PLD vs WAR: testing

[Enfarious]

I think that was to be expected, WAR has had, still has, and will have better DMG output than PLD, it's how they designed it. PLD (in theory) has staying power of WAR, which your test does show.
The question, I think, is more to whether PLD is now a viable replacement in a tanking role for WAR. The answer remains "no", Ifrit was the same fight on PLD, I did a bit more dmg than before, but for the most part it ran exactly the same on PLD. WAR was a slightly different story, first fight I wasn't prepared for how much of a difference in hate gen. there was gonna be. I saw my first SC land for ~150 dmg of course BLMs saw SC go off and started in on the beat down. I didn't have nearly the kind of hate we're used to, Ifrit turned. People had to hold back.
All told PLD worked far better in the end with just a little dmg reduction, just enough that I can mostly keep myself standing and we could trade a WHM for another DD (or just let a CNJ/WHM nuke most of the fight) it would more than offset WAR dmg output.

Edit: I was wearing full AF, everything else stayed the same. PLD: Unmelded Cobalt Winglet+Kite WAR: Unmelded Demilune Bhuj. Party make ups were your typical blmx5 whmx2 and me, or occasionally swapped a blm for a brd.

[Alerith]

Uhm it takes a lot longer to kill it on Pld and still Pld only took 80% of the damage War took?

I think people need to take more notice of this. For the amount of time longer a PLD takes to kill something, it still takes a fair amount of damage less.

Now, this only factors into the solo aspect of the job. When in a group, the damage killing the NM probably isn't coming from you.

[Zantetsuken]

This is what I discovered in this test..

PLD can easily survive this fight.. there wasnt' a moment where I felt I was in danger of dying. I found that the new "shield block stopping spell interruptions" is a stealth buff for PLD, as Stoneskin is easy to cast on yourself when needed.

WAR on the other hand was a bit of a back and forth... I killed it faster than PLD to be sure, but I dipped pretty low in health and in one of the tests I died.

One thing I noticed was that both jobs had some difficulty hitting the mob.. Accuracy drops off quite a bit against a mob 7-8 levels above you.

From my experience with this test, the only recommendation I would make is to give PLD an accuracy bump. That would put both jobs a bit closer to the DPS mark against higher lvl mobs, and yet allow them to retain their very different styles of tanking.

ALso, I think much of the QQing over PLD might be premature. I'm gonna give this some time and really push PLD in engame stuff to see how it performs.

[KumaAkuma]

The Garuda sword is ther only melee weapon that doesn't have acc. Like Pld doesn't need acc! It's so infuriating. It's the same with the Heavy Dark Light set. All those nice emnity +stats mean nothing if you can even hit your target.

[GinTama]

you cant test a pld solo to see how good he tanks now .... best test is in a party....

[Alerith]

you cant test a pld solo to see how good he tanks now .... best test is in a party....

While I certainly agree this should be the case, there are so many variables in a party test that it's almost not worth doing.

For example, if in one test a WAR holds hate on Ifrit and deals good damage, but a PLD can only hold hate, WAR is prefered because it dealt more damage.

In a second test, a WAR may lose hate to a BLM. The PLD could hold solid hate, and do more damage with Spirit's Within. PLD would be prefered.

In a third test, a WAR may hold hate, but die due to a lack of proper support. PLD could lose hate to a BLM in this test.


The more variables you add to a test, the more corrupt the end data is going to be, because it's not just that one job that is being involved in the test.

[Zantetsuken]

This test more about raw survival vs a mob +7-8 lvls higher.

One of the biggest complaints has been that WAR is a DD that is just as good as PLD at taking heavy damage (if not better). But with PLD's recent buffs, I don't find this to be the case anymore.

In my experience, PLD can handle higher level mobs much more comfortably than WAR can. In fact, I suspect that as people become accustomed to the changes - many pts that require 2 WHMs might be able to go with just 1 if they have a PLD instead of a WAR. The extra WHM can be converted to a BRD and the Party will likely be better overall for DPS as well as healing...

Of course, WAR is much better at crowd tanking mobs that are closer to its lvl. So they each have their uses

[Zantetsuken]

Used Mog Weapons on both jobs, AF and same accessories on both.

Tested Laughing Mongrel 58
Paladin 25.39 dps, 12.57 hps, 3255 damage taken
Warrior 68.50 dps, 17.69 hps 4171 damage taken

Overall the mob dies much faster on warrior vs paladin.

I've found this to be similar to my tests. However, what isn't accounted for is that with the healing and stoneskin etc.., a PLD's lifebar can be maintained at over 60% the entire fight.

On the other hand, WAR seemed to often be in situations where it was a crit or 2 away from KO, even with every defensive buff I had running. This was a bit surprising to me...

[Nero]

Uhm it takes a lot longer to kill it on Pld and still Pld only took 80% of the damage War took?

Whats so suprising about that?

[charlemagne]

In the spirit of experimentation we decided to throw something new into the PLD vs WAR mix. Last night we used a PGL tank on Coincutter,Chimera and Mistress. A PGL has access to the various cross class skills it needs and has the single target dps to help keep hate and to make the fight go quicker. We used a PGL in the Gryphonskin set with only a couple of single melds for an extra 20 def and 21 eva. With food and fists of earth def sat at pretty much the same as a well geared WAR but with higher evasion. Our tank who has hundreds of runs in these dungeons as WAR tank and a few as PLD reported that the fight was more fun. AS DD we found that once hate was established we could actually push dd a little harder without stealing hate and the fights went a little quicker.
I would say obviously it is important only to use pgl tanks in fights where you can be sure that they wont run out of mp for fists. Refresh, mp regain abilities and an emergency elixir help but longer fights may still be problematic. The bosses we tried were no problem at all though and no elixirs were required.