Best Tanking / DD Body

pld has access to 3 pieces i believe to help with fastcast

loquacious earring - Enhances Fast Cast Effect

* Spellcasting time -2%
* Spell recast time -1%

ACP body augment - "Fast Cast" effect +5%

Homam Cosciales -
* Spellcasting time -4%
* Spell recast time -2%


so macro all those in for your utsu ichi, ni, flash, spells..
comes to -11% spellcast time and -5% recast time if im not mistaken (rounding down 2.5% from ACP body's recast to 2)

it should also be noted that haste decreases spell recasts as well (just in case you didnt know =p )



*sorry for double post >o

I can offer one piece of advice, and it's going to get rated down and flamed, but I guarantee you there is a huge difference between elitist theories and actual tanking practice.

Avoid Blinking gear slots at all costs. Yes, I know it's possible to type the command line out, yes I know there's hacks out there to stop the blink, but that all relies on other people not being stupid. And if you're willing to bet that, then you've already failed FFXI. I bet my life that you will die less that way.

Gonna wreck your logic and don't need 3rd-party tools to do it.

<stpt> and <stal>. If your healers don't use them, educate them. If they won't learn, get better healers. Somebody else's inability to use the tools given to them by SE should not be your problem and limiting yourself to compensate for somebody else's inability to write a decent macro set is only adding to the problem.

I never said you need 3rd party tools, I said I know there's hacks out there to make it easier. I personally type all my command lines out. And it's not limiting yourself, it's adapting to an inevitable situation. If you're too dense to see that, I just don't really know what to say. Like I said, you can go back to your elitist theories, I will work in practicality and I have the spoils to show for it ^^d.

It's not a Hack, <stpt> and <stal> are things SE put in the game, for everyone to enjoy.

I blink like a christmas tree.

Dedicated healers at events should also have "/ma Cure# TankName" macros. Much faster, no chance of miss spelling or miss targeting.

+1

Really, I run with healers who know how to do their damn job and it shows. It's all good though, if you gotta run with healers who literally drag your entire alliance down by not being able to write a decent macro you have my condolences ^^b

so going by your theory, my sam should be gimp and sacrifice my ws dmg for survivabilty, and shouldn't blink swap to ws at all or even for meditate, because healers are too stupid. im going to agree with you partway on the fact that alot healers are not skilled enough at simply healing, (if seen it too many times ;( ) but just because they cant use built in tools in macro commands or 3rd party applications or just be smart enough to know to heal inbetween gearswaps does not mean you yourself should not gearswap......and if you do have a mage like that, then why are they playing on (insert mage job here) ......ijdk fren.

point being, just because they are gimp, that should not mean everyone else they are healing has to be gimp as well....

Level your reading skill. Then use Bold font.


Just to qualify my statement real fast though. I am talking about Endgame Tanking, If you've never been the only Tank at a Tiamat, Nidhogg or Khimaira from 100 to 0% Then you haven't really endgame tanked. You've just been leaning on crutches.

Of course, I made a few heavy assumptions, for Instance, at real HNM,s the tank(s) will usually get two bards, a Healer (SCH or WHM) a Red Mage as their party. Now if you will indulge me for but a moment.

Recasts stop at 50%.
March+March 20% Haste15% [35%] (Magic cap 40%)
At this moment there need only be 15% haste (less if you have fast cast equipment) to reach recast down.
Velocious belt is a non Blinking switch, so 6% currently at 41%
Homam Cosciales are 3% and Generally Full timed yes? 44%
Homam Manopolas are Full timed, So 47%. That is damn close to the cap already in stuff you wind up having on anyway. With the Fastcasts it probably is the cap.

As for Enmity and what not, Hate created with a non blinking Cure IV set, refresh and Ballad (Bonus points of Gjallarhorn) should have no problem keeping hate at the residual cap, so that is a redundant argument. The Residual cap can generally be reached on 2 minutes or less with No Enmity increasing gear. After that, you only need worry about BLM or if it's an extremely long fight Healers reaching the Residual cap, and spiking through your hate with Volatile. However, hate is instantly restored back to you after 1 attack round from the Monster, at worst.

