PLD Gear?

[Judge_Xero]

This is my current gear, and a build I personally recomend, not where I would like to stop however.

Nice build. High defense and the ability to reduce 50%+ of damage with Divine Veil.

The only thing I could recommend is to change your Gauntlets. In your case 26+ Dex would be much better because it would add the same Block Rate, but you would get accuracy as well.

Explorers Choker is good in place of the Stonewall as well, and I'm sure you're waiting to grab yourself a Militia Choker for that extra 3% Enmity


Since you will be doing so little damage, you're going to need all the accuracy you can get.

From looking at the charts on "Block" Dlvl has little effect now as far as %

The stats are:
0.2% Reduction per 1 Block stat
0.1% Reduction per 1 Vit Stat (Is there a cap on VIT?)

The formula works a bit different though for anything at or above your level.

So for Ace (Vintage Kite Shield @ 120 Block ='s 24%)
Assuming there's no cap on VIT: @ 374 VIT.

Here's where it gets strange. You basically take 100 VIT off the top, so 274, and that get's you roughly in the range of what your benefit is. So 27%

For a grand total of 51% +- 6% depending on Dlvl.

• mh ~ Ifrit's Blade - (Giantsgall Longsword, or Moogle)
• Head ~ Militia Armet - (Good) or (Cobalt Celata melded with MND)
• Body ~ Gallant Surcoat - (Cobalt Cuirass (HP + VIT), melded with VIT, or (Cobalt Hauby (STR + Acc), melded with VIT)
• Legs ~ Gallant Cuisses - (Felt Trousers melded with either STR/VIT or VIT/DEX)
• Hands ~ Militia Gauntlets (Good) or (Cobalt Gauntlets with STR)
• Feet ~ Sentinel's Sabatons - (Meld yours with HP) or (Explorers Sabatons) or (Milita Sabatons) or (Darklight)
• oh ~ Thormoen's Purpose (Good) or (Vintage Kite Shield HQ +5 MND, with HP or Def)
• Ears ~ Stonewall Earrings (Good) or (Rosegold Earring, MP+HP)
• Neck ~ Stonewall Choker (Explorers or Militia Choker)
• Wrists ~ Coral Armillae +1 (Raptorskin Bracelet HQ)
• Right Finger ~ Stonewall Ring (Electrum Ring HQ)
• Left Finger ~ Rubellite Ring (Good)
  
  ** Tuna Miq'abob is great food - Accuracy and STR

Your biggest upgrades will be Felt Trousers with a good Double Meld and a stronger weapon.

For the Gladiator Guild being in Ul'dah, they really get crappy Grand Company stuff

[Arkine]

Man... all did thread do was confuse me even more about PLD stats. (lol)

My stuff.

Cobalt Winglet +25 acc
Thoemon's
Militia Armet
AF body
Sent gauntlets +60HP (trying for militia)
Cobalt belt +33 enmity
Felt trousers 19STR/21VIT
Sent Sabatons +60HP
Militia Choker
Rub+1 Ring.
Elec+1 Ring.

[Molly_Millions]

Man... all did thread do was confuse me even more about PLD stats. (lol)

The problem is that there are a couple different ways you can gear a PLD and be successful. We all don't agree on what's best.

My stuff.

Cobalt Winglet +25 acc
Thoemon's
Militia Armet
AF body
Sent gauntlets +60HP (trying for militia)
Cobalt belt +33 enmity
Felt trousers 19STR/21VIT
Sent Sabatons +60HP
Militia Choker
Rub+1 Ring.
Elec+1 Ring.

I would swap that AF body for a melded one or the Militia Cuirass the 13 MND on that one is hard to beat. That's what I'm currently using, but I plan on eventually replacing it with an HQ one melded with +60 or more HP and two tier III defense materia for an extra ~25 DEF (34 extra DEF if you include the extra DEF from HQ).

If you go the VIT route like some suggest in this thread, I have a triple melded NQ Cobalt Cuirass for sale in the wards with 21 VIT and 12 DEF for 5 mil. I believe my retainer is in the Aromrfitters Row or Upper Tailer's Row in uldah currently. Look for Buymetoys in one of the stands.

[Judge_Xero]

Man... all did thread do was confuse me even more about PLD stats. (lol)

My stuff.

Cobalt Winglet +25 acc
Thoemon's
Militia Armet
AF body
Sent gauntlets +60HP (trying for militia)
Cobalt belt +33 enmity
Felt trousers 19STR/21VIT
Sent Sabatons +60HP
Militia Choker
Rub+1 Ring.
Elec+1 Ring.

It does get complicated because there's so many different builds.
There's not a "Best" build either.
If you find you are good at tanking a certain way, you can pretty much build your PLD that way.

Your build is good. There's a good balance of HP, ENM, STR, VIT, Accuracy. It's when you get into speed runs and tough bosses where you'll have to become a bit more specialized.

There's Ace that has high defense and block. So he can take a beating and wont have to move much to hold hate. (VIT, DEF, Block, Block Rate)

I rely on high damage to keep hate, and my battle log to dodge attacks. (battle log is faster than animations) (STR, MND, ATK, Accuracy or STR, VIT, ATK, Accuracy) Sometimes I need to lose a bit of damage to add a bit of Def and Block)

Some others stack HP and Enmity.

