rank cross class abilities

[bokchoykn]

Good
Provoke - Some fights aren't even possible without it. Even in fights where you don't even plan on using it, it could still save the day.
Convalescence - Just a really good ability. Perfect for when you're taking high sustained damage. Thrill of Battle + Convalescence = Super Defiance!

Okay
Featherfoot - Not guaranteed to do anything, but strong enough to save your life when it does. Low cooldown too.
Internal Release - Roughly a 1% overall DPS increase, but at least it's always guaranteed to do something.

Situational
Second Wind - While the effect is weak, it gives you a pseudo-boost to your effective HP if used to top yourself off before bursts or used in between attacks.
Mantra - Decent in the right encounters. Still does something useful in the others.

Bad
Flash - Outclassed by Overpower and Steel Cyclone. There are a few applications in end game, but not very many.
Awareness - Boss auto attacks have less than 5% chance of critting. 12.5% uptime on an ability that might not even help you, and when it does, you're still taking damage.

Useless
Haymaker - Why is this even an ability, period?!
Savage Blade - A Skull Sunder I can't even combo into. Cool.

[ManaKeKz]

Just my 2 cents, but as a Warrior I like Flash during speed runs. When chain pulling and Overpower usage can lead to TP starvation, I'd rather have that one aoe threat skill that doesn't use TP (Cyclone doesn't, but building Wrath stacks requires either Infuriate or TP).
The rest has already been said - Voke and Conva are the ones that I really like, FF rarely feels useful, but I sometimes pop it during Unchained + Berserk + Bloodbath to bring the entire effect somewhere near a proper def CD.
Mantra is half a Conva that applies to your party, fairly weak in total effect unless the party actually needs more heals. IR is fun to use, more damage never hurts.

[Rbstr]

I like to stack Foresight and Featherfoot just to make it feel like I may have popped an actual cool-down.

The reality though is that if you took all the cross class stuff away I wouldn't really miss anything except for the 'voke, which is indispensable, and convalescence which is a really good ability.

I feel like the reason Savage Blade and Skull Sunder are available cross class is to attempt to allow some non-tank classes to have something with an enmity bonus? Like a Dragoon (or even monk) can do a bit of tanking against an add or something and skull sunder would even let him keep his job stone.

[ManaKeKz]

Both abilities are 100 potency on a *3 threat multiplier. While 300 pot is probably higher than the number on most damage skills, I daresay that the difference to a proper dps rotation is insignificant. Also considering that tanking an add locks out all position based skills I can't see why they would want to do that.

[SirTaint]

Flash is pretty nice IMO. 360 degree aggro move for pulling groups and using to conserve TP. Brayfox you can pull with flash and then Spam overwhelm once everything is pulled.

Useful for the first t5 pull and holding the first three snakes.

For a cross class it's a solid tool to have on your belt.

[Marxam]

Kitru would you mind sharing some of the sources that you have gained info on. All I have is this, which I'm pretty sure is outdated for the most part and I sometimes check the BG site for some info. You seem to have a good handle on numbers so I would like to see it as well. Idm min/maxing my play style but I do like to keep things fresh and experiment hence my stance on my choice on Second Wind. Pls and Ty.

[Kitru]

Kitru would you mind sharing some of the sources that you have gained info on.

My sources are basically in game numbers. If I'm not sure on something, I go in game and check it.

As to numbers/math (outside of groups), Second Wind heals me for ~530. Mantra has the same CD, which means that it takes 10.5k healing (530 / .05) over the 6 GCDs it's active in order for the two to break even. Even though that's never really going to happen to you personally without a pair of healers spamming their big heals into you (does happen on some fights though), you still get partial returns pretty easily and, because it's a low number, it's got a lower chance of being eaten by overhealing. For every additional target you get with it though, the returns get much higher.

It's most apt to say that Second Wind contributes more to the tank from a raw hp/sec standpoint, but from an effective contribution standpoint (total benefit to the raid, with overhealing accounted for), I would still say that Mantra is going to win out in a vast majority of cases (overhealing is going to be the biggest factor most often; all it takes is your healer/s overhealing you by ~500, which can be as little as a Regen tick, soon after you use it to basically render that Second Wind wasted; because it's distributed over 15 seconds, your healers basically have to continually overheal you for Mantra to be wasted; also Mantra buffs Adloq, which means that contribution is never wasted) but that's mostly based upon personal preference/use (if you only wait til you're low enough that SW won't turn heals into overheal, you're dramatically reducing its contribution over time) and your healers. In any fight where you're going to get by significant predictable AoEs (all of the EX primals, t2, t5), though, Mantra wins outright.

Neither is a particularly impressive ability, so the argument is largely pointless because the decision is made upon preference more than performance. I take Mantra mainly because I consider that 530 heal (less that I get out of an IB and only marginally more than a couple SPs) to not be worth the slot when I could get a similar level of value for myself (reliably, that is) as well as my group.

[bokchoykn]

snip

(530 / .05) is 10.6k.

It's not difficult for the extra healing from Mantra to exceed the amount healed by Second Wind, but a real comparison between the two needs to be more than mathematical. Actual applications of each skill need to be considered.

Personally, I don't really see Second Wind and Mantra as "a skill that heals X damage" and "a skill that increases healing". I see it more as "a skill that increases your effective HP during a burst sequence" and "a skill that helps healers stabilize in intense healing situations". Because they serve totally different purposes, their value can't simply be compared to each other using the same metric (total HP was gained).

Mantra is good vs Rafflesia, but pretty lousy vs Melusine.
Second Wind is good vs NDD, but pretty lousy vs Rafflesia.

[Marxam]

My sources are basically in game numbers. If I'm not sure on something, I go in game and check it.

Damn I was afraid you would say that. I do that too if I feel the need to compare gears I just hit the dummies in coerthas. Oh well I'll just have to wait for some japanese guy with a lot of time to to test skills 1000 times and post it on reddit or some other forum. Thanks anyways.

[Brannigan]

Awareness is realllllly bad and the fact that it takes up a trait is worse. Bosses in 2nd Coil can crit and Awareness is still bad. If they want to add crit reduction to tanks it should be on gear through a stat. Call it Awareness or something.

Also for paladin cross-class in level sync I'd probably go Foresight > Fracture > Stoneskin > Whatever. If you go low enough (like Sastasha) you can slot Cure in if you feel like it as well.