The cast time on Stoneskin II

[Destous]

It can't be used in combat.
It's used pre-pull, so the mana cost is irrelevant.
For the life of me, I can't figure out the purpose of the 5sec cast time other than to make the application annoying for 8 people at a time.

Consider this, the cast time on Stoneskin II is so annoying that WHMs will blow Swiftcast for an instant application just to avoid it, despite that there's really nothing lost other than 5 seconds of time.

Casting Stoneskin II is demonstrably less valuable than 5 seconds of time.

This is right up on my list of top QoL changes, right under resetting CDs for a raid wipe. Please stop wasting player time, we just want to play the game.

[Sedali]

It is a test to the patience of your group :P

And yes I have to Swiftcast it otherwise people just don't wait.

[Lastelli]

Casting Stoneskin II is demonstrably less valuable than 5 seconds of time.

You know, when you have to wait an avg of 60 seconds after every wipe for CDs to be ready, 5 seconds is not such a big deal.
In dungeons it's useless anyway, you'll only need it when raiding and WHM will hardly be the reason why the party has to wait before pulling the boss.

[Destous]

You know, when you have to wait an avg of 60 seconds after every wipe for CDs to be ready, 5 seconds is not such a big deal.
In dungeons it's useless anyway, you'll only need it when raiding and WHM will hardly be the reason why the party has to wait before pulling the boss.

A worse problem doesn't make a bad problem better. Long CDs should reset on a wipe. Stoneskin II shouldn't have a cast time. My point was that WHMs would rather blow swiftcast on stoneskin II than save it and wait 5 seconds; they'd rather blow a 1 min CD to save 5 seconds. This seems completely illogical, yet it's normal. It's normal because the cast time on stoneskin II doesn't serve a purpose, which makes it unbearable.

[Ghishlain]

Here's something I posted over a year ago on this forum regarding Stoneskin II and why it has a cast time:

Given how anti-Speed Run the Dev team has been in their dungeon design, the only legitimate reason I can think of that they didn't make SS2 instant cast was to give WHMs a choice in their resource management in a speedrun environment.

"Do I burn my swiftcast on that Stoneskin II? Or perhaps I'll burn it with a Holy I'll use later down the line? Oh, and the MP cost on Stoneskin II is pretty high for four people, maybe I should save the MP for another Holy or Cure on the next pack" etc etc.

I guess you could say it was an attempt to give WHM a bit more depth in their toolkit.

Personally, I believe SS2 as a QoL tool for Raid groups, allowing groups to only wait 8 seconds (or less if the WHM burns Swiftcast) instead of 24 seconds between wipes. Kinda funny, if they allowed SS2 to only be cast in only a Full Party composition, they might've avoided some of these threads popping up. But hey, hindsight is 20/20.

Probably still quite legitimate. Annoying as heck, but I'm not holding my breath for any change to how SSII operates in the near future.

[JackFross]

If your group doesn't have a shit second healer, you're waiting literally 2 additional seconds on top off the non-whm healer casting Protect if both casts start at the same time. Nobody swiftcasts Protect. Maybe WHMs should stop burning Swift and SCHs and ASTs should start casting Protect.

When I play SCH in Midas normal, I cast Protect, only to have it be overwritten by the WHM before they then cast SS2. :0

[Destous]

Here's something I posted over a year ago on this forum regarding Stoneskin II and why it has a cast time:



Probably still quite legitimate. Annoying as heck, but I'm not holding my breath for any change to how SSII operates in the near future.

That reason sounds as ridiculous as Yoshi's reason for not setting skill CDs on wipes. His reason for that is he doesn't want groups purposely wiping if their opening bursts don't go perfectly; his fear is that it will encourage people to reset multiple times for a perfect opening. It's a whole other level of ridiculous.

[Alistaire]

It can't be used in combat.
It's used pre-pull, so the mana cost is irrelevant.
For the life of me, I can't figure out the purpose of the 5sec cast time other than to make the application annoying for 8 people at a time.

Consider this, the cast time on Stoneskin II is so annoying that WHMs will blow Swiftcast for an instant application just to avoid it, despite that there's really nothing lost other than 5 seconds of time.

Casting Stoneskin II is demonstrably less valuable than 5 seconds of time.

This is right up on my list of top QoL changes, right under resetting CDs for a raid wipe. Please stop wasting player time, we just want to play the game.

[Ghishlain]

That reason sounds as ridiculous as Yoshi's reason for not setting skill CDs on wipes. His reason for that is he doesn't want groups purposely wiping if their opening bursts don't go perfectly; his fear is that it will encourage people to reset multiple times for a perfect opening. It's a whole other level of ridiculous.

At the risk of going off topic and onto a completely different tangent - do you have a source where he quoted exactly that he'll encourage people to reset for a perfect opening? I was under the impression there was potential of "abuse" without going into details about it. To me it seems partially because there was potential for player abuse and another part is that it's difficult to enable with the way the current raid structures are designed.

With that being said, I'm actually expecting the third tier of Alexander (Savage) to always be a trial-style fight that will fade to black upon reset so they can enact the skill reset. Time will tell though.

Back to Stoneskin II topic - It might be a ridiculous reason but it's at most an annoying inconvenience.

[zuzu-bq]

The cast time was made to mirror the Summon action cast times, since you all have to prepare for a pull in Trials or Raids, I don't think they had tought on dungeon runs when planning Stoneskin II. And or most dungeons, just a simple Tank Stoneskin is enough. It can be a pain? Yes. Is it a problem? Not quite.