Quote Originally Posted by Harby View Post
Heya, fresh lv50 and I was wondering, how important is it to get Mercy Strike (MRD 26 iirc) and most importantly, Stoneskin from CNJ 34?

Right now I have 8 in MRD and 15 in CNJ, and given my farming needs in philosophers and stuff like that I need to prioritize stuff. So for the current content I'll be farming (mostly wanderers for now for 2-3 more DL pieces I guess), is stoneskin really needed and should it be a top priority?
Relatively new 50 GLD myself.

I've been glad of Stoneskin in duty-finder dungeons so far, but I can see it having little/no use at higher levels of endgame or if your healer is always on the ball.
When I'm in a Duty Finder group with a SCH instead of a WHM (seems to happen quite a lot) then I'll throw Stoneskin up on everyone before a boss fight, and Stoneskin myself immediately after each group of mobs.
My MP is only really used for Stoneskin and Flash anyway... it really doesn't cost me much and it helps me withstand an Alpha Strike from multiple enemies - 10% extra HP buffer means I can wait a bit longer before using any cooldowns, or even skip them completely on trash mobs. On Bosses it's a bit more situational. I'll only use it if the healer's hard-pressed or I've got plenty of hate lead + time to cast and I know a big hit is about to happen.

When soloing, it's brilliant. Tanked many a FATE boss whilst levelling up using just Stoneskin and my chocobo.

As others may have mentioned, Mercy Strike helps DPS a tiny little bit since it's off the Global Cooldown. But the HP it grants can't be relied upon as you're almost never guaranteed the killing hit.
I tend to keep Foresight, Bloodbath, Stoneskin and Cure on my Cross-Class bar, and swap in Protect for soloing and Mercy Stoke for groups.
I tried Fracture, but didn't find any real need for it. Could easily swap something else in for Cure if needed though - it's very rarely used in groups unless the Healer DCs, and is very underpowered on a PLD even with Convalescence up.