~First And Final Line Of Defense V2.0~

What do you use to cleave Aki? AE is out because it heals Puks.

I cleave with circle blade on sword
BTW I keep burtgang for negate the damage taken

Interesting, do you wait until 3000TP for max radius? What kind of damage/mob do you tend to get on the ZiTah fodder?

You can wait 3000tp that took you only one more second with 40 monsters hitting you, use. Ochain for this

It's been too long since we've discussed sets! One of the hidden gems of the Souveran set is the ability to idle in capped cure potency received. Below is what I'm currently wearing:

ItemSet 338175

Head: Path D
Body: Path D
Legs: Path D
Feet: Path C
Hands: Only need -3% PDT (-1% in Escha, assuming both -DT% vorseals)

Other benefits:

• +8% Counter, which is an interesting way to "break" DT% caps.

• "Killer" effect +2 (+7 against birds), which comes in handy, especially when combined with vorseal Killer effects.

• Bringing the shadow mantle and ring back!

With Souveran handschuhs +1 Path D and a +15 shield skill neck, swapping the back to Impassive mantle recaps outside of Escha. Can use any number of the new backs while inside, assuming both -DT% vorseals.

Hmmmm. The thing about counter, is that you have to pass an acc check for it to trigger. So the proc rate is cut by 5%(of the current proc rate) even if you cap acc.

On some of the recent NMs... well some of them have insane evasion and unless you're in with a melee setup, I doubt anyone is going to spare the GEO bubbles to give you acc.(I've been in a lot of mage/Magic burst setup lately. Your mileage may vary)

That being said, it is still a way to improve defenses beyond the DT caps. And an interesting line of thought. Carry on.

Personal preference but I think I'd use Philidor Mantle over Impassive. I think I'd also go C path on Souv legs(feet+legs would overcap cure received), and change the belt to something else. Maybe flume, more for the dmg->MP convert than the PDT.

The new wanted headpiece is also a phenomenal piece. You could effectively use that and something like the Souv. Cuirass +1 and then founders in hands/legs/feet and hit DT caps still AND get killer effects +6

loess barbuta +1 is great. But SE did some disappointing things with it.

It has no magic evasion. And with as often as vex and/or Attunement get used to prevent nasty status, or reduce breath dmg, losing ~50 M.eva kinda sucks.

And it has no haste. It has great enmity+, but no haste. Makes it a pain to work it into Flash/Enmity spell sets.

I'm not sure why they felt the need to break the ilvl mold on this one. This would have been pretty much a perfect piece if not for these.

That being said, it's still really good. And opens up interesting possibilities in other slots, if you don't find the meva/haste lack to be a problem.

I searched the whole thread and have not found the answer to this question. I'm sorry if it was already answered somewhere else but I'm going to ask.

How does the pld 1200 gift work? Does it increase the damage each spike cause, making reprisal wear faster? Does it increase the total amount of damage the spikes do, making reprisal last longer? Or is it some third option, maybe a combination of both?

Thanks

The wording of the description strongly suggests it makes reprisal hit harder. Which would increase the risk of it wearing early. As far as I can tell, that gift is detrimental to the Job.

As for actual facts, I really doubt anyone knows.

It'd be quite a nice pain in the *** to test. What with the variance range of physical damage(and thus the reflected damage.) Tack on the fact that we don't even know what % of damage reprisal normally reflects. And you can't exactly turn the gift on/off to compare.

Not many people have done testing on reprisal, and even fewer have tested the spikes dmg at all. At least who have published their results.

Just got myself a pair of Thereoid Greaves and wondering how it stacks up versus other options for CDC. Anyone know?

Run some tests but I'm sure they are now the number one for it for pld

I've seen "Marjami Cleave" mentioned a few times. I gave Escha a go and whilst it was doable, it wasn't easy for me with my current gear. Whereabouts in Marjami and what does one pull to cleave there?

I think it's Bivoac #2 and pull everything near it.

I'll give it a try, thanks.

SO any new gear to see out there? Sitting on capped -dt set is all well and fun but how about accuracy att mag att, anyone have any decent sets?

Acc/Atk sets are still basically Acro/Yorium depending on your play style. Hybrid sets are very flexible in this regard. Souveran +1 is quite powerful for most situations and not impossible to obtain, can benefit Phalanx sets tremendously with hands and feet. Sinister Reign brought about a lot of situational armor.

As for 'new' items:
I'm sure theres plenty I've missed, but this is list is what comes to mind. Feel free to correct me, I'd like to improve more.

The sets on the start of this forum are still pretty up to date sans a few macro pieces.

The CDC set looks a little suspect.

still a good base of current easy to obtain options i think.

Seeing this prompted me to review the OP.

Valefor.Zigbar;

A few notes.

The Occasionally absorbs Magic Damage effect found on Tartarus Platemail, Warder's Charm/+1, and Engulfer Mantle/+1 sadly does not stack. Even if you wear all 3 pieces, you only get 5% absorb rate. So you won't be seeing 15% absorb rates from these. Reference here.

Furthermore, despite the description stating "Magic" damage, these pieces do work on breath damage. So might want one of them in that BDT set. I forget if I ever posted a test for that...

Another BDT tidbit. The MDT augment on Dark rings, very strangely, works on breath damage. So a 6BDT/6MDT dark ring is -12% BDT. Wold be worth putting a note in there about that. Reference here.

For Aoelian Edge, D path Eschite Cuisses have a +25 MAB augment, and +23 Magic acc. Making them definitively better than Augury Cuisses.

