Quote Originally Posted by GreyJorildyn View Post
I believe so, since it is Enhancing Magic. But WHM have enhanced Protect trait so you don't want to cast it, ever. Why take a spell that reduces damage by maybe 10% over 5mins, which three of your other party members can cast, when you could instead equip a spell that will reduce 800 damage on you that you can cast every 30s? Doesn't make a lot of sense.

Putting yourself in the Stoneskin rotation is very important to party structure. If you're always running with 2 WHM and a BRD, then I think you're probably running with too much support. I can't think of a single ideal battle setup where you would need a PLD WHMx2 and BRD. Drop a WHM or drop the BRD and use Cover on a WHM for MP regen. That frees up a spot for another DPS. This thread isn't really about that, but it deserved to be highlighted at this point..
I don't use the AF chest piece, therefore no MP regen on cover. To be honest the more I think about it, I'm not sure why I chose protect over stoneskin, but like i said, I haven't really missed it.

The BRD is more to support the BLMs. With no BRD, BLMs can run out of mp with a quickness. The party setup we usually use works for most content, there's no reason to change what works. We could argue the pros and cons of our preferred party setups all day and not get anywhere. But as you say, this isn't the thread for that.