Respectfully, if you are putting haste on as PLD in HNM for anything but the recasts, You're a moron and need to learn the concept of Monster TP, though there certainly are a few exceptions (Cerberus comes to mind, as PLD's Atonment weapon skill absolutely rapes that, but still, even then it's generally not worth while).

Bahamut's Mask
Ares's Cuirass
Homam Cosciales
Homam Manopolas
Gallant Leggings+1

Every HNM (Except Absolute Virtue and Panda Warden) in the game I have witnessed conquered without swapping any of those items out to create a blink. At the same time, I have witnessed on many occasions Blinky Elitist Paladins blinking a few too many times and popping dead, and hell a few people in my LS owe Ridills to that eventuality.

It's important to note, I don't think you guys are wrong, not by a long shot, I just think you're living in a fairy fantasy world made of gum drops and sugar plums to think that every healer (Hell, even 1/4 of healers) are competent enough have the sense about to use everything in their power to their advantage. You don't get any bonus points for stupid, pointless risks, but being careful will at least give you the peace of mind to know you did everything in your power, and gave every oppritunity, should you still falter.

you never specified that you were talking strictly hnm tanking or gear.

while non blinking can work, still doesn't make it right.
imo, i view it as a DD job trying to mixmatch their tp and ws sets so they dont have to use macros.... yuck lol. They can still DD, but they wont be as efficient as they can be.





i mean hey, everybody blinks; infact....your probably doing it right now! w~




(haha? :[ >o )

*edit* - i would like to see this non blink cureIV hate set of yours >_>; the only thing i can think of (something i sometimes use) a friend with brd or blm ring and they auto gearswap to yellow hp, so you can just cure IV away without having to swap hp down --> hp up.

So, your LS is better then us because the PLD's have to gimp themselves so the gimpy WHM's can keep the Gimped PLD's alive?

Ok, Got it. I think...

And just for your reference, only mobs I havent beaten are PW, Everbloom Hollow KA (Never even seen him) and AV...

HPDown
Morgana's Choker -40HP
Astral Earring -25HP
Loquacious Earring 0HP
Serket Ring -50HP
Vivian Ring -50HP

HPUp
Ritter Gorget +25hp (dif.65)
Bloodbead Earring +25hp (dif.50)
Cassie Earring +50HP (dif.50)
Bomb Queen Ring +75HP (dif.125)
Sattva Ring +30HP (dif.80)

There 370 cure-able HP in 5 slots that won't make you blink. All fairly easily obtainable (with the exception of BB Earring, Vivian Ring which can be annoying).

You don't need more Enm if you're capped. Once capped, you can just do your normal cure swaps, and JA/Flash, nothing else really needed. Then again I'm talking from an endgame perspective, so I'm clueless about Exp PLD'ing as I did that a long time ago.

@ Odin.Zicdeh (quoting is broken)

You can make some find of fuzzy full time set that can get close to capping recast and give some survivability, but why?

You are no where near 80% haste so you will get massive increases in TP gain by using a proper TP set while your shadows are up.

You are no where near the MDT cap (unless you have an aegis, and even then there is always room for MDB or 'resist builds') which would save your healers MP by taking less damage.

You are no where near the enmity cap for atonement or JAs so you would gain a massive amount of hate when starting a fight by switching to a full enmity build and hold it easier once you near the cap.

And you would sooner sacrifice all that rather than make your WHM, SCH and RDM change their cure macros to <stpt>. That makes no sense. A good whm should be using <stpt> and/or <stal> already. And if you are in the tank party then you only have to concentrate on 1-3 people, so named macros aren't unrealistic.

As a RDM I see no reason for a tank not to blink (as I can still land my cures), I see lots of reasons for a tank to blink (they can do their job better).

What? Mages in endgame who know how to use <stal>? The number of times i've been shouted at for blinking between enmity and haste sets 'cus mages can't target me...

Full marks to Argettio, totaly right, not all tanks have access to aegis/defending ring to make blinking next to pointless when they can full time uber gear just fine lol

They are doing it wrong, not you.

So from what im seeing, these End game PLD's think theyre going to Max out theyre Enmity without swapping in Enmity Gear during theyre Sentinel or Cure IV HP down/up Macros?

