Although I agree PLD could be made easier to do in such a way it replaces a WHM, however I know it can be done as is now. It would take realy decent gear and a good WHM, the whm would have to be carefull not to over heal the PLD, wastefull mp and time spent on a pointless cure where it coulda been spent on a stone skin is usally the most basic mistake a WHM dose when main healing a GOOD <--key word, PLD tank. As far as damage deflection, honestly PLDs have all the tools they need now to do it realy well. That being said I do belive that a magic defense or generic (all) elemental resistance stat added to all tank gear should be done. somthing wrong when your brd takes as much damage from a magic attack as your tank. For self heals, Honestly, holy succor on a 30 second cool and instant cast with no cost to tp or mp would certainly do the trick. consider it the same effect as a steel syclone with rampage on EXCEPT you can count on it to work every single time , and magic healing poteincy / mind would increase its effectivness. Not having to worry about spell cast times or interuption would be a great asset to a job that is supposed to take hits and heal itself ( I thought this one was kinda a no-brainer). But I agree that when somone is good enough with PLD they can completly and safely replace the "back up" healer or second healer then you effectivly increase the DPS output of the party above that of a 1 war , 2 whm, 5 dd pt. Not there yet, but once our LS is ready to enter garuda , gona test 1 pld, 1 healer and 6 war set up. I belive if war was set up in a way to reduce as much enmity as possable and increase the DPS as much as possable , not only would this be a super surviable party but PLD would hold hate well, whm wouldnt me stressed for cures and DPS will be high enough to take garuda down in speed run fasion. I would encourage anyone who has the support to do so, to try this set up. Would be intrested to see the results of an unbiased attempt