Stoneskin

OK I was going to pot this in the elemental staves thread, but it got locked.

Stoneskin absorbs a certain amount of damage from physical and magical attacks.

The amount of damage absorbed depends on a forumla

The Formula on wiki

So the equation is based on MND and Enhancing skill ONLY and the amount absorbed has a hard cap of 350HP, which means there is a point where adding more will not make it stronger.

There are 2 items that can raise this hard cap, but we ignore them for now.

From the equation we can calculate the total MND needed to cap Stoneskin for each job with native enhancing skill

Job Amount of MND to reach the Cap
RDM 95
SCH 95
WHM 104
PLD 110
BLM 114

Now for RDM, SCH and WHM reaching their caps are pretty easy, depending on race and subjob the amount of MND needed from gear is likely to be 25-40.

PLD can reach 110 MND, but this thread isn't really to do with PLD so I will skip this.

BLM has a harder time of it, they need a lot of MND to reach the cap and suffer from low base MND so they are likely to need 50-70 MND. This is likely need a lot (if not all) of your gear slots to acheive.

The other thing we can deduce from the equation is:
3 Enhancing skill = 1 MND when trying to reach the 350HP cap.

So something like Warlock's Tights are effectively 8MND (15/3 = 5)

So if you are job that has acces to AF or relic that improves Enhancing skill, it maybe prudent to use these items if their skill is more than 3 times that of the equivalant MND peice.

Once you reach the cap of 350 adding more MND or skill is pointless, maybe a few extra mind incase you get hit by Shock (or other MND down effects).

So you could declare you stoneskin set complete once you reach a level of MND/skill that you are happy will cap you in nearly all situtations.

But there is more you can do. Stoneskin has a long cast time (10 sec) and a long recast (30 sec), so one thing you could do is use some fastcast and haste items to get the cast/recast timers down.

Obviously if you start using slots for fastcast or haste you will lose some MND, so you need to check your calculations each time you remove a MND item.

Another thing you need to consider is, you cast stoneskin becasue you are getting hit (or think you are going to soon), so you need to make sure the spell isn't interupted. Stacking 'Spell interuption rate down' isn't overly effective (from my experience) I find equiping 'Physical damage taken -x%' is the best way to ensure you cast without being intereupted. So I cast in a Terra's Staff, not because it makes stoneskin stronger, but because it keeps me alive long enough to finish cast the spell.

With all that said here is my stoneskin set, it is by no means perfect. It needs a loq earring (in the empty ear slot) and if I can get a bit more MND a few more slots I could use my Dusk feet +1.

Currently I can cast in 6 seconds (40% off the 10 second casting time, 20% from traits, 20% from gear)
Currently I can recast in 23 second (23% off the 30 second recast time, 10% from traits, 13% from gear) (19 seconds if have haste up)

Hopefully that hasn't patronized too many people and maybe has give some an insight into stoneskin

Get a Stone Gorget and Stone Mufflers.

Actually, SCH needs more MND than that. It looks like you've calculated Stoneskin with the assumption that they will be under Light Arts every time they cast it. A soloing SCH will be under Addendum: Black 99% of the time, leaving them at the base 210 Enhancing Magic, rather than the Light Arts Enhancing of 256.

In other words, same as PLD: +110 MND.

Agreed, I would love both of them, but don't have either yet.

So addition 1: if any of you are lucky enough have either use them.



Fair point I didn't consider SCH not wanting to change arts

So addition 2: if you are SCH consider have 2 sets, 1 for each arts.

The Gorget really isn't that hard to get. Get you a couple blm friends who want it also and make a little gorget static to get one.

Um.. Sch doesn't really need two sets. Just use the set you would use on Dark Arts for both. It's not like extra mind is going to hurt your SS when on Light Arts, it just won't help.

On BLM, this is what my normal stoneskin casting gear looks like (Idle set -> MND)
BLM Stoneskin

I said consider, meaning to weigh up the options.

You set while casting with Light Arts wont need as much MND, and if you have something useful you can replace that MND with (maybe Goliard Saio for extra haste) then I would say its worth having 2 sets.