I personally Idle / Cast shadows in ~
Askar head
Neuvo body
Homam hands/legs/feet
Loq + cassie
Herc + bomb queen
Parade + boxers

Blink into Shield gear if my recasts are down.
Blink into Mdef gear if a heavy GA or ability of some sort is coming my way.

Then during a Sent and/or cure macro, you clearly swap in needed hp -/+ where needed and end up in Full Enmity++ gear for your final cure/flash and whatever else is needed.

So i blink alot ^^ /panic

But all in all, side from your gear/play style, which always will be different.
A PLD MUST have Gaurdian merited ~ or they fail :P

And last but not least, and im not sure how many will agree. But your Tank's mages = the difference between a good or bad pld. Not gear.
If you cant rely on your mages, you got nothing.

So those stating they make sure they dont blink, because theyre healers suck. Then your whole team = fail. sowwy ;;

If your mages don't take enough pride in their jobs to play them right and use something as simple as <stal> then they're not up to par.

If you want to try to convince me you should fulltime a fire resist set on Tiamat, or fulltime MDT/MDB gear on Ultima, then I have no words for how much I strongly disagree with you. If you don't even bother with using those gear sets because you prefer using a generic set for everything, then it's likely you use way more support than is really necessary.

A good tank can definitely get by without blinking, however, it is not efficient.

Then again, there is a significant difference between a career Paladin and someone who plays it as a 75 they really enjoy. Career Paladins obsess over tweaking their gear sets and macros to squeeze every ounce of enmity, haste, MDT, fire resist, PDT, accuracy, etc. If you're trying to squeeze everything into a one size fits all gear set to avoid blinking, you probably need more support than most other tanks.

This is not meant as an attack by any means, I just don't agree with the concept of NO BLINKING ALLOWED.

Also, please don't idle in shield skill gear when you have shadows up. It offers no value until your shadows are down. If the argument is you are relying on parrying/evasion to proc while shadows are up... /facepalm, idk

I personally have different macros and gear sets for:

Pld/War (rarely ever used, but basically to call dynamis)
Pld/Nin - build for mobs i'm allowed to melee
Pld/Nin - build for mobs i'm not allowed to melee but straight tank
Pld/Nin - kiting build
Pld/Drk - kiting build
Pld/Rdm - build for mobs i'm not allowed to melee but straight tank

I'm not saying everyone should mirror my macros and my playstyle, but I think it would be foolish to not acknowledge that not every fight is the same. Adjust accordingly. Make sure you use the best gear sets for those situations. And if you ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY insist on never blinking, please at the very least.. make static gear that reflects any possible tanking situation (once again i strongly disagree with this tactic but this is worst case scenario).

I'm by no means the authority on giving out Paladin advice however I feel that with my endgame/hnm experience, I should at least provide my two cents worth to anyone willing to listen with an open mind and not take offense just because we have a difference of opinion.

Why are u even asking about pld dd? Your a tank thats all u need to worry about. Keep hate and stay alive, let the real DD worry about it.

And yes i've been a main pld for almost 6 yrs. DD PLD= FAIL

That's my point though, PEOPLE WILL DO IT WRONG. This is a guaranteed fact of FFXI. In any HNM circumstance, the benefits of staying easy to cure far outweigh the benefits of blinking in 20 gear sets. And of course, what you idle around in between cure storms will largely depend on what you're fighting. Example, Dark Ixion is more effectively idled in high DEF/VIT to mitigate some if it's relic process hits, where Tiamat is best idled in Hastes to keep Shadows up, especially when under 25% and even an Aegis Block can still result in 600 damage.

PLD isn't without it's charm as a DD

6man Sarameya, a Tank PT with Atonements can take him down. Cerberus in Mount Z is just as vulnerable. In Dynamis with a Melee Group, PLD is usually the target designator, I've done a few xarcabards with only 4 people, so a good PLD DD set was a necessity.

There is certainly reasons to maintain a DD set, but it comes down to personal assessment of the situation to determine when it will help, and when it will hinder.

You can also use a Gold Moogle Belt to make up some of the HP difference if you can't get your hands on some of those items, and if you're a big enough dork to do the Holiday Events like me. It also can help you reach the 400HP mark if you swap in a Hosp. Earring when you cast your Cure IV. (And it's blink free! ( ^ -^)b )

Paladin is not a DD. It's a tank, but to assume TP is only useful for Atonement and not worth hanging onto for Chivalry in lowman instances, then we're clearly not seeing eye to eye on how TP gain can benefit a Paladin.

