status quo:PLD

[Vaxx]

This seems to go against the opinions here but I'm still using the old fashioned vit/def setup. Bear in mind, all my parties have been sticking with VT+/IT mobs, but it seems to work still.

I've been stacking all the refresh I can to spam cures to keep hate. Even at 60 I still use vermy and parade gorget and only switch in fortified chain for < 80% hp (4 mp a tick base allows some nice cure spammage, that and I'm taru). If I am having trouble keeping hate I switch out some vit gear for enmity gear (high breath, mermaids ring).

So far so good, I only occasionally lose hate to well equipped drks using souleater.

[Elipse]

I just hit 62 pld and I've parsed every exp party from 45+ till now. I've been staticing with LS members who've all stacked out their low levels.

What this means is they could pump out so much damage, that my damage numbers will seem small.

At best, using acc gear and tacos, I'd hit in the range of 10-11% damage for the party. When in Vit gear I was hitting 6-8% and a party I used defender the whole time, I hit a HUGE 2% damage!

The overall impact with Acc gear was minimal in damage taken. I couldn't eyeball much of a difference but the real thing that matter is there was little to no downtime in any of these parties and in fact most of them have been "Roaming" burn party type situations. Where we just burn everything down and move camp.

These were my numbers until around level 60. I haven't had much testing since then because I'm only 63 but we did have 1 party where I went /nin.

We had a ninja in LS that wanted to come so we got him to tank, while I geared up in full damage gear. I managed to pull out multiple 400+ damage vorpals at level 61 in the subterrain on those crawlers. Averages were in the 250-300 range.

I managed around 17% damage, Ninja at 20% and the 2 mnks doing the rest of the damage. Even in a complete atk and acc setup, with strong vorpals I got dominated and left behind in damage by the mnks and even the ninja, who was busy casting shadows and keeping hate, still did more dmg than me.

Had I been in a normal exp party with the typical player (read: shitty drks who eat jack-o-lanterns) I'm sure my dmg % would have been much higher.

The /nin thing was just a 1 time deal or a rare thing. I don't want to lose my chances at shield skill up, regardless of how fast the exp was. I suggest you don't do the same and stick with a /war build. Btw speaking of /war, I'm sure my Vorpals could have been much nicer if I had berserk instead of /nin.

Hope this gives you some useful info. Sorry I don't have screens of the parses or anything to show you.