Hi everyone,

I've been getting a lot of questions lately on how to PLD, and I've seen some physically painful things in the endgame scene, so I decided to put together a quick guide on endgame PLD. Any feedback is more than welcome! Here goes.

Resources

Kaeko’s Enmity Testing
FFXIAH gearsets

Disclaimers

This guide is for players on Nasomi. Some of the things contained herein might not be Nasomi accurate, so please feel free to correct any mistakes!
I hope this guide helps you understand PLD. Please don’t follow it blindly, try to think why things are done a certain way and not another.
Challenge its contents! I love a good, constructive PLD discussion.
If you’d like to contribute, please get in touch with me and I’ll update it.

In a nutshell

PLD is the easiest and, arguably, one of the most effective tanks in FFXI 75 pre-Atonement era. In the current meta game, where BLM and SMN are kings of DD for most events, PLD still has a place in almost all content endgame. If the meta ever shifts into TP burn and we don’t get Atonement, you can store your Sword & Shield in your Mog House and level SAM/MNK/WAR instead.
You build and keep hate through Flash and healing yourself (and others), sometimes meleeing too, while taking as little damage as possible. As a PLD, you have a lot of resources to quickly build hate and catapult yourself to the top of the hate list. You also have a ridiculous amount of survivability in case things go wrong.

• PLD is good for Ground Kings, Wyrms, Cerb, Khim, KS99.
• PLD is mediocre for Dynamis Xarcabard, Limbus, most of Sea, most of Sky, events like Rpumps.
• PLD is bad in merit parties and non-Xarcabard Dynamis.

Who is this guide for – what it covers and what it doesn’t cover

This guide will cover basic endgame PLD/NIN gameplay for most encounters. Gimmick fights like JoL /DRG or JoP /WAR /RDM will be skipped.
This is aimed at aspiring and established PLDs, both rich and poor. I’ll offer optimal equipsets with cheaper/free alternatives. The goal is not to say, “get this or you suck”, but rather “this would be ideal; what do you have that can mimic this functionality, and what is reasonably within reach?”.

Basic Concepts

• A PLD is only as good as his support.
• /NIN is your go-to subjob. /RDM, /DRG, and /WAR have niche uses.
• Haste is the most important buff. At 10% HP and no Haste, you should be yelling at your mages for Haste, not healing. Make sure they understand this.
• There are 2 types of hate: Cumulative Enmity and Volatile Enmity. Adding them up you get “Total Enmity”, which has a cap of (presumably true in Nasomi) 20,000 units – with a cap of 10k for CE and 10k for VE.
o Cumulative Enmity decays when taking damage or losing a shadow.
o Volatile Enmity decays at 60 units per real life second.
• Every action in the game has a CE and a VE value associated (more on this below).
• +Enmity from gear/merits adds to those values as a multiplier (+40 Enmity would effectively mean x1.40 CE and VE).
• Sentinel is your best friend, both for hate generation and for survival.
• Blocking with your shield while casting a spell will make said spell go off.
• Nothing in this era will one-shot you, short of straight tank AV (lolwut) or a terribly unlucky combo from Nidhogg during his 2hour – Max HP is not something you should gear specifically for, as the only benefit it brings is passive (less CE loss on damage taken). You should macro in +HP gear on sets where you know you'll be taking damage on slots that don't have a good PDT alternative (or MDT depending on content).
• Magic Damage Taken and Magic Defense Bonus are two different things.
o Magic Damage Taken caps at -50% but there is no 25% gear cap. Shellra V provides 27% MDT so gear accordingly if needed. Resist gear is still preferred over MDT for Jorm/Tia.
• Try to Ichi tank. Save Ni for emergencies / AoE (like Hurricane Wing).
• You want to shoot for a 15 second recast Ichi and a 22 second recast Ni/Flash.
• If you only have one BRD in party and they’re giving double Ballad, politely ask them to switch to Ballad/March. Ideally, have 2 BRDs in party to roll March x2 and Ballad x2, or March x2, Ballad, Madrigal if you’re meleeing.
• A PLD is only as good as his support.

The Hate Cap

I hope at this point you’re familiar with CE and VE. If not, have a look at Kaeko’s Enmity Testing.

Now that that’s clear, let’s talk about the hate cap. On retail it was proven to be at 20,000 units. That is the combination of 10,000 CE plus 10,000 VE. Whether this number is accurate on Nasomi or not, there’s no real consensus. I’ve heard people claim 6k as a figure on Nasomi, I’ve heard people claim 10k combined between CE and VE. Regardless of what the actual cap is, the key thing to remember is that once you and your DDs are at the hate cap, and assuming nobody is taking ridiculous amounts of damage, most of the hate bouncing will be based on VE and its decay of 60 units per second.

