PLD!

[Heian]

Try and get a Brutal Earring if you can, also I went with Rajas instead of Stavva. All the stats from Stavva can be earned with merits easy (+3 Enmity/30HP) with the AGI and VIT being not as important as most would like to think.

Snipers should be helping you alot, I honestly melee'd in Rajas/Flame and Rajas/Jaeger/Sniper if I had a hard time hitting.

As far as the belt thats post ToAU so I don't know the stats on it, but if you feel you can give up the 10Acc on Life Belt then go for it. Using the Warwolf in macro though is great no problem there. Chiv. Chain is pretty good the sea gorgets to me were never worth getting after seeing no significant diffrence in WS Damage.

If you can get your hands on a pair of Dusk Gloves that would be nice too. If you can't get Dusk then I would just go ahead and melee in Enky's(Or higher) unless there is a new hand gear better for DD PLD now post ToAU.

With sword merits you should be able to get to the point where you can go meat with Using Turban/Dusk for +8% Haste combined with the 5% DA on Brutal. [I'm assuming you are using Company/Joyeuse]

Pushing around 290~300 Skill depending on gear and around +30~40 Acc bonus you should be suprised at how much you will parse.

The Setup I used for a while was this

Head - O Hat Full time *Note too lazy to merit sword cause of NIN lol....
Neck - Peacock Charm Full Time
Earring1 - Supponimi *Pros wear it on the left
Earring2 - Brutal Earring
Body - Haub
Hands - Enky's Bracelets
Ring1 - Rajas
Ring2 - Flame/Jeager
Back - Forager's Mantle
Waist - Life belt/Warwolf
Legs - Royal Knights or AF2/Valor Leggings if you can get them
Feet - Rutter Sabbatons for WS / AF Boots

Leg and Feet Slots were pretty shitty options when I played I don't know if there any improvements in the last seven months.

With meat and BRDs that setup was pretty damn good at the time. Good enough not to parse at the bottom with a pick up PT and enough to not be too embaraessed by PurpleBurk, Ridill swinging DRKs and WARs

Its play to play around with man have fun. Hope this will help you out some.

[Dark Vincent]

Thanks a whole ton. As for good Hands besides Dusk, there is:
Ice Gauntlets (DEF:16 STR+4 VIT+4 Accuracy+4 MP Regeneration While Healing+1 Physical Damage: "Ice Spikes" Effect)
Which I wont have for a bit, need high rank assault, it seems. So I guess I will look around for a good bracelet.
For boots I use lolLeaping, while saving Assault points for Amir Boots (DEF: 16 Attack +5 Accuracy +6
HP Recovered While Healing +1). Legs is same as you (will use Homam when I get it).
Potent Belt is +8 Acc +3 Str. I got one recently from farming Assault Points, was planning on selling but might end up keeping it.

With my current gear, sushi and Swift Blades I was still able to stay on par with a decently geared lvl 74 RNG and a 75 merited BLU (the BLU was in Mamook, the RNG was in D Weapons). I wonder how it will go after improvements on gear/sword merits @_@

[Isildur]

I really dont have much experience burning on PLD, since my merits/equipment are all leaned towards tanking (ex: no Sword merits, all my Combat merits are Eva/Shield/Parry, Sattva/Knights/Ethereal, but i wish i'd gotten Suppanomimi). In the end if you wanna DD PLD, you most certainly can, but you do need a large amount of gear to compensate for your lack of Weapon versatility, you'll be burning with Swords pretty much 100% of the time.

Heca gear is great for WSs but since Heca gear is hard to come by, and your LS is always gonna give Heca gear to WAR/DRG/THFs over you (and i dont think anyone's LS runs out of WARs who need Heca gear) you'll seldom see a PLD with 3-5 pieces of Heca unless he has WAR75 as well. Also get some Homam gear, the +Acc/+Haste on the pieces are quite nice, wearing Turban/Hands/Legs/Feet/Swift is +18% haste so if you think +Haste gear would help you out more with TPing, you can easily do a +Haste build.

I've always been confused about why everyone choses P.Charm over the respective sea Torque for neck slot, i believed +7 Skill >>>>>>> +10 Acc no matter what you're doing since +Skill is Atk/Acc by itself. Vorpal Blade is your best friend in burn parties, Swift Blade has higher mods and its 3x instead of 4x, so to most people Swift Blade seems better but Vorpal Blade only sucks when you dont have enough +Acc to land your hits.

