tank casting stoneskin while tanking

[JonBigwood]

"Originally Posted by Wadoka:
Sounds like I don't understand the mechanics of Stoneskin. I'd thought it was a "Cast once, lasts 30 minutes" effect, from having it cast on me by others. Does it wear off after you take a certain amount of damage? Inquiring minds need to know."

Edited to include that post

I learned this reading healer roles forum: Stoneskin lasts until you are hit for an amount that equals or surpasses the protection stoneskin gives, then it dissapears. If you don't get hit that much, it lasts 30 minutes. Normally a tank soon gets hit and stoneskin disappears, but you save a heal equivalent to the protection stoneskin gave.

[Khemi]

Just quick question, wonder if anyone\\'s tested it.

Can a WHM stoneskin overwrite PLD stoneskin?

I also wonder if any WHMs would feel the PLD is interfering because now it\\'s hard to keep track if that stoneskin is a measly 10% or is it a powerful 18% one.

I'm a fairly new WHM to end-game content. My stoneskin does overwrite a Paladin's (presumably because it's better) - I know this because I stoneskin my party before bosses and if a Paladin's is up, mine "wins".

I dislike it when a Paladin casts Stoneskin on everyone before a boss (while I'm still buffing people) because it can make me think I've already buffed, but it's not too annoying.

During combat, if you Paladins have time to stoneskin yourselves, do it! That 10% buffer can mean I'll be able to save you after a big hit, or I can conserve my mana for other things.

[Kyana]

I cast on myself when I have enough time (boss turns around to do random attack), to prepare for hard hits (Titan MB) or on the MT if I'm OT.
SS is a spell every PLD should have and use.

Spamming it is not that great though. You're not a healer and you have to ensure the rest of the team can go all out without drawing aggro.

[Geobryn]

jut fyi, the stoneskin is affected by mitigation buffs, meaning with rampart/sentinel it will soak more dmg
it is literally adding hp to your hp pool with all benefits the bigger hp pool has
so it is not more effective on wars then on plds as they have shield oath :P

[JonBigwood]

In low level Duty Roulettes the healer will be synced and have no stoneskin, but if you have it as a cross-class skill, it does not get synced. You can stoneskin everybody before Ifrit normal mode, for exampe, or stoneskin yourself before the bosses. This is not too important, though, just to notice it.

[Mattlex]

I spam SS at every oppertunity when playing PLD and when you have to switch tanks in battles like Ultima HM if the other tank is a WAR I spam it on him when its his turn to tank, it helps alot!

[Ehayte]

Spam stoneskin is perfectly fine - let's dispel the myth that its not. You can still block and parry, the only things you need to consider are:

A. Should I be stoneskinning someone else? (Bard kiter in T1, weak DPS in Titan?)
B. Do I have a nice enmity lead?
C. Is my DPS important to this portion of the fight?

If you said no, yes, no, and you have full mana: Fail! Every tick that you have full mana you are wasting some mitigation. When I know I am going to get a nice enmity cushion (Garuda EX comes to mind), I will go so far as to spam SS, RB my mana back up, do it again.

Another situation comes to mind in tanking Ultima Weapon HM. While you are NOT the MT in this, make yourself useful as a PLD and stoneskin the other tank or healer until you run out of mana, then RB back up and do it again until you are out of mana again, repeat.

You can make a significant impact in the protection of your party as a PLD.

[sheepysheepy]

never in 5 months have i partied with a pld that uses stoneskin to its fullest

i think i saw it like twice in wp last boss, and thats not really helping cos mine just overwrites it, but atleast they tried

never seen anyone do it for titan, the fight where it could make its most difference

hope it catches on, not holding my breath though

[Asteldian]

I often try keep as up on some dps and the healer - in tense situations the healer may be so focused on keeping you alive or saving a dps who didn't avoid a mechanic that they themselves are slow to react and take a hit. In fact, so long as I have aggro, I am often casting ss. If the dps are all protected I will get on with doing some damage. I also cast on myself when it seems appropriate

[Maelwys]

Titan HM it helps to Stoneskin right before Mountain Busters. The tank basically just stands there the entire fight, MB is on a set rotation and his autoattacks are reasonably far apart, so you can time it pretty easily.

Titan EM I'd not bother as much... Firstly because the fight is more hectic - the tank has much more movement due to Bombs/Landslides and Tankswaps and handling adds. And you need to Tankswap every 3rd Buster anyway... but by the time you get to the point where you're doing EM mode, you'll be outgearing Mountain Buster to the point where it really doesn't hit you all that hard, even with two or three debuff stacks. Personally I tend to Foresight+Awareness the first one, Rampart the second, and save Sentinel in case I need to eat a 3rd. At no point am I in danger of dying. That fight ends up being more about mitigating a heavy stream of damage over time (his autoattacks and cleaves whenever you're debuffed) rather than the Mountainbusters themselves. That said, if the worst happens and a Healer dies or I end up having to solo tank it though, then sure, I'll use everything I have including Hallowed Ground and Stoneskin spam.

Ifrit EM though is another matter, since if you take no damage from the Incinerates then you don't get a debuff stack on you. Ideally the WHM should be casting SS on you along with a SCH Adloquium, but it never hurts to try and throw your own up just in case. Can also work for Twintania if a PLD is MTing instead of a WAR. Death Sentences are a PITA.

I'd not recommend SPAMMING it though - aside from the aggro generation loss, the MP cost is very high even for PLDs and you risk getting interrupted if you use it whenever you're taking steady damage.

Usually whenever I need to mitigate a steady stream of damage, I'll pre-emptively buff up with Rampart/Foresight/Conv/Sentinel and save Bulwark + Stoneskin spam for whenever my health starts to drop too low or I can see that the healers are "otherwise occupied". But I'll still use it tactically mid-fight on Demon Wall to dodge repels, or when tanking slow-hitting Dungeon Bosses like Valefor (WP/CT) and certain CT Bosses (Vassago). (Note that on faster-hitting enemies, popping Bulwark right before Stoneskin means that you're much less likely to get interrupted due to the increased Block chance).

Other good uses include popping it right after a healer has to raise someone in order to counteract their "weakened" debuff's lower HP. On many occasions I've needed to protect and SS a newly-raised person on something like Garuda or Titan in order to keep them alive for an AoE damage phase.