PLD Tanking - Keeping The Hate?

For any PLD out there who is able to consistently tank a mob, what kind of gear do you use and what kind of support do you get?

Support-wise, there's typically a THF TA Mandalic Stab or Rudra's Storm on me or a pack of RNGs Decoy-Shotting me. I get haste, though I'm medium priority in the party.

Gear-wise, I'm typically meleeing in this set (will sometimes toss in a Creed Baudrier):
ItemSet 330582

And switch to this whenever I use Provoke or Flash.
ItemSet 330583

I keep Crusade on myself and I try not to let my PLD JA overlap too much to keep some PLD buff consistently on. I use Sole Sushi. Oh, and I'm Tarutaru.

I ask because I'm losing hate on stuff like Divine Might v2 (consistently, though against some strong MNKs, WAR, and a whirlwind NIN, I'm no longer surprised) or even the KI battles (I gradually lose it to said NIN or mages, depending on the battle). Is it even possible to keep the hate, or do I need to resign myself to the role of "***hits the fan, Aerro tanks while people recover" position? Any pointers are appreciated, even pointing me in other directions to make me better at this job.

You'll never hold hate indefinitely without one or more people having Decoy Shot up at all times

Moreover, if your strategy allows for MNK, WAR, and NIN to even be there, you should hop on a different job or go all-out offensive on PLD(the former obviously being preferable)

DPS will keep the hate, know when to DPS (and be able to) and when to take a hit. enmity is pointless to stack (maybe for initial actions, but meh) always ask for accuracy buffs when possible and remember atonement is OP for VD fights, most the time..

First off, /war not very good for holding hate unless it does hate rest and you need voke to pull it back, /blu is a great way to hold hate since you can cap enmity and use blank gaze often to stay up on it( recast with haste and march is around 3 seconds). I almost never use /war for anything it's either /blu for keeping hate in most single mob situations or /run when nessacary. If you haven't read the enmity testing page on BGwiki I suggest you do so it helped a lot for me.

First off, and this is a message to ALL PLDs: cap yo DT.
Just cause you're full 119 doesn't mean you're not eating stupid damage.
You're a PLD. A "meat tank". Classic tank. Turtle up.

Since you're having issue with holding hate, perhaps try the empy necklace.
Or even the empy legs.
Both of which mimmick Sentinel's enmity holding effect... But using both is not only overkill (cause you're benefiting from it with Sentinel down time), it is taking a slot you should be devoting to PDT/MDT/DT.

In this day and age, not having capped or near capped PDT (and MDT with Aegis) is unacceptable for PLD.
And having that -50%PDT really helps with the hate control.

Once you're capped with PDT (and MDT with Aegis), that should severely help with your hate issues.

yes i have to agree, doing Diff AAs and taking 10 dmg per hit with Ochain and phalanx up severely reduces your enmity loss, also should be said that the more HP u have reduces the enmity lost per dmg taken.

should also note tho that using non Ilvl main armor will lower your def and HP by a lot and may outweigh the gains from an older pieces bonus.

another really good thing from /blu is Cocoon, i have had like 2kish or more def on pld using that.

Not a game changer for PLD but I think it gets overlooked...

When you're initially building hate, remember to use Divine Emblem and Flash together, preferably with Sentinel up. Aside from boosting damage, it adds roughly ~25% Enmity on Divine Magic spells.

It's not hard to survive riding a pure DT set. You still need to be able to DD at the same time.

Here's a hybrid set I use for Acc/DT.

ammo="Ginsen",
head="Ighwa Cap",
neck="Agitator's Collar",
ear1="Bladeborn Earring",
ear2="Steelflash Earring",
body="Caballarius Surcoat +1",
hands="Umuthi Gloves",
ring1="Defending Ring",
ring2="Patricius Ring",
back="Weard Mantle",
waist="Olseni Belt",
legs="Xaddi Cuisses",
feet="Ejekamal Boots"

Xaddi Path A, FC+3 PDT/MDT-2% on Ej Boots


Another set, purely DD.

ammo="Ginsen",
head="Yaoyotl Helm",
neck="Asperity Necklace",
ear1="Brutal Earring",
ear2="Trux Earring",
body="Xaddi Mail",
hands="Cizin Mufflers +1",
ring1="Rajas Ring",
ring2="Patricius Ring",
back="Atheling Mantle",
waist="Windbuffet Belt +1",
legs="Cizin Breeches +1",
feet="Cizin Greaves +1"

I have another set with a ton of accuracy but I find it's rarely used, not very applicable. For high level fights where I need accuracy, I need DT as well. I use my hybrid set when I'm not turtling in full DT.

