Blink/stoneskin usefulness

[Kopitiam]

All the while i've not been using these 2 spells at all in group, but recently, i found them to be quite useful to me.

Been lvling in Crawlers in west altep recently and sometimes mobs get aggro of me and come charging at me and i'll take 1-2 hits before provoker can pull it back. I'm a tarutaru, so every 100 plus damage hit will be quite dangerous especially if it's a critical.

However i've notice some weird things abotuthe spell and i was wondering if you guys know why.

Blink : 20mp absorb 2 hits.
Sometimes, the damage would just pass through blink and hit me instead and blink doesn't work....why?

Stoneskin: Lower magic/melee dam
Only 2 hits too? but it cost so much more mana than blink, what's the reason?

DO you guys cast these upon yourself too in group? I do sometimes when i found that i'm the only healer in group and tanker is not a pally and we're dealing with IT's usually and was wondering if i'm over protective of myself or it's common.

[Icemage]

Too many tactics to describe, I've posted about many of the uses of both of these spells elsewhere in this forum, but I'll answer your general questions here:

Blink stops *2* hits (not 1 like the description says). However, each shadow image only seems to have about a 75% chance to intercept an attack, so if you are unlucky a monster can still hit you. It will also not absorb area effect attacks, and any -ga spell cast specifically at you will negate it. Still, it is fantastic against any enemy that doesn't use area effect attacks (and even some that do, since it can stop area physical attacks like Whirl of Rage or Battle Dance).

Stoneskin seems to stop a bit more than 2xEnhancing skill worth of damage. It costs more MP than Blink, takes a bit longer to cast, but has some interesting properties. Stoneskin stops any damage that would hurt you. This includes area effect damage, spell damage, physical damage, and even damage-over-time effects such as Poison, Bio, Dia, Choke, etc.


Icemage

[Edarion]

As a Hume WHM I don't really find them too useful, can't speak for the Tarus out there. They're nice spells, just not worth the time/magic it takes to constantly refresh them throughout combat to me. If you use proper agro management and distance from the group, shouldn't need em very often ^^

[Feenicks]

If you can forsee the need for Benediction by about 20 seconds or so, casting Blink and Stoneskin before using it can save your life.

[snoop1050]

stone skin stops a certain amount of damge not number of hits.
stone skin and fight an easy prey mob on your own should last for quite awhile somtimes will last over half the fight. against IT mob's stone skin usually only absorbs 2-3 hits

[AlthornCS]

Blink certainly has its uses.

One interesting thing about Blink that you'll find out very quickly when fighting WHM type monsters is that it can stop ANY single target attack. Or in other words, if you cast Silence too early in a fight, Blink will block it. You can use this, as well. You may not worry too much about the damage you take in a fight, but the spells thrown at you might be another matter entirely. And since you often don't find out you have agro until the monster casts a spell on you, Blink is a good way to deal with this.

Its also very useful for dealing with giants and monsters with high damage single target specials. Many times while I was in Qufim with tanks that weren't quite up to speed, I completely stopped rock-to-the-head attacks from giants using Blink. That's upwards of 400 damage per Blink spell.

[Navia]

Blink and stoneskin is your friend when you fight things with nasty special moves.

If I didnt have blink on the other day in quicksand caves, I would have been 1 shotted by a spiders sickle slash when it turned on me because the tank got critical'd and I had to use CureIV

Last night I was helping people get exoray mold so i'd cast blink, stoneskin, sneak, summon carbuncle(yay SMN sub!) and go pull exorays myself with no links It would try to frogkick or dark spore me sometimes on the sometimes long pull but blink/stoneskin kept me out of harms way.

If you get a link, and even if the BRD or RDM locks it down by sleeping it, slapping regenII on the tank and casting blink/stoneskin on yourself just in case it wakes up and causes alittle havoc is worth it. You'll be all setup to use benediction and survive the pummeling until the hate shifts off you if things get messy.

I don't think blink/stoneskin is being over defensive if you are fighting a monster that is especially dangerous or your pt tanks ability to keep enough hate is questionable.

[Xenobyte]

Blink/SS are a great combo if you fear damage will be inflicted upon you. If you think the mp saved will make the difference between a chain 5 and a chain 6 though, and if your PLD is superb, you might want to forego them.

[Tirrock]

I personally go without casting those spells except in rare cases. I rarely get enough hate to pull the monster off a decent tank (I don't Cure IV unless multiple people are hurt badly [red HP] and I need to get their HP up quickly incase of area attacks). About the only time I cast either spell while leveling is when we're waiting for somebody to return to their computer or just after I propose fighting something that could probably kill us... (making sure I have reraise on first).

Thankfully for my EXP, my groups are less adventurous than me, not wanting to fight some NM lich in the necropolis.

For gil farming/item farming, stoneskin in great if your enhancing is decent. I'm usually able to last 5 minutes of orcs pounding on me (or trying to) with protect III and stoneskin on in Fort Ghelsba. 5 minutes being the duration of stoneskin.