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After playing PLD for well over a Year and a half now, I've learned quite abit about the PLD and it's abilities and weaknesses. This guide is only for Experience parties ,as I'm in the military and have very little time for End Game content.
First, and foremost you need to understand something which hurts alittle. You are not a Melee. With EXPENSIVE crafted items and many difficult to obtain RARE/EX items you can be, but you will be a very limited Melee. PLD is not Half as adaptable at End game as a NIN. You are however the greatest thing to walk Vana-diel against most of the HNM monsters and Gods. PLD is probably the most straight forward class you can play because you literally only need one job subbed for exp, and that is warrior. If your up to the challenge of trying to be a DD PLD which is pretty much needless, because hell, there are already 10+ melee classes if you include NIN and COR at end game, then you will sub either thf war or nin.
Now first equipment.
-I'm not going to give you list of equipment, just a helpful little idea that can help you tank and hold hate longer. That being, you don't have to have zomg mad high vit and defence. It has been proven that after a certian point at each lvl the benefits of of vit and defence reaches a point where they do not improve your mitigation as well as it would or should. If your vit and defence are already very high and, adding to it will only reduce the damage mitigated by 2-3 a hit, then instead of piling on more vit and defence, get some att and acc gear. Your damage albeit small, is still helping you hold aggro and hitting alittle harder and more often helps.
-HP gear is almost pointless in exp parties, as most monsters will not being doing enough damage to merit the -mp that is usually tagged on with it, or the stats you could be raising by equipping other gear.
-After Experiencing it myself and reading multiple forums and guides one can say that it's fairly accurate to say that Size 3 and 4 shields are the best damage negated to activation rate.
-Sword and Shield are unmatched in EXP tanking, VERY FEW situations will be good with a staff, and there are not enough club options to make it worthwhile, and going out of your way to get Clubs staffs and GS's is pretty much a waste of time. You actually get TP faster With high shield Skill and a Sword than any of these weapons. Also, Shield and Sword will get you TP faster than a PLD/nin with 2 swords. Unless that PLD/nin has a Joyuese and kraken club and if you have these and are using them to DD PLD, you should be leveling a war,thf,etc. that can really benefit from it's use....
-Too many PLD's get alittle lost at the end since our demand in EXP parties pretty much dries out, and there are many Dedicated HNM PLDs out there currently on most servers at this time. Tanks suffer an anomally over other classes when it comes to HNM gear. Why spend lots of time building multiple tanks at once when you can just make one main tank build him up fast and make all events, all around eassier. It hurts to say, but this is the fastest most effective way to get a strong tank that is extremely reliable. So New pld's, you may want to plan a second job for gaining those PLD merits to make you more presentable to those big name HNM guilds you want to be part of. They only need 3-5 well gear pld's so technically your best chances of getting these Equips is to get your self sstrong as possible and out pace the others so that you can be the "Main Tank" if gearing out is your reason to play PLD end game. You need exp to do this, and you need exp parties to get the exp, and 70+ with ToAU release, the need for a tank that can last long fights has pretty much disappeared. So plan to get something else up to get those merits your seeking.
Next abilities
Provoke- is your bread and butter move. Except in THF and /THF parties you should use it as often as possible. Thf and /thf parties require a delicate balance of hate gaining abilities.
Flash- Is your next best hate snagger, It's best used un conjuction with a Cure3 on you or a party member, it's basically a free chance to cast with gauranteed no interuption 80% of the time.
Cure's- these keep you and everyone alive use them, Cure 3 and 4 will snag hate pretty easily as well. If your a galka beware of the MP cost and be more conservative, if your a Elf you got more wiggle room, and if your a taru or Hume cast often.
Invincible- Your Best and Last Resort to gaining hate, makes impossible to damage with physical attacks for 30 seconds every 2 hrs
Defender- Good for upping the defence agianst mobs that hit especially hard, agianst weaker mobs it may be left off unless you need something to grab hate with, although this does not create alot of hate.
Berserk- Only use it get hate back, and quickly remove the status once the monster is back on you, not very good for gaining hate
Cover- This will be explained in the party position in and dynamics section indepth
Sentinel- weak hate grabber but there to be used none the less
Warcry- awsome hate grabber
Rampart- another awsome hate grabber
A good order of Abilities is Provoke >wait 10 15 sec if you can > Flash> Cure3> provoke once timer is up > wait 10-15 sec > some type of special ability > provoke > wait 10-15 secs > flash etc. etc. just keep repeating the cycle. Often there will be times when you have to dump all your abilities because your out of MP and you need to get hate back, Don't worry it happens.
helpful Macros are-
/Ja "Provoke" <bt>
/wait 1
/a <bt>
this will allow you to cast provoke and target and attack the enemy well before it reaches the party. without having to tab over to the mob manually. If you get a link and a mage sleeps the extra mob do not use this macro anymore, it will switch the target and voke the wrong mob. So only use this at the start of a fight.