Paladin is capable of keeping hate through damage with atonement, and it's capable of keeping hate without. Atonement allows a Paladin to be more efficient and use less cure kits to keep hate and use cures for legimate cures for him/herself along with other alliance members.

It is pointless to be melee'ing in full enmity rather than macro'ing enmity for spells/abilities/etc. Swinging a sword to miss most of the time and land a hit with +40 enmity isn't worth spamming 2-5 atonements in a quick Fafnir fight.

Tanking for six years doesn't mean you're up to par. Doctors practicing medicine for 30 years using outdated methods doesn't make them the best in the field, even if the treatment still works.

To completely abandon the idea that accuracy is not useful to a Paladin is blatant ignorance.

The real DD are Blms and Smns anyway. True endgame shouldn't involve more than 2 melees needed for skillchains. You're feeding your target excessive amounts of TP and unless you're doing a chainspell stun zerg or something similar.. it's not efficient.

Technically, you can be more efficient by not feeding Fafnir TP on Paladin, but then you end up killing slower because you're relying one less tool for hate.

Every Paladin has their own unique playstyle but to stick with the stubborn stance of "lol lern2pld, yer doin it wrong" is being willfully ignorant.

Very true. I made my Nuevo Coselete with fast cast and acc+10 for Idling in (no access to homam/ares :( ) or use hauby+1 when shadows arn't as important and the ability to generate TP at a good rate makes a big impact to tanking with atonement these days.

I dont like to blink as pld..
So i use full time iron ram body D;
Only switching to hauc/joytoy on different HNM's

I don't blink very much on pld either and I think I do my job just fine. AF and Relic swaps for things like Sentinel, Rampart, and Cover in the rare occasion that it's actually someone inside my party that needs it lol. A piece or 2 for Utsu casts when I sub nin. I think if someone told me I didn't blink enough as pld I would tell them to f*** off and maybe /blist them depending on the and seriousness of the comment.

As long as you can hold hate with no issues and manage to avoid taking too much damage to cause any reason for concern and/or panic, you're doing just fine.

Personally, I have gear swapping for virtually every single action I take. That's my preference, and it works great for me. That may not be ideal for you but that's the beauty of being able to customize your character the way you want. Some Paladins prefer HP merits, some MP, some like to have a balance of both to hit certain HP/MP tiers.

The worst thing you can do is convince yourself the approach to every fight is the same. For example, when I tank Dark Ixion, I fulltime c.legs because my reflexes and connection speed aren't fast enough to acknowledge he's charging horn, hit c.legs macro and gtfo in time.

The best situation is to obviously straight tank using Homam Legs, however because I can acknowledge my own personal flaw I would rather lose 3% haste than risk getting hit with Wrath of Zeus or Lightning Spear. I'm not as efficient as I could be, but it gets the job done.

Even though there are ideal gear swaps, they don't always apply to every player. I sure as hell wouldn't risk swapping in Dusk Gloves and Homam Legs for recast timers when kiting KB fully knowing I could potentially get killed if my macros get stuck (I personally don't use dusk gloves, I have homam and use /drk so recasts don't matter but I know some Pld/nin kite KB.. oddly enough).

Play Paladin to fit your playstyle but there are some basic fundamentals everyone should acknowledge before you attempt to reinvent the universal guide to tanking.

Won't let me quote maimed 2nd statement but it was well said. I can't speak for every server, i know here a dd pld is looked down on. Keep hate, stay alive and if ppl dont complain ur obviously doing something right.

But theres alot other gear i rather use then acc, shadows cause enmity loss, so espically with nin sub more enmity the better.

Just type "<quote=Ramuh.Zangada>Won't let me quote</quote>" and replace the < >'s with [ ]'s

Enmity only affects enmity generated when you take an action; it does not modify enmity loss in any way. Therefore, DD Paladin or not, enmity gear is strictly macro-only.

^

Also, You lose less hate from damage taken with a higher max HP build than a lesser one. I couldn't give you the exact formula to prove this, but it doesn't hurt to idle in some +HP gear, assuming you don't have anything more suitable for that particular slot.