mowen’s Representative in Crystarium.

Sage has six job quests spanning the levels 70-80, including the introductory one. While it is not necessary to do most of them as soon as you reach the corresponding level, they do provide a decent amount of exp. Your final job quest at level 80 should be done as soon as possible as a critical skill in your kit is locked behind job quest completion.

Glossary

• SGE: Sage
• CD (Cooldown): The time it takes before you’re able to cast an action again.
• GCD (Global Cooldown): Spells that share the same base recast time. On SGE, these are anything categorized as “Spell” on the official job guide.
• Instant (Instant Cast): GCD Spells that do not have a cast bar. oGCD (Off Global Cooldown): Abilities that do not share the 2.5s base recast time and therefore can be used while GCD spells are on cooldown.
• Weaving: Using oGCDs in between GCDs. To avoid delaying your GCD, you can safely weave two oGCDs after an instant cast GCD that isn’t a Eukrasian spell, or one oGCD after Dosis, Pneuma and your various Eukrasian spells.
• HoT (Heal over Time): Actions that heal the target over a period of time. These actions heal for their listed potency once every three seconds.
• Regen: Another word for HoT
• DoT (Damage over Time): Actions that damage the target over a period of time. These actions deal damage for their listed potency once every three seconds.
• AoE (Area of Effect): Actions that affect every target in a specified area. AoE heals heal all allies in a circle around their source. AoE damage abilities affect all enemies in an area specified by the ability; enemies can perform AoE attacks too.
• Kardia: A buff that can be applied to any party member (including yourself), which is permanent until you change targets. Any time you cast a damaging GCD (Dosis, Eukrasian Dosis, Dyskrasia, Phlegma, Toxikon, Pneuma), the target of this buff is healed for 130p before level 85, and 170p after.
• Addersgall: Sage’s healing resource that generates naturally over time, one stack per 20s, capping out at three stacks. Can be used on Druochole, Kerachole, Ixochole and Taurochole. You gain 700MP every time you use one stack. Rhizomata (Lv. 74) grants you an Addersgall stack.
• Addersting: Sage’s damage resource that is accumulated every time the shield from Eukrasian Diagnosis is broken from damage. Addersting allows the use of Toxikon, a targeted AoE damage GCD.

Role Actions

As Sage starts at level 70, you will have full access to your role actions regardless of what level you sync to.

Repose: Puts target enemy to sleep. Not very useful outside of being required for the Shadowbringers healer role quest.

Esuna: Removes one random cleansable debuff (as indicated by the white bar above the icon) from the targeted party member. Most debuffs you encounter during the leveling experience are minor annoyances that do not need to be cleansed, though some DoT debuffs can hit decently hard and should be removed if you are not confident in healing through them. Cleansable Doom-like debuffs should always be Esuna’d.

Swiftcast: Makes your next GCD instant. Generally used on Egeiro, your resurrection spell, which has a long cast time.

Lucid Dreaming: Gradually restores MP, a total of 3850MP over its full duration. Lucid Dreaming is your only way of recovering MP before you get Addersgall, so get into the habit of using it at around 70-80% MP.

Surecast: Prevents most forced movement effects and stops your cast from being interrupted. Use it to maintain casting uptime.

Rescue: Pulls a targeted party member towards you. Both you and your target need to be in combat for this to take effect. This skill is generally not used outside of coordinated environments due to the delay on the movement.

Levels 18-29

Healing

Always apply Kardia to the tank at the beginning of dungeons. At this level range, your tank sustain can be almost entirely carried by your Kardia healing, provided that you are consistently casting Dosis.

At level 20, you gain access to Physis, an AoE 15s regen effect that heals for 500p over its full duration. Do not sit on it thinking that it is only a raid-wide healing tool; use it proactively in trash pulls for tank maintenance. Its short 60s CD also means it will be available for most pulls.

Unless your tank is doing massive wall to wall pulls in these dungeons, it will be very rare to need Diagnosis. At 400p, Diagnosis is technically your most potent single target healing tool at this level, though it is in reality only a 270p healing gain on your tank due to Diagnosis not proccing Kardia healing. That said, do not hesitate to use it if your Kardia heals are not enough to keep up with incoming damage.