/ja "Provoke" <t>
use this to cast vokes as the fight is going
/ma "Flash" <t>
Flashes the target follow it instantly with the next macro
/ma "Cure III" <stpc>
<stpc> will put the target option in your hands, use the directional or simply press F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 to directly target members of your party to cast on. F1 is you and F2 will be the next down in your party queue at the bottom right of your screen.
*Do not* stick little /p tags with your macro's it's annoying, especially with Voke, no one wants to see - Khevn> Hey over here you Dirty <t>! <provoke> every 30 secs and especially if you mess up and spam it 3 or 4 times. unless your calling your tp or mp you don't need a dumb tag. If your fortunate and very well off gil wise, attack equipment macros could be useful.
Now for the juicy info!
Positioning is Key to a good party! Where you stand can save tons of MP and keep everyone alive longer.
First the the /thf party in open space, it looks like this before SATA and TP is ready
----------------Melee
-------/thf----Monster----------------Mages
-----------------PLD
After you Gain TP the thf should be the only class that shifts Looking like this
----------------Melee
---------------Monster----------------Mages
-----------------PLD
-----------------/thf
The /thf moves behind the PLD, the Melee provokes and uses WS, /Thf SaTa WS and moves back to his position or goes to get another mob if the mage burst kills the beast. In hallways the position should be adjust slightly but in extremely narrow halways do this
--------------thf-PLD-Monster-Melee--------Mages
This is not great, but in extremely small hall ways it's your next bet.
Don't do this next one unless your stupid, why point anything at the mages if you don't have too.
--------------Melee-Monster-PLD-thf--------Mages = stupid
In my experience Bard in /thf parties can get very annoying and tedious, unless the bard is very good at watching the log and seeing what is happening and not casting ballad while the thf is in range. 3 times i've done this, and they haven't. So make sure they understand to becareful...
ok with 2 melees and Mages it's very simple
--------------------Melee
----------Melee-Monster--------------------Mages
---------------------PLD
The melee to your side should be the one that ends WS's so that can move behind you if Cover is required.
In small hallways it look looks like this
---------PLD-Monster---Meleex2----------Mages
Now with a bard and with open space and close space this is universal pretty much
---------Meleex2 Monster------------------Mages
--------------------------PLD
PLD stands slightly more angled to the mages to help the bard with balad and staying out of Melee songs.
In all situations the Closer of WS's should always be closest to the PLD to move behind hime for Cover.
ok now to explain Cover, Cover is at best a LAST RESORT before invincible, almost everytime the monster can be turned back on you with a VOKE, Flash, or Cure 3 or 4 or dumping your abilities, if this does not work, the Melee should be instructed with a macro like this --> /p Hey <stpc> get behind me I'm going to <Cover> you! once he is behind you /ja "Cover" <t>. This will tell the melee to get his ass in gear and set up yout targeting for cover. Never Move yourself, let them come to you, trust me it's eassier, your in the Ideal position to Reduce cone effects on other party members. So the one that is changing the mobs facing should simply move to you and wait there under <cover> till the mob is safely back on the PLD and then move back to Position. There several Reasons why they move and not you...
1. I will say it agian you are in the Ideal position to reduce cone effects from the mob hitting other players.
2. LAG! it takes a second or 2, more if the Latency is esp. bad for you to recieve 1 players movements and for them to recieve yours. This cannot be helped being that the servers are in Japan and, the other players and you are most likely if your reading this, in Europe or America. If you both move it will just get confusing and the cover will just get wasted or the melee/mage will die because you both took too long.
3. It keeps the party Dynamic and positioning more intact.
Finally if you used Cover, Dumped all your abilities and your out of MP, USE YOUR 2hr! jeez so many PLDs just let there fellow players die completely forgeting they have this....
Also time Your Heals You should start casting a Heal Just before the mobs attacks you. You want them to hit you right as the cast is between 1-20%. I think this works do to Latency, and HEAL YOURSELF plds should heal themselves, but do not waste all your mp in one fight doing this. Ration it out so that the WHM is not running low on MP and you can Cast Heals here and there to keep hate and cast Flash.
Now All this sounds easy right! HA wrong all this will go hay wire instantly if you screw it up wasting, Time, MP and getting other players killed if you screw up! Your the Tank, Your job is to do everything in your power to keep the mob on you and, if you die thems the breaks. Get used to dying in exp, cause in HNM/Dynamis your going to be dying 10X's more than anyone else.... If your LVL 25+ and you have something agiasnt eating the floor for other players as a PLD or NIN then these jobs aren't for you.
