Gladiator

[avelle]

No, I personally have a system. Accomplice either goes on the THM if they're spamming DoTs (which builds shitload of hate) or the melee who wields the weapon that has the damage type a mob is weak to (in short: generally an archer or lancer).

edit: i'll post my guide on my blog, just give me a few minutes to convert the bbcode to html so syndication works.

edit2: Here ya go: http://www.impact-gaming.us/blogs/grey/?p=56

Thanks Merona, this looks like great information.

[Grey Jorildyn]

Had to do some edits this morning to correct some inaccuracies and typos. Glad you enjoyed it.

[Kenshiin]

A linkshell mate mentioned that the Wield Rate on a shield also is a factor in how long the other shield skills stay active as well. Like deflection and aegis boom. He actually tanks with a bladed lantern shield +1 and does a nice job.

[Elcura]

Bladed Lantern gives you around 20-22 secs per buff, so it's possible to keep one up at all times without fail. It's nice, but the blocking rate is kinda low. At least with vintage kite shield when I put up Aegis Boon or Deflection, nothing slips through, but with bladed lantern it does.

[TacoTaru]

Necroooooooo, but relevant. In lieu of Kaeko's findings on block rate/reduction here, would it even be worth making an HP build or should it be more of a focus on VIT/DEX and doing HP where you can't get those two stats?

[Niiro]

You're still going to need to give HP a good amount of attention, even with not decreasing from GLA->PLD it's still very low and harder targets using anything un-blockable will pose a threat (not that blocking should be your first and only line of defense from being put in the red).

As glad (badum tss) as I am that PLD is now much more viable Kaeko's new info just makes it clear how clusterfucked they really are when it comes to stats, need STR and MND for damage, need VIT for damage reduction, need DEX for block rate, need HP for survival...

The mechanics of hate haven't changed and damage is still the best way to get it, you just have to find a balance for everything and make sure you're getting the most out of every gear slot.

[Grey Jorildyn]

I guess we're talking solo here? In my experience enmity is the first thing to gear for. I'm not playing with pugs though so perhaps that is the difference. Dps outputting upwards and over 100dps on certain bosses means I jeed as much enmity as I can get. Who has room for dex and vit in those situations?

[Diddy Kong]

Is it best to put my points in the auto-attack damage stats and make up the other shortcomings through gear?

[Eagleheart]

You're still going to need to give HP a good amount of attention, even with not decreasing from GLA->PLD it's still very low and harder targets using anything un-blockable will pose a threat (not that blocking should be your first and only line of defense from being put in the red).

As glad (badum tss) as I am that PLD is now much more viable Kaeko's new info just makes it clear how clusterfucked they really are when it comes to stats, need STR and MND for damage, need VIT for damage reduction, need DEX for block rate, need HP for survival...

The mechanics of hate haven't changed and damage is still the best way to get it, you just have to find a balance for everything and make sure you're getting the most out of every gear slot.

Concur wholeheartedly. I wear STR and MND gear on Paladin to try to keep up with the hate output of the melee. I do not find myself gearing for survival, but rather, to try to keep the mobs looking at me.

Not easy when your damage dealers have latent psychotic tendencies. Also, the critical rate change has sent all my crew into a gleeful killing spree mode. ._. Who has the luxury of building for survivability? Not me... Kinda torn on whether to get a double/triple VIT cuirass or go all HP, but I cannot see myself replacing my STR gauntlets for DEX anytime soon. (>.> )

[Karinastar]

PLD gets a huge portion of its hate from Flat Blade and Spirits Within with their enmity modifiers (4.5x damage and 2x damage respectively if I recall right). The first stat you need to focus on is accuracy. I'd suggest getting it around the 410-420 mark before food/party buff. You absolutely cannot afford to miss Flat Blade and Spirits. After that, it's really situational. Several bosses aren't really going to 1-shot you, so you could focus on other stats. For something like Coincounter I'd stack HP as high as you can possibly get. As for allocation, it can really go either way. PLD has pretty pitiful base stats all around so it makes it a tough call. Going for damage stats will increase your enmity at the cost of a slight bit of survivability.... at this point it's probably the best idea, but SE changes shit around every patch so who knows if it will be a month down the road.

[TacoTaru]

I guess we're talking solo here? In my experience enmity is the first thing to gear for. I'm not playing with pugs though so perhaps that is the difference. Dps outputting upwards and over 100dps on certain bosses means I jeed as much enmity as I can get. Who has room for dex and vit in those situations?

Dungeons/Primals, not solo. There's only one spot that enmity vs DEX/VIT would really come into play and that's whether or not melding Sentinel's Gauntlets with DEX would be better or worse than Heavy Darklight Gauntlets, the latter not being something that's not going to come readily unless you're lucky. Sword would obviously be an enmity meld over DEX/VIT. Unless you're referring to gearing for STR/MND as well when you say enmity.

