I find I never need to use all three pcs of HDL on PLD even so. For Chim I drop the flanchard for felt trousers and sentinel sabatons with 3x hp melds, and not for te survival but for the spirits damage boost. For Ifrit extreme I only used HDL gauntlets and ran HP gear/surcoat (cover) for the same reason as above, plus melee damage is reduced on it so enmity is not as large an issue there (can get ahead of melee due to jumps, nail phases and other breaks in consistent damage).