Requesting some Gear and Skill help.

I'm a career DRK, but leveled up PLD as my secondary job. Before Abyssea, I had leveled my PLD all the way to 64. After Abyssea, I got tired of camping birds in ToAU and just left PLD alone until recently when I started joining my LS Fell Cleave parties.

Now, my PLD is 85 and I'm finding myself completely unsure of what to do as far as gear besides the new AF gear in Abyssea. I'm not even sure if that gear is "good" or not in the eyes of Paladin players.

My current grasp on the situation is that Paladins have no problem generating enmity, but it comes down to swapping between -PDT/-MDT gear and DD gear. Correct me if I'm wrong on this.

So, my current PLD gear is just a Perle set with some VIT/DEF accessories thrown in and every guide I read on PLD equipment stops at 75 and all say the same thing: Defense and VIT only! Therefore I've come here to ask for advice on what gear to use. First, gear I can use right away off of Perle or AH or a simple farm, then gear I should eventually shoot for. So far the only things I'm told I should take time investing in are Honorbound and the new AF gear. I don't know anything outside of those.

Now, as far as skill-ups, my sword and sheild skills need topping off. Especially shield. What strategy do you recommend for me to get effecient skill-ups? Someone suggested decking out in -PDT gear, grabbing a ton of Mandies and then going afk, but I have no -PDT gear to speak of. Seriously, I'm a gimped PLD in gear and skills.

I love the job, though, so I want to use it to great potential. I hope many of you full-time or intelligent PLDs can help me out.

And please, no "level ninja" responses. I'm well aware of PLD's current Abyssea situation, but I am serious about having a strong PLD secondary and need some help.

First thing: Ignore 95% of PLD guides and players because they all seriously suck total ass at the job. DEF/VIT is crap.

After that, treat PLD as you would any other Melee with Magical access in this game. TP in a TP set, Oshit in an Oshit set, MDT in an MDT set, PDT in a PDT set, WS in a WS set, and Cast in Casting sets.

Joyeuse is extremely underpowered these days due to its extremely low Damage rating, despite its OAT. I would not bother with the sword at all, even for dual wielding (Even a Hannibal's Sword does more damage offhand). However, it's a decent skillup sword if you're far enough behind that you need to AFK on something to hit cap. For normal skillups, just use proper swords and you'll skill to cap just playing normally.

Shield skillups are a bit more of a pain though. For these, I would set Regen/HP/PDT atmas and grab a few Mandies in Abyssea-Altep along with as much PDT/Shield gear as you can get. Subbing DNC should make you invincible.

I would absolutely not bother with an Honorbound unless you really just did not want to put any effort into Magian swords. If you're unable to gather the resources together to complete an Almace, your second best option by a massive margin is a Badelaire +2 for CDC. Offhand should be either a STR Shamshir+2, DEX Shamshir+2 (CDC only), or a Double Attack+ Khanda+2 (This is the one with literal Double Attack+, not the OAT/OA4). VIT swords are absolute crap used only by people who can't get over the fact that PLD is not their "Knight in shining armor" fantasy ideal.

As for gear, I'm not really sure what to tell you in particular.

Get a capped PDT set for whenever you're getting smashed and need to not die.

Get a capped MDT set (25%~ is solid with Shell V) for swapping into if you need to when you're going to take magic damage.

Get 2 solid TP sets with 25% Haste and solid DD stats (One for Sword/Shield and another for Dual Wield).

Get a shield+/Spell Interruption Rate down set for Ichi casting.

Get an Enmity+50 set for Enmity JAs, and an Enmity+ set with 25% Haste and some Fast Cast for Flash.

You can create a Cure Cheat set if you want, but they're not used as much these days since PLD can get more Enmity from damage than in the time you take casting the spell. If you do make a cure cheat, make one for 3 and for 4. Use Cure IV's cheat when you have Sentinel up because your Enmity+ is capped; use Cure 3's cheat when Sentinel is down because the lower HP+ requirement means you can pack more Enmity+ into the set.

I'm not really sure what else to tell you. I could try giving you particular example sets but I doubt that would do much good because I have no idea what your particular means are. PLD is just like every other job in the game; it's not special. The only difference is that people have this completely unfounded belief that they're allowed to be lazy as shit on "Non-Tank" jobs and only own TP/WS sets.

Alright. I have a pretty firm grasp on what you're saying, then.

I'll do some research and see what sets work well. DRK and PLD share a lot of -PDT and -MDT sets it seems, so I can probably kill 2 birds with one stone if I get gear that can be used for both, then branch out to DRK and PLD specific things.

But I think your line of "treat it like any other DD" might relieve some stress I have about properly gearing the job. Thank you.

Still, I'm willing to hear what others have to say as well. I'm open to many ideas.