~First And Final Line Of Defense V2.0~

I went /DRK the other day on accident and barely noticed a difference. I only pull 4 packs at most to angons for cruel joke.

I really thought I would miss cocoon more

If you're at 21% DW and capped magic haste (VMarch+Haste2 from trusts) then Haste Samba is doing nothing

Warder's charm could be more damage for the closing WS, though you have to consider that it will be less damage for the opening WS so overall it might be less damage, especially considering that SC damage is based on WS damage. That said, JSE neck isn't all that amazing of a boost to WSD anyway so it might work, hard to say 100%

Box step is probably worth it if you use it right before each WS, up to 5 stacks, then every minute or so afterward. I use a box step before my WS on those bosses and don't notice any delay in my WS going off, I'm sure it's minimal if anything and the 13% def down is quite nice considering your lack of buffs/debuffs. I'd wait for the third finishing move to use Building.

Fighter's roll will be very bad for your KClub. IDK what, if any, bonus to phantom roll Qultada has, but even with base Fighter's roll depending on the # he could give you upwards of 10-15% chance to not have a kraken club, essentially.

Pretty new to Paladin
In the process of gearing it up etc

Sets I have been developing
-Tanking engaged
-Enmity
-Magic Enmity
-Phalanx
-Phalanx/SIRD
-Fast Cast
-SIRD
-Cure/SIRD
-Atonement
-ja ability specific sets*

What other sets would you suggest I focus on?

Got sub blue and all the essentials needed

Second question
What is your procedure/order/timing of job abilities/magic when:

a) Taking on a single boss
b) Boss with adds
c) Odyssey C pull/gather
?

Any advice or tips on any part of this I'd be grateful.

I'd say you probably want tanking engaged & tanking disengaged, and probably two different engaged sets. Sometimes you just want to turtle and whether your melee attacks hit isn't that important and/or you won't hit anyway because the mob has way too much eva and you aren't buffed for it. For a lot of mobs I don't engage at all, though obviously there are some (especially single target fights) where you will need to be engaged.

Add WS sets for some damaging weapon skills (Savage obviously, also probably CDC, Swift, etc. for SC openers/closers)

Magic Enmity includes SIRD? For Blue magic spells, flash etc? I think the most helpful thing to do is have a SIRD toggle that applies to all your spells and determines whether or not you need SIRD. Then you can have better sets in place when you don't need to worry about being interrupted. This doubles the number of sets you need to make, but would help a lot with Phalanx, Cure, Crusade, etc.

Also keep in mind it may be helpful to put enhancing duration on to get longer protect, crusade, or other buffs but you have to have some checks in place to make sure you don't put that gear on while tanking something dangerous. This applies to a lot of things but make sure to balance your stats in all sets:
-Avoid wild swings in your max HP which can make you go yellow/your healer go insane
-Make sure you have capped DT in any set you'll be using while actively tanking dangerous mobs
-Consider having MH/OH swaps for situations where your TP/AM doesn't matter

It's a tough job to execute properly as there are a lot of different situations to consider. This might've raised more questions than it answered, just giving some general guidelines, I think ultimately the way each person chooses to set up their character will vary a bit depending how involved they want to get & which content they play PLD in.

Thank you for your detailed feedback. I like the idea of toggles for SIRD / not SIRD. Makes more sense. I also understand the need for not being vulnerable on any set while engaged with a difficult mob.

Enhancing duration is also interesting and not something thast was foremost in my mind. Makes sense.

Have a lot of good SB stuff from my main job (WAR) and use it a lot when I'm up for ML.

However, the main thing I need to sort are good toggles instead of making over complicated luas (I use ashita atm)

I just finished doing a bunch of tests on gear that absorb elemental damage. I decided to see what stacks and what does not. I tested on the En-water/Hundred Fists, Bubble Shower, and Waterga V from Emperor Arthro.

