Embolden: Phalanx Vs Stoneskin With One For All

Recently, I've been farming the last really niche pieces to continue min/maxing RUN. I've obtained all the +stoneskin pieces RUN can equip, putting it at a base of +460 dmg soaked, or +782 with Embolden. I've also put together a max HP set for OFA that gets close to 5k HP, for a 900+ magic phalanx (If there's better pieces out there, please LMK):

https://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/394672

For Sortie boss tanking and magic dmg received, and no concern for fight duration, how does One For All interact with Phalanx for damage reduction? I'm not sure what the order of operations is for the interplay between phalanx, stoneskin, and OFA. Does OFA up have an impact on which spell should receive Embolden? Is Phalanx always the right choice regardless?

My goal specifically is to find out what combination allows Stoneskin to be up the longest.

My understanding of it is it will be a 2nd layer of phalanx that's applied after the 1st since its taking a seperate buff slot

so phalanx + OFA = total flat magic damage reduction which iirc will be factored at the end after shell/mdb/resist states.

Overall id say phalanx is always better as the closer you are to 0, the longer SS lasts, and emboldened phalanx should be giving at least ~15 less dmg a hit more like 30~ with common phalanx set and jp, that doesnt degrade like your 1 emboldened SS will

This is a math problem plain and simple.

Embolden increases damage per hit by 24~25 on phalanx (not sure how it rounds, probably floored).

Embolden increases stoneskin potency by 322

So if you're taking 13 or fewer hits, Stoneskin will be better. If you're taking 14 or more hits, Phalanx will be better

This is, of course, assuming you aren't being hit for 24 or fewer damage per hit. If normal hits are hitting you for 0-24 damage, the math favors Stoneskin more.

I'm not a min-max spreadsheet guy, but I have been running on RUN for a while now. I go RUN/SAM and the only time people heal me is when I have a strong poison from E.

I start with embolden protect, as a pre-buff, so embolden won't be up until ~50mins.

I have either SCH or RDM give me phalanx, which means I ride emboldened phalanx the entire run.


I wouldn't know it. But my goal is to not take any damage from bosses. As such, I start with SS up and try to reapply it. I only pop one-for-all if a boss stuns me when I am trying to reapply SS. So I usually use one-for-all as an emergency ability.

Only on aminon I would embolden SS, since I get it back from COR and it just sits there.

Thanks for sharing your one-for-all set btw!

Carmine Cuisses Path A, Carmine Mask path A (if you're into that kinda thing). Happy egg for ammo

And this is exactly where I get stuck. I'm generally taking 0 damage when buffed, proper runes up, etc., so it's hard to distinguish where embolden fits in most efficiently, though what you say makes sense.

This mostly came about because I've recently swapped out all duration gear for potency on phalanx, and with Embolden, phalanx only lasts 2:04. Got me wondering if there was a better use for it.

Thanks for the replies all.

No SCH or RDM in your groups? If you Embolden then have them accession Phalanx, or cast Phalanx II on you, it's entirely possible to fulltime Embolden Phalanx.

I do actually, and that's probably the habit I need to get into, is just asking for RDM phalanx whenever Embolden is up.

For Sortie, as an example, I get a phalanx while we buff right after entry. Though be careful cause any enhancing buff that hits you with embolden up is gonna consume it. Coordination is important there. Weeee, accidental embolden Firestorm(would that even do anything?)

Then that's up for ~14 minutes or so, and I pretty much just check my duration before each boss, or before we split up for shard farm. It's fairly easy to maintain.

Naive question but, does it really make a difference for Sortie farming on RUN to embolden Phalanx?
And if so for what?
Because, granted I haven't been on RUN in a while, I barely even notice when normal Phalanx is up, I actually forget to keep it up often.

I mean for other content the difference is massive but for Sortie?
I'm talking about 8 boss mage setup farming.
The only spot where I think it would make a difference is during the ABCD KI farming, if you happen to pull a bit too many Fomors by accident maybe, or if you end up having to pull all Vamps for the BLM to Breakga to have a fast and safe exit on the Bitzer.
But on everything else, and we're talking about what, 98% of your time in sortie at RUN, I don't see Phalanx making a noticeable difference.

Big fomor pulls at D, initially (nice).

Later on, from tank perspective, I think G boss is the most dangerous/annoying. Sometimes you just get locked up with paralyze/bind/stun and paralyze is preventing item use. I'm also /whm so I tend to do more curing on that fight in particular since the COR is in range to close skillchains. Getting smacked in a midcast cure set is noticeable, so phalanx there is important.

And of course Aminon.

Thanks again for the replies/ideas all.

Just remember to let yourself load in long enough so that you can get your received set up and the mid cast for the caster.

No one wants short rolls or bad potency buffs