Stoneskin in battle?

Is there ever a time to cast stoneskin on a player in battle or is throwing them a heal usually the better option?

If a player needs an HP buffer to survive an attack, Stoneskin will help for that. Usually best to be used on players who are weakened to hopefully increase their odds of survival until the debuff wears off.

Also, any time you know a tank buster is going to come out. The more buffer you give your tank, the more comfortable you and your tank will feel.

Cures are more mp efficient, but for something that's going to do a ton of dmg, and you know it's coming, stoneskin is nice.

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Originally Posted by Ghishlain

Also, any time you know a tank buster is going to come out. The more buffer you give your tank, the more comfortable you and your tank will feel.

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This is the biggest thing. A4's The Manipulator charging up Discoid? Get Stoneskin on your main tank, 'cause you want them as far out of the danger zone as possible.

Depends. I for example always use it on me and the other healer when ever a boss is going to cast it's ultimate attack.

Keeping myself and the other healer high on hp after a massive boss ultimate blast on the entire party let's me and the other healer the chance to heal the party and not have to worry about healing ourselves first then the party.

Stoneskin also generates a flat 70 enmity, regardless of how much damage is mitigated by it. This makes it handy in delicate aggro situations where a heal will bring adds raining down on your head. Even if you mistime it and pick up a mob or two, the tank can rip them off you with a single move, you'll have provided a small damage buffer, and you'll be able to start healing immediately since the tank has already overcome your initial aggro. It's not the go to solution, ideally you won't need to cast anything on the tank until after the adds are picked up, but sometimes that's not the case, and Stoneskin can help stabilize the tank before you go nuts with healing, sending adds ping-ponging around the battlefield.

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Originally Posted by Kietsu

This is the biggest thing. A4's The Manipulator charging up Discoid? Get Stoneskin on your main tank, 'cause you want them as far out of the danger zone as possible.

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Or if your MT is a PLD, yell at him to at least cast SS on himself every now and then esp while the boss is charging his tank buster. It's like having an extra layer of fending accessories right off the bat.

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Originally Posted by RulerOfPotaoes

Depends. I for example always use it on me and the other healer when ever a boss is going to cast it's ultimate attack.

Keeping myself and the other healer high on hp after a massive boss ultimate blast on the entire party let's me and the other healer the chance to heal the party and not have to worry about healing ourselves first then the party.

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This, really, except I keep it on us the entire run if I can. MP taxing, yes, but it saves me the cost of a res if it comes to that.

SS is amazing in the leviathan EX fight. You dont get the range reducing debuf with SS. So i use that instead of healing the off tank

Ss is kinda meh now in 3.0
Only ppl tht should be casting is tht pld lol...

i dunno the AST can do it pretty good with lightspeed... and WHM has increased cast speed for it.

Adlo->SS->Ruin II (blind) all the time as Scholar in light parties ^.^
Makes even the most under geared tanks feel comfortable tanking pulls as mitigation is so good!
At a sweet spot Aldo or SS is almost always up on tank.

It has its uses sure, but considering its a flat 10% reduction now across all jobs, has the same MP cost as Cure2 but with a longer cast time (and the 10% is less than you can heal with Cure2), its not really as helpful as it used to be outside a few situations.

If you're having to decide whatever to cast SS or Cure2 (or equivalent) the heal is always the better option for the above reasons.

Pretty sure people already mentioned and repeated the same thing I'm about to say (I just don't feel like fighting with my work just yet):

In battle, it's mainly for pre-shielding incoming damage to lessen the hurt.
For example, second boss, I believe, in Vault (been a while since I've been in o_O) - one of the attacks marks a random player before applying some terrible hurt. I can't determine if the person will survive it for a pre-casted cure to even matter - especially if it's a caster/squishy - so I would try to SS them and follow up with a cure II.

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Originally Posted by Saseal

Pretty sure people already mentioned and repeated the same thing I'm about to say (I just don't feel like fighting with my work just yet):

In battle, it's mainly for pre-shielding incoming damage to lessen the hurt.
For example, second boss, I believe, in Vault (been a while since I've been in o_O) - one of the attacks marks a random player before applying some terrible hurt. I can't determine if the person will survive it for a pre-casted cure to even matter - especially if it's a caster/squishy - so I would try to SS them and follow up with a cure II.

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That damage drop is horrifying when you first see it. It was even worse when I was first targeted with it! I think I might've hurt some FC ear drums when that happen... Especially with the balls that followed up after q_q *shudders*

It's useful for Leviathan ex if you are a whm. The boss casts this bubble debuff on one of the tanks. Every heal that is cast on the bubble tank will reduce the range of your skills. This debuff also stacks and refreshes for every heal you throw on the tank and it lasts quite a while (can't remember but maybe 30-45 seconds ish)

On the other hand, stone skin does not proc the bubble debuff. So you can spam it on the bubbled tank.

Stoneskin used to be incredibly MP efficient when it was traited to 18 percent. Now, not so much, but it can still be valuable on big hits or when shielding is necessary (e.g., Prey-like mechanics) and the reduced cast time for WHM makes it much less unwieldy in that regard.