Quick question about Paladin

Not having ever played paladin (got it to 22 for provoke), as a cross class skill, how important would stoneskin be? Obviously its a good ability, but would you say it makes or breaks a Paladin, and they are bad for not getting it? I only ask cause I am wanting to level it up to see how it plays compared to Warrior. Sorry for the dumb question, just want to be as prepared as I can. And to clarify, I'm trying to figure out if I need to rush to get stoneskin, or if I can just pick it up when I feel like it.

While its useful is warranted it is not at all a make-it/break-it ability for us. I can count the scenarios where I've actually used it in PVE. Not at all required but nice to have.

Not exactly highly critical but to be frank that's like your most worthy cross class skill after Foresight to get that you can actually use it throughout a battle.

Your MP literally have no use other than flash and stoneskin, so if you know the battle sequence well, you can time your self-stoneskins and it does help to mitigate damage.

when ur Ot'ing u can SS the MT as well. Don't forget that!

Thanks for the replies. I'll keep this in mind moving forward.

I think it is very useful to have and use it all the time. Once you establish enmity you can keep this up on yourself and really limit the damage you take which also helps your healers. I would get it soon if you plan on tanking a lot.

Once you have it and got into habit of using it:

- Help cast in on newly revive player
- Cast it during phase change like Titan Jump, Garuda tornadoes,
- When OT in Ifrit EX, just spam it on MT
- Get into habit of casting on player with lowest HP

Honestly SS in my eyes is pretty much a mandatory skill. It's so incredibly useful compared to everything else you get as a cross class skill. I find myself using SS very frequently, especially for large in coming burst damage. If you ever run out of CDs to use and you're ahead on threat, you can stone skin spam yourself to mitigate a lot of damage while you wait for a CD to come up.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by WowSuchName

- Help cast in on newly revive player
- Cast it during phase change like Titan Jump, Garuda tornadoes,
- When OT in Ifrit EX, just spam it on MT
- Get into habit of casting on player with lowest HP

---

I also use it as kind of like a Cool Down - if I have 1k mana left and no CDs and a healer goes down - stone skin spam on myself time!!!

It is ridiculously useful in the hands of a great player. Let's put it this way, if I am in anything pre-Titan HM, I wouldn't care so much if a PLD didn't have it, but in Coil, X-modes, etc, its kind of like a SCH not having Swiftcast.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by monkeytheman

how important would stoneskin be? Obviously its a good ability, but would you say it makes or breaks a Paladin, and they are bad for not getting it?

---

It won't stop a good player from tanking using a paladin, but at higher levels it is hands down the best Cross Class ability PLDs can equip.
Stoneskin, Foresight, Bloodbath, Mercy Stroke and [Optional]

:)

During Ifrit EX or TItan Ex whenever i don't have hate, I stoneskin all dps and healers so they can atleast have a chance to survive when they couldnt avoid the plumes or eruption... Every help counts

It's really useful utility that your group will appreciate, especially in Coil and EX Primals. You also get a unicorn and who can pass that up?

It's worth getting. I've started using it in between long casts from bosses that don't target me to put it on myself or another party member that needs it more than I.

Stoneskin is 100% needed for end game in turn 5 for death sentences and profusion. You can pretty much ignore it until then, but it helps when doing titan HM and extreme, because you can cast it each time titan goes up which makes the phase transitions easier on the healers.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pesmergia

Stoneskin is 100% needed for end game in turn 5 for death sentences and profusion. You can pretty much ignore it until then, but it helps when doing titan HM and extreme, because you can cast it each time titan goes up which makes the phase transitions easier on the healers.

---

You don't 100% need it for T5 since whm should be ss'ing you, which whm's ss is superior because of their trait graniteskin. I don't see the need for it in Titan ex for Titan's jumps since everyone stacks up, and cure III + succor should top everyone off. Casting it on yourself when you plan to eat a bomb helps, since healers are usually positioning themselves and don't have the time to cast ss in between cures at that point.

While it isn't 100% neccesary for you to get, it does come in handy when you run with average healers in fights with a MT and OT.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Low_Kick

You don't 100% need it for T5 since whm should be ss'ing you, which whm's ss is superior because of their trait graniteskin.

---

T5 is a bit iffy - the WHM is usually better off timing a Cure II to connect immediately after Death Sentence (in order to counteract the healing debuff) instead of precasting Stoneskin. I suppose if you're not running with a SCH it could help though? In a typical T5 setup there'll usually be a WAR MTing and a PLD OTing- it doesn't hurt for the PLD to Stoneskin the MT in that situation as long as there's no conflag to worry about.

(Due to the cast time on DS being less than that of Stoneskin, you can't start casting SS when you see DS start to go off, you need to precast it instead whenever you know a DS is coming soon...)

Personally I've found I use Stoneskin most often in the extreme primals - there are lots of "gap" moments where I've time to throw them on other players to give them a bit of a buffer for the next AoE. Ditto in CT on the Behemoth fight if I'm stuck on tower duty. I'd rarely cast it on myself because I hardly ever need the extra buffer... but it's nice to be able to fall back on it if I'm out of cooldowns, or if a healer suddenly dies or becomes otherwise occupied.

Pretty much all of the above.

It is definitely one of those "play the role to the best of the ability" scenarios. Having it helps - even if you pre-cast and you do not manage to have it up for a major hit, but it is up for the smaller auto hits after, it can be a life saver, or just to make the battle that much easier. I do not use it during dungeon pulls as my mana goes to flash in te majority, but I do on most every boss just because I can and again, every little helps.