In the advent of Endwalker, Final Fantasy XIV introduced its newest healing job, Sage. With its powerful barrier abilities and convenient healing-on-the-go kit, Sage is an attractive job for healing veterans and newcomers alike. However, reaching the level 90 milestone and wrapping up MSQ isn’t all there is to do as an endgame healer. Whether you’re jumping into Expert Dungeons or dipping a toe into Extreme Trials, better gear always helps.
To achieve true Sage best-in-slot (BiS), you’ll need to venture into FFXIV’s Savage encounters, but there’s plenty of powerful gear available to players uninterested in those fights, too. As a more casual player, seeking only the average experience, better gear could mean saving the party from a Dungeon boss mistake or just making Normal Trials run smoother. Gear upgrades are also the chance to learn how FFXIV‘s endgame min-maxing works, and set you up for opportunity should you grow curious about Extreme, Unreal, or Savage fights.
As you take Endwalker’s shiny new healer for a spin, only the best ‘fit (plus the melds to boot) will do. So, here’s our FFXIV Sage BiS gear guide for the more casual healer in Patch 6.18.
Sage Best in Slot Gear — No Savage Content
Even if you opt-out of Savage content, most raiding Sage players still use augmented Radiant equipment in their final build. As long as you’re diligent in your weekly chores, it’s not the worst grind, either. Every week, hit the Allagan Tomestones of Astronomy cap to save up enough currency for the normal Radiant gear set. Once you’re ready to exchange Tomestones of Astronomy, speak to Cihanti in Radz-at-Han (X: 10.8, Y: 10.3).
The Radiant base set is Item Level 590, but you can upgrade that to Augmented Radiant gear, which is Item Level 600. You’ll need Aglaia Coins from the 24-player alliance raid of the same name, Aglaia. Exchange your weekly coin allowance with Nesvaaz in Radz-at-Han (X: 10.6, Y: 10.0) for Radiant Twine or Coating materials; meanwhile, Khaldeen (X: 10.8, Y: 10.3) turns Radiant pieces into Item Level 600 Augmented Radiant gear using the corresponding material.
Best in Slot FFXIV Sage Gear (Patch 6.18)
- Main Hand: Augmented Radiant’s Milpreves
- Head: Augmented Radiant’s Visor of Healing
- Body: Augmented Radiant’s Mail of Healing
- Gloves: Augmented Radiant’s Gloves of Healing
- Legs: Augmented Radiant’s Hose of Healing
- Feet: Augmented Radiant’s Greaves of Healing
- Earrings: Augmented Radiant’s Earrings of Healing
- Neck: Augmented Radiant’s Choker of Healing
- Wrists: Augmented Radiant’s Bracelet of Healing
- Ring #1: Augmented Radiant’s Ring of Healing
- Ring #2: Radiant’s Ring of Healing or Augmented Classical Ring of Healing
FFXIV Sage BiS Gear Resource Totals
- 5,510 Tomestones of Astronomy
- 10 Aglaia Coins
- 1 Discal Tomestone (x4 Unsung Blades of Asphodelos required)
- 5 Radiant Twine
- 4 Radiant Coating
- 1 Radiant Roborant
These are all Augmented pieces, so you’ll need to obtain the entire Radiant base set (unaugmented) from Cihanti first. After that, the Radiant Twine and Coating from weekly Aglaia Coin exchanges should slowly bring you up to speed through Augmented upgrades. You can also purchase the Radiant Twine and Coating upgrades using Sacks of Nuts from Hunt Marks.
The only extra bit of work comes in with the Augmented Radiant’s Milpreves. The BiS weapon requires one (1) Discal Tomestone and 500 Tomestones of Astronomy for the Radiant’s Milpreves. Once you have that Item Level 590 weapon, exchange the Radiant’s Milpreves and one Radiant Roborant with Khaldeen.
To obtain the Discal Tomestone, complete Asphodelos: The Fourth Circle four times; that’ll give you four (4) Unsung Blade of Asphodelos. To obtain Radiant Roborant, exchange one of your Aglaia Coins with Nesvaaz.
What About Materia?
Unless you’re working with the Classical crafted set and have five Materia slots open, stick to using Materia X when selecting FFXIV Sage melds. Adventurer in Need roulette bonuses reward Cracked Anthrocrystals, which are exchangeable for Grade X Materia at the Materia Vendor Khuzhal in Radz-at-Han (X: 11.3, Y: 8.6). They’re also an easy grab with Beast Tribe or Hunt currency.
Each gear piece has a stat cap — Materia cannot take you beyond this threshold. To find that cap, right-click your gear and select “Meld.” If a Materia meld takes that item over the stat cap, you’ll see it highlighted in red at the bottom of the menu. Double-check each gear piece as you meld since these caps are unique to every item.
The Best Melds for Sage
Sages have quite a few options when it comes to melded stat bonuses, but in the current FFXIV climate, healer damage remains king. Unless you’re tackling early Savage progression, sacrifices between damage and healing potency may go unnoticed. However, comfort in Spell Speed and added Piety for MP recovery are probably more noticeable changes for beginners.
