Healers are the backbone of any party, ensuring everyone lives through the hardest raidwide attacks, and tanks are topped up and shielded from tankbusters. While we received monumental changes in Endwalker, Dawntrail sees only a couple of changes, with Astrologian leading the pack with its reworked card system. We sat down for a couple of hours to see just how these jobs play in the upcoming fifth expansion.
This article is based on play of an in-development build of FINAL FANTASY XIV: Dawntrail and content in the final version is subject to change.
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker Magic Ranged DPS Impressions
White Mage
The most iconic healer in any Final Fantasy game, White Mage, hasn’t picked up too many changes, but what we do see helps with its flow considerably.
Aetherial Shift is learned at level 40, which is a dash ability not too dissimilar to Dancer’s En Avant. My only gripe with it would be that the cooldown is a lengthy 60 seconds; it would be nice to see that reduced, or even have charges.
Presence of Mind now procs a brand-new skill: Glare IV, which is an instant cast that deals almost double that of its predecessor, and even has 60% splash damage. There’s an upgraded version of Medica II (Medica III), which surprisingly only increases the Regen potency by about 16%. It’s a somewhat underwhelming enhanced version.
Finally, Temperance has a follow-up skill, Divine Caress, that’s unlocked at level 100. This grants everyone around the White Mage a shield upwards of 400 healing potency, even putting a hefty fifteen seconds regen after the barrier falls off.
As you can tell, there are only a couple of changes that White Mage is picking up, but it makes it more mobile or stronger with Divine Caress. I do hope we see Medica III getting a buff, though, as it’s pretty underwhelming overall.
The only job where your pet will do the majority of the work for you, Scholar, has received a similar update to Sage in that virtually nothing has changed within the level 90 skillset, but past that there are some solid inclusions. For starters, Chain Strategem now lasts five more seconds and has a new follow-up skill, Baneful Impaction. This is a simple, but powerful AOE damage-over-time ability.
The beloved Succor ability is no more, and in favor is Concitation at level 96, which adds another 20% extra shielding. The level 100 skill, Seraphism, is an AOE regen while Seraph is on the field. For the next twenty seconds, this also changes Adloquium to Manifestation and Concitation to Accession, with Emergency Tactics’ cooldown being reset and its recast timer reduced to 1 second. Both Manifestation and Accession have a 20% increase over Adlo and Concitation’s raw cure potency.
Astrologian
When Astrologian came out nine years ago, it was one of my favorite classes. Who didn’t want to look to the stars and pull tarot cards from a deck to buff your party? Well, Square Enix has promised a rework to make it a little easier to play, and what they’ve done is sizable, but not to the degree of something like Monk’s 6.0 rework.
The card system has been reworked completely. Currently how it works is that it’s an RNG system with what card is pulled and who you apply the card to is determined by the symbol. Even the Minor Arcana will either do more damage or heal the party. That has been thrown to the wayside in favor of something more consistent. Every time a card is drawn from the deck, there’s guaranteed to be three specific cards. The first set (Astral) will always be a card for melees, increased healing and a shield for a party member. This will cycle out into a second set (Umbral) for ranged damge, increased damage reduction to a party member and a regen. This is a bit of a throw back to when Astrologian was a flexible healer, being able to do either shield healing or regen healing.
Minor Arcana does the exact same thing as before, either dealing damage or healing, but the signs are assigned to the Astral and Umbral phases, respectively. Because all of this removes the RNG aspect, Astrodyne has been taken out of the game completely, so there are no additional effects based on what signs were used.
There’s a new Aspected Helios that does slightly more regen. Essential Dignity has an extra charge. Divination now lasts 5 seconds longer and has a follow-up attack, Oracle, which deals a large amount of damage with full splash damage. Neutral Sect has a follow-up level 100 skill, Sun Sign, which reduces damage by 10% for 15 seconds.
Even with all these changes, I do wish there was more consolidation of skills. As a controller player, I still have a difficult time putting everything on my hotbars. Still, all of these are welcome changes; even though I personally enjoyed the RNG aspects of the card system, it will allow the job to be a lot more consistent and easier to play.
The fourth and latest healer that was released with Endwalker, Sage is one of the most fun supports to play, having a unique visual style and strong emphasis on shield healing. Similar to Reaper, another job that came out in Endwalker, Sage has received virtually no changes to the existing kit, with just new abilities added between levels 90 and 100.
There are literally only two changes we could make from our time with the job: when using Eukrasia, the area-of-effect skill, Dyskrasia, turns into a DoT AoE, and there’s an updated Eukraisian Prognosis that shields players by 360% of the HP restored (which is roughly 10% more than before).
Outside of this, there are two new abilities in the new endgame. Psyche is a heavy-hitting AOE attack that can be used once a minute. Lastly, Philosophia will increase your healing potency by 20% while granting a mini-Kardia to the entire party (healing while using skills).
There’s not much to say about Sage. Like Reaper, Square Enix elected to keep what they did from the last expansion and only really add to the formula.
