best stats for a paladin

[GreyJorildyn]

you will never need to cast protect on yourself in a party. if you are finding that you do, something is wrong.

These three are always on my bar: Stoneskin, Provoke, Cure

These are the situations I use other stuff:
- Sacred Prism: When I can aoe cure/stoneskin others, like in Ifrit or Moogle (I guess, haven't done that in forever)
- Bloodbath: When I am purely tanking 1 mob and I can get mileage out of this with SW/Goring Blade.
- Raise: almost never have this equipped except when we are working on getting strategies down. Once something is on 'farm status', this spell becomes a wasted slot to equip. You might as well use expectorant/tonic since you can use those in battle.

Seriously though, drop Protect. Swap SP/BB/Raise as needed

[Stufoo]

You take protect and not stoneskin lol

[Molly_Millions]

you will never need to cast protect on yourself in a party. if you are finding that you do, something is wrong.

These three are always on my bar: Stoneskin, Provoke, Cure

These are the situations I use other stuff:
- Sacred Prism: When I can aoe cure/stoneskin others, like in Ifrit or Moogle (I guess, haven't done that in forever)
- Bloodbath: When I am purely tanking 1 mob and I can get mileage out of this with SW/Goring Blade.
- Raise: almost never have this equipped except when we are working on getting strategies down. Once something is on 'farm status', this spell becomes a wasted slot to equip. You might as well use expectorant/tonic since you can use those in battle.

Seriously though, drop Protect. Swap SP/BB/Raise as needed

I have cast protect during skirmish, but that's about the only time I've needed it in a group. I have protect on there for soloing not party play, but I've never felt that the lack of SS has hurt me. With three other people in the party (typically) that can cast it, I haven't needed to myself.

Before I swap anything, do you guys know if protect is affected by VIT? I was under the impression that it is, but haven't seen testing to say for sure one way or the other.

[GreyJorildyn]

I believe so, since it is Enhancing Magic. But WHM have enhanced Protect trait so you don't want to cast it, ever. Why take a spell that reduces damage by maybe 10% over 5mins, which three of your other party members can cast, when you could instead equip a spell that will reduce 800 damage on you that you can cast every 30s? Doesn't make a lot of sense.

Putting yourself in the Stoneskin rotation is very important to party structure. If you're always running with 2 WHM and a BRD, then I think you're probably running with too much support. I can't think of a single ideal battle setup where you would need a PLD WHMx2 and BRD. Drop a WHM or drop the BRD and use Cover on a WHM for MP regen. That frees up a spot for another DPS. This thread isn't really about that, but it deserved to be highlighted at this point..

[Aceofspades]

I have cast protect during skirmish, but that's about the only time I've needed it in a group. I have protect on there for soloing not party play, but I've never felt that the lack of SS has hurt me. With three other people in the party (typically) that can cast it, I haven't needed to myself.

Before I swap anything, do you guys know if protect is affected by VIT? I was under the impression that it is, but haven't seen testing to say for sure one way or the other.

It is, but its important to remember that only whm/cnj get the buff that add "shell" effect with protect, hense why its important to get that from your whm, stone skin is the only buff that you can do at the same lvl as or close to that of your whm, whm also gets a trait that makes their stone skin stronger.

[Molly_Millions]

I believe so, since it is Enhancing Magic. But WHM have enhanced Protect trait so you don't want to cast it, ever. Why take a spell that reduces damage by maybe 10% over 5mins, which three of your other party members can cast, when you could instead equip a spell that will reduce 800 damage on you that you can cast every 30s? Doesn't make a lot of sense.

Putting yourself in the Stoneskin rotation is very important to party structure. If you're always running with 2 WHM and a BRD, then I think you're probably running with too much support. I can't think of a single ideal battle setup where you would need a PLD WHMx2 and BRD. Drop a WHM or drop the BRD and use Cover on a WHM for MP regen. That frees up a spot for another DPS. This thread isn't really about that, but it deserved to be highlighted at this point..

I don't use the AF chest piece, therefore no MP regen on cover. To be honest the more I think about it, I'm not sure why I chose protect over stoneskin, but like i said, I haven't really missed it.

The BRD is more to support the BLMs. With no BRD, BLMs can run out of mp with a quickness. The party setup we usually use works for most content, there's no reason to change what works. We could argue the pros and cons of our preferred party setups all day and not get anywhere. But as you say, this isn't the thread for that.

[Aceofspades]

I believe so, since it is Enhancing Magic. But WHM have enhanced Protect trait so you don't want to cast it, ever. Why take a spell that reduces damage by maybe 10% over 5mins, which three of your other party members can cast, when you could instead equip a spell that will reduce 800 damage on you that you can cast every 30s? Doesn't make a lot of sense.

Putting yourself in the Stoneskin rotation is very important to party structure. If you're always running with 2 WHM and a BRD, then I think you're probably running with too much support. I can't think of a single ideal battle setup where you would need a PLD WHMx2 and BRD. Drop a WHM or drop the BRD and use Cover on a WHM for MP regen. That frees up a spot for another DPS. This thread isn't really about that, but it deserved to be highlighted at this point..

on turtle back my group will run with a brd and two whm , rest are blm/thm dd, brd is to keep the blm mp up, and two whm are not needed to keep me alive but they rotate debuffs and dots on the bosses wich is super helpfull with golem, gravity helps when kiting golem. lets the party members get far enough out of his range where i can cast holy succor on them, it turn golem on me instantly 90% of the time, after that Its all about rebuilding that enmity base and cross fingers he dosent heel kick you lol

[Molly_Millions]

It is, but its important to remember that only whm/cnj get the buff that add "shell" effect with protect, hense why its important to get that from your whm, stone skin is the only buff that you can do at the same lvl as or close to that of your whm, whm also gets a trait that makes their stone skin stronger.

seems like a good enough reason to swap out my skills. thanks.

[Molly_Millions]

on turtle back my group will run with a brd and two whm , rest are blm/thm dd, brd is to keep the blm mp up, and two whm are not needed to keep me alive but they rotate debuffs and dots on the bosses wich is super helpfull with golem, gravity helps when kiting golem. lets the party members get far enough out of his range where i can cast holy succor on them, it turn golem on me instantly 90% of the time, after that Its all about rebuilding that enmity base and cross fingers he dosent heel kick you lol

Pretty much this. Two WHMs help out on Locke's Lie too when one WHM is usually sleeping because that damn throwing ability the tree has. Basically, we run with two WHMs by default unless one of them feels particularly useless, in which case we use only one.

[Brannigan]

I know I'm late on this bandwagon but good lord, Molly. Protect? When you "roll with" TWO WHMS? You're starting to turn into Ace.