Sage

The Sage is the Mage's other second class, next to the Wizard. It does not have the Wizard's raw damage; instead it plays like an improved Mage thanks to Free Cast, and its real strength is defence against other casters. Many builds are built around Magnetic Earth, and Dispell is a much-wanted spell for stripping buffs from enemies.

Because many Sage skills are only really useful in PvP, fighting monsters can be hard, especially for VIT/DEX builds that struggle to level alone. Job bonuses by job level 50:

The job change takes place in Juno. A Mage must pass four tasks:

• Item collection
• Written test
• Battle test
• Writing a thesis

For bolts, the iRO Wiki suggests maxing Fire Bolt and Lightning Bolt: they sit on opposite sides of the element table, so together they leave no element uncovered. Thunderstorm, Fireball and Heaven's Drive are the usual area skills for leveling. PvP skills such as Stone Curse and Magnetic Earth can wait until after rebirth.

Gear notes: the Eden Staff II from the Eden Group is called the best weapon before rebirth, with the highest MATK of non-transcendent staves, and it is one-handed so a shield fits. Books such as Encyclopedia, Ledger of Death and Principles of Magic suit Hindsight builds, and Dagger of Counter is the ideal critical-hit weapon for them.

The Sage has 20 skills, 116 skill points and 2 quest skills. The main ones (the table is shortened):

Icon	Skill	What it does
	Free Cast	Passive: walk and attack while casting spells.
	Hindsight	Pick a skill from a short list; it is cast automatically while you attack physically.
	Dispell	Uses a Yellow Gemstone to remove the target's buffs, with some exceptions.
	Magnetic Earth	Uses a Blue and a Yellow Gemstone to make an area where ground-targeted spells are cancelled.
	Spell Breaker	Cancels the spell a target is casting and turns it into SP for you.
	Magic Rod	Absorbs a single-target spell aimed at you: no damage, and you gain SP.
	Endow Blaze / Quake / Tornado / Tsunami	Give a party member's weapon the Fire, Earth, Wind or Water element (uses a Scarlet, Lime Green, Yellow Wish or Indigo Point).
	Volcano / Deluge / Whirlwind	Each uses a Blue Gemstone to cover a 7x7 area of ground with fire, water or wind.
	Hocus-pocus	Uses 2 Yellow Gemstones to cast a random non-transcendent skill or a special effect.
	Study	Passive: +3 ATK and +0.5% attack speed per level with books.
	Create Elemental Converter (quest)	Makes Elemental Converters, items for short-term weapon endows.
	Elemental Change (quest)	Uses a converter to change a monster's element for good; needs job level 40.

Other skills: Cast Cancel, Dragonology, Earth Spike, Heaven's Drive and Sense. See Elements for how weapon elements work.

After rebirth the Sage becomes a Scholar, whose skills include Double Bolt, Foresight, Fiber Lock, Mind Breaker, Soul Siphon, Blinding Mist, Soul Exhale and Indulge; the last two give or restore SP and make the Scholar a very useful support. The line continues as the Sorcerer (Third Classes) and the Elemental Master (Fourth Classes).