Sage is one of my favourite classes and has one of the most pleasing asthetics and animations as i am a lightning fan. The below guide is just an extract of Sage which is more like a general approach to the class but in no way is an overall complete guide as the class is very dynamic. 

Awakening VS Succession

Sage Succession and Awakening can be unlocked after level 56 after speaking to the Black Spirit and completing the Awakening and Succession quests under the suggestions tab.

The Awakening will unlock a completely new skill tree, which will be your primary skills from now on. The skills in the pre-awakening are mostly utility skills, and your main damage dealers will be your Awakening skills.

The Succession skill kit enhances your Kyve skills instead and only has a few awakening skills.

Your awakening weapon still affects your succession damage and vice versa. For example, if you are using the Succession kit, then 30% of your Awakening AP is still applied to the damage of Succession skills, as well as the additional item stats on the awakening weapon, such as Human/Species Damage and Accuracy.

Both specs are completely viable and comes down to player preference. In PVE, Succesion and Awakening are considered to be very similar at the moment and not much difference between the two. Succession does tend to perform slightly better at high end spots, but there isn’t enough of a difference to worry too much about it if you prefer the Awakening.

For PVP, Succession tends to be better for Largescale, being able to pump out high damage with decent survivability. Awakening is also viable and can deal good damage, but it has higher stamina costs and is harder to manage your stamina, making it more difficult to deal damage safely. In 1v1s, both specs have different pros and cons. Succession can be hard to catch out and has protected CCs, but does not have a grab skill, making certain matchups much more difficult. In comparison, Awakening has a ranged grab but fewer protected CC options, and can be easier to catch out in prolonged fights because of their stamina issues.

Locked Skills

To lock a skill, press the lock icon on the top of each skill icon in the skill window (K).

These are the I recommend locking to help prevent messing up combos during PVP.

Evasion

Ator’s Thorn

Form Shift (optional in succession as you can use it for movement and as a finisher skill)

Hotbar Skills

These are the minimum skills I recommend putting on your hotbar.

You may also want to put more skills on your hotbar and cooldown slots to keep track of them.

Awakening:

Reset, Illusion Compression, Radiant Annihilation, Void Gateways, Illusion Expansion, Void Eruption/Void Blast

Succession:

Reset, Illusion Compression, Void Eruption/Void Blast

Core Skills

Core skills are a way of upgrading 1 skill from your awakening skill kit.

Core skills are usually down to preference but most players choose Upsurge since it is a well-rounded skill that is useful in various scenarios. The core version adds a Stun CC on the last hit of the skill. The skill is quite fast to cast and protected, so useful to try and catch out enemies in PVP.

If you are a bit more experienced, you can also experiment with Spear Bolt or Enlightening Bolt. Enlightening Bolt is useful for PVE and may be useful in large-scale PVP due to it being a medium/long-range CC with a Forward Guard. The core Spear Bolt gains a knockdown CC which can be useful as a catch in PVP, but the skill is mostly used for mobility so having it as one of your only protected CC options can be hard to get used to as you don’t want to waste the skill for movement.

** The skill build is pretty general as obtaining skill points is easy now in the game. I will also leave the class discord link & my own discord link in case there are more queries. Please feel free to reach out to me. Sage is an excellent class and has one of the best asthetics in game. This is for all my lightning bolt friends.

Class discord : 

Sage Discord 1 : https://discord.gg/bTd8Ahnv

Sage Discord 2 : https://discord.gg/tGvCfbUS

My Discord Name : vane3565