Tag: Starting Setup Guides

FFXIV Sage starting Skill Setup & Rotation (L70)

Need a Sage starter guide? Well you found the right place. If you found yourself here, you probably need advice on one of these – Making sense and setting up the Sage initial skills, or help with exactly HOW to use them (“rotation”). BTW, SGE unlocks in Limsa.

Sage can be overwhelming when you first start out. There’s a bunch of skills, and it all feels a little technical. Don’t worry, I’ll help you out the best I can while yer’ here.

I PLACED THE LEVEL OF THE SKILL BESIDE THE SKILLNAME SO YOU CAN EASILY FIND THEM!

While I could list the initial Sage skills by level, I think discussing them by logical “grouping” is better.

Sage Systems and Basics – a short rundown

Here’s a quick summary on the sage subsystems that will help give you context on the skill discussions to come.

Addersgall: You gain a stack of this every 20 seconds. It’s like an automatic Aetherflow I suppose. You can spend Addersgall on powerful healing and utility skills that all restore a little bit of your MP, while also being free (they only cost Addersgall, and have a short cooldown).

Addersting: When a barrier you apply gets completely consumed, you get Addersting. You can only use this on Toxikon

Kardia / Kardion: Gives “free healing” to a selected party member whenever you DPS. Why not.

Eukrasia: CONVERTS other skills into their Eukrasian counterpart. Sounds weird, but essentially it’s a way to save hotbar space. It’s pretty cool once you get to use it.

Sage DPS Skills

Forgive me for discussing DPS first, but you will be pressing this most while leveling up (or most other things). In terms of preparation, Kardia (L4) should always be up, especially in group content. I suppose your Chocobo is the very minimum target for this, lol.

Sage Single Target DPS skills

Dosis (L1) is your basic pew pew spell.

Eukrasia (L30) Converts certain skills to have different effects (saving hotbar space). Eukrasia should have a very accessible keybind.

Eukrasia + Dosis = Eukrasian Dosis (DoT). Keep this up on enemies that will live for a while.

Phlegma (L26) instant OGCD with charges. It’s AoE, but you should still use it for single target.

Toxikon (L66) instant AoE (uses Addersting). Single target usage ONLY if you’re busy moving.

Sage AoE DPS skills

Dyskrasia (L46) is your basic AoE spell.

Phlegma (L26) instant OGCD AoE with charges. Preferably used in AoE, but OK for single target.

Toxikon (L66) instant AoE (uses Addersting). Preferably AoE, but great for to use while moving.

Sage Healing Skills

Addersgall Spells

These 4 spells all require Addersgall stacks. I’ll list them here first, and in their respective categories again later. Again, you get a stack of Addersgall every 20 seconds in combat. All of these skill restore MP as an added effect.

Druochole (L45) Heavy single target instant heal.

Ixochole (L52) Heavy AoE instant heal.

Kerachole (L50) AoE Damage Mitigation (and regen later on).

Taurochole (L62) Heavy single target instant heal WITH damage mitigation.

Finally, Rizomata (you’ll get this at 74, though) grants you 1 Addersgall via a CD.

Sage Single Target Healing

Diagnosis (L2) Is your el basic of the basic “Cure I” type heal. Weak but efficient.

Eukrasian Diagnosis (L2) Heavy single target shielding. Gives Addersting when shield consumed. If it isn’t obvious by now, you need to “modify” Diagnosis with Eukrasia to get this spell.

Pepsis (L58) Instant OGCD spell that STRIPS all of your shields from allies, in exchange for healing. The heal is stronger from Diagnosis shields, compared to your AoE shield.

Haima (L70) Long Cooldown, ultra heavy long duration shielding. This is a pretty awesome CD that essentially shields your target up to 5 times. If some of these are unused, you get a scaling heal at the end.

Sage AoE Healing

Prognosis (L10) is your basic AoE healing.

Eukrasian Prognosis converts it into an AoE shielding spell.

Holos (L20) Instant OGCD AoE heal with a moderate cooldown.

Physis (L20) Instant OGCD AoE heal over time with moderate cooldown.

Pepsis (L58) Instant OGCD spell that STRIPS all of your shields from allies, in exchange for healing.

Physis (L60) Instant OGCD spell that lightly heals, but adds a buff to healing done.

Sage 70 other Cooldowns and Utility

Kardia (L4) is discussed earlier. Gives your DPS spells a free little heal on your selected “beacon”.

Soteria (L35) Doubles the heal of Kardion effects. Eh, not bad. It’s “free healing” and gives you 4 or 5 DPS spells worth of Kardia healing without “guilt or worry”.

Icarus (L40) Mobility spell that jumps you to a friendly target.

Zoe (L56) Doubles the effectivity of your next healing spell.

Eukrasia (L30) is discussed earlier, yeah technically this spell also falls in this category.

Sage L70 ‘Rotation’

I guess I can place a little ‘how to play SGE basics’ here, as there really isn’t a rotation to speak of for the most part as healer… Lemme update this in a bit.

Summary & Outro

Sage seems a little daunting when you’re setting it up… and it probably is haha. But, just remember, if you’re learning… “DONT WASTE TOO MUCH, AND DONT HOLD ON TOO LONG”. Use your utility and cooldown skills “when you need ’em”. As you gain human experience, your ways to gauge this will be more refined.

Welp, I hope you took our “Sage advice” to get you started right up. Careful out there, and don’t drop ‘yer tank!

