Why is stoneskin so... well, ugly?

I don't like Stoneskin at all because it's a chore to cast it all the time. I don't know why so many parties, even in duty finder when doing non-difficult content, won't move until you stoneskin the whole party. It's really only effective on tanks.

Anyway, I might like casting it more if it actually looked pretty. Can't we do better than blocky textures spinning around a character? Maybe the target's skin could become rocky or crystalline for a second after casting it. Or just better textured rocks could swirl around the character.

Really? Everyone charges ahead before I can even use protect ._.

It absorbs damage in relation to your hp, it's good in dungeons incase you or the dps pull and get smacked a few times. Less stress on you for healing situations like that. I always keep it on people.

Sorry but I totally disagree with your assessment of the usefulness of stoneskin, it's an extremely powerful spell for your ability to precast it and it can give you a buffer against aggro mismanagement or nasty AOE's.
Regarding it's appearance, it's up for 1/2 a second so I don't really care - I'd rather a texture added to regen or POM.

It's called stoneskin..what is it supposed to look like?

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Originally Posted by Ignnis

Really? Everyone charges ahead before I can even use protect ._.

It absorbs damage in relation to your hp, it's good in dungeons incase you or the dps pull and get smacked a few times. Less stress on you for healing situations like that. I always keep it on people.

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It's not just that; it's the fact it lasts more than 30 seconds. When you can cast something before a fight that will still be effective if the first hit they take is several minutes after the fact, that's a good spell.

That being said it's not going to make the difference in some fights, people don't normally wipe to things like Titan because the healers ran out of mp or couldn't keep up with curing unavoidable damage.

Edit: What would be nice is if it was AOE if you were not in combat.

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Originally Posted by Wasselin

...I don't know why so many parties, even in duty finder when doing non-difficult content, won't move until you stoneskin the whole party...

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I think it was bcoz... they use to cast it by macro.. maybe just autocast 8times after casting protect. ^^;

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Originally Posted by Wasselin

...Maybe the target's skin could become rocky or crystalline for a second after casting it. Or just better textured rocks could swirl around the character.

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I am quite sure PS3 cannot reflect above effect ^^;

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Originally Posted by Wasselin

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Because Stoneskin, esp from a WHM, is incredibly useful? It lets you ignore mechanics entirely in some instances (ADS type AA stacks, and Ifrit EX supparation stacks will fail to apply if the damage is entirely absorbed by Stoneskin) and even if not the fact that the healer can them proceed to not need to heal anybody for a length of time allows them to dps, speeding things up and generally making them easier. Stoneskin is wonderful. It also doesn't need to be incredibly involved aesthetically. Even discounting the PS3, MMOs need to shoot for effects that are accessible to as many people as possible (because MMOs make more money when more people can play, shocker). It is more important for any effect to look unique than flashy, and Stoneskin achieves that. It doesn't need tinkering.

I don't bother with SS unless it's on a tank. 9/10 everyone in the DF is gonna take un needed damage that I will have to heal throughout the fight constantly. Why waste time casting it on everyone. Saving 1 Medica isn't saving me any headaches while I'm healing.

I honestly feel its the opposite effect in terms of casting for me. I prefer it being on everyone BUT the tank. the tank will lose it within 5 seconds. But having it on your group can mitigate damage or even prevent one shot, if they're super duper squishy...lol but I like using it as a personal heads up. once stoneskin is gone, just to be more aware of everyone's hp bars. So if im solo healing I can shift from single healing the tank to keeping everyone's hp up.

I would like it to be an AoE Cast though, would make it less of a chore to cast

AoE in combat would be a bit powerful though, at least a trigger that made it AoE out of combat wouldn't make it crazy powerful, just a bit more convenient.

Pop Presence of Mind before you stoneskin/protect everyone. Makes it a little faster. :)

So if a whm stoneskin is 18% shield of max hp..
Then what is an 18% shield on a healer with 6.7k hp?
Makes mountain busters into mountain punches.

I recommend a macro that just casts it on your whole party.
Goes like this:
/ac "Stoneskin" <1> <wait.4>
/ac "Stoneskin" <2> <wait.4>
etc.

Does that help?