Damage

Your DPS rotation at this range is very simple as you do not even have access to your DoT due to the lack of Eukrasia. Simply cast Dosis and use your Phlegma (Lv. 26) charges as they come up.

Levels 30-44

Healing

Eukrasia becomes available at level 30, giving you access to your DoT Eukrasian Dosis, as well as your single target and AoE shield in the form of Eukrasian Diagnosis and Eukrasian Prognosis respectively. Always apply Eukrasian Diagnosis to your tank prepull. Eukrasian Diagnosis also replaces Diagnosis as your single target GCD option from this point onwards, as it is a more potent heal at 675p (300p raw heal + 375p shield).

Despite SGE’s categorization as a shield healer, Eukrasian Prognosis is one of the lesser utilized aspects of our kit. Do not attempt to use Eukrasian Prognosis before every instance of raidwide damage. Instead, prefer to heal up the damage afterwards with free healing tools such as Physis that do not cost us a Dosis cast. However, do not skip out on using this ability if it would save your party from dying to unavoidable damage.

On the other hand, Soteria, gained at level 35, is an ability that you should aim to utilize in trash pulls as much as possible. Soteria boosts all your Kardia healing by 70% for the next four procs, making each proc a 221p heal at this level range. You can use it alongside Physis for strong tank maintenance if needed, or when Physis is unavailable to space out your healing tools.

Damage

With access to your instant cast DoT ability, you should aim to apply Eukrasian Dosis to any enemy that you can while your tank is running between trash pulls. Eukrasian Dosis beats a regular Dosis after 21s, so only apply the DoT to enemies that you think will live long enough once the tank settles the pull. Eukrasian Dosis only procs Kardia healing once when it is applied, and not every time the DoT ticks.

In boss fights, keep your Eukrasian Dosis DoT up on the enemy at all times, only letting it drop if the fight is about to come to an end.

While not a DPS tool, you do gain a gap-closer at level 40 in the form of Icarus. Icarus can be targeted on either an enemy or party member, and you can use it to keep up with the tank between pulls, or to move quickly into a safe spot if your party members preposition for mechanics.

Levels 45-65

Your gameplay at these levels change quite a bit with the introduction of your spammable AoE GCD in the form of Dyskrasia (Lv. 46) as well as your Addersgall heals.

Healing

Druochole (Lvl. 45): The very first Addersgall ability you get. It heals the target for 600p and has a cooldown of 1s, effectively making it a spammable oGCD heal as long as you have Addersgall stacks remaining. This will be your go-to single target healing option when Kardia heals are not enough.

Kerachole (Lvl. 50): Applies a 10% mitigation effect to all party members in range for 15s. As Kerachole does not have a regen effect at this level, it is not worth using in trash packs as the 600p healing that Druochole provides often outweighs the damage that the 10% mitigation can save you. However, getting into the habit of using it to mitigate raid-wide damage is not a bad idea.

Ixochole (Lvl. 52): Heals all party members in range for 400p. Your bread and butter AoE healing option at this level along with Physis. At a short cooldown of 30s, it will be up for most instances of unavoidable, raid-wide damage. Unlike most of our AoE healing tools, this should not be used in trash pack healing as Druochole provides higher single target healing for the same Addersgall cost.

Taurochole (Lvl. 62): Heals the target for 700p and applies a 10% mitigation buff for 15s. With a cooldown of 45s, Taurochole should be up for every trash pull and should be used for both its potent healing and mitigation aspects. Do not apply this to the tank when they are at full health. Let their HP drop a little bit so Taurochole does useful healing on top of mitigation. The mitigation effect does not stack with Kerachole’s mitigation effect, but does not quite matter yet as you will not be using Kerachole in trash pulls at this level range.

Aside from the addition of Addersgall heals, Physis also gets an upgrade to Physis II at level 60, upgrading its total potency from 500p to 650p, and adding a healing received buff for 10s to anyone who receives the regen. The healing buff works on all forms of healing and also buffs the strength of any potency-based shields, though this does not functionally change the way you use Physis.