C path Souveran Cuirass/+1 is a superior enmity+ body. The NQ being at +17 enmity and the HQ at +20.

Oh, and you could add Deacon Sword to the swords list. It's pretty damn good.

A few thoughts on the sub job blurbs.

/WAR. Mention Fencer. It's a notable DD bonus(particularly for Savage blade. <,<)

/RUN. Pretty much every RUN JA, except Runes themselves(thanks a ton SE. -.-; ) yields respectable CE/VE gain.(the CE is particularly nice) Worth noting.

Enlight + Rune interaction. When runes are up, Enlight dmg does not proc, and thus does not degrade. But you still receive the enlight acc bonus. So you're looking at 100~ permanent acc+(depending on your divine set and Enlight JP)

This combined with Swordplay makes /RUN the strongest high acc DD sub.

/BLU. BLU sub doesn't have access to a blink spell. And the stoneskin spell(metallic Body) has a 7 second base cast time, and caps at 150 dmg absorbed. Well, if PLD could get enough blu skill to hit that. PLD/BLU with blue magic merits could push it to -88 dmg without any skill+ gear. Oh, and Stoneskin+ gear doesn't work on BLU spells that grant a stoneskin effect.

No one is ever going to use either of those. /BLU is about Cocoon, and enmity Spells(some nice Aoe enmity spells too.) Oh, it does have a gimp self haste(refueling, 10% magic haste) But that's really only a solo concern. /shrug.

/RDM. No /RDM? Sure about all it's good for these days is Aeolian Edge Cleave. But it is the best for that. MAB trait for AE. And Stoneskin and Aquaveil are very useful for pulling hordes of mobs to cleave safely. Not to mention you don't even get access to Aeolian Edge with out /RDM, /NIN, or /DNC.

That's about all that comes to mind at the moment. Don't really feel like working on the spreadsheet for detailed DPS comparisons, or really digging into DT/MDT sets.(although, that DT set looks like a ACC/DT hybrid set to me. Could be improved defensively, but it's favoring acc instead. Ack. I'm stopping now.)

Didn't notice that, thanks~

Yes, I suppose I should note that -MDT works as well. I changed the set to reflect pieces with -BDT only so people knew what they had to work with.

The SJ section was thrown together quickly and rather poorly IMO. I started it with the intention of going back. It just hasn't happened yet.

As far as the WS sets and even the TP/ACC sets to an extent are only eyeballed quickly. I haven't found the energy to actually spreadsheet everything. You mean the -PDT set? It is a mix of -PDT/ACC. Unless you're going to throw DEF into your neck/ear/ammo slots you might as well put ACC. The only reason I say this is because when I use this set I'm in no real danger of being one-shotted so I don't need 3000 DEF. 1800-2200 will suffice. How much DEF is actually in that set? No clue, haven't actually added it up.

MDT augments on Yorium more than likely work as BDT as well. Engulfer mantle's absorption also works on breaths, so that's also worth including in that set.

Well, when I said it could be improved defensively, I didn't literally mean adding more of the defense stat.

Examples: When using Ochain you could go with Extra Shield Defense bonus from Chevalier's Gauntlets +1, and/or Chozor. Coselete.

Or when using Aegis, D path Souveran hands+1 to push up block rate a bit with the 15 shield skill. And so on.

I guess I feel like the Turtle set and the PDT set should swap places, and the the original PDT set should be renamed Hybrid PDT/ACC. As a hybrid PDT/ACC set, I think it's a quite a good set. I just object to classifying it as a standard PDT set, I suppose.

Once upon a time, I'd have been all up for the idea of acc in any PDT set, but with the current state of enmity generation mechanics, there seems to be very little point to me.

Damage is now a fairly piddly contribution to PLD enmity generation, when it used to be the most effective enmity gain. I feel there's very little point in bothering to try to hit the mob, unless the PLD is just about the only source of DPS. Or when the monster in question is so nonthreatening that you don't even need PDT. In which case, just use normal TP sets.

But now we've ventured well into the realm of opinions. And these are just mine.

Seeing a bunch of "-mdt gear counts for breath as well" Can it be said then that all -mdt = -bdt? or is there only certain items that account for that? Does breath fall under magic or is it only how those specific items are coded?

The only questionable cases are MDT augments, not all MDT. However, it is probable that all items with magic negation and absorption work on breaths as well (both Shadow Ring and Engulfer's are known to).

Is there a legit place to test this on, Ks99 vs Baby fafs in Aby, or some other means? since hp is supposed to effect it, hard to think of any single source aside from unity where the HP is static based around the number of ppl, and just use variable sets to estimate the value of a -bdt vs -mdt set to see if they are same or not.

There's an NM in Abyssea - Konschtat called Balaur. He only uses Breath WS.

So, nice static damage, and uses them with high frequency. The only thing to watch out for is resists. He's an old pre 99 cap NM, so wearing full ilvl gear tends to make him resist.

And don't worry too much bout the mobs HP. His breaths cap at 840 damage till he's nearly dead. Conflux de-aggro him and resume. Use a 1 dmg weapon for TP feed to extend testing sessions.

Also for the record. MDT in general doe not apply to breath damage. As kyte was saying above, this is specific to MDT Augments. The only well tested case I know of is Dark rings.

Shell, standard MDT gear, and MDB will not work on breath damage. MDT Augments doing it is probably a flat out glitch.Can add Tartarus Platemail to the list of verified items for this. Got an absorb while I was messing around with breath testing last night.

I've never seen Shadow ring proc on a breath. Not that I've tested intensively, but...