Each will have it's benefits and weaknesses, but it's whatever you like really. You just need to understand how you like to tank, then understand the stats to support that, and then build it.

[Kestiel]

For those advocating DEF stacking for anything but trash mobs (ie, not any bosses) please have a read: http://kanican.livejournal.com/55915.html

Note particularly the amount of DEF required to make much of a dent in the amount of damage mitigated on a Lv58 mob such as Ifrit (afaik - and please correct me if I'm wrong - most bosses are around Lv58). I haven't seen anything to suggest that this has changed either, it's long but it's a good read. If you want to skim just read the bolded purple and red text and you'll get the gist of the information.

Essentially the issue is DEF increases its utility the closer it gets to the cap for that particular dLVL. This means that it's also less effective when it's further from its cap. Adding a 10DEF when it's far from the cap will do very little to mitigate damage, while adding 10DEF closer to cap will do a much larger degree of mitigation. The more dLVL there is, the further away the cap is and the less effect DEF has on mitigating damage.

[Judge_Xero]

For those advocating DEF stacking for anything but trash mobs (ie, not any bosses) please have a read: http://kanican.livejournal.com/55915.html

Note particularly the amount of DEF required to make much of a dent.....

Awesome read. Thanks.

[Molly_Millions]

For those advocating DEF stacking for anything but trash mobs (ie, not any bosses) please have a read: http://kanican.livejournal.com/55915.html

Note particularly the amount of DEF required to make much of a dent in the amount of damage mitigated on a Lv58 mob such as Ifrit (afaik - and please correct me if I'm wrong - most bosses are around Lv58). I haven't seen anything to suggest that this has changed either, it's long but it's a good read. If you want to skim just read the bolded purple and red text and you'll get the gist of the information.

Essentially the issue is DEF increases its utility the closer it gets to the cap for that particular dLVL. This means that it's also less effective when it's further from its cap. Adding a 10DEF when it's far from the cap will do very little to mitigate damage, while adding 10DEF closer to cap will do a much larger degree of mitigation. The more dLVL there is, the further away the cap is and the less effect DEF has on mitigating damage.

I've read that post thoroughly and understand it's implications. The problem with damage mitigation in general is the effect of dlvl, NOT what stat you are stacking to achieve it. Physical damage mitigation from VIT comes from the amount of DEF that VIT adds. So, you have the same problem with VIT, but you get less DEF from your VIT than you get from stacking DEF directly. By stacking VIT you can make up for this with magical defense and enhancing magic potency. So tbh the effectiveness of DEF or VIT is kind of a wash and is more up to your own play style.

I have seen absolutely no testing on magical defense. For this discussion, we can assume that m.DEF suffers from the same dlvl curve as DEF. So the debate really comes down to what do you want to achieve with your chest piece. Do you want physical damage mitigation, HP, or a mix of m.DEF/DEF/enhancing magic potency? You then need to weigh the effectiveness of each against the stats of your other gear and decide what's best for your build.

[Judge_Xero]

Physical damage mitigation from VIT comes from the amount of DEF that VIT adds. So, you have the same problem with VIT, but you get less DEF from your VIT than you get from stacking DEF directly. By stacking VIT you can make up for this with magical defense and enhancing magic potency. So tbh the effectiveness of DEF or VIT is kind of a wash and is more up to your own play style.

I have seen absolutely no testing on magical defense. For this discussion, we can assume that m.DEF suffers from the same dlvl curve as DEF. So the debate really comes down to what do you want to achieve with your chest piece. Do you want physical damage mitigation, HP, or a mix of m.DEF/DEF/enhancing magic potency? You then need to weigh the effectiveness of each against the stats of your other gear and decide what's best for your build.

I think the biggest thing you can take away from that testing is that anywhere you are effected greatly by Dlvl, your best option for damage reduction would be VIT > Def.

Not for the Def/Mdef but for the Block value you get. Since it's a straight % gain per stat, with a limited effect by Dlvl. (now that it's fixed)

So 100 VIT or 100 Def over 1000 Damage Attack (physical)

VIT - 100 HP, 66 Def, 66 Mdef, 10% Block - 989 or 900 when blocked
Def - 100 Def - 980

With Divine Veil always on cooldown you're 20 sec/min @ 100% Block
so say every 5 seconds you get a 1000 damage attack.

VIT - 60 sec - 11512 Damage
Def - 60 sec - 11760 Damage

From estimated calculations of Ifrit, that it would take near 1900 Def to reach the damage floor, and what appears to be around 1600 to see any great benefit.

Calculations aren't exact, but are used to give a close idea

[Molly_Millions]

VIT - 66 Def, 66 Mdef, 10% Block - 989 or 900 when blocked
Def - 100 Def - 980

But what's the amount of damage mitigated when you don't block? And what percentage of attacks do you successfully block? What then, is the average amount of damage mitigated via VIT?

Over 1000 successful attacks against you, which is mitigates more damage? I haven't done the math, but my money is on DEF.

[Stufoo]

I haven't done the math

Welp. Maybe you should go do that.