Sacred Soil

[Cynfael]

...only so we could survive the floor tick afterwards if we got it.

Very much this, especially if you have someone who derps on occasion and hugs someone else too tightly for Wild Charge.

Was helping a friend complete dungeons for his Zodiac last night and playing mostly BLM for variety. The SCHs we got tended to cast Soil on CD and either spam Stoneskin or do nothing when no heals were needed. While I didn't complain and threw them commendations for at least doing the minimum required, I can't say that I didn't want to reach through the screen and shake them for being so wasteful and inefficient lol.

[VanilleFang]

do nothing when no heals were needed

I notice this a lot when ever I queue for content on a different class as well, or when I jump into raids. Being idle is kind of a giant middle finger to the rest of the party. The DPS don't stop attacking until things are dead, and the tank has to hold aggro so they never stop attacking either. Why do healers feel they should be allowed rest? The way they play their class makes it seem like it's so much easier to use than anything else. Heal, stand around, heal, stand around...

[HoratioTeakettle]

(part 1)

Here's an example hit from Wild Charge with a Sacred Soil, while I adlo'ed the marked target:

(Damage 6690+8104+4944+1455) + (Adlo 1040) = 22233 damage total

Without the soil it would have hit at around 24700 damage, which is a savings of around 2.4k which makes it equivalent to a lustrate on a tank with 9.6k HP so I consider it a fair use. For Electric Burst it will DEFINITELY be 100% better than a lustrate. I would rather save the mark'ed schmuck the 10% of his HP however because of the floor tick.

15s of resonance/autos/main head from T11 did 31675 damage

If I would have used sacred soil, I would have prevented ~3.1k, which is better than a lustrate. Not using it for this purpose also allows me to get the WAR who is taking the main-head-hit topped off better, so the usage of both is a little sketch. I have managed to used it for Seed of the Sea(?) and reached the tanks with it but I think just succor would be fine for that.

[HoratioTeakettle]

(part 2, 1000 character limit is just silly)

For any old pull to require a soil, typically they would have had to have died around FOUR times in 15 seconds. I did this in the two big Brayflox HM pulls because the damage coming in was just nutty.

Speaking of Succor, it's just as powerful as Medica, although the payoff is later (150x2). It just sucks when you're trying to get everyone back to full. A good example is in Odin, where during Einharharharhar/Gungir succor spam actually gets to do it's full potency every cast and it's fantastic.

[Sleigh]

(part 1)

Here's an example hit from Wild Charge with a Sacred Soil, while I adlo'ed the marked target:

(Damage 6690+8104+4944+1455) + (Adlo 1040) = 22233 damage total

Without the soil it would have hit at around 24700 damage, which is a savings of around 2.4k which makes it equivalent to a lustrate on a tank with 9.6k HP so I consider it a fair use. For Electric Burst it will DEFINITELY be 100% better than a lustrate. I would rather save the mark'ed schmuck the 10% of his HP however because of the floor tick.

15s of resonance/autos/main head from T11 did 31675 damage

If I would have used sacred soil, I would have prevented ~3.1k, which is better than a lustrate. Not using it for this purpose also allows me to get the WAR who is taking the main-head-hit topped off better, so the usage of both is a little sketch. I have managed to used it for Seed of the Sea(?) and reached the tanks with it but I think just succor would be fine for that.

You can't look at it as total damage of an attack and what soil mitigated; there's an extremely large difference between a single target's total damage getting mitigated and raid damage getting mitigated. Raid damage is typically extremely periodic and has large breaks before and after, and healing the raid back up from a total of say 25K damage is easy with M2/Succor and fairy heals. A tank taking X amount and measuring the mitigation is a bit more applicable since they are going to continue to get bopped on, but the situations where Soil > Lustrate are very rare.

That 2.4K you mitigated on the Wild Charge is a couple extra ticks of M2 via hitting every target involved, which will happen anyway. It's just a wasted stack unless they were going to die from the hit or the hit + a floor tick they may or may not take depending on your strategy.

[Cynfael]

Snip

As Sleigh noted, this is one of those cases where the math is largely irrelevant. You don't win the duty as SCH by mitigating as much damage as you possibly can at the expense of all other goals, and there is no magic number at which your Sacred Soil cast is deemed "worth it."

Your Soil was worth it if there was a fair possibility that someone would otherwise have died from the initial burst or from a mechanic immediately following (e.g. electrocuted floor ticks after a P3 Wild Charge in T10). If the damage can be just as easily healed through/recovered from without it, then it was an unnecessary stack expenditure.

[HoratioTeakettle]

You don't win the duty as SCH by mitigating as much damage as you possibly can at the expense of all other goals, and there is no magic number at which your Sacred Soil cast is deemed "worth it."

Of course there are many factors that determine if it was "worth it".

I may have been misguiding when trying to explain that Sacred Soil is often at least equal (very loosely) to a Lustrate in terms of "healing done" in AoE situations.

It's not the work of the devil that the thread is making it out to be, but another tool in general.

[Cynfael]

Of course there are many factors that determine if it was "worth it".

I may have been misguiding when trying to explain that Sacred Soil is often at least equal (very loosely) to a Lustrate in terms of "healing done" in AoE situations.

It's not the work of the devil that the thread is making it out to be, but another tool in general.

The sad truth in this thread is that Soil just isn't very useful outside of progression content, and even then it's sometimes a "can take-it-or-leave-it" thing depending on your group composition.

There's nothing wrong with it...except for all the SCHs who throw it up on CD during 4-man dungeons and probably should learn that Soil isn't really all that.

[melflomil]

Fights like T13 is where SCH shine. everyone is literally on the brink of death on that fight and Sacred soil will give you that extra mitigation.

[Ghishlain]

There's nothing wrong with it...except for all the SCHs who throw it up on CD during 4-man dungeons and probably should learn that Soil isn't really all that.

Funny enough, I find Sacred Soil to be quite invaluable of a skill in an opening pull in Aurum Vale, but the dichotomy of tanks you can get in that dungeon is so massive. Sometimes it feels like a nice bonus and other times it feels like it's the only way to keep the tank alive during some pulls X.X

Also because it's a level 49 dungeon and there isn't much else to spend Aetherflow on since your ability to DPS will be dependent on how good/bad your tank is.