[Aust101]

Hey KI PLD peeps. I'm sure anyone who has played pld for a long time has lvled the subjob RDM. I recently worked up some macros and ran to the past and tried to kill some some random mobs.(with out atonment) I took down a few T and VT mobs but was not a walk in the park. With no buffs up the mob hit me for about 150-200dmg. A few things I noticed where, blink is usless. The casting time vs how long it last and how reliable it is, I didn't use it anymore. One question I have is about SS and gear. I use homam legs to start casting it for fastcast, then macroed in valor legs for -10%. But I wonder if I should maybe macro in AF legs at the very end. I currently only using FFXI macros but could write up some spellcast if needed I guess. Currently only use it for /NIN because it's my baby.


So anyways, reasons why I could of struggled? My magic skills are not caped so I'm sure that effects stoneskin. Also, perhaps an amature question but DEF will help subtract the dmg your stoneskin takes correct? But other then that, maybe there are some play styles I'm not familar with. Any input would be helpful. I'm going to play with it alot more and I'll SS my gear later if anyone wants to help point out stuff.

[Hitoseijuro]

Hey KI PLD peeps. I'm sure anyone who has played pld for a long time has lvled the subjob RDM. I recently worked up some macros and ran to the past and tried to kill some some random mobs.(with out atonment) I took down a few T and VT mobs but was not a walk in the park. With no buffs up the mob hit me for about 150-200dmg. A few things I noticed where, blink is usless. The casting time vs how long it last and how reliable it is, I didn't use it anymore. One question I have is about SS and gear. I use homam legs to start casting it for fastcast, then macroed in valor legs for -10%. But I wonder if I should maybe macro in AF legs at the very end. I currently only using FFXI macros but could write up some spellcast if needed I guess. Currently only use it for /NIN because it's my baby.


So anyways, reasons why I could of struggled? My magic skills are not caped so I'm sure that effects stoneskin. Also, perhaps an amature question but DEF will help subtract the dmg your stoneskin takes correct? But other then that, maybe there are some play styles I'm not familar with. Any input would be helpful. I'm going to play with it alot more and I'll SS my gear later if anyone wants to help point out stuff.

What were you idling in?

Dont rely on SS too much, as the casting time is quite long for some of the mobs. A good way to maximize your success rate on getting SS up, is to have reprisal up, flash before doing so(if you can spare the MP) also, make use of your shield bash and sentinel. Adding in fast cast gear (sadly only ACP/Loq and homam pants are available to pld) will help get it off faster. Keeping some form of ice spikes up(trousers/reprisal) can help para the mob or help your block rate a bit, allowing you to get your SS off. Though imo, I wouldnt rely on getting that up, unless you know the mob attacks slow or dont hit hard often that would break your SS in a few hits rendering it useless to persist keeping it up. Also note, its going to slow you down in terms of kill speed, trying to keep it up.

Try to have your enhancing skill capped, and get w/e pieces with that skill on. It will help you max out your phalanx as much as possible. Shaving off 21-23 damage a hit is pretty hawt.

Another thing to help, en spells, its small damage, but it adds up over time. Cast bio, it reduces the mobs attack. Also remember, some mobs attacks will vary depending on the job, drks,wars,drgs usually hit very hard but slower, which can allow for buffs to be recasted easier. Mnks/nins/thfs hit softer but faster and often as they are dual wielding kinda.

I usually focus on -damagetaken/+shield skill gear before def/vit gear.

[Lionsheart]

I dont bother using SS unless it's really worth it like you have time between hits to get it off and its lasts more then 1-2 hits. I tanked Khimaira about an hour ago PLD/RDM and didn't bother with it, he only hits me for 0-40 on blocks so in a party /rdm you really shouldn't need to use it. I've only tossed on SS on Bres from NMs I can think of atm and anytime it was up on JoL just to drop the dmg from single target nukes. My Enhancing isn't capped either, it's 188.

[Aust101]

Thx for the input. So SS isn't worth it hmm. Okay so my idle is this...

Main-Joytoy
Sub-Koenig shield
Range-(went with Fenrir stone bc the mob I fought didn't use magic)
Head-koenig
Neck-parade gorget(maybe use shield torque?)
L.ear-suppanomimi
R.ear-brutal earring
Body-M.body(couldn't decide this because I have no area body, and I don't have Atonment yet so I didn't hide my hauby+1)
Hands-(idk, between dusk/koenig/valor)
L.ring-bloodbead ring
R.ring-jelly ring
Back-went with Shadow mantel, but I'll change that to boxers
Waist-swiftbelt
Legs-homam
Feet-AF feet


I have slot of old gear and can make most set ups. I already know what I'm gonna change I'll try out again with the advice you gave me and give and update if I have any more problems. (and I'll cap my magic too haha)

[Hitoseijuro]

Thx for the input. So SS isn't worth it hmm. Okay so my idle is this...

