PLD Gear Advice. Please assist

[Skinwalker]

I haven't read the whole posts so I might say stuff that has been said already... but I wouldn't focus to much on STR and ACC on your PLD since you should consider that the PLD could loose his emn+ bonus WSs in 2.0 (since we only get one self combo) So in the worst case you'll end up as a gimp DD PLD in 2.0 with that gear/materia choice.

Imo you should stick with EMN+ and Block rate (HP + DEF as well when you have room for it) because emn + will guarantee that you will hold hate at the end and there is no proof that your dmg output in 2.0 will generate the same hate as it does now.

2 cents and stuff

[Molly_Millions]

I haven't read the whole posts so I might say stuff that has been said already... but I wouldn't focus to much on STR and ACC on your PLD since you should consider that the PLD could loose his emn+ bonus WSs in 2.0 (since we only get one self combo) So in the worst case you'll end up as a gimp DD PLD in 2.0 with that gear/materia choice.

Imo you should stick with EMN+ and Block rate (HP + DEF as well when you have room for it) because emn + will guarantee that you will hold hate at the end and there is no proof that your dmg output in 2.0 will generate the same hate as it does now.

2 cents and stuff

I dissagree. Good armor and weapons in 1.0 will still be as good relative to other currently existing armor and weapons in ARR. Why am I so confident about this? Because of this statement about keeping the balance:

Changes to Gear Attributes

The attributes of various gear may be adjusted due to the extensive redesign of the battle system. Rest assured we will do our utmost to minimize the impact upon the effectiveness of any existing gear.

http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com...e956cb586363ab

So what do I think the stat overhaul entails? I think that base stats (STR, VIT, DEX, etc.) from armor will be adjusted to be less affective. This will create a greater balance with derived stats (DEF, attack power, ACC, etc). As such, some armor with big bonuses to derived stats may have those bonuses reduced in order to keep the balance that's currently in place. I personally think that all this worrying about materia melded gear becoming crap is baseless speculation.

[SwordCoheir]

So what do I think the stat overhaul entails? I think that base stats (STR, VIT, DEX, etc.) from armor will be adjusted to be less affective. This will create a greater balance with derived stats (DEF, m.ATTK, ACC, etc). As such, some armor with big bonuses to derived stats may have those bonuses reduced in order to keep the balance that's currently in place. I personally think that all this worrying about materia melded gear becoming crap is baseless speculation.

Aye, from alot of what people have been guessing at is the DPS Stat caps would likely be lowered in order to give more value to stats like Atk., Crit. Atk., Acc., etc. in order to get people to diversify their equipment more. Considering PLD has to juggle more stats than any job anyways, and it's a bitch to even hit the 350/310 mark without some super triple melds, it might turn around too PLD's favor with the lowered DPS cap requirements.

[Molly_Millions]

Aye, from alot of what people have been guessing at is the DPS Stat caps would likely be lowered in order to give more value to stats like Atk., Crit. Atk., Acc., etc. in order to get people to diversify their equipment more. Considering PLD has to juggle more stats than any job anyways, and it's a bitch to even hit the 350/310 mark without some super triple melds, it might turn around too PLD's favor with the lowered DPS cap requirements.

I think that they probably have two options, lower the rates that base stats effect DPS, or lower the caps. (They probably even have a third option which would be to do both, but for the sake of arguement, lets just look at the first two.) Personally, I hope they go with the first option, because it'll be easier to keep the balance with current gear. In effect what lowering the rates would do is make it so that it's not as important to hit the caps on base stats giving the player more flexibility in what materia to attach to thier gear. In essance whether you go with (using WAR as an example because it's stats are simpler than PLD) STR or attack power, you could reach the same DPS numbers just as easily.

If they chose the route you suggest (lowering the caps) we still have the problem where nobody will use attack power until after they have capped base stats. In my opinion, lower the base stat:effective DPS ratio gets at the heart of the current problem more effectively. But I digress, this is still speculation at this point.

[SwordCoheir]

If they chose the route you suggest (lowering the caps) we still have the problem where nobody will use attack power until after they have capped base stats. In my opinion, lower the base stat:effective DPS ratio gets at the heart of the current problem more effectively. But I digress, this is still speculation at this point.