If you can cast in full Fastcast/haste with 110MND then obviously you don't need two sets.

I have never looked at SCH gear options in detail, that's why I said "consider".

This 'guide' was aimed at the players that didn't understand the cap of 350HP or that Earth Staff has no affect on the damage absorbtion.

No doubt, and the guide is fine, which is why we are nit picking little things and not crushing your whole post.

http://www.ffxiah.com/members/?q=item_sets&set_id=46079

Heres a slightly more fine tuned blm build, needs warlock mantle and morrigan feet to reach cap and maintain r pump 2% fast cast. The royal redcoat has fastcast and Macc augs. I fall very slightly below cap atm but i perfer to have terra staff macroed into stoneskin personally.

To be honest, /rdm gives me enough fast cast. I'm not going to try to get stoneskin up with a chance of a mob hitting me during the casting. I'll either be far enough away to cast safely (gravity), have the mob slept or be kiting. Not saying that fast cast and damage -% is bad, but for me I haven't been in a situation where I thought damn, if only I had got stoneskin up 0.5sec faster!

It's also possible for BRD to cap Stoneskin, but because BRD's Enhancing Skill comes from a subjob, it takes something ridiculous like 145ish MND to cap it. If I didn't have to get back to work soon, I'd pull up an exact number.

Considering how much time BRDs spend in range of nasty AoEs in event settings, it's worthwhile to look into building at least a halfass Stoneskin build.

/whm

/equip Main "Mythic Wand +1";
/equip Sub "Muse Tariqah";
/equip Feet "Mahatma Pigaches";

/nin

/equip Main "Mythic Wand +1";
/equip Sub "Muse Tariqah";
/equip Head "Warlock's Chapeau";
/equip Body "Duelist's Tabard";
/equip Hands "Dusk Gloves";
/equip Feet "Dusk Ledelsens";
/equip Waist "Swift Belt";
/equip Back "Prism Cape";
/equip Neck "Morgana's Choker";
/equip R.Ear "Loquac. Earring";

For me~

I am confused by the Omega ring and the Balrahn's ring.

Omega ring is 3 mnd and balrahns is 4 inside salvage/assault, its nothing major i just dont wanna kill inv space for 4/5 mnd rings. Ultimately my build should have morrigan feet, pants and warlock mantle then it would reach cap and wont need extra rings.

What about food?
I know that it usually you will use other kinds of foods, but if Stoneskin is really important for survival (some ENM and mission battles come to mind), take a look at Goblin Mushpot.

It's a 3hour food, which does:
MND+10
CHA-5
Resist Poison
Resist Blind

You can buy it in Lower Jeuno in the Gobbie Shop for a little over 1k.

Very nice for RDMs and for those hard to reach Stoneskin MND caps.

I'm pretty sure you'd be better off with +INT food and swapping out temporary +MND gear for stoneskin=/ Unless of course you are main heal and in a group doing things...

If anyone's curious to know their current Stoneskin cap, I made an app a long time ago that tells you a few little pieces of Info that you could work out yourself if you really wanted. (It's listed under "Calc", I can't remember what I bundled in there.. If it has a "WS Calc" in there, I don't think I finished it >_>) Included in there are all the source files, ignore my sloppy coding >_> I don't do my best work when I'm only working for myself.

http://turtleownage.com/Media/Misc__FFXIAppsByHit__apps.zip

That being said, my WHM only has 86MND total (Base+Gear) when I hit stoneskin, and without capped Enhancing Magic, I hit the Stoneskin cap.

My BLM has 90 MND and capped Enhancing Magic, and manages to hit cap also without any special gear, over some "standard" cure gear (Light Staff, AF Hat, Errant Body) and easily hit Stoneskin cap too.

I'm with that guy that said he isn't too concerned about interruptions.
BLM Stoneskin Set.
This is my blm setup. I think rdm is pretty much the same except I use a different staff. I know it's pretty overkill but the only time I get interrupted on stoneskin is when I hit my macro and the game thinks that I am still moving.

Nice thing is that it was cheap. Unless you are counting the time spent to get the salvage drops.