When should WHM use Stoneskin I?

[Ghishlain]

Just figured I'd throw out some food for thought for some advanced techniques when you hit 50. There are some attacks in the game that reduce the healing efficiency a target may receive. This debuff is generally known as Infirmity and most notable users of this are Twintania's Death Sentance in Turn 5 and the final boss of Stone Vigil HM (I'm sure you've had experience with both of them). Single tank Ramuh EX comes to mind too.

Note that since Stoneskin shielding is based on the targets maximum HP, it actually bypasses the healing debuff and thus may prove to be a better "heal" than your normal spells. In the same vein, HoTs like Regen and Medica II take a snapshot of your stats and the targets stats, so if you apply these on the target pre-Infirmity, they will continue to tick for maximum level. Likewise, if you reapply Regen near the end of a Divinel Seal CD, Regen will have the increased power until it expires/replaced.

[technole]

Just figured I'd throw out some food for thought for some advanced techniques when you hit 50. There are some attacks in the game that reduce the healing efficiency a target may receive. This debuff is generally known as Infirmity and most notable users of this are Twintania's Death Sentance in Turn 5 and the final boss of Stone Vigil HM (I'm sure you've had experience with both of them). Single tank Ramuh EX comes to mind too.

Also Levithan EX and Briny Mirror is another example where regen and stoneskin can help mitigate without adding stacks.

[Viviza]

I just unlocked it at 34

Right now you should use it sparingly. Stoneskin is a specialized tool, not a bread and butter heal. Before bosses and on tanks, mostly.

Much later on, you'll find yourself casting it more often as a way to deal with various boss mechanics, or to help people with weakness deal with big unavoidable hits.

[416to305]

Thanks everyone! I actually haven't done those dungeons as Bard yet. I've just unlocked the extreme mode primals and am on syrcus tower and have to do a few more hard mode dungeons, last one I did was Haukke Manor I think. Just been addicted to WHM and have totally put my Bard on hold lol. So far so good, keep getting 2-3 commendations on these 4 person dungeons so that's encouraging!

[Yumi_umi]

How to stoneskin pre post 50 dungeons:
- apply it on ur dps every now and then cuz always assume ur dps r stupid. Like no joke, in df you will always have ur dps eat attacks that were "avoidable"
While stoneskin is still on them, ur mp will fill up again so no worries.

Imo i actually stoneskin the dps more than the tank so i can see who can dodge or if the tank is not doing their job right and losing emnity to a dps.
If that stoneskin icon is not beside ur name and was not lost to something unavoidable then ofc there's gonna be some wtf mannnnn lol

[KisaiTenshi]

Q: Should I ever use Stoneskin I?

A: Whenever you feel like it.

It's not a healing buff, it's a shield. They have a fixed amount of points they will absorb before they expire, and in most dungeons it only buys you one hit for the Tank and maybe saves having to heal a good DPS at all. Depending on your play style, I cast SSII when the duty starts, before each boss, and if given the chance before each new pull.

During combat, it's not terribly useful except on yourself to cast before party-wide/raid-wide damage. Mainly you're expending the same amount of MP that Cure III uses to get 10-18% of the total HP as a shield versus 550 potency of Cure III. If you keep casting it on a tank you will rapidly deplete your MP and you may as well just cast cure II repeatedly.

If you constantly see DPS losing SS, then they're not really making much of an effort to avoid taking damage, particularly BRD, SMN/ACN and BLM/THM, who should not be losing SS except to raid-wide damage.

[Ghishlain]

Just a small correction here because of the fact MP effeciency is important to a WHM therefore it's important to use correct values.

During combat, it's not terribly useful except on yourself to cast before party-wide/raid-wide damage. Mainly you're expending the same amount of MP that Cure III II uses to get 10-18% of the total HP as a shield versus 550 650 potency of Cure III II. If you keep casting it on a tank you will rapidly deplete your MP and you may as well just cast cure II repeatedly.

Kisai probably just accidentally compared the MP values of Stoneskin II versus Cure III instead of Stoneskin to Cure II.

[KisaiTenshi]

Just a small correction here because of the fact MP effeciency is important to a WHM therefore it's important to use correct values.



Kisai probably just accidentally compared the MP values of Stoneskin II versus Cure III instead of Stoneskin to Cure II.

I actually got it from here http://www.ffxivinfo.com/class/conjurer.php which Cure III and Stoneskin say 399MP at level 50.
Stoneskin II is 532MP and applied to X many players in the party, so if you have 4 players it's as efficient as one proactive Cure I (4 x 133MP) on each of them, and if you have 8 players it's twice as efficient. But you can't cast it during battle so it's moot.

[Spoekes]

I actually got it from here http://www.ffxivinfo.com/class/conjurer.php which Cure III and Stoneskin say 399MP at level 50.
Stoneskin II is 532MP and applied to X many players in the party, so if you have 4 players it's as efficient as one proactive Cure I (4 x 133MP) on each of them, and if you have 8 players it's twice as efficient. But you can't cast it during battle so it's moot.

Comparing Stoneskin II (multi target) with cure I (single target) is a bad idea to begin with.
It looks much different if you compare it to a group heal like medica.

Imo, you should only use Stoneskin:
a) pre pull buff
b) full party content with mechanics/big hits that might kill someone.

Situation b) is not only for tanks. I.e it may also safe the life of a low max-HP (maybe ressed) partymember on primals signature moves.
In almost every other situation a heal is more efficient than Stoneskin.

[KisaiTenshi]

Just a small correction here because of the fact MP effeciency is important to a WHM therefore it's important to use correct values.



Kisai probably just accidentally compared the MP values of Stoneskin II versus Cure III instead of Stoneskin to Cure II.

Just to jump back to this for a moment. StoneSkin I is 266MP in the game, why the Wiki's say 399, I have no idea. That makes it use the same MP as Cure II. As Cure II can cure well over 25% of some tanks HP without a crit, it will likely not very MP efficient to use on the tank in lieu of a Cure. More to the point Cure III is 505MP.

Comparing Stoneskin II (multi target) with cure I (single target) is a bad idea to begin with.
It looks much different if you compare it to a group heal like medica.

Imo, you should only use Stoneskin:
a) pre pull buff
b) full party content with mechanics/big hits that might kill someone.

Situation b) is not only for tanks. I.e it may also safe the life of a low max-HP (maybe ressed) partymember on primals signature moves.
In almost every other situation a heal is more efficient than Stoneskin.

Indeed. Medica is closer to 3 Cure I's in MP usage but isn't as potent as such, which means you need to hit 4 or more party members who have damage for it to be worth it. Hence why the most MP efficient way to heal is to always use Cure I unless the time requirements don't let you. (Party sustaining repeat bossroom-wide AOE damage.)