Ultimately, Sage Materia melds for Critical Hit, Direct Hit, and Determination are all acceptable choices. So, let’s run down how those work before making any decisions on Spell Speed and Piety.
Melding Critical Hit (Savage Aim Materia X) improves a Sage’s chances for an extra powerful Dosis or heal. While beefing up your BiS, put Savage Aim Materia X on every piece of gear that is not at the Crit stat cap. Improvements to this stat consistently remain the best investment in healer gear, and that’s been true for several iterations of FFXIV now.
With that decided, Direct Hit (Heavens’ Eye Materia X) and Determination (Savage Might Materia X) compete for second place. Direct Hit isn’t going to help healing abilities, but it will give your damage a boost. Determination boosts healing and damage but isn’t as big an improvement on your Dosis casts as more Direct Hit.
In more casual gameplay, the difference between DH and Det is often negligible. More damage means enemies die faster, but allies at beginner skill levels may need a little more help with a heal. For a build that plays it safe, meld Savage Might Materia X where you can. If your equipment already has plenty of Determination as a base stat, go with Direct Hit using Heavens’ Eye Materia X.
The remaining Sage meld options are bonuses using Piety Materia X and Spell Speed (Quicktongue Materia X). If your goal is to test the waters in Extreme Trials, Piety melds may help with MP recovery, but they aren’t necessary. It’s also a handy stat for early Savage progression, but keep this low on the priority list — popping Lucid Dreaming on cooldown can solve your MP problems.
Spell Speed is a little more tricky. Your base spell cast time (or GCD) is 2.5 seconds, and more Spell Speed Materia melds lower that timer upon hitting certain thresholds. Too much of this stat can cause problems maintaining MP, and learning at a longer GCD may help a new Sage get comfortable weaving in their oGCDs. If you want to try something a little speedier, meld just enough for Spell Speed to get to a 2.41 cast time — you can check that info by hovering over any spell and looking at the “Recast” time.
Remember, we aren’t worried about min-maxing here; this Sage BiS guide is for the average folks. It takes a lot of planning to make use of every little stat jump, but a free stat is a great step toward improving your play.
If you decide you want to change something, right-click your gear and select “Retrieve Materia.” Try taking a little of that extra Piety Materia off as your skills improve and swap it with Direct Hit. You’ll blend in with the DPS in no time.
Best-in-Slot Sage Melds – No Savage Content
If you’re not interested in playing around with meld calculations, we have suggestions on Materia for Sage gearsets not using Savage pieces. For those who do want to try the numbers game, handy tools like the gearset calculator at Etro are fantastic resources for getting into the nitty gritty.
The build outlined in this guide opts for a 2.41-second GCD and assumes you won’t use food like Thavnairian Chai (HQ). It’ll get new healers accustomed to a speedier kit without costing you anything for specialized extras. And if you make any tweaks on your own, try to lay off the Piety. Even if you’re a beginner, the Augmented Radiant set already has more than enough of the MP recovery stat.
Best-in-Slot FFXIV SGE Gear Melds (Patch 6.18)
- Main Hand: Augmented Radiant’s Milpreves
- Heavens’ Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit
- Heavens’ Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit
- Head: Augmented Radiant’s Visor of Healing
- Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
- Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
- Body: Augmented Radiant’s Mail of Healing
- Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
- Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
- Gloves: Augmented Radiant’s Gloves of Healing
- Heavens’ Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit
- Heavens’ Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit
- Legs: Augmented Radiant’s Hose of Healing
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed
- Feet: Augmented Radiant’s Greaves of Healing
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed
- Earrings: Augmented Radiant’s Earrings of Healing
- Heavens’ Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit
- Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
- Neck: Augmented Radiant’s Choker of Healing
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed
- Heavens’ Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit
- Wrists: Augmented Radiant’s Bracelet of Healing
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed
- Heavens’ Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit
- Ring #1: Augmented Radiant’s Ring of Healing
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed
- Heavens’ Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit
- Ring #2: Augmented Classical Ring of Healing
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed
Sage Best-in-Slot Gear — Savage
A Sage with an average Item Level of 580 can enter any Savage raid instance up to Patch 6.18 content, but remember: a higher Item Level means more safety cushion. As you join Asphodelos Savage Party Finder groups, there are a few gear pieces from each tier to watch for. Note that not all of them will be better than Augmented Radiant equipment.
For this Sage BiS, you’ll need to clear every floor of Asphodelos Savage to earn the necessary gear pieces (though some rewards are also available from Aglaia). The following are the Asphodelos gear pieces you’ll want to substitute in:
- Main Hand: Asphodelos Pendulums
- Reward from The Fourth Circle (Savage), or exchanged for eight (8) Asphodelos Mythos IV
- Body: Asphodelos Radiant’s Mail of Healing
- Reward from The Fourth Circle (Savage), or exchanged for eight (8) Asphodelos Mythos IV
- Wrists: Asphodelos Amulet of Healing
- Reward from The First Circle (Savage), or exchanged for four (4) Asphodelos Mythos I
Best-in-Slot FFXIV Sage Melds — Savage
Here’s where things get a little more tricky and where your own comfort in a Sage build comes into play. Since ideal gear sets among healers are often identical, melding Sage BiS gear in FFXIV means you’re affixing Materia to equipment shared among White Mage, Scholar, and Astrologian — if you play them, that is.