Zoe (Lvl. 56) buffs the strength of your next GCD heal by 50%, which at this level applies to only Diagnosis and Prognosis, as well as their Eukrasian versions. Zoe will not see too much use as we try to avoid using GCD healing in general, though the 50% buff definitely comes in handy when you are reduced to spamming Eukrasian Diagnosis in dire situations. You can also use it on the prepull Eukrasian Diagnosis you apply on the tank to boost the shield’s strength.

Pepsis (Lvl. 58) converts existing Eukrasian Diagnosis or Eukrasian Prognosis shields into raw healing of 450p for the former, and 350p for the latter. For example, casting Eukrasian Prognosis and then using Pepsis results in a heal of 450p (100p from the non-shield portion of Eukrasian Prognosis + 350p from Pepsis). It is one of the least used tools in the SGE kit as it requires a GCD heal to be effective and barely offers any healing potency advantages compared to our other options. You will generally only see it used when a large amount of raw healing is required: for example, when party members need to be at 100% HP for mechanical purposes.

In summary, continue using Physis and Soteria on trash pulls whenever those abilities are available. Use Taurochole after the tank’s health drops a bit to make use of its healing and mitigation effect, then Druochole if you need to heal the tank as long as you have Addersgall stacks.

Damage

At level 46, SGE finally gets a spammable AoE damaging GCD in the form of Dyskrasia. On two targets, Dyskrasia either beats or breaks even with Dosis at every level, so you should be switching to using Dyskrasia over Dosis whenever there are multiple targets. Dyskrasia only procs Kardia healing when it hits a target, and only once per GCD, and not once per target hit. Continue using Phlegma charges as they come up as they are a DPS gain in all practical scenarios.

Levels 66-80

Throughout these levels, you unlock the other half of your job gauge in the form of Addersting and gain a lot of important healing tools that will form the backbone of your dungeon healing rotation.

Healing

Haima (Lvl. 70) is your most powerful single target oGCD healing tool in dungeons. It applies a shield of 300p to your target and re-applies another 300p shield every time the previous one has been fully consumed by damage, up to a total of five re-applications. When fully used, Haima essentially provides 1800p of healing (300p initial shield + 5x300p re-application). Any unused re-application stacks at the end of Haima’s 15s duration are converted automatically into healing worth 150p per remaining stack. However, the high damage during trash pulls will almost always guarantee full Haima potency. Haima snapshots any healing buffs when it is applied, meaning that a 10% healing buff will carry over to all shield re-applications even if the original healing buff expires sometime during Haima. Because of this interaction, try to use Physis II and Haima together as much as you can, applying Physis II before using Haima, which turns the latter into a 1980p heal.

Holos (Lvl. 76) is a defensive oGCD that heals and shields all party members within range by 300p and also applies a 10% mitigation effect that lasts 20s. Despite its AoE nature, Holos should be used during trash pulls after the tank has taken some damage for its healing effect and as an additional 10% mitigation and shield at your disposal. Either use it with Taurochole (the mitigation does stack), or after Taurochole’s mitigation fades to maintain a consistent 10% mitigation effect on the tank.

In boss fights, Holos can be used as a regular 300p AoE heal, but is much more effective when used for both its healing and mitigation effect. A simple way you can do that is to not top off the party after an instance of raid-wide damage, then use Holos right before the next raid-wide to heal up and mitigate the upcoming damage. Instances of multiple raid-wide hits in succession (such as stack markers that hit multiple times) also make for easy Holos targets. Simply use the skill after the party has taken damage from the initial hit to heal up and mitigate any remaining hits.