It’s not possible to not lose hate at all during a long fight, so don’t worry. Make sure your DDs understand how the hate cap works. Ask them to chill for a bit if their VE is near cap. Make it fall down to a reasonable amount until they nuke again.

How to play

The info below is just a guideline, find your own style based on your comp and situation.

Upon engaging the enemy, this is a good “rotation”:
• Flash
• Cure IV yourself three times
• Melee
• Flash on cooldown

As the fight progresses, you’ll have to use a priority system. In this order:
• Keep shadows up. Ichi to Ichi preferred, save Ni for emergencies.
• Flash on cooldown.
• Something needs stunning? Shield Bash.
• Cure yourself using cure cheat if DDs are overdoing it.
• Melee/WS.
• Chivalry if you have TP and need the extra MP.

A word on Sentinel & Rampart use
• Both carry a significant amount of spike Enmity, so save them for situations when your DDs are going to go wild (Magic Bursts, for example).
• On top of that, Sentinel makes your actions generate 2 x Hate (+100 Enmity), so try and combo it with a Flash or a big Cure to let those Tarus burst like madmen,
• Rampart has a magic shield component associated to it - use it to this end if you know you're going to need it, else it's just an enmity tool.
• If shit hits the fan, you have no shadows, and your target cannot be stunned / isn't debuffed properly, remember that Sentinel reduces your damage taken by a metric fuckton (100% during the first second if you use relic feet), so you can use it defensively. It shines most when used for hate keeping, though.

Merits

In order of priority:
• Unlock Guardian
• Unlock Chivalry
• Sentinel Recast 5/5
• Cap Guardian
• Enmity Increase 5/5
• MP 8/8
• HP 8/8
• Sword 8/8
• Critical Hit Rate 5/5
• Shield 8/8
• Cap Rampart/Shield Bash recast (personally, I prefer Rampart)
• Parrying/Evasion.

Equipsets and Macros

Links
Idle
TP
JA
HP Down
Cure 3
Cure 4
Shield Skill / Shadows Down
Flash/Utsusemi
Fire Resist
Ice Resist
Town Gear



Idle – Used when not meleeing & basically standing around. Its goal is to have damage reduction and Refresh where possible, while keeping a moderate amount of HP & MP.



Alternatives/Comments:
• Replace BQR with Bloodbead vs Tiamat.
• Use Hercules’ ring below 50% HP.
• Use Jelly Ring if your target doesn’t do much magical damage.
• Use D.ring if you have it.
• If you’re using any Dusk (gloves or feet), remove them from this set so you can run with it when kiting if needed.

TP (assuming no Excal)



Alternatives/Comments:
• Assault Earring if no Suppa.
• Amemet +1 / NQ Cerb / Charger’s if no Cerb +1.
• Swift Belt if no Velocious/Speed.
• You want haste everywhere possible.
• Dusk is a good replacement for Homam hands/feet.
• If your target has strong/frequent/unpredictable AoE, you can TP in Shadow Ring/Mantle.
• Parade Gorget only if you’re struggling for mana.

Job Abilities – Macro in the appropriate Relic piece for each JA (Feet for Sentinel, Hands for Shield Bash, Head for Rampart, Body for Cover). I use one full equipset for each, as macros have proven unreliable before.



Alternatives/Comments:
• Use your maximum enmity gear for these. No ifs, ands, or buts.
• Exception being Rampart, where you can macro VIT if you want additional Magic Shield.

HP Down – undoubtedly your most important set. Lolwut? You want to dip as low as possible in HP so that you can then heal yourself without having taken any damage (remember, taking damage means losing hate!). The goal is to have a good synergy between this set and the ones for Cure 3 and Cure 4, which should target 190HP and 390HP delta respectively between HP Down and them.



Alternatives/Comments:
• Astral Ring / Electrum Ring are good options, the latter being super cheap.
• If you don’t have a -HP or Convert HP > MP piece for a specific slot, make sure your equipset either unequips that slot or it equips something neutral (like Boxer’s Mantle or Shadow Mantle in the back slot, for example).
• Jaridah pieces have -HP.
• Astral Earring is a luxury item for this purpose. Only get it if you’re oozing money.

Cure 3 – The goal is that you create a gap of 190 HP between your HP Down set and your Cure 3 set, while gearing for the maximum possible enmity. The setup below will yield a 214 HP gap with +47 Enmity. This can be improved, mix & match with what you have in your inventory! Hydra has a lot of -HP but it has a fuckton enmity – these setups try to capitalize on this enmity by getting HP in slots where there is no good Enmity option.



