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Foresight and Bloodbath seem obvious for mitigation reasons.
Mercy Stroke I suppose is a slight enmity boost for longer fights and unreliably useful on trash/adds.
What about from CNJ? I've heard Stoneskin, but when exactly is a good time to cast it if any?
Stone Skin seems crappy, but then fight mechanics make it good on many of the harder fights.
For example, on Ifrit HM he frequently teleports out to do his charges, when you can't hit him. Once you're in position - free stoneskin. Similarly before hellfire. As soon as he teleports away - free stoneskin which will absorb a majority of the dmg.
On Garuda, During Phase 1 she teleports to do her mistral song while you have to LOS her. Perfect time to stoneskin, assuming you make it there with time to spare (there might not always be enough time on this one). Her big AOE she casts that breaks the rocks is another time you can use stoneskin on yourself, and it should negate most of the damage there. Later, she teleports away for ~3 seconds every time she spawns adds. This is also an opportunity to stoneskin.
there are honestly less opportunities in most dungeon bosses. Those tend to be more about burning the boss without as much off-time.
You really need to read this guide as it will give you tons of information all in one place.
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...Compendium-2.0
I read it and it doesn't really talk about subclass skills much, at least in terms of CNJ. It seems like they're so situational. So I'm guessing 2 out of our 5 subclass slots will be used with any regularity.
Level 41 PLD here, I have been using Foresight, which is obviously a solid lock, Bloodbath (which I am using less and less), and I am using Cure A LOT. I know its semi-weak, but on those fights where the healer goes down from an AE with 10% of the bosses HP left, I can pop Coval+Rampart, target myself and spam cure and keep my HP pretty steady on most fights. I sometimes use it to overheal myself for extra enmity, or toss out a 180pt cure to the healer if they take a hit from an AE. All of it is emnity generating, and its all useful. It gives you a second crappy healer when you feel like blasting out about RoH combo is useless.
All of the available cross class skills are pretty situational and quite minor, in all honesty. But there's certainly some ones that are worth it.
Foresight is obvious, though it's only a 5% damage reduction I believe on average. Pop it constantly on trash pulls rather than rely on it as a heavy cooldown for big hits.
Bloodbath isnt anywhere near as effective for a Paladin as it is for a Warrior, but it's still nice sustain. It wont save your life ever so don't save it. Instead, keep it on cooldown and pop it every time you pop Fight or Flight. They both have 90 second cooldown and FoF will make BB 30% more effective. I have FoF + BB macroed onto the front of my Fast Blade to ensure they're always on cooldown.
Cure and Stoneskin are both worth taking, however they're situational. Cure doesnt output enough healing to heal through anything big hitting you but can be used to top yourself up in periods of less boss damage, like when the boss leaps away to do a special move (eg, Ifrits dashes etc). Stoneskin is the same - you wont use it that much, but it's really handy on SOME encounters where you get a period of quiet to cast it. The best example of a good use of Stoneskin is Ifrit Hard - when he lands in the middle and everyone takes a big aoe hit, cast stoneskin afterwards before he returns to hit you again, as healers will still be AOE healing the raid.
Those four are all vital imo. As for the fifth... well. Protect is nice when solo but useless in a group. Raise is nice to have on your bars for efficiency but wont make a difference in combat. Fracture is a tiny tiny DPS boost if used but actually a threat -loss- so it's rarely worth using. Mercy Stroke isnt bad but a single off GCD hit every 90 seconds is negligible. All of those are a very minor difference.
Just in the context of leveling up, I prefer to load up on the CNJ skills. But they seem much less useful at 50.
The reason I like them while leveling and doing casual content is:
- yes Cure can actually save you from a death if you accidentally get too many mobs while out questing or in rare instances in light party dungeons while leveling
- casting Protect on yourself while soloing is useful
- being able to cast Raise while out in the world is also useful - I like to help people :D
If I were 50 and focused on tanking "serious" things, I'm sure I would want to grab MRD cooldowns, tho.
At 50, Stoneskin is a lot more effective than Cure.
Cure is based on your healing potency, which is equal to your mind stat. No tank gear has any mind on it, so at 50, my cure heals for around 300 or so.
Stoneskin, though a longer cast, absorbs 10% of your hp in damage. Upon hitting 50 in AF gear, I had about 4.4-4.5k in a group. In mostly AK gear and some DL, I am at 5350 in a group. So my Stoneskin will shield me from 535 damage, versus a Cure which would heal me for up to ~300.
Never forget that Cure can be cast on others, not just yourself. Tanks aren't the only ones who take damage.