PLD/DNC?

[Jotaru]

I quit a while back, about the time DNC came out.. and tbh, don't have much experience playing with DNC, or /DNC. The times I have, its been fairly lackluster (save for lower-levels using DNC as mainheal) but perhaps I'm missing something.. that aside...

About two weeks ago I got a PT on DRG around Lv60 or so...PLD tank... using /DNC. Every battle we were getting pounded because, surprisingly enough, PLD wasn't keeping aggro... JP PLD however, so when we tried to recommend they change SJ, they didn't seem to understand. Eventually we just autotranslated our intentions, and she warped out (mid-fight) simply repeating {Warrior} SJ {Too Weak!} {Warrior} SJ {Too Weak!}. They changed SJ and continued to be a fairly lackluster tank, but whatever.

So I get a PT today, and we don't have AC so I'm already kinda upset, having to take the boat out to Nashmau to get to camp, now Lv70. And I didn't even realize til we started pulling and I started seeing Box Step- its the same PLD, still going /DNC... First imp we pulled the party wiped, second one we fought, basically same result.

What I guess I'm asking is- am I dismissing some awesome ability of /DNC by being utterly disgusted with this PLD's inability to use a more.. conventional SJ that actually works? I had an almost identical PT setup in the same camp less than 12 hours ago pulling 12k/hour, and here we are wiping to mobs starting from full HP/MP.

Recommendations / ideas?

Edit: Everything is basically what it seems. Including Hauteclaire (PLD main is only 71, level sync'd to my newly Dlvld self)

http://jotaru.ultimals.com/plddnc.jpg

[Callisto]

I tried PLD/DNC for XP parties and was pretty disappointed in the hate. In Campaign it's fantastic, for some reason it cements the hell out of hate, I'm not sure where the disconnect is but it just doesn't transfer over to XP situations the way you'd think. I had also thought it'd be awesome so I can't blame the JP for trying it, but after one party where I could not hold hate for my life at 71ish I went straight back to /WAR.

Aside from that I wouldn't try it lower than 70+ without Healing Waltz and other goodies like Joyeuse, which makes a huge difference to /DNC.

[Vigilia]

Short answer is that PLD/DNC sucks in XP, you just met a retard and go post them here:
http://www.bluegartr.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63265

Long answer is that I don't see how you could make PLD/DNC work in XP in a standard party, the whole point of XP is that fights are very short, you don't get much time at all to build hate so tanks go /WAR because Provoke is the fastest way to get decent enmity in a very short time. Animated flourish is an extremely weak voke-like ability, you could try keep hate with cures/waltzes but it would take you much longer time to build sufficient enmity. And if you really really wanted to try, you should at least try and max out your TP gain i.e. use Joytoy/Justice and don't even do it without some haste gear. End-game is a different kettle of fish and tank jobs that build enmity slower but cap higher shine there (nin/drk, pld/nin). And of course you have merit burn party situations where everyone is /NIN or at least has Third Eye and you only need initial flash to get the mob off the puller so you can pld/nin and loldd all you want but then the whole point is that whoever has hate can tank without getting their face eaten and sponging all the MP. PLD/DNC is very good in campaign where mobs take longer to kill, hate is flaky anyway and the self-cure capabilitites really shine because your XP is also based on the damage you take. In normal XP however, the less damage you take the better so yeah... back to short answer, you met a retard.

[Telliani]

her... gear might have something to do with it too. Level 14 gloves? 40~ pants? If she bothered to wear def gear, she might've taken less damage and kept up, but I'd rather have /war any day over /dnc before 75. Campaign and Beseiged is one thing... imps? (I haven't fought with a dancer on imps, but doesn't their little amnesia kill dance ablity too?)

[Vigilia]

Yup, all dances are job abilites so amnesia renders DNC pretty useless. Probably the reason why SE released E.ring the same time as DNC.

[Jotaru]

Yeah, Imps are fun. Silence kills her spells half the time til she gets silena'd half a minute later (which is another can of worms I won't open) and when she's not silenced, she's got no JA's, which = no purpose of /DNC.. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't an ass for wishing she'd fall in a hole, change to WAR, and stop being retarded

[Callisto]

There aren't really better DD pants for PLD than the R.K. Breeches for a long ass time, those are fine, and most PLD DD gear doesn't have that much less Def than what you'd consider 'tanking' gear. The main issue is what Vigilia said, that /DNC takes longer to build hate than /WAR, and in XP you don't really have that time to wait.

[Stiker]

I'm going to echo what is said already, but yeah if you see PLD/DNC in anything outside of campaign or soloing, run the hell away. DNC gave PLDs amazing survivability; however, it wasn't meant to generate great quick hate at all. For EXP make sure they stick to the /WAR (or /NIN for higher levels) SJ. Otherwise they are just worthless.