[Niiro]

I guess we're talking solo here? In my experience enmity is the first thing to gear for. I'm not playing with pugs though so perhaps that is the difference. Dps outputting upwards and over 100dps on certain bosses means I jeed as much enmity as I can get. Who has room for dex and vit in those situations?

Enmity is a joke.

The returns are pitiful and hate from damage eclipses hate from abilities by a ridiculous amount.

Other than melding it to waist and perhaps the militia choker (which is still iffy because neck holds a lot of potential) I don't see gearing for it in any way being more beneficial than DD and defensive stats.

The enmity modifier for flat blade is equivalent to +450 enmity. The pitiful amounts of enmity available from gear don't come anywhere close to the value of increasing your damage that's being dealt and multiplying it by such a huge innate modifier.

Kinda torn on whether to get a double/triple VIT cuirass or go all HP, but I cannot see myself replacing my STR gauntlets for DEX anytime soon. (>.> )

My opinion: go VIT on the body. Don't forget that VIT adds HP, a double melded cobalt cuirass with a total of 40 VIT is a net +100hp in 1 piece, not as much as Bloodthirsts but body is the only place you're likely to meld VIT (only other place is weapon)* while HP can go fucking everywhere (shield and feet being the prime options, waist if you don't use +enm or simply do both).

*There's legs as well, my first successful double meld (of actual usefulness) was some felt trousers+1 STR/VIT, I went 1/1 and it gave me hope for making my own multi-melds. A false hope of course (exploding 4.5m worth sentinel sabatons in 90 seconds like a boss).

edit: I think it's also worth noting that DEX/block rate's usefulness is made less valuable to a certain degree when you factor in all of the shield abilities. 100% block rate 1/3 of the time (veil), enhanced block rate another good portion (outmaneuver) and a free healing block every 45s (boon). Just something to take into consideration when contemplating whether or not to sacrifice other stats for DEX.

edit2: I may do another, more in depth DEX:ACC test to gauge it's value now that a job other than BRD has a use for it (I have a hypothesis it might actually determine your ACC cap, but it's just an anecdotal observation).

[Grey Jorildyn]

Enmity is a joke.

The returns are pitiful and hate from damage eclipses hate from abilities by a ridiculous amount.

Other than melding it to waist and perhaps the militia choker (which is still iffy because neck holds a lot of potential) I don't see gearing for it in any way being more beneficial than DD and defensive stats.

I have full heavy darklight and I have to strongly disagree. If I go DPS and try to tank coincounter on PLD against 4-5 BLMs going all-out, I'll lose hate. Put on DL set and that is far more manageable than without it. Of course, this is an extreme-end comparison to wearing full AF or something like that. My enmity bonuses for PLD are +40 sword, +10 shield, +42 waist, +45 body/head, +45 hands, +25 legs/head, +20 earring/wrist, Totals out to +227. So +22.7% enmity boost and over time that seriously adds up a lot to a whole lotta extra enmity.

Since we don't lose hate for taking damage in XIV like XI, and WHMs don't exactly have a difficult time keeping tanks alive, I don't see how block rate in end game scenarios is more crucial than keeping hate against some of the best geared/skilled players on a server. So like I said, totally different scenario is we're talking about pugs.

[Niiro]

No one takes DL gear into consideration because it's unavailable to 99% of the playerbase, but that's besides the point.

I find it very hard to believe that using DD gear doesn't increase your damage by at least 20% considering the only DD stats for PLD on all of the HDL set is the 12 MND from hands.

[Grey Jorildyn]

Not on anything that matters.

I'll throw together a better DPS set and check it out but I am doubtful enmity generated through damage on end game bosses is going to surpass what HDL gear provides as a straight % bonus to all actions.

[Niiro]

The issue being that actions (fixed value JAs/things not dependent on damage or healing amounts) generally don't give very much hate.

Voke/Flash are the highest and they're only 363, though I can understand why that would carry more weight on targets where damage is extremely hampered.

An aside: purely anecdotal observation but it seems like certain WSs (or WSs in general) get some kind of boost similar to how SAM WSs in XI had innate ATK multipliers. For example, while regular AA damage on something like Ifrit is pure shit across the board (on WAR I wanna say it's something like 16-19) WS damage isn't penalized nearly as much. I'm sure everyone's noticed this to some degree but I've never come across any theories as to why it works out that way.

[Grey Jorildyn]

It does carry more weight against end game stuff and that was my point. Increasing your damage 20% against amal'jaa isn't the same as 20% against Miser's Mistress. It would take a lot more work to get that +20% damage on the latter and isn't worth giving up all those enmity slots. Whether the gear is available to the general population readily is neither here nor there when you're talking about things objectively. I'd take enmity bonus as a straight percentage over a few stat points here and there for end game bosses any day. Make sense?

[Niiro]

Yes.