I'm Gonna Miss Stoneskin

[Jpec07]

I'm not gonna lie. As a Paladin, it's one of the most distinctive parts of my tanking kit and with the cross-class system going away in 4.0, I'm really gonna miss it.

Yes, I know it's suboptimal for tanking purposes, but the extra mitigation it provides can really be handy in a pinch (especially in advance of a tankbuster). I know a lot of people don't use it or take it, but I do from time to time and I love it.

[Ultimatecalibur]

Don't give up hope. With Provoke, Rampart, Convalescence(possible), and Awareness(possible) moving to the Cross Role Skill list there is a good possibility that the Paladin might get an HP Shield spell as part of the new kit that replaces them.

[ShinMoon]

Shell for magic defense

[Rongway]

As holy knights, I wouldn't be surprised if they got role abilities for both healers and tanks, in the same way that BLM could be given role abilities for magic users and ranged damage dealers.

[Jonnycbad]

As holy knights, I wouldn't be surprised if they got role abilities for both healers and tanks, in the same way that BLM could be given role abilities for magic users and ranged damage dealers.

Paladins are not holy knights in FFXIV, there simply "Knights". Unlike FF4, FFXIV "Paladins" are simply called "Naito" in Japanese, or "Knight". They are simply expert swordsmen that are handpicked from career gladiators, meant to be an elite unit to protect the Royal Family of Uldah. That said, nothing in their lore makes any mention of any holy power. In fact, Holy/Light isn't even an element in XIV.

[cheolsu]

Paladins are not holy knights in FFXIV, there simply "Knights". Unlike FF4, FFXIV "Paladins" are simply called "Naito" in Japanese, or "Knight". They are simply expert swordsmen that are handpicked from career gladiators, meant to be an elite unit to protect the Royal Family of Uldah. That said, nothing in their lore makes any mention of any holy power. In fact, Holy/Light isn't even an element in XIV.

umm Clemency. Divine Veil. they sure are holy. and the npc paladins cast Holy and Holy Blade Dance

[Llus]

I'm not gonna lie. As a Paladin, it's one of the most distinctive parts of my tanking kit and with the cross-class system going away in 4.0, I'm really gonna miss it.

Yes, I know it's suboptimal for tanking purposes, but the extra mitigation it provides can really be handy in a pinch (especially in advance of a tankbuster). I know a lot of people don't use it or take it, but I do from time to time and I love it.

In ARR I loved stoneskin with my PLD, it made mitigating tankbusters and mini-tankbusters simple while letting healers spend that cast time doing more damage. For incoming raid-wide damage, helping out getting SS up on everyone was great - not that it was needed but it did make prep faster. With HW, there's not much opportunity for SS on PLD tho. Especially with the meta pushing for moar deeps, any downtime for casting (SS or clemency) hurts PLD's DPS even more. Still, it is pretty much the go-to utility since literally NOTHING else is available (no no no, fracture is not an option - DPS LOSS with pld). Foresight, bloodbath, mercy stroke - Protect .... kinda pointless unless you're trying to help protect someone that died. Cure? Worthless, no potency and no MND. Raise? Worthless, can't cast during battle. Stoneskin - AHA! 10% mitigation as long as you have MP! (This was so much better in ARR - Stoneskin PLDs could out-mitigate IB Wars all day)

[Cabalabob]

I'm kind of hoping that since basically half the role skills are likely coming from gladiator with things like flash, provoke, convalescence and awareness being pretty big parts of the other tanks kits, as well as them confirming that they're taking rampart for role skills, that GLA/PLD will get them replaced with some native spells like a decent low level cure similar to the current cure but using the same healing formula as clemency and a stoneskin and protect equivalent and maybe even our own raise and esuna.

[Greven]

As someone else already pointed out some of GLAD/PLD skills will be thrown in the cross skill group so seeing how they pushed the PLD design in HW I can easily see they adding a protective buff to cast on party or self. Actually I would give PLD one AoE DPS skill as well.

[Kerwin]

What proof do we have that Stoneskin is going away? I use that spell very often to mitigate hard tank busters like Sephirot's charging fist. Do we have some hard evidence it's going away?