Stoneskin use.

[Rawrz]

Do elaborate why a white mage should just sit there till the damage comes while the other healer has to squeeze out 2 spells for each tank whenever a tank buster is applied for one.

Elaborating, I should say, that as a WHM doesn't have access to another shield, they should just top off their target before applying it, in preparation for a tank buster.

[RajaVamberaux]

In dungeons: on the party at the beginning and on people at the end of & in-between pulls.

In raids: on your tank before tank busters, after you've topped off/shielded your tank, if you have time. Ex: In A1S there's time on sch to eye for an eye tank, heal up prey target just enough, then adlo, virus, and stoneskin your tank before the tank buster.

Nuff said

[Fevelle]

Using Stoneskin in dungeons before big hits is good too. Dusk Vigil comes to mind, when that Towering Oliphant marks someone, I usually Stoneskin the person marked and put Aspected Benefic/Regen (especially if the person is ME) because the damage will surely put him into critical.

[rawker]

As a PLD player, I make sure that I reapply it to myself or the DRK or WAR in my raid whenever the boss is doing some mechanic and it is untargettable. Damage mitigated, no matter how small, is still mitigation esp in this meta where tanks rarely go full fending, myself included.

[McVade]

I basically apply Stoneskin between fights and occasional lulls in damage during a boss fight. Just given its long cast time and the relative inefficency, it's always better to heal damage than cast Stoneskin.

While the tank gets most "healed" damage out of it, I fear it's more important to keep it up on yourself and DPS. When you and them take damage, it's nice to proactively heal a good chunk of the hit.

[Reinha]

As for healers who refuse to deal damage, the point still stands that Stoneskin has an ridiculous cost for it's effectiveness and in non endgame raid, application of it is a waste of time unless it's to prolong your time in Cleric's Stance. Inability to switch out of Cleric's Stance and making healing "inefficient" is a player issue, not a class problem.

This is the whole point to use it outside of raids. It's more healer dps, both because tank has more health when going in combat and also because it keeps the damage dealers in good health so you don't have to hurry to heal them. Less time focusing on healing = more time focusing on dps. MP-efficiency should not be an issue in dungeons... I dunno why you and Atoli got into a debate when you are basically agreeing with each other.

[Lyrica_Ashtine]

snip

Because Atoli's about applying stoneskin on the entire party. I omited one detail there and that would be the timing of the application; during downtime.

[Lyrica_Ashtine]

You could argue the same about applying stoneskins on the entire party during the same downtime. Then the mp inefficiency of it still applies as well as it's ineffectiveness

[Sida]

Something about CS. Switching out of it doesn't incur CD. If you accidentally (or purposefully) drop it you can turn on right away. It can also be queued. If you execute it even well during previous cast, it falls of/gets on without delay between the casts. So yes. It is quite possible to drop your CS when still casting previous damage spell, cast your heal, then activate CS again during the heal cast time and cast your next damage spell with no lost GCDs whatsoever. However, it -has- cooldown the other way around, you can't drop it immediately when you have activated it.

Guess this constitutes part of the stance dance. Know how to weave it in between the casts to not loose time for the chance.

About usability of SS, tend to use it heavily where ever there are Nix type monsters. Their pull attack is mitigated with Stoneskin.

[Twilite]

I almost forgot about that. Thanks. I WILL troll those frogs EVERY chance I get.