Kerachole gains a significant upgrade at level 78 in the form of an additional regen, healing for a total of 500p over its duration. This completely changes the role of Kerachole in trash pull healing scenarios - instead of an Addersgall skill that you do not use, Kerachole becomes an oGCD that you should use at the beginning of every pull for its 10% mitigation and passive regen. This also changes how you use Taurochole in pulls. Because Kerachole’s mitigation effect does not stack with Taurochole, you should delay using Taurochole until Kerachole’s effect wears off. The combination of Kerachole’s short CD of 30s and the availability of your other 10% mitigation tools (Holos and Taurochole) means you can pretty much keep a 10% mitigation running on the tank at all times during a pull, giving you a lot of power to keep incoming tank damage in check. If you have already been using Kerachole in boss fights to mitigate raidwide damage, then congratulations, you get a partywide 500p bonus healing for free.

The addition of Panhaima at level 80 essentially completes the SGE dungeon healing kit and defines how you are healing pulls for the remaining ten levels. Panhaima is an AoE version of Haima that applies a 200p shield with re-application stacks expiring for 100p, making it a 1200p heal when all shields are fully consumed. As with most of our AoE oGCD tools, you should be using this for tank maintenance during trash pulls. It also interacts with Physis II the same way as Haima, where applying Physis II then Panhaima turns the latter into a 1320p heal. Not quite Haima’s 1980p, but a very powerful heal nonetheless.

It is a bit rare to see Panhaima fully utilized in boss fights, as it requires multiple instances of unavoidable damage on all party members within 15s. Raid-wide DoTs and stack markers with multiple hits are often good candidates to get mileage out of Panhaima, though using it as a 200p shield with a follow up 400p heal as it expires is already decent value.

The reason Panhaima ‘completes’ your dungeon healing kit is due to Haima having a 120s cooldown, meaning it will not be available for every pull, making your Haima-less pulls slightly less robust in terms of mitigation and healing. Panhaima solves this problem because you can now alternate Haima and Panhaima usage between pulls while using oGCDs such as Soteria and Holos to ‘make up’ for Panhaima’s slightly weaker potency compared to Haima if necessary. A rough skeleton of a dungeon healing plan may then look as follows:

1st pull: Physis II + Kerachole + Haima + Taurochole when Kerachole wears off + Druocholes as needed, Kerachole when Taurochole wears off… 2nd pull: Physis II + Kerachole + Panhaima + Holos/Soteria + Taurochole when Kerachole wears off + Druocholes as needed, Kerachole when Taurochole wears off…

Note that the example given above is simply a guideline assuming roughly even-sized pulls and not a strict rule on how to use your tools. Adjust your oGCD usage as needed depending on the nature of the actual pull.

With the amount of tools at your disposal at this level range, especially with Rhizomata (Lvl. 74) granting you an extra Addersgall every 90s, it is uncommon to need to fall back to Eukrasian Diagnosis spamming to keep the tank alive, but it will be necessary when you have exhausted all your oGCDs and Addersgall stacks. If that happens, try to keep calm and assess which oGCDs will be available soon to salvage the situation while you are spamming GCD heals.

Damage

At level 66, you gain access to your Addersting job gauge which allows you the use of Toxikon, a targeted AoE, instant GCD that does damage. As Addersting is generated from your Eukrasian Diagnosis shield being completely consumed by damage, you should get one free Addersting per pull to spend on Toxikon if you have been pre-shielding your tank before each pull. Use any Toxikon stacks you have liberally on trash pulls as they are a DPS gain over Dyskrasia, but do not cast Eukrasian Diagnosis during the pull for the sole purpose of generating Toxikon stacks - Eukrasian Diagnosis + Toxikon is a DPS loss vs 2x Dyskrasia in all practical scenarios.

At this level range, Toxikon is a loss in single target situations compared to your standard Dosis cast and should be avoided unless it is needed for movement and your other instant GCDs (natural dot refresh, Phlegma, Swiftcast) are not valid options.

Levels 80-90

SGE’s core gameplay does not change very much in this level range as most of the changes consist of potency upgrades.

Healing

Krasis, obtained at level 86, is a powerful single target oGCD that increases the healing received by the target by 20%. In other words, apply this to whoever you want to heal (usually the tank) and not yourself. The healing buff provided by this ability works on all forms of healing, and the short 60s CD means that it will likely be up for every pull. Apply Krasis as the first thing in every pull to buff every regen/shielding effect that you apply afterwards.