Alternatives/Comments:
• Pigeon Earring is dirt cheap, whereas Hades +1 is ridiculously expensive. This is a good slot to trade off for more HP.
• There are no good options for rings besides Herc, so using a +HP ring is a great way to reach the desired gap while keeping some -HP/+Enmity pieces elsewhere.
• Trance Belt is super expensive. Check out RSE belts, most have HP!
• Gigant Mantle is not needed for Cure 3 (or Cure 4, see below). Don’t sweat it. Valor Cape is the tits and it’s super easy to get – ask any Bubu group to lot it! If you read this guide and are serious about PLD, hit me up in-game and I’ll get you the cape for free.
• Iron Musketeer’s Gorget is often overlooked. 15 HP at the cost of 1 Enmity is not a bad trade-off.

Cure 4 – Same principle as above, we want to maximize Enmity while hitting the target of 390 HP.



Alternatives/Comments:
• Pigeon Earring is dirt cheap, whereas Hades +1 is ridiculously expensive. This is a good slot to trade off for more HP.
• HP rings are a must if you want to use Hydra elsewhere. At least get BQR!
• Trance Belt is super expensive. Check out RSE belts, most have HP!
• Iron Musketeer’s Gorget is often overlooked. 15 HP and the cost of 1 enmity is not a bad trade-off.
• Hit up Dragon’s Aery and ask any LS to let you lot on Aegishjalmr.
• AF and Relic pieces have enmity and HP for the most part, they make excellent Cure 4 pieces.
• Koenig pieces, while not sporting any Enmity+, are the best source of +HP, so they can be somewhat useful for this type of macro.

Shield Skill / Shadows Down – Shit’s hitting the fan, you’re about to get it hard up the booty. Or you’re just casting Utsu: Ichi (remember – blocking an attack ensures the cast goes off). On Nasomi, you can also block while terrorized (this is not era accurate, but it’s good to know!).



Alternatives/Comments:
• Shadow Mantle vs Boxer’s is a debate I don’t want to get into. Either or is fine (I use Boxer’s for Ichi to ensure the cast goes off, and Shadow Mantle for terror where I cannot cast).
• There is no Buckler Earring on Nasomi ☹
• Darksteel gear is entirely optional, but nice to have. Koenig works okayish.
• Warwolf is not a must at all. Can use whatever here.
• OMG Cassie. Yeah. I legit didn’t want to list a Pigeon/Bloodbead Earring, so Cassie it is. Chances are, if your shadows are down, your MP won’t be anywhere near full anyway.

Flash / Utsusemi – You want to macro in Haste everywhere, and Enmity where there’s no Haste options. Blitz Ring is not something you should pursue, but it’s nice to have in some situations.



Alternatives/Comments:
• Dusk Gloves/Feet.
• Swift Belt.

Fire Resist – For Tiamat and KS99 Wyrm air phases. I recommend switching to a macro palette with no gear swaps at all once you’ve switched to this equipset, as unequipping Fire Resist will fuck you over.



Alternatives/Comments:
• Buburimu Gorget takes like 15 mins to camp. It’s also pretty cheap.
• NQ Tarasque/Crimson legs/Ruby Rings/Earrings are totally okay. Dino Trousers if you don’t have access to Crimson (unlikely if you’re planning to take on Tiamat, but hey, I’m not here to judge).
• Power Sandals do not require you to do the full quest. Simply hit up Davoi and you’ll get them upon examining the green thing.

Ice Resist – For Jormungand.



Alternatives/Comments:
• NQ Rings/Earrings are okay.

Town Gear :3



Alternatives/Comments:
• You generally look better without a helm on, unless you’re a Mithra – in which case use Koenig/Kaiser Schaller or delete your character.
• However, if you have Maat’s Cap, you should sport that instead.
• Qiqirn Hood on Tarus.
• Ninurta’s Sash is a good alternative to Sonic +1.
• Kraken Club is a good alternative to Excalibur.

FAQ

Is Shield Skill important?

Yes. Should you go out of your way to cap it? Probably not. It’s only good when shadows are down, which shouldn’t happen often (again, the better your support is, the less often you’ll be taking physical damage). When it happens, though, you’ll be happy to have capped skill so you can get Utsu off. Don’t be afraid to ask for Stun/Flash in those situations from your support.

Is Aegis good?

Yes, but it’s severely overrated. There’s a myth going about that Aegis is 100% block rate – it’s not. It works as a Size 1 shield with the damage reduction of a Size 4 shield (Shield Sizes are explained here)– aka fucking amazing on paper, for any encounter where you’re being melee’d often. As explained above, you’ll be blink tanking more often than not, so this is a moot point. It’ll save your ass in bad situations or in situations with little support, as a successful block at the right time will make your shadows go off.