If you're leaning towards more tanking on PLD than burning DD like i am, dont ever get -Crit merits or +VIT, they're worthless...just use +STR and +Crit cause there's nothing in that category you could get thats good for tanking, Sword merits help your damage alot but if you already filled up on Combat merits then its not much help. (Eva/Shield/Parry as a result of me being PLD and NIN lawl)

[Seditedi]

Sea torque is 6.3acc and atk, Pcharm better if you are going for max accuracy, but gaining 6.3 atk and losing only 3.7 accuracy isn't that bad of a tradeoff.

[Deimos]

Pretty late getting to this topic, but I've just finished getting my PLD to 75 so I'll throw in some thoughts, and a request for some advice, too.

Personally, I leveled up until 70 just using the typical PLD/WAR tank build. I think you'd be pretty hard-pressed to try being a DD PLD before 70, I don't think the gear is available to put out enough damage to keep hate off any of the real DD jobs for long. Once you start getting to 70+ it's going to be hard to keep hate regardless of your sub, and a DEF PLD is going to be mostly dead weight in a decent merit-style party.

For leveling gear while tanking, I'd say I prioritized things in the order of Shield Skill > Enmity > VIT/DEF. As other people have said, HP is basically worthless while xping. That Pigeon Earring is doing absolutely nothing for you unless you hit 20 HP or lower. In my opinion, key pieces of gear to make sure you get:
Macuahuitl+1
Bibiki Seashell
All AF (I used every AF piece from the level available until 73, there's not really much better)
Shield Torque
Parade Gorget (Make a macro that swaps back and forth between Parade and your other neck piece. Use a calculator to figure out what 85% of your max HP is going to be, and swap neck pieces based on the situation. Since it's just a neck swap, your char won't blink)
Buckler Earring
High Breath Mantle (Extremely cheap for 25 hours worth of enchantment, I used this all the way from 35 to 70 when I replaced with Boxer's)

Once I got to 70, I tried to level as PLD/NIN DD whenever possible, but there's one very big obstacle to this. If you want to party as a DD PLD, you have to be willing to build your own parties. Even though I would seek as PLD/NIN, with my comment clearly stating I was a DD, and listing DD gear, whenever I got invited, they would ask me to come PLD/WAR with regular tank setup. It's simply a fact that when someone is building a party, and they need a DD, they don't even look at the PLDs in the seeking list. I know I definitely don't, if I need a DD I'm not going to select the PLDs seeking and check their comments to see if any of them are equipped to DD.

Here's the PLD/NIN DD gear I use at 75, most of it is the same as it was at 70. Some pieces are a little subpar, but the majority of it is gear from my other jobs, and I'm not going to spend millions on gear that will only be used when my PLD needs buffer. If I'm going for merits, three of my other jobs would be more useful.
Main: Company Sword
Sub: Joyeuse
Ammo: Tiphia Sting
Head: Walahra Turban
Neck: Peacock Charm
Ears: Suppanomimi / Brutal
Body: Haubergeon
Hands: Dusk Gloves
Rings: Rajas / Sniper's
Back: Forager's
Waist: Life Belt
Legs: Dusk Trousers
Feet: Rutter Sabatons

For WS I swap in Optical Hat, Warwolf Belt, and Sipahi Dastanas, working towards getting a Thunder Gorget which will work for both Vorpal Blade and Blade:Jin.

Overall the damage output doesn't compare to my MNK or NIN, but I'm certainly not a huge hindrance to have in a party, and can actually be a help because the ability to cure and flash allows you to go with 4 front-line jobs without worrying too much about lack of healing power.

Anyway, if anyone's still reading this gigantic post, I'm trying to get my PLD geared for endgame-type activities, so I'd like some advice for what items to be working towards. PLD/WAR, PLD/NIN, PLD/BRD, whatever, if there's a piece of gear I should get, I'd appreciate knowing. Here's a list of what I have available right now:

Main: Tutelary, Macuahuitl+1, Terra's Staff
Shield: Koenig Shield
Ammo: Bibiki Seashell
Head: Walahra Turban, Adaman Barbuta
Neck: Parade Gorget, Shield Torque, Harmonia's Torque
Ears: Buckler Earring, Pigeon Earring, Stoic Earring, Merman's Earrings
Body: Adaman Cuirass
Hands: Adaman Gauntlets
Rings: Hercules', Mermaid's, Bomb Queen, Jelly, Merman's Rings
Back: Boxer's, High Breath
Waist: Warwolf
Legs: Adaman Cuisses
Feet: Gallant Leggings+1

I should be getting Ethereal Earring this week, but what's the best earring to have in the second slot? Stick with Buckler if straight tanking? Or should I be picking up a Cassie? I don't currently do sky or dynamis, but I'm planning to get back into it soon, anything else I should do other than waiting on M.abj/Valor drops?

