Anyone try "unorthodox" materia for Gladiator?

[Estellios]

I was talking it over with my Gladiator friend, and we were wondering if anyone has tried any non-HP materia setups for Gladiator. Mainly stuff like STR or Attack (since increasing your damage helps hold hate), DEX (increasing crit rate/block rate), or Evasion. Has anyone tried this and noticed any effects on performance? We'd like to know before we potentially waste money/time on materia and going around trying to find a crafter to meld them on.

[Lebannen]

I think that would be a waste seeing as to how most GLA hold hate by vokes now, and self healing. Your better of putting enmity(touch of rage) on your sword instead of attack power.

[Rentahamster]

Str and attack goes only on weapons and hands, so you have many other spots to put HP.

Dex hardly does anything to block and crit rate.

[slipmac]

sword - hate
head - healing pot
body - vit
gloves - parry
belt - hate
legs - hp
feet - eva

i have hp on the shield but most the time im on ifrit when i play glad and i dont even equip it
this works pretty good for me

also what helps alot is having the axemanship like abilities set it helps your defender and bloodbath out alot. same for 2nd wind II and such

[syntaxlies]

i have +10 enmity on my sword and +10 enmity on my belt. and go for def over hp were possible beings that def will help preserve the hp you already have. I saw a guy yesterday that managed to pull off multiple perfect tier4 materia attachments on his whole gear set. very impressive.

[Estellios]

Thanks for the replies everybody. We'll try out some of your suggestions!

[Aratharn]

i have hp on the shield but most the time im on ifrit when i play glad and i dont even equip it
this works pretty good for me

So when you do Ifrit are you not tanking? I don't understand why you wouldn't have a shield equipped.

i have +1- enmity on my sword and +10 enmity on my belt. and go for def over hp were possible beings that def will help preserve the hp you already have. I saw a guy yesterday that managed to pull off multiple perfect tier4 materia attachments on his whole gear set. very impressive.

Adding DEF is a waste IMO as adding +15 DEF to my pool of 900 isn't really going to be noticeable.

[Jet]

Adding DEF is a waste IMO as adding +15 DEF to my pool of 900 isn't really going to be noticeable.

Adding 15-20 def to your pool of 900 is roughly the same ratio as adding 60-70 hp to your pool of 4000. But if you add the def then your mages will be able to preserve mp/enmity.

[Aratharn]

Fair point.

I've been meaning to test out some VIT builds.

[Estellios]

Adding 15-20 def to your pool of 900 is roughly the same ratio as adding 60-70 hp to your pool of 4000. But if you add the def then your mages will be able to preserve mp/enmity.

Yeah this was our reasoning for trying out Defense on spots that will take it. On this note, does anybody know if +Defense added on a shield is always-active or only active when you block with the shield? I can test it later but it would be nice if someone knew already.