Good Swords and Shields

[Elemental]

Can anyone offer me a suggestion for the best easily obtainable sword and shield to use? By "easily obtainable", I mean preferably something I can buy off of the AH or other vendor with reasonable ease while working on some of the better exclusive items. It would also be useful to know if there is a better "tanking" sword and one better for dealing damage if there are better for each category.

I'm recently returned to the game and still using my Macuahuitl+1 and Koenig Shield from back in the day. I'd appreciate any suggestions!

[Caketime]

Weathering Shield (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Weathering_Shield)

Honorbound (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Honorbound)

There are likely others that are better, but these are the easiest obtainable that I can think of. The sword is an Abyssea boss drop, but Bennu is easy to beat down.

[Mayoyama]

Look on wiki for "sword trials" and look for the earth path ones... one of them, when upgraded, gives something like -12% PDT (paired with weathering shield as it compliments it)

Costs very little other that time and effort until the last 2 stages.. and soil geodes so easy to get. I personally finished mine up to the 85 version within 2 days

[Teraniku]

Look on wiki for "sword trials" and look for the earth path ones... one of them, when upgraded, gives something like -12% PDT (paired with weathering shield as it compliments it)

Costs very little other that time and effort until the last 2 stages.. and soil geodes so easy to get. I personally finished mine up to the 85 version within 2 days

Weathering Shield, while a poor man's Aegis, is ok. I just don't like the -10 to all elements tacked on it. If you're willing to do some GoV pages in Fei'Yin, the Dagda's Shield drops from locked chests there. It also appears on the AH quite often. Majorelle's Shield is also a good one as well and appears quite often on the AH (Though it's obtainable by doing a Boneyard Gully BCNM) These are probably the 3 best non Aegis, Ochain shields in the game. Argos shield is a decent one as well while doesn't have as high as defense as the others I've listed, with it's +25 all Elemental Defense on it, It's a viable option as well.

Sword on the AH, Pick one that you feel is the best fit for you, until you get a trial sword done.

Sword wise, work your way through the trials and make either, or both a Fire path sword with the +STR +Attack on it or an Earth path sword with the +VIT -PDT trait on it. You should be happy with either one, but if you go Fire path, be prepared to farm flame geodes for a while, because they can be quite expensive.

Main thing is, Find out what works best for you and your playstyle.

[Aeonk]

Weathering Shield, while a poor man's Aegis, is ok. I just don't like the -10 to all elements tacked on it. If you're willing to do some GoV pages in Fei'Yin, the Dagda's Shield drops from locked chests there. It also appears on the AH quite often. Majorelle's Shield is also a good one as well and appears quite often on the AH (Though it's obtainable by doing a Boneyard Gully BCNM) These are probably the 3 best non Aegis, Ochain shields in the game. Argos shield is a decent one as well while doesn't have as high as defense as the others I've listed, with it's +25 all Elemental Defense on it, It's a viable option as well.

Sword on the AH, Pick one that you feel is the best fit for you, until you get a trial sword done.

Sword wise, work your way through the trials and make either, or both a Fire path sword with the +STR +Attack on it or an Earth path sword with the +VIT +PDT trait on it. You should be happy with either one, but if you go Fire path, be prepared to farm flame geodes for a while, because they can be quite expensive.

Main thing is, Find out what works best for you and your playstyle.

I think you sorely underestimate the Weathering Shield.

the -10 elemental resistance has next to no negative impact on the damage you sustain in most situations. It doesn't actually increase the damage you take from those elements, it only guarentees that you aren't going to get a damage resist from them (which unless you're going full on resist build, you're not going to resist them anyway.) Now when you consider what it brings to the table, that being 10 MDT and 36 defense, the highest of the size 3 non Ochain/Aegis shields, I'd put it near the top personally.

Most of the shields you listed are not bad by any means. However they seem to cater to needs that can be fulfilled elsewhere.
Dagda's shield suggests using cure spam to hold hate, but that style of tanking would be better augmented with a Sanus Ensis than the shield, and if you don't have that sword then the 5% is going to be negligible. Still a solid overall shield though.

Majorelle shield has fast cast on it, but that's literally it. I wouldn't turn it down but it's not as important as it used to be back when we were all /NIN.

Argos shield... for the same reasoning why Weathering isn't bad, I'd say Argos is not good. Terrible defense rating with the elemental resist serving no purpose besides straight resist builds, I'd rate this shield below Seigneur honestly.

[Mayoyama]

Sword wise, work your way through the trials and make either, or both a Fire path sword with the +STR +Attack on it or an Earth path sword with the +VIT +PDT trait on it.