Zanhi Ring (This is an admittedly smaller sample size than the others.)
No Absorb: 830
Absorb: 26
Total: 856
Absorb percentage: 3%

Aqua Sachet / Tuilha Cape
No Absorb: 2420
Absorb: 80
Total: 2500
Absorb percentage: 3.2%

Warder's Charm +1 / Tartarus Platemail
No Absorb: 2027
Absorb: 111
Total: 2138
Absorb percentage: 5.2%

Warder's Charm +1 / Aqua Sachet
No Absorb: 3121
Absorb: 259
Total: 3380
Absorb percentage: 7.7%

Warder's Charm +1 / Tuilha Cape
No Absorb: 3365
Absorb: 275
Total: 3640
Absorb percentage: 7.6%

Warder's Charm +1 / Aqua Sachet / Zanhi Ring / Tuilha Cape
No Absorb: 4134
Absorb: 368
Total: 4502
Absorb percentage: 8.2%

Warder's Charm +1 / Aqua Sachet / 4/5 PLD JSE / Tartarus Platemail
No Absorb: 3604
Absorb: 422
Total: 4026
Absorb percentage: 10.5%

Warder's Charm +1 / Aqua Sachet / 5/5 PLD JSE
No Absorb: 3345
Absorb: 453
Total: 3798
Absorb percentage: 11.9%

Warder's Charm +1 / Aqua Sachet / 5/5 PLD JSE / Zanhi Ring
No Absorb: 2729
Absorb: 353
Total: 3082
Absorb percentage: 11.5%

TL;DR WKR capes and Abyssea Satchets do NOT stack. Likewise, it appears that Warder's Charm +1 and Tartarus Platemail do NOT stack either. I'm not sure if Zanhi ring stacks with the satchet or capes and I'm too lazy to go back and test it. I can't say I'd wear 5/5 Chevalier to get that much absorb, but I wonder how it would do for RUN.

I use Shadow Sachet, Warders Charm, and Shadow Ring on Lilith VD. Its mitigation is pretty unreasonable on RDM.

You can add Tartarus Platemail to the PLD Empy to remove the questionably bugged body and it gets a little unreasonable. But you can also just wear an Aegis...

Just saying it explicitly: Warder's charm and Shadow ring do, in fact, stack with each other.

Theyre seperate effects arent they? 1 absorbs, 1 annuls

Yes they are separate effects.

They are. I can't say for sure that Absorbs come first, but either proc'ing is good enough for me.

I'm super glad you reminded me of this. I completely forgot that Tartarus Platemail absorbs magic damage! I went and tested it because apparently that's all I do now with my free time.

Warder's Charm +1 / Tartarus Platemail
No Absorb: 2027
Absorb: 111
Total: 2138
Absorb percentage: 5.2%


Warder's Charm +1 / Aqua Sachet / 4/5 PLD JSE / Tartarus Platemail
No Absorb: 3604
Absorb: 422
Total: 4026
Absorb percentage: 10.5%

Unfortunately, it looks like Tartarus Platemail does NOT stack with the Warder's Charm. I'm going to add these numbers to my last post just to keep them all together.

Edit: I've been looking at the rest of the Absorb gear in the game. The only iLevel item that I could find was the Gallian Helm +1. There are none on my server but I doubt it would change anything. However, I am interested in the Peltast's Mezail +3 and the Emicho Gambieras +1. That would give your wyvern +24% chance to absorb ANY damage. I don't play DRG enough to know how relevant that is.

That's good to know. Looks like I can change some idle sets

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpBebdT4n84&ab_channel=123TauruZ321

Depends on which type of undead, their level, your X-hit, your gear, other factors. Test both and figure out what works for you. Test them against your Excal as well. Not hard to time your kill rate eye balling ***with a low sample size. Maybe a club would work better if you fighting bones. Soloing PLD ML is a waste of your time in my opinion. You can make a cleave party or cleave on your own. If cleaving is not feasable cause w/e reason, a tank can always start a party! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpBebdT4n84&ab_channel=123TauruZ321

http://www.ffxicalculator.com/ This tool has been around for 20 years and is usefull.

https://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/392980 If this is still your TP set well....There are things you can fix here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpBebdT4n84&ab_channel=123TauruZ321

https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Bloodrain_Strap This is likely still the best grip for 2 handed PLD ***.



Yes. No. Maybe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpBebdT4n84&ab_channel=123TauruZ321


-Edit: I found the secret to life while spending time on this.

Ragnarok is definitely a much more friendly multi-step skillchain option for Great Sword than Calad. I haven't done EP with it, but love doing Resolution > Torcleaver > Scourge > Resolution > Torcleaver for a 5-step double light. I doubt most things will live that long.

Since your second question C) is about Sheol C, you should add an idle disengaged tanking set that includes the Hippomenes feet. This makes you run at flee speeds and you can gather and set up before your team gets there. Super helpful.

To answer your second.