First I would recommend upgrading your flash/provoke/Reprisal set.
Not saying you should go out and finish Burtgang. That's a final goal. But you can do some major changes to your sets.

Next look at your melee/tp set. Most of Xaddi set does well in place of relic/af 119. Now on AAEV I have a certain set just for him that I can switch into. Full DT/BREATH damage reduction. If you are whiffing your attack rounds that is enimity going to another location.

Take control of your fights. If you got a rng that opens up first action Sharpshot/Berserk/Warcry/Barrage then follow with Jinshu Radiance yell at them or just let them die.

A common free tool that I personaly see several PLD not do anymore is cure. even on things like AATT your not an all out dd there your basicly trying to keep the rngs alive. utilize your cure cheats. Plds have mp use it.

As for your whm and support helping you there really is no excuse not to have haste or haste 2 full time. Phalanx is your friend use cures keep reprisal/palislide up full time. the less aactions there doing the easier it is to maintain control.

Supertanking you should still have your sets geared to have reprisal/palislide up full time.

On things like delve 2 Kamir and Maj zones don't lose hate it only takes loseing hate a sec to cause a wipe. you need fast action whm here utilize cure cheats. and keep shell on you asap at all times your whm gonna be busy with erase and para.

AATT = PLD major role is cure support
AAMR = 40% FEALITY have rngs push damage to force charm resist it then switch to mdt
AAGK straight tank can do it in High acc set and be fine
AAHM hybrid set and at 5% have barfira and pop rampart whm sacro and mdt set eat minji
AAEV full DT/Breath set
celestrial nexus. MDT tank and make sure no ws first 25% of last phase.
return to defaulks tower. melee at max ws distance to make its move less powerfull. constant ahte reset is annoying. 2 pld tank strat. or use the other strat of outside cor brd super buff smn zerg strat with geo inside.
tenzen- not much action on pld mostly zerged.
xyz fight= supertank make sure you also get perfect defence after pull. nasty bcnm
shadowloard. Pld not used mnks primary tanks here
Gessho. utilize your grounds rigt as you enter wall pin it to the gap place your rngs on other side of water with whm and smn. spam diaga on single form to get rid of shadows mdt tank. on splits kill the one with a visible hp bar. smn shocksquals /thunderstorm also.
savage2= pld not used dd zerg on hindlegs and eat the spikeflail but no dispel.
puppets in peril= hate reset tank on side not frontal.
Avatar Prime fights I do not have a lot of experience inside on cause most drops blow. But will get around to them eventualy.
Incursion= DDS mainly zerg here have not seen pld used here.
Odin2. know your phases when it can do 1 shot move.

If you want any full strat as a pld role I will be happy to give you what has worked for us in the past.

Christ there's a lot of bad information in here now

Hitting the primary offenses,

- Curing for enmity is awful. We can demonstrate this mathematically. Never do it.

- Idle enmity is not pointless. It directly influences your CE loss while taking damage. Should it be prioritized over capped DT? Of course not, but as it's been noted, neither magic nor physical damage taken are difficult to cap.


And to reiterate the single most important take-away that everyone seems to be casually ignoring, alliance-wide enmity capping is an inevitability, at which point holding the attention of your target is a matter of having performed the last action. You're not doing something wrong, you're just a victim of an archaic battle system. Rotate more Decoy Shots to insure someone is generating enmity for you by proxy at all times and you should be fine, and if you're in a melee-friendly situation, make the best of your lack of purpose or change jobs

yea what kaparu said about curing is correct, curing is only to alleviate your healers. cure now generates 30% of the enmity it used to before (that was just the lat thing i seen on it so could be lower now) capping enmity and staying capped is the way to keep hate and if you need to be the 1 taking hits your DD need to be better about their hate control.

just wanted to add about Fealty because a lot of plds i talk to don't know this, Fealty lowers Mijin gakure(sp lol) dmg by A LOT.

