Any Pld Tips for Thordan?

[Ashkendor]

On the rare instances when they I don't want to use HG here, HIGH mitigation is essential. That means Sentinel + Foresight + Bulwark + Convalescence, OR Sentinel + Rampart + Convalescence. Either of these should be enough, depending on how good your healers are.

You shouldn't need to stack that many cd's to mitigate that even if the knight is in Sword Oath. I take it with Sentinel or Sentinel + Foresight if they have Battle Fever. I tend to save Hallowed Ground for KotR5, so the healers can focus on healing the party through the AoE damage. If DPS is good enough to kill it before that consistently, I'll use it on the Sword Oath Holy Bladedance instead.

@OP - I honestly don't even try to push DPS in Thordan EX beyond what I feel I can safely do. I use my melded accessories because I just don't feel comfortable in full Slaying. Heavenly Heel followed by the cleave has killed me way too many times with 16k hp. What I try to do is make myself as easy to heal as possible so the healers can concentrate on keeping the DPS and the OT on their feet. The only real time I spend in Sword Oath in this fight is the first time Zephirin is out and during the Meteor phase.

I use Rampart + Sheltron for every Heavenly Heel except one. I use Sentinel for the one after KotR3 because I want Rampart for a bit later on. When I know a Heavenly Heel is coming up I also make sure the RoH debuff is on the boss. Any time Adelphel is in Sword Oath, I keep the debuff up on him too. You can catch a lot of the frontal cleaves in the fight with Sheltron by popping it in your opener, when the first Dragon's Gaze is casting, and at other times like when Adelphel/Janeloux are casting Divine Right (it will then trigger on Heavenly Slash) and when your party gets knocked back into Dragon's Rage (he will cleave immediately when he gets back to you). It takes some finagling with the timing, but it's nice to put a dent in that cleave damage. Sheltron also works if you have a tether right before the meteor phase, but that's kinda for giggles because realistically the tether does laughable damage to you.

Divine Veil I use at Ultimate End and for the Quagga/Heel/Quagga combo between KotR 4 and 5. Rampart during the cast for the first Quagga, Sheltron + Divine Veil for the Heel since I know I'm going to get topped off after that anyway, then the party is mitigated for the second Quagga. The only time I really use Clemency is after the first Sacred Cross, because at that point there's zero chance of getting interrupted. I admittedly probably don't use this skill enough simply because it does get interrupted so easily if you mistime it.