Main-Joytoy
Sub-Koenig shield
Range-(went with Fenrir stone bc the mob I fought didn't use magic)
Head-koenig
Neck-parade gorget(maybe use shield torque?)
L.ear-suppanomimi
R.ear-brutal earring
Body-M.body(couldn't decide this because I have no area body, and I don't have Atonment yet so I didn't hide my hauby+1)
Hands-(idk, between dusk/koenig/valor)
L.ring-bloodbead ring
R.ring-jelly ring
Back-went with Shadow mantel, but I'll change that to boxers
Waist-swiftbelt
Legs-homam
Feet-AF feet


I have slot of old gear and can make most set ups. I already know what I'm gonna change I'll try out again with the advice you gave me and give and update if I have any more problems. (and I'll cap my magic too haha)

Ethereal, its something youll want to have for this. I cant comment on the shield torque, but if you arent engaging on multiple enemies , chances are, you can idle at the latent HP for a bit of time gaining that mp which every bit of refresh you can get, is a bonus, once you hit under your latent, then swap in shield torque. Chances are, on the mobs you are doing this on, youll have already enough skill for it not to hurt you , if you drop 7 for refresh. 300+, and 315 being that ~said~ sweet spot, you probably wont need to be at 315 all the time though.

I cant comment on koenig for hands, I know a lot of ppl like to wear them when blood tanking, but, 110 vit is usually the given amount of vit to have before it becomes even more useless. With shield,head and body you already hit that mark. Personally id rather use dusk gloves til you can get homam.

You might not have atonement, but you can still rock Vorpal, unless you are doing HNMs on pld/rdm which I doubt it, vorpal will still rock decent damage, Ive hit 800s-1000+ on campaign mobs and VT and some IT mobs before, and average around 400-600. Depending on food,mob and if DWing(though you wont be in this situation)

Dont kill yourself too much on enhancing if you have it at a decent lv, 175+, as you are only squeezing out 1~3 more damage reduced, its still something though. And remember to cast reprisal in full haste/fast cast gear to get the timer down as far as possible to have it up always.

[Phlow]

Enhancing skill is essential to have capped. You won't need tons of extra equipment, but if your innate skill is something like 50 below cap, you'll notice the decrease in damage blocked by both Phalanx and Stoneskin.

Edit:

For Stoneskin:




For Phalanx:

(Enhancing magic skill / 10) - 2

[Aust101]

Thx, that info was very helpful and everything I was looking for.

One other question I had was, does anyone use the lvl 30 back piece "Warlock mantel"? What effect does that have on the fastcast of u aleady have loq. earring and Homan legs.

[Hitoseijuro]

Thx, that info was very helpful and everything I was looking for.

One other question I had was, does anyone use the lvl 30 back piece "Warlock mantel"? What effect does that have on the fastcast of u aleady have loq. earring and Homan legs.

Its the same amount as Loq, imo not really worth it. However you can macro it in a few faster spells, like reprisal just to get another 1% haste and possibly shave off another second. Obviously you wont full time it and you'll macro it in for spells, but even when castin some longer spells or w/e you're still being hit and a defensive back piece like boxers is a solid piece to have to keep that block rate up. When all else fails, experiement. If that warlock piece is costing though for w/e reason, dont waste your gil....

[Greeber]

Hello i have a question about Jailer of Love and /drk. Ive only tanked JoL once and i was /rdm for the fight. The fight went smoothly and I dident have any trouble and neither did my co-tank who was also /rdm. One thing he told me after the fight was that he was actually landing blind on JoL and more then once, idr if any of mine landed cause frankly i wasent looking to see if they were landing or not lol. We both have enfeebling magic merits (level 5 for me, +10, skill total of 124. im unsure about him but i belive its either +3 or 4).

Now i started to think about it after the fight, /drk might actually be better then /rdm for JoL. With /drk u get some of the same spells as /rdm (bind, sleep) in addition to stun. you would also get souleater and last resort as additional hate generating JA's. My main questions is for anyone whose tried /drk before on jol (i cant seem to find many ppl or tanking info on JoL), do you think/know if stun will land on JoL, and will it be reliable enough to sacrifice phalanx and stoneskin.