Thanks for any input.

[Dark Vincent]

For endgame gear...
Adaman Cuisses is fine for /WAR until W Legs or Valor Breeches, but when you get your hands on Homam Legs, use it on /NIN. But no Adaman Cuirass, the +20 HP from AF Body > +1 enmity from Cuirass (until you have Valor or M Body). Hands, I think Adaman Gauntlet is what, +1 enmity over AF? And no extra HP. The +12 MP never made a difference for me, I would go with AF Hands until you get M hands/Valor (/WAR) or Homam (/NIN).
For belt, best one imo is Trance Belt (/WAR or macro in casts for /NIN), but if you cant get it, it's really your call if you need the +Enm or not. If you dont, use Marid Belt (+22 HP, same +VIT Mod). I usually carry both on me and change around as I see fit. For /NIN use Swift Belt.
Your Feet is good, in some situations Valor Feet might be better though (/NIN), specially with the upcoming Sentinel buff...
For ranged use Rosenbogen, the +10 HP > +1 VIT from Bibiki Seashell XD Dont remember if there is any other ranged gear that is better for PLD right now.
Adaman Barbuta also fine for /WAR, get Aegishjalmr if possible though (or Koenig Head).
All the rest is fine, get Ethereal if you can :D

Will reply the other posts etc later, running right afk right now >.>

[Furionstormrage]

For some odd reason my Vorpals deal average less damage than my Swift Blades @_@ And I do have high accuracy (even eat sushi etc). Maybe I should try again with some new gear, any suggestions?

Meat.

Second that.

I've tried Sushi in the Mire and Thickets, and our base attack is just too low to not use Attack food.

Before meriting Sword the Thickets almost required Sushi, but I've noticed a nice jump and eat Meat there now, just macroing O-Hat and Potent in when my ACC isn't up to par.

I would try this, and make sure you're getting a full TP return on Vorpal. If you are, macro in as much as STR as you can until your TP return starts falling off, this should make Vorpal hit a lot harder than Swift.

[Furionstormrage]

For ranged use Rosenbogen, the +10 HP > +1 VIT from Bibiki Seashell XD Dont remember if there is any other ranged gear that is better for PLD right now.

Some people are using the Lamian Kamam (+10MP, +1 Magic Defense) but I personally would still prefer Rosenbogen unless going against something that does mostly Magic attacks.

[Isildur]

For ranged use Rosenbogen, the +10 HP > +1 VIT from Bibiki Seashell XD Dont remember if there is any other ranged gear that is better for PLD right now.

Some people are using the Lamian Kamam (+10MP, +1 Magic Defense) but I personally would still prefer Rosenbogen unless going against something that does mostly Magic attacks.

Rosenbogen / Fenrir's Stone are better imo, HQ Lamian would be worth it in fights like AV / JoL / Faith...etc because those are fights where resisting helps a shitload.

[Isildur]

Earring1 - Supponimi *Pros wear it on the left

my Ethereal never comes off Ear1

[Dark Vincent]

Oh yeah I totally forgot to mention Fenrir's Stone. That is a good one too.
Btw, yesterday I had a Troll pt, still ate sushi (since my gear hasnt changed much and I dont have the sword merits yet) and tried Vorpals. Damage varied a lot, but stayed mostly around 400-600 (sometimes hitting close to 700) whereas Swift Blade was staying more around 450-500. Yeah.. those sword merits are being ordered now.

[Furionstormrage]

Oh yeah I totally forgot to mention Fenrir's Stone. That is a good one too.
Btw, yesterday I had a Troll pt, still ate sushi (since my gear hasnt changed much and I dont have the sword merits yet) and tried Vorpals. Damage varied a lot, but stayed mostly around 400-600 (sometimes hitting close to 700) whereas Swift Blade was staying more around 450-500. Yeah.. those sword merits are being ordered now.

I am still using Sushi if we go after Trolls on Mount Z (which is about my least favorite place to Merit), otherwise I just suck it up and swap to more ACC gear on Trolls in Thickets.

Sword merits will make you happy, and Assault Earring/Suppanomimi if you have them or can get them will help.