PLD Gear?

[Aceofspades]

Why would you set yourself up for failer?

Soo you say if I complete these pre reqs in your mind to make any adivice I have , lagit, then you will be forced to accept them as such? There is nothing wrong with having standards, but if your going to rage soo hard against somones ideals, you should probably set the standard in wich you can accept said ideals, a bit higher.
Realy? Speed runs and Darnus?

Ok , if YOU say it must be so, then it MUST be so , right? I will get the achivements im my own good time, and I will do it with my current gear set. Great examples for the new tanks in the game btw " you gota have this gear or your a shit tank" get over yourselves.

And I will go even further by saying this, to all new tanks to the game,

Enmity should not be on the top of your priority list, imo. There is one sure thing that defines a tank from anyone else in the party, and its not pulling hate. Tanks were dubed , "tanks", for a reason, they are designed and intended to mitigate damage in such ways no one else in the party can. Holding hate is equally important of an aspect , but between holding hate and mitigating damage, only one of those two aspects can your party support you in. Healers ensure your HP dosent bottom out and can buff you to complement your damage mitigation but ultimatly its the damage you mitigate that defines you as a TANK. If enmity was the only real concern here then MNK tanks would be huge right now.

Stay alive and Keep hate, both rely on eachother to be valid. The party can only help you with one of those.

[Brannigan]

Why would you set yourself up for failer?

Soo you say if I complete these pre reqs in your mind to make any adivice I have , lagit, then you will be forced to accept them as such? There is nothing wrong with having standards, but if your going to rage soo hard against somones ideals, you should probably set the standard in wich you can accept said ideals, a bit higher.
Realy? Speed runs and Darnus?

No, this is not what I said. You have not cleared the dungeons at all. The hardest thing you've beaten is Mog and I'd bet that you did it on BLM or something. The reason I harp on your lack of experience is because you are CLEARLY playing a different game. This game is about speed and efficiency. Speed runs, boss timers (which can actually be an issue on Darnus), and relic leves all require your damage dealers to push hard. As a tank it's your job to keep the monster facing one direction so that they can do that. While survival is also a priority, you haven't even fought anything that threatens a normally-geared paladin.

I'm not telling you to get a certain gear set and stick to it. I'm not telling you that people without darklight gear are trash. I'm telling you to gear to the situation. Right now there is no situation in this game that calls for 370 vitality.

If you actually set out to complete goals beyond mog then you will see why gearing like you do is inefficient.

[Neversleeps]

What materia can you put on a chest piece that will contribute to damage or enmity for a PLD?

Afaik, there is none, hence my focus on damage mitigation.

For your chest piece, it's not the materia that is relevant to DD Tanking but the gear itself. If you're lucky, the Darklight Cuirass is an excellent piece to use as it offers Str : +15, Vit : +15, Attack Power : +20, Crit Attack Power : +50 and the same defense as a Cobalt Cuirass +1.

If you are unable to get the Darklight Cuirass (really, it's just a luck thing so this isn't a comment on lack of skill or any other such bs), your best bets are to either go with a Darksteel/Cobalt Haubergeon. They offer STR, Accuracy, and Att. All useful stats when trying to DD, and moderately good defense as well. As you pointed out, there is really no good DD materia associated with bodies. As a result, the best for all around usage would probably be HP (universally the best because it also affects SW damage and having too much HP never hurt). Vit or Defense aren't bad options either, but it really depends on what you're tanking.

For the body, it's mainly just about getting away from the habit of using the highest defense, best 'tanking stats' piece and being willing to sacrifice some HP, some Def, and some Vit to go with a non-traditional body piece in the Haubergeon.