Im preaty sure i can get the recast of stun down low enough to be able to stun most/all spells with gear/haste/march. Also i have Crimson finger gauntlets which i can macro in just for stun and would make my darkmagic skill 124, equal to my enfeebling magic skill as /rdm. I am mainly looking at this option to stop damage i take from spells. I do have a MDT/MDB set which i macro in when it dose cast on me, but if i can stun a tier 4/aga it would work better for the entire tank party and replace the usefulness of phalanx and stoneskin. Any advice would be alot of help.

[Knight Of Apocalypse]

[Hyriu]

Every NM in sea(except Ix'DRG?) is immune to Stun.

[Hitoseijuro]

Hello i have a question about Jailer of Love and /drk. Ive only tanked JoL once and i was /rdm for the fight. The fight went smoothly and I dident have any trouble and neither did my co-tank who was also /rdm. One thing he told me after the fight was that he was actually landing blind on JoL and more then once, idr if any of mine landed cause frankly i wasent looking to see if they were landing or not lol. We both have enfeebling magic merits (level 5 for me, +10, skill total of 124. im unsure about him but i belive its either +3 or 4).

Now i started to think about it after the fight, /drk might actually be better then /rdm for JoL. With /drk u get some of the same spells as /rdm (bind, sleep) in addition to stun. you would also get souleater and last resort as additional hate generating JA's. My main questions is for anyone whose tried /drk before on jol (i cant seem to find many ppl or tanking info on JoL), do you think/know if stun will land on JoL, and will it be reliable enough to sacrifice phalanx and stoneskin.

Im preaty sure i can get the recast of stun down low enough to be able to stun most/all spells with gear/haste/march. Also i have Crimson finger gauntlets which i can macro in just for stun and would make my darkmagic skill 124, equal to my enfeebling magic skill as /rdm. I am mainly looking at this option to stop damage i take from spells. I do have a MDT/MDB set which i macro in when it dose cast on me, but if i can stun a tier 4/aga it would work better for the entire tank party and replace the usefulness of phalanx and stoneskin. Any advice would be alot of help.

/drk produces a sic amount of hate, the only reason most dont use it over /rdm depends on what is being done, things like kiting or JoL are great ways of going /drk, kiting depends on the mob being able to hit you.

When doing /rdm or /drk as a hate generators, you dont need the spells to land, even being resisted grants you the enmity. You dont use stun to stun the spells, just for the enmity it produces. You can idle in full mdt/mdb youll be casting so many spells your enmity will shoot right up w/o much if any enmity on you already. There shouldnt be any problems with the tank pt taking damage, the tanks shouldnt be next to each other, seperate them some distance and have the support somewhere off in the middle of the 2 tanks, or behind the tank if only 1.

[Lionsheart]

I've tried both /DRK and /RDM on JoL and I really didn't see a huge difference on hate generation, /DRK got me up there faster but the reason most go /RDM is the MDB trait. Though I don't believe it's much, it adds up if you wear as much MDB as possible.

[Tricant]

The point for JoL is to reduce as much hate as possible, and keep your hate capped with dispel/blind/bind/sleep etc spam. That fits the /rdm perfectly for the fight. Just because though you can't reduce as magic damage as /drk opposed to /rdm, doesn't mean it isn't a viable subjob. All it does for you, however, is get your hate capped at a faster rate. After that, the point of the sub is quite moot.

Also, you'd be burning through MP at a rate where you need ballad more than march. Anyways, don't beat yourself over it. It's just a simple fight that any schmuck can tank (on any job) - even without MDB.

[Phlow]

/DRK offers Stun, which is the equivalent of Flash, a decent VE boost and low-medium CE boost.

Anything that /DRK could offer, /WAR would outshine.

[Hitoseijuro]

Anything that /DRK could offer, /WAR would outshine.

Huh? /drk mops the floor with /war in terms of hate, idk how you think /war would outshine /drk.

[Hyriu]

Bind Sleep Aspir

[Phlow]

Huh? /drk mops the floor with /war in terms of hate, idk how you think /war would outshine /drk.

Because if you're looking for CE, /RDM is your choice (giving substantial bene's to defensive traits as well). If you're looking for VE, /WAR is your optimal bet. /DRK is ok, but I wouldn't go out of my way to level it considering the alternatives.

[FurionStormRage]

Because if you're looking for CE, /RDM is your choice (giving substantial bene's to defensive traits as well). If you're looking for VE, /WAR is your optimal bet. /DRK is ok, but I wouldn't go out of my way to level it considering the alternatives.

No, /DRK is your optimal bet if you're looking for VE (For whatever reason I don't know).

Stun every 22 seconds, Last Resort, Souleater > Provoke every 30 seconds + Warcry.

[AsDraBael]

Why would you need a special sub for VE anyway? You can cap VE within 30 seconds with no subjob at all.....