I stumbled on this post while looking to see about + Emnity Food for PLD, I noticed no one listed any, which food do you use for +Emnity, and also when /BLU what spell set do you recommend?

I only ever use acc or att food on PLD, either you're fighting when you're tanking therefore you either need acc which will in turn do more for enmity than any enmity+ food, in cases where your accuracy is capped without food, that's probably not post-adoulin content and you're probably not using a PLD.

Fact is, the only situation a PLD is holding hate nowadays is in a controlled RNG method, enmity+ food is pointless to the point I don't know if any exists because I've never looked, so basically stick to accuracy or attack food. If you're supertanking with just sight aggro, such as holding AAs in DM2, use a tav taco.

Dorado sushi would be the only worthwhile enmity food at this point.

PLD + ATK/ACC food = kick from me, not going to bother.

- Cocoon (+phalanx obviously)
- Jettatura, and Blank Gaze (keeping hate)
- Healing Breeze and Sheep Song (if you want auto-regen)

Recast on blank gaze should suffice if you're hasted, marched, etc.

has anyone tried a smn thf brd whm pld dd type setup? was wondering if collaborator + new smn hate BP would work to keep the hate on the pld from the dd when combined

Must know some pretty awful paladins for that to be your go to lol pld should be using the same dd food as most dd in most cases

Burtgang gives me a clear advantage, but with inconsistent haste and accuracy buffs I have no trouble keeping up with/surpassing so-so rangers in Divine Might. If support payed closer attention to me, I'd have no problem being in the upper end of the parse at all times

If you're not contributing all that you can, have someone else play the job

Theoretically, yes, but while it may help to delay the inevitable, I have a feeling it's not significant or rapidly available enough to suppress others' enmity to the point where you're not just better off being prepared to deal with it in more reactive ways

Always bringing quality to those VE 6/6 fights arentcha

Post your gearsets, Kap.

It's been a while, but I think this is what I used

ItemSet 325460

All Acc/PDT path, obviously

Also, /RUN is your friend. It has a defensive benefit or two, but /BLU enmity tools and cocoon are entirely unnecessary, while Swordplay and the ability to prevent Enlight's accuracy bonus from decaying(via rune enchantment) are incredibly useful

Can't help it when the useless pld bring DD set and eat atk/acc food. Not everyone rocking a mythic, hell I have saw a mythic pld tanked like ***.

Oh, well in that case

No but really can you leave

In cases where you are not gonna hit the mob anyways I usualy use carbonara for more hp, more hp = better survivability and less hate lost per dmg taken.

Kap, what are the augments on your Xaddi gear? Do you prefer acc over pdt?

I'm asking so many questions because I just got a 119 Burtgang but enmity control seems problematic because I can barely hit the damned things to maintain hate. I also go /blu and spam cocoon, blank gaze, and jettatura, but the recasts/cast times seems so high that the mob turns from me more times than it faces me.

For high tier mobs, how much acc do you recommend for a PLD?

the Xaddi gear is augmented with both acc and pdt

Id get and use the new club from titan first of all, has PDT- and Enmity+6, merit realmrazer which is in my opinion the best PLD WS. Just no one uses because there was no good PLD clubs ever, when sharur first came out it was doing 4~5k on average and this was before ilvl gear. my item sets if you look em up are pretty up to date - new stuff from dec 9th update (i'll go look at em and update now if they arent updated) any specific questions ask away. Also you should put Fast cast gear in for any spells you cast bar enhancing spells like phalanx etc, then haste/enmity. For cures get that cure pot gear and self cure gear, dont need to be perfect but make it so u put HP+ gear on and enmity+ when you cure yourself.