FFXIV Reaper Starting Skill Setup & Rotation (L70)

If you’re here, well, welcome to what’s essentially a Reaper starter guide. You probably need help with at least one of these two things – Making sense and setting up the Reaper initial skills, or figuring out your starter Reaper rotation. Well, if that’s the case, lemme slice it up for ya. BTW RPR unlocks in Ul’dah.

In a nutshell your Reaper initial rotation revolves around building up Soul Gauge with your basic moves, then (this may sound confusing) “spend soul gauge to gain soul reaver stacks”, which is the more powerful half of your rotation.

I PLACED THE LEVEL OF THE SKILL BESIDE THE SKILLNAME SO YOU CAN EASILY FIND THEM!

While I could list the initial Reaper skills by level, I think discussing them by logical “grouping” is better.

RPR Initial Skills: Soul Gauge Builders

In the case of both single target and AoE, you will want to maintain your debuff on enemies at all times, while building Soul Gauge through pretty much any action you take here.

Basic Single Target (Soul Gauge Builders)

Slice L1 – Waxing Slice L5 – Infernal Slice L30: Basic 1-2-3 combo that generates Soul Gauge.

Shadow of Death L10: applies Death’s Design, which debuffs target to take more damage from you.

Soul Slice L60: OGCD that vies a significant amount of Soul Gauge.

The above is your bread and butter single target skills, your AoE skills, listed below, are like exact mirrors of them!

Basic AoE (Soul Gauge builders)

Spinning Scythe L25: Nightmare Scythe L45: Basic 1-2 AoE combo that generates Soul Gauge

Whorl of Death L35: applied Death’s Design in AoE, which debuffs target tot take more damage from you.

Soul Scythe L65: OGCD that gives a significant amount of Soul Gauge.

As you can see, they were kind enough to make the single and AoE versions very similar to each other.

RPR Initial Skills: Soul Gauge Spenders / Soul Reaver

The short of it is using up Soul Gauge for skills that give Soul Reaver. Then, use up Soul Reaver for more powerful attacks.

Soul Gauge Spenders: Single Target

Blood Stalk L50: Uses Soul Gauge. Single target strike and gives you 1 Soul Reaver.

Gallows L70 & Gibbet L70: Uses Soul Reaver. Rear and Flank bonus respectively. Using one will transform Blood Stalk into an enhanced version of the “other one”. Gains Soul Gauge as well.

Ok so for Soul Gauge and Soul Reaver, this minigame is pretty cool. Basically you go Blood Stalk (uses Soul Gauge – gains Soul Reaver) into Gallows or Gibbet (Uses Soul Reaver). Then the next time you get here, you will use “Blood Stalk” to Gibbet or Gallows (the reverse of whatever you used the first time).

Blood Stalk changes name into either “Unveiled Gibbet”, or “Unveiled Gallows” inversely to which one you chose. This is pretty much irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, and I think only serves as “reminder” for which of the two you should be using next.

Soul Gauge Spenders: AoE

Thankfully the AoE version of the spenders is also very very similar.

Grim Swathe L55: Uses Soul Gauge. Cone AoE that gives you 1 Soul Reaver.

Guillotine L70: Uses Soul Reaver for a cone AoE attack.

The AoE version of doesn’t have that fancy little positional swapping minigame, but it’s very similar. Enter the phase with Grim Swathe, and use up Soul Reaver with Guillotine.

Reaper Misc. Skills (CD’s, Utility, etc)

DPS Cooldowns

RPR has no DPS centric cooldowns at L70.

Mobility

Hell’s Ingress L20: forward dash (L74: that leaves a Hellsgate, and gives you Treshold).

Hell’s Egress L20: backward dash (L74: that leave’s a Hellsgate, and gives you Treshold).

At L74 these skills “evolve”. They allow you to teleport back to your initial position. The forward and backwards dash share a recast, and even better yet, the “opposite” one you didn’t use becomes Regress (the backtrack teleport skill). Talk about hotbar saving! I just thought it was worth mentioning, as it affects your initial binds.

Each of the dashes gives you an instant Harpe, which is your run of the mill ranged attack.

Ranged Attack

Harpe L15: Ranged attack with a cast time. Almost never used unless desperate.

Defensive

Arcane Crest L40: Give your self a shield for a short duration.

Reaper L70 Initial Rotation

To sum it all up and give you a look at the RPR starter rotation as a whole. Here’s a short summary of the single target and AoE rotations of your Reaper at L70 after your whole starting skills setup.

Weirdly, it’s a lot more simple than you imagine, when stated as a whole…

Reaper L70 Rotation – Single Target

Keep your debuff on the enemies via Shadow of Death

Build Soul Gauge via 1-2-3 combo or Soul Slice when it’s up.

Have 50 Soul Gauge?

Blood Stalk (Gain +1 Soul Reaver) – Gallows or Gibbet.

Next time you’re here, use Gibbet or Gallows (opposite of previous use)

Reaper L70 Rotation – AoE

Keep your deuff on the enemis via Whorl of Death.

Build Soul Gauge via Spinning Scythe – Nightmare Scythe combo. Soul Scythe if up.

Have 50 Gauge?

Grim Swathe (Gain +1 Soul Reaver) into Guillotine.

Enemies that die with your debuff give you Soul Gauge which is very good in AoE and dungeon run scenarios. You’ll have a lot more gauge than usual.

Summary & Outro

Reaper might seem a little complex at first glance, simply becuase you’re at such a high starting level and have a lot of skills to consider… but take a look at the rotation segment. If you take a little time to understand all the skills with the initial setup – the final rotation can be summarized pretty damn easily!

Welp, that’s it! I hope we helped you out getting your Reaper started, setting up your initial skills and getting your starter rotation down pat! Have fun on the rest of your Reaping!