Usually, that’s no big deal. For the more casual player, it’s not something to get hung up on. However, if you intend to take things more seriously and have plans as an omni-healing machine, start looking for their small build differences. In some FFXIV patches, Jobs easily share optimal equipment and melds; in others, speedy Scholar builds could leave a Sage manaless.
For the current Savage tier, the healers over at Fey’s Temperance have an excellent 2.41 GCD build we recommend. To get the most out of this set, you will need to use Thavnairian Chai (HQ) — it’s a food item available via the Market Board or crafting as a Culinarian. As of Patch 6.18, the following is the ideal setup for Materia melds.
- Main Hand: Asphodelos Pendulums
- Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
- Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
- Head: Augmented Radiant’s Visor of Healing
- Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
- Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
- Body: Asphodelos Radiant’s Mail of Healing
- Heavens’ Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit
- Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
- Gloves: Augmented Radiant’s Gloves of Healing
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed
- Legs: Augmented Radiant’s Hose of Healing
- Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
- Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
- Feet: Augmented Radiant’s Greaves of Healing
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed
- Earrings: Augmented Radiant’s Earrings of Healing
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed
- Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
- Neck: Augmented Radiant’s Choker of Healing
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed
- Savage Might Materia X +36 Determination
- Wrists: Asphodelos Amulet of Healing
- Heavens’ Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit
- Savage Might Materia X +36 Determination
- Ring #1: Augmented Radiant’s Ring of Healing
- Heavens’ Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit
- Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
- Ring #2: Augmented Classical Ring of Healing
- Heavens’ Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit
- Quicktongue Materia X +36 Spell Speed
How to Start Your Sage Gear Journey at Level 90
Hitting level 90 is a satisfying milestone to reach, but level alone won’t keep your Sage up to current content standards. To meet endgame requirements, you’ll want to start handling weekly tasks like meeting the 450 Tomestones of Astronomy cap and completing one Aglaia run.
If you want to begin the Aglaia Raid and Expert Roulette grind as a Sage, speak to Varsarudh in Old Sharlayan (X: 11.7, Y: 9.9) from the quest “A Bold Decision” in Endwalker’s MSQ. He’ll hand over a coffer for Sage Artifact gear, rewarding you with several Item Level 560 pieces.
In your fancy Artifact ‘fit, pick up additional gear pieces using the Allagan Tomestones of Aphorism, which can be exchanged with Cihanti in Radz-at-Han (X: 10.8, Y: 10.3) for Item Level 570 Moonward gear.
To get straight to Item Level 580 gear, you can buy (or craft) Classical equipment from the Market Board. The Classical Ring of Healing is an excellent upgrade for Sage, as many Savage and Ultimate-tier healers use this ring in raid-ready builds.
Through the Normal versions for the first tier of Asphodelos, you’ll earn tokens for various pieces in the Limbo gear set (Item Level 580). Grab a few Unsung Rings of Asphodelos from any floor and exchange them with Nesvaaz in Radz-at-Han (X: 10.6, Y: 10.0) for an accessory upgrade.
How to Fill Out Your FFXIV Sage Gear Set
Upon hitting the Item Level 565 requirement for FFXIV’s 24-player Aglaia raid, you’ll be able to earn Item Level 590 Pantheon gear. A few of these left-side pieces are better than your unaugmented Radiant set, but you’ll have to choose wisely since you’re limited to one weekly reward. Just don’t throw the Radiant base equipment away, as you’ll need it for the Augmented upgrades later.
As for buying crafted Classical gear, we recommend grabbing at least one Classical Ring of Healing from the Market Board. Of course, you can upgrade this to an Augmented version of Item Level 590 piece in Radz-at-Han, but even the base ring will carry you far. Remember that quality makes a difference, so make sure you pick up the HQ version for extra stats.
Also, take a little care when exchanging currency and tokens for gear upgrades. As a general rule, weapon upgrades are always top priority for any Job. After that, focus on obtaining body and leg pieces. With these three equipped, you should see the biggest improvements in weapon damage and your main stat (Mind for Sage) bonuses.
At Item Level 580, a fully melded Sage may want to dip their toe into Endsinger Extreme. It’s not content of the ‘average’ difficulty, but it’s also no Savage raid encounter. Learning parties in Extreme Trials are great lessons in honing your healing prowess and practicing for bigger challenges. Plus, by clearing Endsinger EX, you can earn a shiny Item Level 595 weapon: the Bluefeather Wings. If you’re really lucky, the boss may even hand over the Bluefeather Lynx mount.