I think there's a third and that's reducing the base stats of stat materia (IE:TIV STR from 16-20 -> 8-12) making it harder to achieve DPS stat cap and maybe allowing more emphasis on other stats if the bonuses, from say triple melded TIV attack gloves equals or outweighs a TIV triple melded STR gloves.

In any case, I think any of the three would probably have the same effect overall, because in any case people either won't be hitting that stat cap or will be easily over the cap reducing their effectiveness and giving more value to other stats like Attack.

[Molly_Millions]

I think there's a third and that's reducing the base stats of stat materia (IE:TIV STR from 16-20 -> 8-12) making it harder to achieve DPS stat cap and maybe allowing more emphasis on other stats if the bonuses, from say triple melded TIV attack gloves equals or outweighs a TIV triple melded STR gloves.

In any case, I think any of the three would probably have the same effect overall, because in any case people either won't be hitting that stat cap or will be easily over the cap reducing their effectiveness and giving more value to other stats like Attack.

While that may true be true, I think one key thing to consider is the quote above from the "money" post. While there are several ways they could approach stat changes, some throw off the balance of current gear more than others. They could go with any of those approaches, but may need to adjust stats on DL and HDL gear for example. If we place a lot of importance on keeping the current balance while making fundamental changes, I believe the simplest option in terms of the amount of dev work is to reduce the ratio of base stats:dps and keep the caps as they are. But if making DL and HDL gear better (relative to melded gear) is one objective of the changes, then I could see them going one of the other routes. The problem again, is that adjusting stats on materia would seem to contradict the qoute from the "money" post above.

[Aceofspades]

[Aceofspades]

this is just melded gear total stats are:

str : 212
vit :394
Dex : 209
Mnd : 276
Atk : 476
Def : 758
healing pot. : 425
Acc : 352
eva : 341
enmity: +53
block rate: +107
block power: +123
HP : 3492

this set up is not at all popular, I focus heavly on Def and vit, with food and in a full party, my def can easly reach 1000+ vit also goes up slightly. If Fighting a boss where there is a chance i may be one shotted by a tp move (example: coin counter's 100 tonze swing) then using potions and food I can raise my hp just high enough to avoid the one shot death.

However, the instances in wich higher hp is even neccissary are few. Higher vit and def tend to serve very well in every fight.

Mind stacking does several things for a PLD (unless they change it in 2.0)

1: mind is a enmity multiplier for pld, altho only slightly tested, my conclusions are that mind does more for enmity then the actual "enmity" stat on pld.

2: mind is also a damage multiplier on pld, self explanitory, mind increases damage and thus also increases enmity.

3: mind also increases healing magic potincey, as a pld this is very usefull for survivability and strong/fast enmity build. Highly recomend building mind/healing potiency for "holy succor" and extreamly strong hate ability.

Vit is also usefull in multiple ways. Vit not only supports your def base but it increases your magic resistance, block power and total HP pool. With "devine veil" block power is a awsome stat to build
as it can be super effective on physical damage, the higher the block power the more damage is mitigated. Keep in mind this also comes in handy with abilities that return hp and/or mp according to the damage mitigated by a block.

Str does increase attack power, obviously, however enless your in a solo/duo situation I suggest you refrain from investing heavly in a "dps PLD". Even tho it is possable, it is a great waste of time and resources as the war is a far better and easier option when it comes to a "offensive tank"

A large HP pool is great to have, but I do not recomend that being your main goal. As I said earlier, their are few fights in wich having a large HP pool is more benificial then taking less actual damage overall.

Dex increases Accuracy, and Block Rate. Both of wich are great to have, but not a priority untill other stats have been caped.

Enmity, from what I have seen and tested, works best with dps. It is great to have built up but not at the cost of any of the other stats. PLDs do not specialize in DPS and there fore have very little use for the "enmity" stat. None the less, if none of the other stats listed above are available to stack in a slot, enmity would be my next choice.

this is the best advice I could give , but everything is subject to change in 2.0, Although I do not suspect they will change much on how stats work in the game. I have heard rummor and even seen dev posts of Def getting a sort of buff. aside from that, I wouldnt speculate further.

[SwordCoheir]

I don't know why your even posting this since 1.0 is officially over, the mechanics and abilities are being reworked, thusly rendering argument for either side pretty much null and void now.