Erm.. firstly I think you mean -PDT not +PDT (no pld in their right mind would wield a sword with +12% PDT lol). Secondly, PLD isnt a DD, and therefore is not likely to need the STR sword

[Babekeke]

Erm.. firstly I think you mean -PDT not +PDT (no pld in their right mind would wield a sword with +12% PDT lol). Secondly, PLD isnt a DD, and therefore is not likely to need the STR sword

Correct, PLD is a tank, and whilst the enmity system is completely broken, the only way to tank is to deal damage.

Saying PLD is not likely to need the STR magian sword, is like saying PLD shouldn't need Excalibur or Almace.

[Mayoyama]

Correct, PLD is a tank, and whilst the enmity system is completely broken, the only way to tank is to deal damage.

Saying PLD is not likely to need the STR magian sword, is like saying PLD shouldn't need Excalibur or Almace.

Fair enough, had momentarily forgotten about that lol

Touché!

Although for the time/gil investment.. I would recommend making an almace/WoE sword over a str one..

EDIT: Although this also comes back to today's strategies of "why tank what you can zerg instead".. o PLD you really do need to be fixed (along with the emnity system)

[Teraniku]

Erm.. firstly I think you mean -PDT not +PDT (no pld in their right mind would wield a sword with +12% PDT lol). Secondly, PLD isnt a DD, and therefore is not likely to need the STR sword

lol Fixed thanks

[Carth]

Although for the time/gil investment.. I would recommend making an almace/WoE sword over a str one..

A STR Shikagar is so ridiculously easy to make that I would say any PLD that doesn't have Almace/Excalibur should at least have this one. The only thing that could possibly hold you back is Flame Geodes.

[Mayoyama]

A STR Shikagar is so ridiculously easy to make that I would say any PLD that doesn't have Almace/Excalibur should at least have this one. The only thing that could possibly hold you back is Flame Geodes.

Easy enough.. but very time consuming (especially if doing trial on pld instead of BLU) and I still think for all that effort you should work on an almace/woe sword instead... not to mention the sheer cost of flame geodes (and the scarecity of fire weather). I know you can garden for geodes now.. but thats going to take a looong time to get them

[Carth]

It's really not that long, even if you don't have BLU. I did mine on RDM and got mine done in a matter of four days. There was some luck involved, such as running into others doing trial themselves which sped up the process. But if you're willing to dedicate yourself to it, it can be done within the week.

[Zagen]

Honorbound (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Honorbound)

This is the best "easily obtainable" sword. The KI comes from a NM that's usually up or from gold chests. You can shout to give away the +2 items it drops or for people who need the kill.

To those suggesting the STR/Attack path, while it is relatively easy to complete assuming you can make the Firesdays, the gil it costs to make could be better spent on buying Briareus or Sobek pop sets to speed up progress on Almace as it'll give the biggest boost to "tanking". Here's some simple math to show the point:

Flame Geode 55 x 80,000 = 4,400,000
At 200k that's 22 pop sets, at 250k that's 17 pop sets.

Now you could say "well I'll get them while working on the sword" and that's true you will get some that way. I got an amazing 21 of them while making one for my BLU.

[Aethon]

http://wiki.bluegartr.com/bg/Thuellaic_Ecu
Thuellic ecu! If you feel like being a pld with some eva and a little extra haste its a decent piece. Smaller shield so it blocks more often but for not as much. The sheer amount of def and -pdt gear though can offset what damage you do actually take.
http://wiki.bluegartr.com/bg/Skeld_Sword
And for weapon, the Skeld Sword. VIT and shield skill to make you block more often.
Best thing, both are off the AH.

[saevel]

Fair enough, had momentarily forgotten about that lol

Touché!

Although for the time/gil investment.. I would recommend making an almace/WoE sword over a str one..

EDIT: Although this also comes back to today's strategies of "why tank what you can zerg instead".. o PLD you really do need to be fixed (along with the emnity system)

PLD is pretty useful for lowman orientaged groups, stuff like Meebles or Salvage II. In order to do those they need to change their mind set out of the "tank onry" mode. A PLD nowadays is going to need a full DD gear set, a Hybrid DD/DT gear set and a full turtle mode gear set. Use the full DD one for ash and trash, their basically just another DD at that point. Switch to Hybrid DD/DT set for NMs or somewhat dangerous monsters, then switch to full turtle mode for tanking big baddies. In low man your not having double BRD + COR super buffing to fight a level 120 mega boss capable of killing everyone in 5s. Of course any DD with a PDT set can do the same job, but hey with the current broken enmity system PLD's gotta find work where they can.