SGE’s capstone ability, Pneuma, does not really play a major role in the leveling experience given that it is only obtained at 90. However, it is a beefy 600p heal that comes at no DPS cost to yourself, and is in fact a DPS gain in trash pulls. Pneuma is also a GCD heal for the purposes of Zoe, making it oftentimes the best candidate to use Zoe on as it transforms Pneuma into a lossless 900p heal. Use it actively in trash pulls as a damage tool, but consider delaying it a bit instead of using it instantly on pull so the tank takes some damage that Pneuma can be used to heal. As Pneuma does the same damage as Dosis, it should be used primarily as a healing tool in single target scenarios.

Eukrasian Diagnosis, Eukrasian Prognosis and Kardia heals get a decent potency upgrade at level 85, but this does not affect how they are used in the kit.

Damage

At level 82, SGE gains a new AoE DoT: Eukrasian Dyskrasia. While gathering mobs in multitarget scenarios, you can spam Dyskrasia or Toxikon and apply Eukrasian Dyskrasia to all mobs when they are gathered. Spend Toxikons (but do not actively generate them while enemies are targetable) and Phlegma charges as they come up.

In single target scenarios, Toxikon finally becomes damage neutral with Dosis at level 82 and can be used as a lossless movement tool when you have Addersting stacks.

Levels 90-100

Through this level range, SGE should feel similar to how it has felt to this point. However, it will receive a few changes that lend themselves to significantly increased tank and raidwide survivability while also increasing its damage profile and complexity.

Healing

Sage receives valuable healing traits at level 94. The cooldown on Soteria is reduced to 60s and, new to all healers and casters, Swiftcast will become a 40s cooldown. This allows for 3 Swiftcast uses every 2 minutes as opposed to the previous 2 Swiftcasts per 2 minutes and can be beneficial if there are party deaths. Soteria’s 60s CD ensures that it is now up for each double pull in standard dungeons.

At level 96, Sage gains an upgrade, Eukrasian Prognosis II, to its GCD shield. Eukrasian Prognosis II gives a 360p AoE shield and 100p heal. When combined with Sage’s other buttons (Zoe, Physis, and its level 100 capstone, Philosophia), E. Prog II’s shield output can be used as a significant buffer to raidwide damage. Though this is simply a potency change in effect, Sage’s kit relies on synergy between its buttons, and using E. Prognosis II with heal buffs can vastly increase your party’s chances of surviving a hard-hitting mechanic or failure points.

Level 98 increases the healing buff on Physis to 15s. Though this is a minimal change, you can take advantage of it to put out a buffed shield or heal at the end of a sequence of repeated damage or in preparation for an upcoming instance of raidwide damage.

Sage’s capstone ability is Philosophia, a significant addition to its heal kit. It can be considered, in a sense, a party-wide Kardia with a notable bonus trait. For every spell, or GCD, that Sage casts, every party member under Philosophia’s buff, Eudaimonia, will receive a 150p heal. Additionally, it will buff the potency of every GCD heal by 20%. Though this button is on a steep 3-minute cooldown, the effects have a duration of 20s. Combined with Sage’s other heal buffs, Sage can easily put out extremely high amounts of healing in a short period.

Damage

Sage’s damage output still comes significantly from Phlegma in both single-target and multi-target scenarios, but the job receives a new addition to its kit in the form of Psyche, a 600p oGCD with 50% falloff. As Psyche is on a 60s CD, you want to send this button first in buffs and then again on cooldown for the remainder of a fight. Psyche is essentially an additional Phlegma that aligns easily with party buffs.

At level 94, all healers including Sage receive an interesting change to their damage kits. Players will receive a trait that increases the potency of Dosis III to 360p, Toxikon II to 360p, and Pneuma to 360p. While this means that Toxikon and Pneuma are still a gain over Dyskrasia in all multi-target scenarios, Dyskrasia is not a gain on Dosis until 3 targets. If there are 3 or more targets, use Dyskrasia. However, if there are only 2 targets, it is more beneficial after level 94 to use Dosis.