For Food I preffer Steamed Crab from 1 to 50-60ish and Tavnazian Tacos from then on, 3hr foods get kind of wasted on PLD since you tend to drop alot somtimes.
First, and foremost you need to understand something which hurts alittle. You are not a Melee. With EXPENSIVE crafted items and many difficult to obtain RARE/EX items you can be, but you will be a very limited Melee. PLD is not Half as adaptable at End game as a NIN. You are however the greatest thing to walk Vana-diel against most of the HNM monsters and Gods. PLD is probably the most straight forward class you can play because you literally only need one job subbed for exp, and that is warrior. If your up to the challenge of trying to be a DD PLD which is pretty much needless, because hell, there are already 10+ melee classes if you include NIN and COR at end game, then you will sub either thf war or nin.
Now first equipment.
-I'm not going to give you list of equipment, just a helpful little idea that can help you tank and hold hate longer. That being, you don't have to have zomg mad high vit and defence. It has been proven that after a certian point at each lvl the benefits of of vit and defence reaches a point where they do not improve your mitigation as well as it would or should. If your vit and defence are already very high and, adding to it will only reduce the damage mitigated by 2-3 a hit, then instead of piling on more vit and defence, get some att and acc gear. Your damage albeit small, is still helping you hold aggro and hitting alittle harder and more often helps.
-HP gear is almost pointless in exp parties, as most monsters will not being doing enough damage to merit the -mp that is usually tagged on with it, or the stats you could be raising by equipping other gear.
-After Experiencing it myself and reading multiple forums and guides one can say that it's fairly accurate to say that Size 3 and 4 shields are the best damage negated to activation rate.
-Sword and Shield are unmatched in EXP tanking, VERY FEW situations will be good with a staff, and there are not enough club options to make it worthwhile, and going out of your way to get Clubs staffs and GS's is pretty much a waste of time. You actually get TP faster With high shield Skill and a Sword than any of these weapons. Also, Shield and Sword will get you TP faster than a PLD/nin with 2 swords. Unless that PLD/nin has a Joyuese and kraken club and if you have these and are using them to DD PLD, you should be leveling a war,thf,etc. that can really benefit from it's use....
-Too many PLD's get alittle lost at the end since our demand in EXP parties pretty much dries out, and there are many Dedicated HNM PLDs out there currently on most servers at this time. Tanks suffer an anomally over other classes when it comes to HNM gear. Why spend lots of time building multiple tanks at once when you can just make one main tank build him up fast and make all events, all around eassier. It hurts to say, but this is the fastest most effective way to get a strong tank that is extremely reliable. So New pld's, you may want to plan a second job for gaining those PLD merits to make you more presentable to those big name HNM guilds you want to be part of. They only need 3-5 well gear pld's so technically your best chances of getting these Equips is to get your self sstrong as possible and out pace the others so that you can be the "Main Tank" if gearing out is your reason to play PLD end game. You need exp to do this, and you need exp parties to get the exp, and 70+ with ToAU release, the need for a tank that can last long fights has pretty much disappeared. So plan to get something else up to get those merits your seeking.
Next abilities
Provoke- is your bread and butter move. Except in THF and /THF parties you should use it as often as possible. Thf and /thf parties require a delicate balance of hate gaining abilities.
Flash- Is your next best hate snagger, It's best used un conjuction with a Cure3 on you or a party member, it's basically a free chance to cast with gauranteed no interuption 80% of the time.
Cure's- these keep you and everyone alive use them, Cure 3 and 4 will snag hate pretty easily as well. If your a galka beware of the MP cost and be more conservative, if your a Elf you got more wiggle room, and if your a taru or Hume cast often.
Invincible- Your Best and Last Resort to gaining hate, makes impossible to damage with physical attacks for 30 seconds every 2 hrs
Defender- Good for upping the defence agianst mobs that hit especially hard, agianst weaker mobs it may be left off unless you need something to grab hate with, although this does not create alot of hate.
Berserk- Only use it get hate back, and quickly remove the status once the monster is back on you, not very good for gaining hate
Cover- This will be explained in the party position in and dynamics section indepth
Sentinel- weak hate grabber but there to be used none the less
Warcry- awsome hate grabber
Rampart- another awsome hate grabber
A good order of Abilities is Provoke >wait 10 15 sec if you can > Flash> Cure3> provoke once timer is up > wait 10-15 sec > some type of special ability > provoke > wait 10-15 secs > flash etc. etc. just keep repeating the cycle. Often there will be times when you have to dump all your abilities because your out of MP and you need to get hate back, Don't worry it happens.
helpful Macros are-
/Ja "Provoke" <bt>
/wait 1
/a <bt>
this will allow you to cast provoke and target and attack the enemy well before it reaches the party. without having to tab over to the mob manually. If you get a link and a mage sleeps the extra mob do not use this macro anymore, it will switch the target and voke the wrong mob. So only use this at the start of a fight.
