Need some suggestion on coil Turn4 with 3 physics 1 Mage

[neoreturn]

On turn2, 2mage and 2physics seems be best DPS combo. But we have 2 bard,1mnk,1blm.
So physics Dmg dealers have to break stone to wast total 6000 Dmg, that's 8-10 sec delay compare with a balance group. Does any group have the same issue and how you counter it? Any suggestion is welcome.

[Esmian]

Our group has cleared it twice with all phys(2monk, 2bard or 1monk, 1drg, 2bard). If your tanks can hold aggro on both the knight and the soldier while primarily dpsing the soldier that's less time your phys attackers need to spend breaking the stoneskin. After one set of knight and soldier goes down having the dread tank rush over and do a couple combos on the 2nd soldier helps as well before running back to the dread spawn.

[Ariyn]

We normally run 1 drg, 2 brd, 1 blm. It's actually really easy. Have the blm start on the 1st solider while the other 3 burn the knight. Then 1 brd stays on solider with blm while the other 2 go to other knight. 2nd soldier will pop just from brd and tank dmg pretty quick. Usually have all down right when the dreadnaught is spawning

[SonyaArin]

I raid on both a Monk and a Bard for Turn 4 with nearly same comp in both (BLM, Double BRD, MNK or DRG). Obviously one of the main things is that when the physical DPS goes on the Stoneskin, their abilities don't actually DO things until the Stoneskin is down (Bard DoTs won't stick, Monk stances won't change etc) because it does 0 damage to the mob itself. Luckily with double BRD you can extend all your procs onto the Knight THEN go onto the Soldier with 'full DPS'. Here's what we do:

BLM: Soldier full time. May pull threat but it's OK for them to tank it for a second if so because Bards will be breaking the shield so the soldier will break down.
MNK/DRG: Knight full time - in many cases the BLM may pull threat on the Soldier, no sense in having the melee waste DPS time chasing it around.
BRD: Straight Shot + both DoTs on the KNIGHT. Now you have your crit buff up and are receiving Bloodletter procs from the DoTs on another target. Switch to Soldier and burn down the shield, as you're nearly doing full DPS now and not really suffering from the lack of 'procs' when doing 0 damage to the shield.

The key is the fact that even if you have to do MORE damage than if you ignored the Stoneskin, no one is WASTING damage with bad proc mechanics on shields or chasing around mobs (like if you had the melee try to be on the Soldier). Hope that helps. This is applicable whether its the double soldier/double knight wave or when they're sprinkled in later in the fight.

[neoreturn]

Yeah, I found the big issue is stone not just absorb Dmg it also block stance change. So it makes all melee combo become useless. Arign's suggestion definitely will save 3000 Dmg when group only need break 1 stone. But it may require Blm tank a solder. Good to try then.

[neoreturn]

SonyaArin, thx for your suggestion. We will give it a try.

[BlossomRose]

You should be breaking Stoneskin in the first place. It stuns the soldier, which is extremely important if your offtank isn't kiting during the last two waves when two dreadnoughts are up. Stunning the soldiers allows healers to slack off a bit and keep the main tank alive more reliably.

My group usually runs with 1 monk, 1 dragoon, 1 bard and 1 black mage (not intentional class stacking, just who the group ended up being, friends). We always have DPS pop the Stoneskin, stun the soldier, and then the black mage solos it while everyone else takes the knight down. Since the soldier stays stunned for quite some time (~20-25 seconds?) the black mage can kill it without the offtank even needing to keep aggro on it.

Granted if you run with two casters and two physicals you don't NEED to pop the Stoneskin, but it's really not that big a hit on your damage, and it benefits you.