The time of the PLD DD has come!

[Alerith]

Ok, probably not really. I just like fun speculation. I'd like the hear what ya'll think the benefits and drawbacks are to the following setup. I'm not implying it will be up to par with a regular DD, I'm just musing over the possibilities.

PLD/SAM with a Great Sword using Resolution.

Now, our +2 Cuirass gives us Accuracy and Attack on par with Hachiryu. Not bad for PLD. Our +2 feet, legs and gauntlets give +4% haste each, you can put Zelus Tiara in your head slot for another +8% haste. The armor also gives nice STR and accuracy bonuses. Haste belts are all over the place, so pick one and slap it on.

Hasso for two handed bonuses, including attack speed. B ranking in Great Sword. Not the best, considering the club skill, but certainly not the worst. Still very useable. Sekkanoki back to back 5-hit weaponskills. Meditate is self explanitory. Seigan/Third eye to add to survivability if necessary.

Looks like a fun setup for messing around, maybe filling out a DD spot if you can't change to one or the situation won't allow you to.

Cheers!
-Ale

[Arcon]

Gear was never really the issue for PLD DDs. It was almost always able to use the DD gear as WAR or DRK, both for TP and for WS. It was the fact that PLD is, for most purposes, a one-handed melee, which generally arent as good as two-handed DDs, along with a lack of DD weapons, weapon skills and job abilities/traits, that was impairing our damage dealing capabilities the most. Now we have a big DD weapon (Caladbolg) and two DD WS (Torcleaver and Resolution). However, we're still lacking in the DD ability department. Every DD job has their share of abilities to push them ahead of other jobs. WAR has Retaliation, Blood Rage, Warrior's Charge, etc. SAM has Konzen-ittai, higher tier Meditate, high Store TP, several Skillchain augmentations. MNK has Impetus, very low attack delay, very high base damage due to H2H mechanics, and so on.

PLD is very lacking in that department, and has to live on its subjob, for DDing purposes. Also, note that, while Hasso for Great Sword may be nice, on most mobs PLD will actually gain faster TP with a Sword/Shield combination. I'm not sure about Requiescat, but even Chant du Cygne isn't too bad, if you can spam it like PLD with a high blocking shield. In a way, this makes Reprisal become a Paladin's best DDing ability. If Requiescat is better (which I'm assuming, since that seems to be the case for most, if not all, one-handed WS), it should be quite good to DD with as well.

Just don't assume you'll ever be able to approach the potency of other DDs, the gap in abilities is quite huge.

[Krysten]

i use DD staff Fulcrum pole and stacked MND and STR its like a Bomb lol. well in abyssea anyway