I use it as a safety step and a bit of a roll call for when we're loading in. In combat, too, it's another redundant reminder if a DD is taking damage as the ranged ones usually aren't in my field of vision. It's especially useful to me in T7. When I see the icon next to the OT disappear (as I hawkishly watch the lifebars) I know s/he picked up the adds.

So safety, fight mechanics redundancy, roll call, and when Thrill of Battle is popped it's a nice extra emergency measure. As a WHM when most of anything you do is reactive, it's nice to have something that can help prepare you and to monitor your party members.

As much as an AoE version would be nice, I think that might traipse on SCH's unique abilities a bit too much. Unless future and higher level content would be made in such a way that damage is unpredictable or you need to hit the emergency OH CHEESE button I just don't see a need for the old "Divine Prism+Stoneskin" before King pops up, heh.

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Originally Posted by Momo27

I honestly feel its the opposite effect in terms of casting for me. I prefer it being on everyone BUT the tank. the tank will lose it within 5 seconds. But having it on your group can mitigate damage or even prevent one shot, if they're super duper squishy...lol but I like using it as a personal heads up. once stoneskin is gone, just to be more aware of everyone's hp bars. So if im solo healing I can shift from single healing the tank to keeping everyone's hp up.

I would like it to be an AoE Cast though, would make it less of a chore to cast

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That sounds like a terrible idea. WHM gets a 18% HP mitigation AoE, while SCH only has Succor and Sacred Soil, which all together probably mitigate 15% damage and Sacred Soil has a cooldown. :/

10000 Hp tank adds 1800 to there Hp basically. My Scholar crits aldos for about 1700 which puts a shield up for 3400 but stoneskin is reliable because it is always guarantees that 1800.

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Originally Posted by Yumi_umi

So if a whm stoneskin is 18% shield of max hp..
Then what is an 18% shield on a healer with 6.7k hp?
Makes mountain busters into mountain punches.

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Makes the first mountain buster into a mountain punch. The MP cost makes it inefficient in most fights to spam it during, barring fights with healing magic penalties like Ramuh Ex etc.

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Originally Posted by Alistaire

Makes the first mountain buster into a mountain punch. The MP cost makes it inefficient in most fights to spam it during, barring fights with healing magic penalties like Ramuh Ex etc.

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Loool in ramuh ex i can solo orb clean up during adds and other phases as i literally take little to no damage. I just pop stoneskin or swiftcast stoneskin on myself before the thunderstrikes and bam, i get like 1k damage at the most.
If i ever drop low like realllllly low i can always just use benediction, but that won't really happen as his thunder aoes do little damage if there r no orbs laying around.
You don't spam it, you utilize it.
Cast it every cycle of attacks or when urs takes too much damage to warrant a decent shielding of the next attack (refreshing it).
So don't even try to say anything about ramuh ex till u try stuff like tht lol. Also i am not gimping healing in a fight with such easy healing with all these obergeared hunt/ coil players.

Also only bad players save swiftcasts "only" for raises.
With such a short CD, you should be using it for quick stoneskins or medica 2s, cure 3s, medicas too.

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Originally Posted by Wasselin

I don't like Stoneskin at all because it's a chore to cast it all the time. I don't know why so many parties, even in duty finder when doing non-difficult content, won't move until you stoneskin the whole party. It's really only effective on tanks.

Anyway, I might like casting it more if it actually looked pretty. Can't we do better than blocky textures spinning around a character? Maybe the target's skin could become rocky or crystalline for a second after casting it. Or just better textured rocks could swirl around the character.

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I'm pretty sure u haven't done t8 and t9 OP

yes, please.
make the party sparkle like Edward Cullen when I cast stoneskin on them!
/sarcasm

The lols, the lols
Just stoneskin, and get some DOTs up in the opening pull.

In alot of fights stoneskin saves me and other healer coming out cleric for large parts.

Knowing when to stoneskin a target is practically mandatory in certain endgame fights. e.g. Turn 8 Allagan field, Turn 9 ravensbeak, megaflare, Garuda x wicked wheel. I use ss as much as possible, to me it's an invaluable skill. I miss the old 1.0 animation where it was a stone wall that came up from the ground.

