Relic of a bygone era

[PTT]

Re: Relic of a bygone era

(and yes, it's expensive, but seriously... Why do you even keep making that point? I can do whatever I want to, with my gil, can't I?)

Well, I'm not sure if he keeps bringing it up for this reason, but like I said, I'm a perpetually poor Paladin.

I'm not sure what it is - I just suck at making (and keeping) money in this game (I don't think I've ever had more than 900,000 gil on my own, usually 200k or less). I buy Regular, cheap versions of my equipment (unless the +1 is also cheap and/or provides a large benefit over the NQ, IE: Not just +1 more Stat-Here.)

Also, I don't have an HNMLS/Sea LS/Limbus LS, or even a BCNM LS, if those, in fact, exist. I used to be a part of one, but the constant HNM camping really burned me out, and it ended up being thrust into LS-Drama chaos before the shell finally split. I'm not really too keen on joining one again. So I'll probably not be taking on any HNMs for drops or money, probably not even see Absolute Virtue.

A certain HNMLS however, does allow me to go to their Dynamis with them, and lot on AF2. Valor gear, and maybe, +1 Valor Gear, is definitely a possibility. That Aegis-4 and Excalibur-4 (and Ragnarok-4) probably aren't going anywhere though, but I hang on to them anyway.

Apart from that though, I just kind of hang out with my friends in my social linkshells, do the occasional mission with them, stuff like that.

So in reality, I'm probably not going to get access to the extreme items, and I'll probably always have trouble with DDers in the super-duper piecemeal gear who unload on the monster as soon as it's caught. I still try though, because if I'm not getting hit, there's little use for all my damage reduction tools and heavy plate-mail.

But, I wondered if there was something within my scope of getting things done that I could change gear-wise, anyway. It's been a real long time since I changed PLD gear, so I might have missed something. Since I hear a lot about PLDs going Damage-Dealer, I thought I'd ask about that too. My highest melee is my 40 Warrior, you see, and it's literally been 4 years since I've levelled that job, so I'm quite out of touch with what actual Damage Dealers are supposed to wear

Thus, my post.

I thank everyone for their suggestions, and I'll take them into consideration. If anyone has anything to add, I'll be happy to listen, too :D

[Amele]

Re: Relic of a bygone era

you don't have to go DD pld to tank competently in endgame settings.

but I'll give you some other advice:

with the (relatively) recent increase in the number of instanced endgame events. (nyzul isle, limbus, dynamis, salvage) it's possible to get an "endgame" linkshell that has nothing to do with staring at the same 50' square of terrain for 3 hours (ok, 2 minutes out of every 30 for a three hour period). If you're interested in doing some of the content but don't want to deal with the drama of claim steals/bots/bitterness over going home empty-handed/"did you hear who got that last ridill? they totally didn't deserve it omg"-ness of actual *hnm* camping. look for a shell (or, frequently, several shells) that do endgame but not hnm.

that said: it's probably best to try and build your own set of gear rather than ask for total set advice, since the specific gear can vary so much from job to job (I'd never want a taru tank that used adaman/gem and I'd never want a galkan that used any lord's. etc.)

I'm a whitemage, so this is from a healer's perspective (both of what I like on a tank and what I see my tanks using.)

for exp: totally go pld/nin and DD. you'll have fun, and you'll contribute damage to the party making kills faster and exp better.

for events: generally, enmity, hp+, haste+, shield skill+, are the four things that modern paladins emphasize. obviously when pld/nin (without aegis) most will dual-wield, in which case dualwield+ would replace shield skill.

homam is a very good set for paladin. (although it lacks enmity+) but evaluate each piece individually against your available valor gear. don't forget you have gallant(+1) too: pld got a *great* af set, don't be afraid to use it. koenig (if you can find a sky linkshell you like) is hit or miss these days depending on slot. the most popular piece is the m.abj head (Koenig Schaller) which is a sky drop, you will also occasionally see m.abj hands or legs used, although it's my understanding these slots are much more situational.

I very much prefer valor body paladins, although I realize this can be hard to get. Gallant is my next preference, although I can see justification for adaman/gem (especially on elvaan or galka). Haven't had a homam body paladin yet (or an ares! but looking forward to our first one of those).

accessories: enmity, hp, haste, refresh. find a good balance.

for events that don't involve level 90+ mobs, defense and vit still have an effect, so don't completely neglect these, that said: sometimes taking more damage (within reason) is good - it means you can cure more for more hate, which means you'll tank it better.

most career paladin pick suppa (or more recently knightly for shield although I've been told this is a suboptimal choice: I took a bushi myself for totally unrelated reasons) for DM earring. baha should be pretty obvious.

kind of disorganized and rambling, but I hope that helps you out a bit

[Hankthetank]

Re: Relic of a bygone era

Having been a perpetually poor paladin in the past, I checked prices for a starter XP DD set.

