Importance of Cross-Class skills

[Kydi]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently an i90 paladin. I've finished the first couple of coils and am working on unlocking extreme primals and T5. I had my first attempt at T5 last night and the mechanics didn't look too bad compared to what I'm used to from other MMOs. However, reading around there are two cross class skills, Mercy Strike and Stoneskin which I'm lacking.

How important is it to the endgame that I have these? Will not having them significantly impact my ability to tank the endgame?

[Tam_Hawkins]

mercy strike is a nice have, but not absolute necesary. Stoneskin on the other Hand is a big Bonus, you have only Flash to waste mana on otherwise and in situations where your healer are struggling or even when you just have a Little bit of time at Hand you can make it easier for them. Stone Skin might seem at first like it is not that much, but it can replace something between 1-2 vita/phisyks I would highly recomend to get this one at least.

[Synestr]

Stoneskin is a must. Get it. During fights you can use it to negate some smaller attacks or lessen attacks that you know are coming, big ones. It is good in HM and EX fights, at times I will toss a SS on a member that needs it when threat is locked and it looks as if they are taking too much dmg to help save mana. As OT I will toss it on the MT as well, help with saving mana. Mercy Stroke really shines on trash. 20% heal is nice when it is the killing blow. Just keep an eye on the enemy list and when it's about to die pop it. It is also a 200 potency skill and does some pretty good dmg. I use it on bosses as soon as it pops and again after CD has expired if boss is still up.

Mercy stroke is not as important, IMO, as Stoneskin though. Stoneskin first if you don't have it.

Syn

[Riepah]

I agree with the others here, Stoneskin is awesome to have, you should really get it. The cooldown on Mercy Stroke is too high for me to consider it great.

[Kydi]

Thanks everyone. Looks like I need to level conjurer a lot then. I was saving warrior for then ninja appears and there's a mass shortage of tanks, so good to see I don't have to focus that straight away.

[Iolair_Silverwing]

I'd like to hear from other tanks on if any use the Pugilist cross-class skill "Mantra" I'm currently at lvl 41 with my Pally, and going to get both PLD and WAR (currently lvl 30) to 50 so I can MT/OT for my FC as needed. But I've heard some people saying Mantra is critical to have, and I just wanted to see if anyone else agrees or finds it somewhat necessary? My PUG is currently lvl 16, from when I tried BRD when the game first started, and I'm currently low on leves, so I don't really want to grind it, but will do if it's suggested.
Thoughts?

[LukeyP666]

I'd like to hear from other tanks on if any use the Pugilist cross-class skill "Mantra" *SNIP* Thoughts

I personally don't think Mantra is worth levelling Pugilist all the way to 42 for if that is all you're doing it for. 5% extra healing isn't a great deal in the grand scheme of things, and as a Warrior there are better Cross-Class Skills to take instead.

Provoke, Flash, Convalescence and Internal Release are my four I'd say a Warrior definitely should have, and then either Awareness, Second Wind or Featherfoot, but they're all pretty meh.

With respect to Paladins and Stoneskin, I can only echo what everyone else has said. Paladins suffer from a very meagre set of Cross-Class Skills and Stoneskin is probably the best. Ifrit XM is one of the only fights where I prefer using my Paladin over my Warrior, and when I'm not tanking, I spend my time spamming the MT with it to help the healers out, who have to deal with the majority of the mechanics in the fight.

Mercy Stroke is more of a nice to have in my opinion as others have said. As a Paladin it can be difficult to land that final blow when your attacks are hitting for comparatively less than the rest of your party, but the extra DPS from it can be a nice little boost.

[Remn]

Mercy Stork is free damage skill, off GCD. good to have but not a must have.

Stone skin is good to have in specific situation. if you doing MT, you wont have much chance to cast it unless the boss is casting some spell otherwise boss will interrupt your cast most of the time.
as an OT, you get more chance to cast it. but then again I prefer to DPS the boss than spamming stone skin. (my PLD on Sword Oath can do close to 250 DPS, not super high but it help pushing phase.)

it also help when you DPS die and got res (T7 when Range dps die) you can give them stone skin to make sure they don't die to boss's fire ball.

the better group you have the less chance to get to cast stone skin ;P

[Warrlordd]

Stoneskin is a huge part of whether your are great or just okay at being a PLD. Use it creatively, and your healers will sure notice.

[Synestr]

On interrupts when casting stoneskin. I only notice interrupts when bosses hit me with a medium WS, and that's maybe 25% of the time. Auto attacks, for the most part don't interrupt my cast, big WS's though, well I cast as they charge that up or already have SS up to help with the mitigation of the hit. This is prolly placebo, but I will Flash before I cast SS, if the blind lands, then well, there is high potential for no interrupt.