@ WHM who stoneskin whole party

[Jyoeru]

it's my job and responsibility to my partners to play my job to the highest caliber possible

Nicely said, in many regards. But, two things: you can't discredit someone because you did turn 5 and assume most players haven't. Stop it.

And, the mentality that something is your "job" on a game is where part of the problem is. Yes, it's an MMO. Sure, the group will have expectations. Yes, you should do what the group expects if you're not leading it. But nothing in this game is your job. It's a game. Stop treating it like a job and have fun. If you're not having fun, why are you paying someone else to do a job?

And that's important because you get these players who treat this game like it's a job. Players who demand you have the absolute best gear with the absolute best materia with the absolute best infinite stack of food and potions, and that you've watched all of the videos and can do the absolute best rotation for the absolute best DPS. The game isn't designed for that. Maybe you get a newer fight that could benefit from the absolutism the gaming community brings, but as I always say, if you're bringing a nuke to kill a bunny, something is terribly wrong with that.

There's this attitude that forms, and people with this attitude start a trend that something must be done X way in Y manner. Those people tend to ruin MMO culture in my opinion. You get the extreme elitists vs. the super casual wood choppers. And if you're not bringing the nukes to the rabbit, you get stuck trying to raid with people who only know how to chop wood.

Meh.

Edit: In other words, it becomes (and already is) a solo grind. Don't come to X group until you've spent 1000 hours on your own getting the best everything so when you get here, we're not "carrying you." Bah. That attitude really needs to GTFO.

[Marcusow86]

snip

It is the same in real life. Those with better qualification will get to join a better company with better pay. It is also a respect to the rest of the team who want to progress, they did the same grinding just so they do not turn out to be a burden. So, if people can do it, why can't you?

[Slark]

snip.

My intention wasn't particularly to bash people, nor was it out of malice. However, if someone lacks the experience, they don't understand all of the applications of their kit, and where it may shine the brightest. Doing an armory search of a few people in this thread, it seems that was the case. They have no clue how important pre-fight SS can be, and to spread misinformation that it almost always is near-useless, to the point where they don't even cast it is completely incorrect. This is not a matter of subjectivity. One method is and always will be superior to the other until content is on farm status. Even then, it should still be used, but I could see the argument taking a little more hold then.

Playing an MMO is not a job; perhaps that was the wrong term to use. However, if you are signing up for anything, you do owe the respect to your team, friends, or partners, even if they are duty finder strangers, to make sure the run goes as fast and smoothly as possible. I have always prided myself on playing to my best. To me, reading up on my entire role, testing, theorycrafting, and applying, have always been the funnest part of PVE to me, and many others. It is only "work" if you perceive it as such. To me, doing that stuff is fun, not work. Precast stoneskin is one of the many ways you can play your best.

I am not advocating spending 9 hours a day researching and playing a game just to min/max your character if that is not your cup of tea (doing that for FFXIV would render you out of material in probably a week or two, or less though, and in MMO's, there always exists someone else to do it for you). However, if you understand a mechanic, and you refuse to do it just because you are being a slacker, that is a completely different story. Everyone else hauled ass to get to be a positive influence on the raid. For a single person to slack shows an incredible amount of immaturity, disrespect, and it also reveals a spoiled, apathetic brat who doesn't deserve the privilege of playing with 7 hard workers.

Since when is it a "solo grind"? I can, and did, gather Darklight with my friends, I capped Myth with my friends, Hell, I even leveled up with some of my friends. I also ran people through instances to get them crafted gear/DL, gave charity titan runs to about 30 people, gave charity hydra/chimera/garuda to even more. There are so many opportunities to play with your friends while gearing up. For me, it was never a solo grind. BUT, if you showed up to a raid in full strategos when you had ample time to get darklight and you never capped myth, you aren't eating food, and you do not understand your class, then you clearly are not showing that you want to be there, nor have the commitment.

To put it another way: Someone cannot come to a gymnasium one day a week and expect to get into the olympics. Why? because they put no work or commitment in, and as such, they are going to be terrible. Why would you have someone who knows nothing about what they are doing, when you can have a highly capable individual for literally no extra pay or work?
You might think it's silly that I compared an MMO to the olympics, but it really is not, and it applies to any situation in life where you have to work as a team, be it group projects in school, sports, video games, personal commitments, military operations, etc. Bring your best so things go as smoothly as possible.

I don't get it, Stoneskin is entirely a positive thing. to not use it, or worse, to bash people for using it is so contradicting it makes my head hurt. People complain about bad healers all the time, then when you have a healer doing something right, you bash him for it? Ugh...

[faceroll]

the only time i feel it's useless is in titan hm
it's literally gone within the first 10 seconds of the fight.
but it still doesn't even matter that much
OH NO YOU'VE STONE SKINNED US OOOOOOOH

[Hitome]

And that you could potentially take that notion to extremes and make the same case for Protect or Food or even up-to-date gear.

No. Let's not go there.

Protect takes a couple seconds to cast. In fact, you can apply it during the pull/shortly after it and not receive much of a mana hit. Food takes no time to cast but has about a half second delay before you can perform an action.

Stoneskin takes much more time to apply to everyone. You also apply it to pets, right? That's the very first thing I do when I summon my fairy: apply it to my pet and any other pets in the vicinity because WHMs often forget to do so.

We are not telling you stoneskin is useless pre-pull but that it takes too much time to keep reapplying every time. There are certain fights where I would want it reapplied every time even if it takes that extra time like Twintania and Ifrit Ex.

When your raid leader calls a wipe on Titan Ex because a healer or tank was landslided off (and you can't continue the fight) and this is 1 minute into the fight, you're just going to have to reapply stoneskin again as soon as you resurrect. This is where I consider it a waste of time. Maybe cast one stoneskin on lower HP members that might die to the first set of plumes and that's it. Adlo on the tank will suffice and succor for the first tumult usually handles things coupled with 1 medica.

[Cleftobismal]

Stone-skin nulls weak damaging knock-backs like garuda in ultima. . . How is something that pro useless. u_u I'm getting it as a scholar because of that reason & more. (More of stone-skinning the dps when I have nothing to do except watch my dots tick*)

[Enkidoh]

just stop it, most of the time its just wasted anyways.

Um, no. If it protects you when you accidentally pull too much hate and thus saves me having to be distracted from keeping the tank alive to heal your worthless hide (lousy WHM's oath), then it's not a waste.

Late to the party I know, but it needed to be said.

[Ashira]

the only time i feel it's useless is in titan hm

Titan is one of the most useful times to use Stoneskin; 1000-1500 HP mitigated from a Mountain Buster.

[EveAlexandra]

It's actually pretty useful, having ss up at the start lets you skip having to cast medica after first stomps. Really useful for threat management with pugs.

[Ashira]

It's actually pretty useful, having ss up at the start lets you skip having to cast medica after first stomps. Really useful for threat management with pugs.

This. Enmity is a big issue when you're solo healing Titan, as you're often doubling up on healing. Mitigation is the king of healing enmity mangement.