Cross class question

[Maelwys]

So TLDR: Foresight, Bloodbath are definites. Mercy Stroke and Stoneskin are great if you can level the classes to 26/34. Cure is garbage at 50 but still better than the other options. Fracture is mostly useless but can fill a slot when DPS/OTing until you get the other stuff. Raise and Protect are useless outside of solo play and should only ever be viewed as fillers.

This.

I *love* Stoneskin, but you don't really need it.
You could get by on PLD without taking any cross class skills.

Stoneskin, Foresight and Bloodbath are the three that never leave my hotbar (Stoneskin taken as the first skill so that it's available for all level synching), and the last two are usually taken up by Cure and Mercy Stroke unless I'm soloing (when Protect gets swapped in once every 30 mins).

Cure is almost never used in group situations, but I've got it macroed in with Convalescence anyway (first button hit triggers Conv, 2nd hit triggers Cure) and it's occasionally handy to top yourself or an NPC up. At lower levels cure is better than Stoneskin but Stoneskin is FAR better mitigation at higher levels. Mercy Stroke is very tricky to time for the Cure unless you're fighting trash, but it's still a little extra damage that's off the GCD.

The big draw about Stoneskin is that once you learn the mechanics of a Boss you can use it as extra damage mitigation any time you have a big lead in enmity and you have a few seconds break in the fight - like when a Boss goes into ability animation lock. It's effectively 10% extra HP, and at High levels that will be an easy 500-600 damage buffer... whilst your group's healer can spam it on you (and the White Mage version is a 18% HP buffer instead of 10%) it's usually less effective use of MP for them than casting Cure. Your MP isn't used for anything except spamming Flash, so as long as hate is already firmly established you can generally cast Stoneskin mid-fight without fear of it being wasted.