I never really understood the appeal of SS until I learned it. I thought it seemed incredibly weak and pointless. But after I started to use it in dungeons I understood that SS is like... So easy on your MP and helps sooo much. That and Regen. Holy crap Regen ilu.

SS followed by Regen. Keeps my MP close to max for many dungeons. Also helps in trials so I can focus on the tanks without losing DPS.

SS is a really nice skill, not just because of the damage mitigation, but also because it gives the tanks a few precious seconds to gain aggro on the mobs before we healers start healing and attempt to steal it away. I also love having it on dps because then I can see which ones are standing in the stupid XD. If a dps manages to get through a dungeon without losing the SS guess who's getting my commendation.

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Originally Posted by Audri

SS is a really nice skill, not just because of the damage mitigation, but also because it gives the tanks a few precious seconds to gain aggro on the mobs before we healers start healing and attempt to steal it away. I also love having it on dps because then I can see which ones are standing in the stupid XD. If a dps manages to get through a dungeon without losing the SS guess who's getting my commendation.

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What if it was lost due to a targeted/unavoidable hit? o_O :x (like Ultima's missiles, for ex)

I agree on the animation. XI has a fantastic SS animation, v1 was horrendous, and arr is just boring and ugly. The spell itself is wonderful tho

So SS isn't worth casting because it's ugly? Wow.

I agree that the looks bore you... but it don't bother me. Lol my job is to heal, then I'll heal using what ever SE gives me to heal.

If no one SS me as a tank however, I do it myself. I even SS as a tank in raids and instances. Even more so if the other tank is a war. We tanks can't parry magic yo. But hey look! We can stoneskin gaizz! Healers do you love us now that we're kinda helping you? No? Well okay we'll just sit in a corner then...

Personally, in regular dungeons, most of the time I use it on everyone except the tank. That way, if by any chance they take damage, the damage in question will be mitigated, allowing me to keep healing the tank as necessary or giving me more time to heal that person before they die horribly from being mobbed or something.

If I know that the tank does big mobbing, I will Stone Skin the tank. If the tank takes every group of monsters one at a time, it's not necessary.

In boss fights, I use Stone Skin on everyone at the start, but rarely bother to cast it again if they lose it. In fights with unavoidable damage (i.e. Titan HM), I don't bother at all.

Unless the person was freshly revived, in which case I'll always try to have it on the person in question until the resurrection debuff wears off.

As for the looks of the spell... well, it's called "Stone" Skin, and it looks that way. No issue there, as far as I'm concerned.

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Originally Posted by Eclair_Xysha

I agree that the looks bore you... but it don't bother me. Lol my job is to heal, then I'll heal using what ever SE gives me to heal.

Healers do you love us now that we're kinda helping you?

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I always appreciate paladins that do that!

SS is an awesome utility. One thing that's great about having a bajillion classes to 50 is having insight to how certain things go. For example, the Ultima Weapon in Praetorium. I keep SS up on all Melee DPS. Why? Because if it absorbs all of the damage from his pulsing attack, they don't get knocked back. DPS that aren't knocked back are doing more DPS. So indirectly, I'm increasing the damage of the group by doing such.

Another time it is really useful is on a Gladiator, Paladin, or Marauder (not Warrior), you SS before a 3+ mob group and you have a REALLY easy time holding agro. You won't need heals for a few seconds and that means no healing threat going to the healer while you work on gathering them up.

I dare u to do LEx without stoneskin =)

As a WHM SS is my best friend besides regen and its very powerful I'm not very good at pre casting SS (but I am practicing) but it saves the day when I can get it out in time like in Titan hm and EX or other primal battles and on how it looks I mean it's called stone skin so i'm not surprised on how it looks.

Stoneskin is very powerful part of our toolkit, I tanked titan in 2.0 as whm and stone skinning was one of the abilities that made it possible.

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Originally Posted by Wasselin

Why is stoneskin so... well, ugly?

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1m0B_OTjsk&t=08m23s


Just saying...

(I personally like it now.)

I spam Stoneskin on the party during the last boss of Dzemael Darkhold.

mostly on the last part of the fight.