Sage DPS Rotation for Healers — Endwalker 6.5

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.

Sage has no damaging oGCDs or personal damage mechanics, so it has a very simple opener. Dosis III is precast in the standard opener because it puts you 1.5 seconds ahead, while using Eukrasia pre-pull only puts you ahead by 1 second. Phlegma III is delayed a few GCDs so raid buffs will apply to your hardest-hitting casts.

Eukrasian Diagnosis is used on the tank pre-pull to shield the first auto-attack. This is standard for a shield healer, but it also gives you a stack of Addersting when it breaks, allowing you to begin the encounter with one cast of Toxikon II in reserve for later.

If there is raid damage in the first 10-15 seconds of the encounter, you can shield additional party members with Eukrasian Prognosis pre-pull to receive up to three stacks of Addersting when the raid damage breaks the shields.

• Pre-pull
  • -20s to -6s: Prepare shields using Eukrasian Diagnosis and/or Eukrasian Prognosis depending on the needs of the encounter.

Phlegma III is Sage's only source of burst damage. To maximize its value, you can follow a simple guideline: use a single charge of Phlegma III between each two-minute burst window. All other charges will be used during the burst windows.

1. Dyskrasia II is a DPS gain on as few as two targets.
2. Depending on how long the enemies live, Eukrasian Dosis III can be efficient on up to four targets before you begin using Dyskrasia II.
   • With two targets, Eukrasian Dosis III only needs 15 seconds to be a gain.
   • With three targets, Eukrasian Dosis III needs 21 seconds to be a DPS gain.
   • With four targets, Eukrasian Dosis III is only efficient on enemies that will survive for the full 30-second duration.
3. Even when there are more than four enemies, it can be time-efficient to apply Eukrasian Dosis III to enemies that have significantly more HP than the others in the pull. While Dyskrasia II seems better on paper, it would only result in the weaker enemies dying faster. You would still have to finish off the tougher enemies afterward.
   • By focusing a little more damage on them with DoTs, you can save time overall by minimizing how much time you spend dealing with the remaining enemies in a less AoE-efficient one- or two-target situation.
   • In a perfect world, the most efficient outcome is that every enemy dies at exactly the same time because the party used its most efficient single-target damage sources to keep the tougher enemies in line with the weaker ones.
4. Phlegma III is a significant DPS gain in any multi-target situation.
5. 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.
6. 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.