Prices for Shiva server according ffxiah

Main hand: Company Sword $ 17,500
Off-hand: Joyeuse $ Free
Ranged: Lighting Box $ 5,500
Head: Optical Hat $ Ex/Rare and Free
Neck: Royal Guards Collar $ 4,500
Ear1: Fang Earring $ 5,000
Ear2: Fang Earring $ 5,000
Body: Hauby $ 480,000
Hands: Tarasque Mitts $ 79,500
Ring1: Venerer Ring $ 75,000
Ring2: Woodsman Ring $ 340,000
Back: Amemet Mantle $ 2,000
Legs: Royal Kgts Breeches$ 80,000
Waist: Life Belt $ 33,500
Feet: Amir Boots $ Assualt Reward Free
Totally Cost: $ 1,127,500
Cost Without Woodsman: $ 787,500

A Woodsman ring can be replaced with a Ex/Rare Jaeger ring which drops in Rivine Site and gives 4 acc. Truthfully even without the Woodsman ring this set still gives you 43 Acc which in conjunction with sushi is plenty for any XP party.

Get a Hauby first, its the most expensive piece but it is the foundation for your DD build and will server you very well. The Woodsman should be low on your list of priority purchases, should probably even pick up STRs first (Ruby Rings are fairly cheap). A+ rating with sword means you won’t need too much Acc when eating sushi. Other than those two everything is under 100K and add up to a $ 307,000, not too shabby for a decent DD set. Some things like the Amemet Mantle are an absolute steal on todays economy and should be picked up ASAP.

Overall it adds up to a decent starter XP /nin set allowing you to DDing a bit more while assisting the party with cures and flashes.

Do you do assault? Many assault rewards sell well, and you could probably make 100K a week easily just off of doing assault regularly. I personally find assault a lot of fun as well.

For a more Old School /war XP tanking setup, I’d start with your normal tanking gear and start swapping in DD gear until you are no longer comfortable with the damage you are tanking. Hauby + Lifebelt + bream sushi will increase your hit rate by a very significant margin (I’d expect a 90% hit rate), while in all likelihood not increasing your damage taken by too noticeable an amount. The large increase in landed hits will increase your damage output and will do more to help you hold hate than the enmity you lost in those slots would have.

Play around with it and enjoy it. Making a DD Paladin was one of the more enjoyable projects I took on. It helped me greatly in meriting my Paladin and keeping my buffer capped. For Dynamis I like your current setup and really wouldn’t change anything other than maybe getting a Mach+1, but, Joyeuse really works fine to. For missions and hanging out with your friends a DD set should serve you well.

Sincerely,
Hankthetank

[Sevv]

Re: Relic of a bygone era

just a couple of my ideas

Main hand: Company Sword $ 17,500
Off-hand: Joyeuse $ Free
Ranged: Lighting Box $ 5,500
Head: Walhra Turban r/e (haste rocks)
Neck: Pcc (expensive but if you have your nin to 37 you can get another nin and a rdm to do under observation. Pcc and can make some money to help your pld gear out)
Ear1: Merman(coral) Earring $
Ear2: Merman(coral) Earring $
Body: Hauby/Bryne (The Att + works well)
Hands: Tarasque Mitts $ 79,500
Ring1: Venerer Ring $ 75,000
Ring2: Woodsman Ring $ 340,000
Ring *: Assalants ring (+5 att also a good choice)
Back: Amemet Mantle+1(very common now and price is low on most servers) Cerb. Mantle (emnity+ and good att/str. a bit pricey atm but very well worth it)
Legs: Royal Kgts Breeches$ 80,000
Waist: Life Belt/ Swift Belt (Cop needed but haste+ very good on dd)
Feet: Amir Boots $ Assualt Reward Free

[Empedocles]

Re: Relic of a bygone era

Just a little question, how useful is Sarashi to a Lv.74-75 DD PLD? (Assume I have no endgame LS'es)

[Armando]

Re: Relic of a bygone era

Sarashi is completely useless regardless of job/level. It adds 1% more to your Dual Wield delay reduction.

[Lmnop]

Re: Relic of a bygone era

Armando has a radar. Every time someone posts the word "Sarashi," he appears in a poof of smoke.

[Sevv]

Re: Relic of a bygone era

Armando has a radar. Every time someone posts the word "Sarashi," he appears in a poof of smoke.

lol

[Empedocles]

Re: Relic of a bygone era

Thanks for being informative and to the point without being an ass about it, Armando

Armando has a radar. Every time someone posts the word "Sarashi," he appears in a poof of smoke.

I believe it's termed "bamf"

[Karinya]

Re: Relic of a bygone era

A couple minor points:

Ohat isn't free. Expect to pay 500k-1M for eye cluster, or spend quite a while farming eyes yourself (some are soloable pretty easily, some may not be soloable for PLD). Then you still need help to kill Hakutaku.

Assault Jerkin, on the other hand, *is* free (if you have a couple friends to camp it with you, but that's true of all the other "free" EX items too) and is a reasonable alternative to the big-money body pieces. You'll probably want to compensate for the lower acc somewhere else, but it provides superior attack. Swap out attack earrings for diabolos and fowling, for example, and you have similar performance to hauby for a small fraction of the cost. Against some mobs ohat + hauby + lifebelt is already well into diminishing returns on accuracy even with meat, and AJ can provide better performance even without a ton of acc jewelry and accessories.