/ja "Provoke" <t>
use this to cast vokes as the fight is going
/ma "Flash" <t>
Flashes the target follow it instantly with the next macro
/ma "Cure III" <stpc>
<stpc> will put the target option in your hands, use the directional or simply press F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 to directly target members of your party to cast on. F1 is you and F2 will be the next down in your party queue at the bottom right of your screen.
*Do not* stick little /p tags with your macro's it's annoying, especially with Voke, no one wants to see - Khevn> Hey over here you Dirty <t>! <provoke> every 30 secs and especially if you mess up and spam it 3 or 4 times. unless your calling your tp or mp you don't need a dumb tag. If your fortunate and very well off gil wise, attack equipment macros could be useful.
Now for the juicy info!
Positioning is Key to a good party! Where you stand can save tons of MP and keep everyone alive longer.
First the the /thf party in open space, it looks like this before SATA and TP is ready
----------------Melee
-------/thf----Monster----------------Mages
-----------------PLD
After you Gain TP the thf should be the only class that shifts Looking like this
----------------Melee
---------------Monster----------------Mages
-----------------PLD
-----------------/thf
The /thf moves behind the PLD, the Melee provokes and uses WS, /Thf SaTa WS and moves back to his position or goes to get another mob if the mage burst kills the beast. In hallways the position should be adjust slightly but in extremely narrow halways do this
--------------thf-PLD-Monster-Melee--------Mages
This is not great, but in extremely small hall ways it's your next bet.
Don't do this next one unless your stupid, why point anything at the mages if you don't have too.
--------------Melee-Monster-PLD-thf--------Mages = stupid
In my experience Bard in /thf parties can get very annoying and tedious, unless the bard is very good at watching the log and seeing what is happening and not casting ballad while the thf is in range. 3 times i've done this, and they haven't. So make sure they understand to becareful...
ok with 2 melees and Mages it's very simple
--------------------Melee
----------Melee-Monster--------------------Mages
---------------------PLD
The melee to your side should be the one that ends WS's so that can move behind you if Cover is required.
In small hallways it look looks like this
---------PLD-Monster---Meleex2----------Mages
Now with a bard and with open space and close space this is universal pretty much
---------Meleex2 Monster------------------Mages
--------------------------PLD
PLD stands slightly more angled to the mages to help the bard with balad and staying out of Melee songs.
In all situations the Closer of WS's should always be closest to the PLD to move behind hime for Cover.
ok now to explain Cover, Cover is at best a LAST RESORT before invincible, almost everytime the monster can be turned back on you with a VOKE, Flash, or Cure 3 or 4 or dumping your abilities, if this does not work, the Melee should be instructed with a macro like this --> /p Hey <stpc> get behind me I'm going to <Cover> you! once he is behind you /ja "Cover" <t>. This will tell the melee to get his ass in gear and set up yout targeting for cover. Never Move yourself, let them come to you, trust me it's eassier, your in the Ideal position to Reduce cone effects on other party members. So the one that is changing the mobs facing should simply move to you and wait there under <cover> till the mob is safely back on the PLD and then move back to Position. There several Reasons why they move and not you...
1. I will say it agian you are in the Ideal position to reduce cone effects from the mob hitting other players.
2. LAG! it takes a second or 2, more if the Latency is esp. bad for you to recieve 1 players movements and for them to recieve yours. This cannot be helped being that the servers are in Japan and, the other players and you are most likely if your reading this, in Europe or America. If you both move it will just get confusing and the cover will just get wasted or the melee/mage will die because you both took too long.
3. It keeps the party Dynamic and positioning more intact.
Finally if you used Cover, Dumped all your abilities and your out of MP, USE YOUR 2hr! jeez so many PLDs just let there fellow players die completely forgeting they have this....
Also time Your Heals You should start casting a Heal Just before the mobs attacks you. You want them to hit you right as the cast is between 1-20%. I think this works do to Latency, and HEAL YOURSELF plds should heal themselves, but do not waste all your mp in one fight doing this. Ration it out so that the WHM is not running low on MP and you can Cast Heals here and there to keep hate and cast Flash.
Now All this sounds easy right! HA wrong all this will go hay wire instantly if you screw it up wasting, Time, MP and getting other players killed if you screw up! Your the Tank, Your job is to do everything in your power to keep the mob on you and, if you die thems the breaks. Get used to dying in exp, cause in HNM/Dynamis your going to be dying 10X's more than anyone else.... If your LVL 25+ and you have something agiasnt eating the floor for other players as a PLD or NIN then these jobs aren't for you.
For Food I preffer Steamed Crab from 1 to 50-60ish and Tavnazian Tacos from then on, 3hr foods get kind of wasted on PLD since you tend to drop alot somtimes.