A) Divine emblem, flash, JA rotations (palisade, sentinel, rampart), save Fealty for bosses that does a lot of debuffs. Keep reprisal on if it's a physical damaging mob. Cure when needed.

B) Divine emblem, flash main boss. Gather all adds within 6 yalms of boss and rotate all your blu enmity spells, then JA rotations. Geist wall has the lowest recast timer, you can just use that as it comes up. If they're all physical mobs, take advantage of positioning and shield blocking.

C) I just keep aegis on full time, Pull whatever you can handle. If there are flans or any mobs that can debuff you use fealty pre-pull. If it's a huge/dangerous pull use sentinel as a mini-invincible. Once they're gathered, use all of your blue aoe enmity spells. You have to switch to a new target when you're casting a new blu spell. The max your aoe can tag is 15 mobs, switching targets allows you to get hate on more than 15.

Why Aegis? Are there a significant amount of mobs that cast elemental nukes in there? I feel like it's just Agon mobs, ghosts, flans, and soulflayers...? Seems like most of the time anything-except-Aegis would be better, no?

Not a lot and I'm sure I can get away with Duban just fine, but I'm too lazy to swap at all during the 30 min excursion, I'll just take the perma 87.5% mdt.

I don't see it as "getting away with Duban" I see it as "Duban is better for 43/46 packs, Aegis is better for the other 3". Not trying to yuck anybody's yum, just trying to make sure we're presenting a proper picture here.

You can have 100% MDT, it won't do you a lick of good against Rabbits and Raptors.

You’re at pdt cap with Burt. You can’t cap mdt without aegis. There’s no way a pug party is going to wait for you to align entire 2nd floor mobs to take advantage of shield blocking. That’s the whole picture.

Edit clarification

It doesn't have to be the entire floor to gain advantage out of blocking. If you're blocking anything in the entire pack then you'll get more advantage out of Duban than Aegis. I'd say even Srivatsa is better than Aegis, both for the blocking, vit, etc. but also HP, enmity, and occasionally absorbs damage.

It's fine, I'm sure you're doing fine on your runs, just surprised to hear that you prefer Aegis in an event where 98% of the damage is physical attacks, since the only thing Aegis is good for is magic, it's last in line in terms of physical mitigation.

You’re not wrong and your advice is optimal.

I concur, in that I also exclusively use Aeonic Shield in Sheol C. (Getting proper mob-alignment for Duban is sometimes cumbersome and doesn't lend itself to the stupid-fast, break-neck speed that people want to kill+move in Sheol C. (I don't rely on Aegis at all in Sheol C because I've witnessed first hand that Shield Skill+ is necessary and the determining factor in Sheol C). Just my two cents. YMMV.

I failed to also add that in the middle of the fights I'm casting something 100% of the time. Either renewing buffs like phalanx for the next pull, curing the team or setting enmity aoe spells. I'm sure as plds you know our midcasts are lacking meva because of sird/enmity implementation.

While it is true that majority of the mob groups in sheol c are physical, there are quite a few that can nuke. And each floor has agon mobs and they have a nuker in there as well. In that said group that can nuke there are 10 of them unless more. They don't huddle up next to you like the physical mobs but they will be nuking at 10+yalms. Most of the time those are not slept.

Physical mobs will hit 0 to double digits while some nukers can hit you in the triple digits and can cause a problem quickly if you're staring at 35+ mobs.

This is why aegis for sheol c.

Why don't I just swap when needed? The mobs die in 1-2 ws anyway and I'm too lazy.

I don't do a lot of sheol c anymore due to my game time limitations but the goal was always full clear and 5-8 minutes time remaining in zone with the right people.

It's beautiful and it glows! It looks pretty straightforward, haven't noticed any "hidden" stat but wasn't really expecting anything else.

I don't imagine it would require lots of testing but I'm open to do tests just in case.

Level 75 Aegis' hidden effect (per https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Aegis_(Level_75)) is:
Maybe Stage 5 Duban has a similar kind of hidden effect?

I mean, these are just the basic properties of the shield size. Really need to go redo that page... It's a bit misleading now. Calling it a 'hidden effect' is a bit of a misnomer. It's just how shields works, and different sizes have different properties.

Duban is Size 6, like Ochain. It has an extremely high base block rate, but comparatively low on block damage reduction.

The block rate and block dmg- on Duban stage 5 could be tested. But I very much doubt any difference will be found beyond the block rate increase from the additional shield skill+