What to merit on PLD?

[Deband]

Hiya, I recently got my Taru PLD to 75 and have started meriting HP. Looking at group 1 and 2 merits, only Fealty looks any good (and it doesnt sound that great). I've started doin HP but don't really have much idea where to go next, apart from shield.

Any suggestions? thx :D

[Nitrous24]

shield, sword, enmity, chivalry, rampart, sentinel, fealty, hp... of course this is just my opinion as one taru pld.. perhaps someone else will have a different idea

[Gergall]

Enmity is good if you don't plan to level jobs where it will backfire later (WHM, BLM, DRK, and many others...)

Spell Interruption Rate Down and Enemy Critical Hit Rate Down could save your life, but the problem is that you won't realize that it saved your life.

If you are totally hardcore PLD, you could go with 8 Sword, 4 Shield, 4 Evasion, and 4 Parrying - that is the max on each. This works fine even if you level mage jobs too, but you will probably regret this if you level a melee job that doesn't mainly use sword.

[Serif]

5/5 Sentinel
5/5 Rampart
3/3 Chivalry
0/3 still deciding...will probably go with Guardian when I have nothing else to merit.

Also went full HP and all Enmity.

[Atlasion]

Ah, another PLD merit thread.

Unlocking Fealty is a good idea. Go for shield merits too. Other points seem covered.

[Minions]

Hiya, I recently got my Taru PLD to 75 and have started meriting HP. Looking at group 1 and 2 merits, only Fealty looks any good (and it doesnt sound that great). I've started doin HP but don't really have much idea where to go next, apart from shield.

Any suggestions? thx :D

How did you not see converting tp => your full mp bar as a taru as being any good? Chiv is basically the only merit I would merit in the whole pld 2 category. Shield bash recast is nice for aegis and random stuns.

[sephir]

Hiya, I recently got my Taru PLD to 75 and have started meriting HP. Looking at group 1 and 2 merits, only Fealty looks any good (and it doesnt sound that great). I've started doin HP but don't really have much idea where to go next, apart from shield.

Any suggestions? thx :D

How did you not see converting tp => your full mp bar as a taru as being any good? Chiv is basically the only merit I would merit in the whole pld 2 category. Shield bash recast is nice for aegis and random stuns.

Chivalry <3 <3 <3

nothing like dropping back to back Cure 4's then getting 400-500 mp back. Its amazing.

[Grey Jorildyn]

i personally did chiv x3/guardian x3 in group 2. i found the applications for fealty too few and far between to be of any real use. i don't ballista at all nor fight ToAU beastmen kings -that- often (like once a month at best). i would recommend those, but if you want to unlock fealty, drop a raise in chiv, not guardian. you can really get some awesome hate-rising action when sentinel is up if you time it right to get two flashes in and have enough mp to cure cheat your face off.

[Furionstormrage]

i personally did chiv x3/guardian x3 in group 2. i found the applications for fealty too few and far between to be of any real use. i don't ballista at all nor fight ToAU beastmen kings -that- often (like once a month at best). i would recommend those, but if you want to unlock fealty, drop a raise in chiv, not guardian. you can really get some awesome hate-rising action when sentinel is up if you time it right to get two flashes in and have enough mp to cure cheat your face off.

Could not agree more, both on Guardian and cure-cheating my face off when Sentinel is up.

[Stelaereous]

HP 8/8, you're a taru, no-brainer.
Sword 8/8
Shield 4/4
Parrying is decent if you're going career PLD and nothing else.
Enmity 4/4 Obvious if you're going career PLD, if not, leave it alone.
Enemy Crit down 4/4 Some people like this, if you're not playing any other jobs, go for it.

As for magic, Divine skill could be useful (again, if you're career), good luck capping your healing magic.

If you plan on going for an Aegis,
Shield Bash 5/5,
Sentinel 5/5
Guardian 3/3
Fealty 2/3
Chivalry 1/3

If you don't, swap Shield Bash for Rampart (works out perfect for Tiamat up/down timers).

that's pretty much the standard merit setup any non brain-dead paladin will push you to go with, some like to toy around with their level 2 job specific ones, those are still kind of up in the air, dependent on your and your ls' playstyles. have fun with those.

[Serif]

good luck capping your enhancing magic.

Fixed.

Edit: God I was drunk when I posted that.

[Erza]

+4 enmity isn't going to make much of a difference at all on your mage jobs.

[Judai]

What I did;

8 HP (These are my favorite merits ever, on any job. HP Merits FTMFW, it's a huge joke to my long time friends about HP merits saving my life. Like a week ago, Ultima knocked me down to literally 1HP and again today, in an Exp party on NIN, Incinerate knocked me down to 1HP, HP Merits ftw.)

