tank casting stoneskin while tanking

[Raffounz]

Is the fight in T4 against the dread in phase 5/6 a nice moment to cast stoneskin? We have the OT tanking all adds while I take the last feeded dread, so casting Stoneskin on me (I do MT) maybe is a good option to help healers heal the OT more...

[Bigpurpleharness]

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.

To be more precise, as a non-WHM it gives you a shield for 10% of the target's max HP. As a Paladin, it is your single biggest "heal" spell. Any good Paladin is going to maintain the RoH debuff, and use it to keep a comfortable amount of enmity, then spam SS/Riot Blade to mitigate damage, provided your DPS don't need the extra bit of DPS the RoH combo does over Riot Blade.

As a WAR, I'm jelly you can Xclass it.

[Sasagawa]

I use it on healers and dps if I have a hate lead.

Aside from using it in the places others have mentioned I also tend to buff anyone in the party who is having issues dodging. at least if they have stoneskin they wont die if they catch a plume for example. sometimes it works other times it doesnt but either way stoneskin is a must

[Sasagawa]

Is the fight in T4 against the dread in phase 5/6 a nice moment to cast stoneskin? We have the OT tanking all adds while I take the last feeded dread, so casting Stoneskin on me (I do MT) maybe is a good option to help healers heal the OT more...

YES!

Also you should wait until the second dread spawns before using your sentinel stoneskin combo. a fantastic way to get really good returns on your stoneskin spam is to use it in conjunction with your CDs i.e sentinel > stoneskin spam 8 secs >rampart > Stoneskin spam 15 sec > MP combo > Bullwark > stoneskin spam 15 sec.

when all my cool downs are down I then use covelance and foresight and then right at the end if i am struggling then use hallowed.

[Wadoka]

This is good to know. I'd assumed, when I saw the name "Stoneskin", it must be exactly like the old Dungeons & Dragons spell of the same name - which acted to improve your physical Armor Class (physical Defense) for the duration of the spell.

Now I'm staring at my CNG level and thinking "Crap, it's a LOOOONG way from L18 to L34..." Heh.

[Megido]

WAR reduces bosses damage by 10%
PLD gives friendly target 10% hp buffer

Cool beans. Seems fair while keeping in line with the difference in theme between the two. Use it as much as you can pala's, as you'd probably be telling a WAR to use storms path if he wouldnt. Flash for the blind is also quite underused.

[Casper]

I would not consider "spamming" it mandatory or even that good. Sure, you are helping healers slightly, but your amount of healing is honestly quite negligible overall. You are also helping "dps" when you dont and spam halone instead. Again mostly negligible.

However, whenever the situation gets dicey, you should use it to its fullest. Mountain buster for both HM and EM of titan is the best example -- shit is insane for healers, you take a heaaaavy spike, and this extra 6-700 hp is making the whole run much safier, and is good for your healers tension. Another superb example is garuda EM, when she disapear with her sister and you are main tank. You have a good 4 or 5 sec to cast it, and right after you are going to take a super huge spike of damage that can one shoot you. If you don't cast it at this point, you are just plain bad and risking the whole run by lazyness.

After these cases where it is just excellent, there are several other cases where it is "good". As an off tank during times where dps don't matter at all, and as you are already spamming riot blade, if your healer are overloaded due to crappy dps taking damage or whatever, it can help quite a bit. As other said, making a recently raised person survive a super aoe is nice. Turn 4 last phase is pretty good once you have ensured hate. Turn 2 if you are not on silence duty and not cheating your way to victory, as an off tank and once rot is on, it is just so good, your healers will want to make love to you after the run. T1 when stacks get high. T5 as off tank when you feel a death sentence is due, spamming it can reduce risk of a drama. Ifrit EM as others have pointed out. Pretty much any hard fight where your healers have other stuff to do than just babysit you and/or there are super heavy and predictable damage spikes.

Another very very important usage is to get through AK with a scholar ulocking the achievement "do not cast a single heal during the whole run and let your fairy do all the work you lazy bastard". I love these, makes for a nice bit of challenge if you don't overgear too much, and your stoneskin will be put to excellent use

[Argyle_Darkheart]

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.

Whichever stoneskin has more HP in it takes priority.

By default, this means that WHM's 18% HP stoneskin takes priority. However, if you've taken enough damage to reduce the remaining HP of that stoneskin to <10%, then ANY untraited stoneskin is able to overwrite it.

A PLD's stoneskins will not interfere with the WHM's job, but it's generally very redundant to have both the PLD and the WHM casting stoneskin (on a single target, anyway).

Another thing to consider when using stoneskin is Rage of Halone's debuff; make sure it doesn't fall off. It sounds obvious, but if you're juggling multiple stoneskin casts and Fast Blade > Riot Blade combos to recover the MP deficit, it can slip your mind.

[Arkine]

Titan jumps = Cast stoneskin
Garuda warps = Cast stoneskin
Ifrit dashes = Cast stoneskin
Tonberry king rancor = Guess what?


So on and so forth, if you can afford to cast it, cast it. it can and will save your life.

[Viridiana]

This is good to know. I'd assumed, when I saw the name "Stoneskin", it must be exactly like the old Dungeons & Dragons spell of the same name - which acted to improve your physical Armor Class (physical Defense) for the duration of the spell.

Now I'm staring at my CNG level and thinking "Crap, it's a LOOOONG way from L18 to L34..." Heh.

Didn't AD&D Stoneskin absorb a certain amount of attacks without affecting your AC at all? >_>

/derail