Can Someone Explain . . .

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Originally Posted by Lyzern

Why not? Why do people always complain about these things? Do you really want the game to hold your hand through everything? Even a 6 second cast time? It exists to create a balance between the 2 stoneskins, to make you choose to either be patient for 6 seconds and add a layer of protection, or rush to battle and possible let someone die from bad positioning, lack of gear, etc.

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Oh I get it now. The game would totally be holding my hand if Stoneskin II wasn't a six second cast. If Stoneskin II were, say, a two second cast then what a hand-holding, face-rolling, Hello Kitty Island Adventure this game would become. Imagine! Being able to save SC for Holy AND using Stoneskin II on the same pull. Dear gawd. Makes me shudder. In fact, I think Stoneskin II should be a twenty second cast with no option to use SC. I mean, what more immersive, engaging game play is there than watching a Whm undulate with her weapon unsheathed I ask you?

Now that I think about it, I remember a game where it use to take five minutes to buff everyone before each pull. For some reason they did away with that because they said it was an unfun, unchallenging time sink that added nothing to the game. HA! silly. Let's bring that to this game. Stop holding our hand SE!

SE seems to be doing what they can to slow down the pace of dungons and instances within a reasonable tolerance.

Maybe this was simply the cutoff for them. I mean why not cut off the timer on Shadow Flare so that SCH isnt weighted down by it as well?

As soon as this QoL was made then others would wanna hop in the pool. I agree it wouldnt make a shift in game balance but there has to be a line in the sand somewhere.

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Originally Posted by karateorangutang

SE seems to be doing what they can to slow down the pace of dungons and instances within a reasonable tolerance.

Maybe this was simply the cutoff for them. I mean why not cut off the timer on Shadow Flare so that SCH isnt weighted down by it as well?

As soon as this QoL was made then others would wanna hop in the pool. I agree it wouldnt make a shift in game balance but there has to be a line in the sand somewhere.

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Shadow flare is a completely different animal, it's the highest single potency AoE attack that sch has, with mitigation to boot. It deserves to have a long cast time. Likewise, SS II does the work of as many as 8 Stoneskins, for the cast time and mp cost of 2. If people aren't standing around waiting for your SS II to finish casting, you're probably trying to cast it in a situation where it's unnecessary. If there is real danger to the party, such as before a boss battle or a mass pull with hard hitting, AoE-centric trash (SV HM comes to mind, with multiple Aevis), most of the time folks are plenty patient enough for the buff.

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Originally Posted by Seryl199

Shadow flare is a completely different animal, it's the highest single potency AoE attack that sch has, with mitigation to boot. It deserves to have a long cast time. Likewise, SS II does the work of as many as 8 Stoneskins, for the cast time and mp cost of 2. If people aren't standing around waiting for your SS II to finish casting, you're probably trying to cast it in a situation where it's unnecessary. If there is real danger to the party, such as before a boss battle or a mass pull with hard hitting, AoE-centric trash (SV HM comes to mind, with multiple Aevis), most of the time folks are plenty patient enough for the buff.

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I understand, I was using it as an example. All I'm saying is it would elicit a bandwagon effect. The games pace moves steadily as it is and it forces you to make a choice before pulls as to whether you want to use SC for dmg output or for protection in a party. Trust your tank and dps? Then use SS on just your tank and save it for holy.

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Originally Posted by karateorangutang

I understand, I was using it a an example. All I'm saying is it would elicit a bandwagon effect. The games pace moves steadily as it is and it forces you to make a choice before pulls as to whether you want to use SC for dmg output or for protection in a party. Trust your tank and dps? Then use SS on just your tank and save it for holy.

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The addition of SS II had a bandwagon effect immediately, many scholars complained that they still had to cast Stoneskin individually. However, considering the priority for scholars to cast Stoneskin is low, especially with a Graniteskin toting white mage around, it was never really considered an issue. Making it take less time or even instant certainly could be balance altering, as I'm sure development time was taken into creating SS II and making sure that it had a small impact on the game, being a QoL addition as it was.

Otherwise, yes, we're in agreement concerning it's impact when it comes to Swiftcast. I for one enjoy the impact each of my decisions have as Whm, and how decisions such as spending any (or sometimes all!) cooldowns during a pull can have a great effect on HPS/DPS.

I don't understand why people even complain about this. I guess you really can't please everyone... SSII was added purely as a QoL change for WHM. It's like you are given a leg of turkey because you hungry and then complain it's not the whole turkey.

It's to prevent WHM from going full preventative tank in-battle for the whole party. It would step on SCH toes to give them a strong AoE "shield"-style spell that is easily castable in-combat.

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Originally Posted by spelley

It's to prevent WHM from going full preventative tank in-battle for the whole party. It would step on SCH toes to give them a strong AoE "shield"-style spell that is easily castable in-combat.

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The question voiced is why SS II has a cast time despite the fact that it can only be cast out of battle. Sch remains largely solely responsible for party mitigation, excepting progression fights where the Whm needs to SS the entire party (i.e. T9 megaflare, or FCoB mechanics I've yet to encounter).

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Originally Posted by Bodicca

Oh I get it now. The game would totally be holding my hand if Stoneskin II wasn't a six second cast. If Stoneskin II were, say, a two second cast then what a hand-holding, face-rolling, Hello Kitty Island Adventure this game would become. Imagine! Being able to save SC for Holy AND using Stoneskin II on the same pull. Dear gawd. Makes me shudder. In fact, I think Stoneskin II should be a twenty second cast with no option to use SC. I mean, what more immersive, engaging game play is there than watching a Whm undulate with her weapon unsheathed I ask you?

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Well, you are the one defending that 6 seconds is too long, so maybe the Hello Kitty Island Adventure isn't too bad for you...

we are talking about buffing outside of combat here... it has nothing to do with the game's difficulty. However, as people said in the other thread, the cast time is probably there so we dont use (or feel obligated to use) SCII before every single trash pull.