4 Shield Skill
4 Shield Bash
4 Rampart
2 Sentinel (I, unlike most PLDs, tend to save Sent for circumstances I would prolly die or get my ass kicked instead of using it everytime it's up. Just added some merits to have it available quicker when I do use it and didn't feel like spending 10 more merits on 10s off the other 2 /ja)

2 Chivalry (I really don't use it much, by the time I run out of MP the NM is dead. I was going to merit it a 3rd time but I found I never needed/used it more then once per fight if ever.)
3 Guardian
1 Fealty (gives another small hate move, as well as can help once in awhile if used properly. I usually save it until the end of Mobs in order to save myself from possible harmful Status Effects at inopputune times.)

Merits kind of depend on how you play and what you do with the job. If you /war mostly you might want to merit Sentinel fully. I don't see the point in meriting sword, unless you don't have and will never have any other melee jobs or you are getting Excalibur. Parry is a solid skill also, if no other melee jobs, although you should prolly try to cap it before meriting it. If you are on the road to Aegis, Shield Bash all the way.

There is no perfect way to merit a job, merits are your own personal customization of the job to fit your playstyle. Merit it towards your playstyle.

[Atlasion]

(I, unlike most PLDs, tend to save Sent for circumstances I would prolly die or get my ass kicked instead of using it everytime it's up. Just added some merits to have it available quicker when I do use it and didn't feel like spending 10 more merits on 10s off the other 2 /ja)

I do this too on certain mobs. Khimaira in particular. Usually I have double march and haste, so flash and cure spam is usually enough to keep hate. That being said, I still put 5 merits into it. For mobs like Fafnir where people are going all out, sentinel is a great way to spike hate back up.

I would recommend 3 guardian merits too. I only put 2 in it, and regret not capping it (capped whole category now and can't be bothered unmeritting).

[Clipse]

I originally planned to cap Guardian, but changed it to 2 Guardian & 1 Fealty after reading this post from the old PLD Merit thread:

I will never understand capped Guardian. How much hate are you really gonna lose during the 30 seconds that Sentinel is up? If damage is the #1 way that tanks lose hate, and you're taking 50-100% less damage during that 30 seconds, then you're ALREADY losing next to no hate. 57% of 'next to nothing' is still 'next to nothing'. Isn't that the very definition of diminishing returns?

People who have capped Guardian, do you agree or disagree?

[Grey Jorildyn]

I kind of agree. You're not going to be losing a large amount of hate with ninja subjob, however there are other subjobs to consider for other event. Warrior sub for limbus (if you even use paladins here in your linkshell) and stuff like Dynamis. I use /drk a great deal, like in CoP Dynamis and Xarcabard for Dynamis Lord. It is especially good on DL I find, when it takes a few seconds to really get started before hitting Invincible. It can be crucial, it might not be depending on the timing of the stunners and your initial stun too, which works excellently for positioning Dynamis Lord at the start.

In other situations it's good too, like timing Sentinel use before a Dreadstorm, a Thunderstrike, an Absolute Terror, or a Lava Spit where you are either losing shadows or taking damage that will drop your enmity a chunk from a single large hit or several melee hits when you can't respond from being unable to use commands. As everything else, it's situational and after all is said and done, an extra 19% probably won't make or break you in the long-run but I think I'm like that other guy and I can't be arsed to swap my group 2s around either.

[LLK]

HP 8/8
Shield 4/4
Shield Bash 5/5
Sentinel 5/5
Chivalry 3/3
Guardian 3/3
Crit Hit + 3/3(?)
Crit Hi - 3/3(?) both those are capped just forget what cap is 3 or 4

[Crizto]

I have RDM and BLM both leveled as well as PLD, although I still consider to be a PLD main.

HP: 6
MP: 2
Enmity: 4 (This kills me on my BLM lol)
Shield 4
Sentinel: 5
Rampart: 5
Chivalry: 3
Fealty: 1
Guardian: 2

[Heian]

Yeha capped Enmity hurts, a lot, when I level my WAR.

At level 66 doing 500~900 Rampages (depends on food and mobs) and only having Ichi means I get raped.

I've probably lost at least on 75 LVL worth of EXP leveling up.

[Furionstormrage]

Yeha capped Enmity hurts, a lot, when I level my WAR.

At level 66 doing 500~900 Rampages (depends on food and mobs) and only having Ichi means I get raped.

I've probably lost at least on 75 LVL worth of EXP leveling up.

WARs can't tank?

Not trying to be a jerk, I promise, it just really bugs me when WARs complain about getting hate and/or not being suited to tank, when myself and lots of other people I know main-tanked on WAR at every level range.

If an XP mob is killing you on WAR enough times to lose 45,000 XP, I'd highly recommend either backing off a bit or finding a healer who isn't asleep.