Woodsman ring can be replaced with jaeger ring, a RA/EX drop from the Carmine Dobsonflies in Riverne A01. Easy fight with 3+ SMN (it's a 40 cap area so they only need to be SMN40). 1 less ACC, 500k less gil and jaeger has no negative stats like sniper and woodsman do.

Amir boots are free and quite nice, but will take several weeks of frequent assault to earn enough assault points for them (longer if you divide your assault activites between multiple areas). They're a good target to work toward, but I wouldn't consider them entry-level gear. (You don't *need* gear from any endgame activity - including Assault - to merit, but it can help.) If you don't have access to amir, other high-level ex footgear or expensive stuff like dusk ledelsens, you may be stuck with tiger.

[tuggler]

Re: Relic of a bygone era

A couple minor points:

Ohat isn't free. Expect to pay 500k-1M for eye cluster, or spend quite a while farming eyes yourself (some are soloable pretty easily, some may not be soloable for PLD). Then you still need help to kill Hakutaku.

I farmed all of my eyes as either 75 PLD/THF, PLD/WAR or PLD/NIN.

You can get the Earthen eye easily enough as any of the above combinations. The rest are all duoable, especially with a RDM, BLU or THF helping you. You might just be able to get away with soloing some of the others as PLD/NIN, but the real bane is paralysis, if it sticks (and it usually does) and lasts long enogh, you're toast. Take some remedies with you or something.

I've not tried any of them as PLD/RDM, but reckon it shouldn't be too difficult.

[Amele]

Re: Relic of a bygone era

I did all of the eyes (except den of rancor's which were VT) duo as whm/blm + rdm/blm. so there's *no* way that high strength A+ weapon job can't duo (or better) them.

look into assault jerkin. buy a haubergeon. Assault jerkin is for jobs that can't wear haub and don't have their homam yet. (haubergeon really is worth the money) it's not acc+3 att+18 vs acc+10, att+10, it's acc+3 att+18 vs acc+12.5 att+12.5 dex+5 str+5, which isn't even *close* (yes, I realize you lose evasion and agi. you are a paladin, wear your AF or JSE if -20 evasion is gonna hurt too hard). If you've got 8/8 sword merits, consider Byrnie instead. (it may be slightly cheaper) you lose out on 2 strength and 8 dex but gain 20 evasion and 10 more attack.

if you can only get one item on the above lists, I'd say get the haub.

[Karinya]

Re: Relic of a bygone era

That's true, except if you've already replaced the woodsman with jaeger, then the hauby is more expensive than *everything else combined*. (Well, unless you follow Sev's suggestion of a peacock charm. But RG collar, or a chiv chain from Assault, will do fine in that slot until you can afford to spend a lot of money on a little upgrade.)

If you can either get one item or lots of items, then get the other stuff to wear while you're saving up for the hauby.

Anyway, I could just as easily say hauby and homam are for people who don't have their ares yet... it isn't very relevant to the OP or people in a similar situation. If you only have half a million gil and can get a hauby or *everything* else on Hank's list (and get friends to help you fight for AJ and Jaeger), delay the hauby and get the other stuff. Then try to raise the money for the hauby later and wear that until you get one of the really awesome endgame pieces.

The performance of hauby is pretty decent, but its performance/cost ratio stinks compared to most of the other gear discussed in this thread.

[Amele]

Re: Relic of a bygone era

the big difference between ares and haubergeon is that haubergeon is AH gear and ares well.. isn't. it's a good point though. (I listed homam because dragoon and thief can't wear haubergeon, and are two of the jobs you'll see using AJ into the later levels.)

I guess prices are a bit different between my server and sev's (and yours?) a haub on my server is about 500k. the amemet+1, r.k. breeches, and earrings are already 500k and for paladin (who's going to probably want enmity on his back piece if he's still tanking and frequently has better earring choices) the haubergeon will likely outperform these. (byrnie's even cheaper, one merman + amem+1 will get a byrnie)

either approach would be good, I think, but I tend to buy the most expensive piece first when building a new gear set (so that the set is completed faster after the first actual purchase).

[Lmnop]

How do all PLD threads turn into DDPld threads?

there's also the issue of overall functionality (versus niche) and of gains per slot.

Haub may be just as good as 2x acc rings + AJ + Fowling Earring but that's 4 slots vs 1. When you're trying to make hybrid builds, it's much easier to sac one great slot for one cause and focus the rest of your build elsewhere. This has long been the basis for Lifebelt on Paladins.

I agree with Karinya in that if you can get the freebies, do so. They will save you much heart ache while you build towards perfection.

Random thoughts continued...

Haub on my server is like 800k last I checked, while woodsmans are 400 each. This means that if you have 400k, you may as well invest in a woodsman, and just sell it when you've accrued (amount to buy haub - 400k + desired pocket change). To each his own. Just be flexible.

P.S. I would like to see a build like Hank's DD layout applied to pld/war in a merit party. With fast Flashes and a sturdy Shield, I bet you could still negate enough damage to be worthwhile and actually tank for half your fights. Would be interesting to see, anyway. Though you'd prolly end up swapping off Pcharm for Parade Gorget a lot.