The other great thing is the -25% MDT (NOT MDB). MDT caps at -50%, which is easily achievable with Aegis thanks to Shellra V: 2 merits into Shellra V equal -25% MDT, which puts you at 50% with Aegis. Capped Shellra V provides -27% MDT, which would put a well-geared (bar D.ring) PLD without Aegis at -50% MDT, aka exactly what Aegis can get. The good thing about Aegis, though, is that you can stack MDB on top of that -50%, as you won’t have to sacrifice any slots for the sake of MDT – but there aren’t many options for MDB in our current era. Moot point.
In practice, though, there won’t be many fights where being constantly at MDT cap with MDB gear on top is worth it. The only one that comes to mind would be straight tanking AV, but who does that anyway? Magical damage is normally predictable, and/or resistable (see Fire and Ice sets above).

In conclusion, Aegis shines (pun somewhat intended) brighter the worse/less present your support is, as it gives you a metric fuckton of survivability in those situations. However, if you have top notch support, aka a RDM, WHM, BRD, and COR who know what they’re doing, you’ll never even get a chance to use your shield.

Is Excal good?

Excalibur in pre-Atonement meta is the equivalent of adding cheese to any meal; you don’t need it in order to accomplish your goal, but boy does it make the experience better and more enjoyable (if you like cheese, that is; else you don’t have a soul).

Excal’s added damage is unresisted, hate-free damage based on your current HP (25% of it). One would think “Oh, let me gear for HP and forego other stats” – wrong. You still want to land those hits, and you want to land them often, so as usual ACC and Haste will be paramount in any Excal setup worth a damn. You can, of course, gear for some additional HP in slots where there are no good Haste/Acc options, like a Gigant Mantle for the back.

This added damage won’t help you keep hate, but it’ll help a ton in any fight where you’re allowed to melee (pretty much everything except maybe Nid and Wyrms). The sword’s base DMG itself will still produce hate, which is a nice to have.

I don’t have an Excal, which sword should I use?

• Are you allowed to melee the enemy and your support is top notch? Joyeuse.
• Are you allowed to melee the enemy, but you’re somewhat lacking support? Hrotti, Macuahuitl +1.
• Did you just start the fight and want to build up hate quickly through Cure cheat and whatnot? Macuahuitl +1.
• Is the target a dragon? Hrotti.

I have tons of Hydra gear but I’m not sure how to use it

It is counter-intuitive for it to have -HP and +Enmity. Its best use is to macro in for Job Abilities, and also for Cure Cheat equipsets (see above).

Why are Cassie Earring and Intruder earring bad?

There are only two situations I can think of where you might be one-shotted in this game on Nasomi, where Max HP would matter. One would be straight tanking AV, since he has like 134 different ways to murder you. The other would be if Niddhog has just popped Mighty Strikes, used Horrid Roar, Elegy & Slow wore off, your support are taking a wank, and Nid lands a Double Attack on you in the middle of a Cure Cheat, using your HP down set. Besides this, you really don’t care about Max HP for survival purposes. If you’re sporting an Excal, you can make an argument about using one of these two Earrings along with Brutal, but I’d still favour Suppanomimi myself. Different discussion. Max HP only affects the amount of CE lost per damage taken; when you know you're going to take damage, you should macro in +HP pieces on slots where you don't have a good PDT/MDT alternative.

You really don’t want to let go of your MP. Sure, it’s not about how much MP you have but rather how quickly you get it back, but it sure as hell sucks to only have a 2xx mana pool to do stuff with, especially after all DDs are hate capped and you’re not allowed to melee, and your only way to keep hate is through cure cheat.

Why no Sattva?

The opportunity cost of not getting Rajas is way too much. Rajas helps you as a PLD as well, it’s not only for other jobs. Sattva would only improve cure cheat macros, and you could make a case it’s useful for JAs and Flash as well, but hopefully one day we’ll get Mermaid Ring and this whole debate will be over.

It does look fucking pretty though, could make an argument for Town Gear.

Why is D.ring overrated?

Don’t get me wrong, I’d also sell a relative for a D.ring. But it’s really just a fetish item we cherished from retail days, when we couldn’t tell our asses from our heads, and as 16-year olds we thought it was the tits. Spoilers: it’s not.

D.ring is useful when taking damage (duh). In the long run, D.ring will be cool to reduce AoE damage for which you’re not gearing specifically against. However, as we saw earlier, a non-Aegis PLD can get to 50% MDT easily. Adding a D.ring would only have no effect on magic damage taken. Not to mention an Aegis PLD would have no benefit at all from it either, provided you have a WHM in your party (which you should).

The other question is PDT. Generally speaking, you shouldn’t care about PDT, unless your shadows are down (at which point you have other more pressing matters at hand, like getting shadows back up). All in all, it doesn’t bring much here either.

But the epeen is nice and fuck all the logic of the things I just said. Get one if you can.

Edit1: Added link to Shield Size website. This was pointed out by one of my most trusted supports. As I said, a PLD is only as good as his support!
Edit2: Clarified "How to Play", added a Sentinel & Rampart section
Edit3: Corrected MDT figures for non-Aegis PLD - it is indeed 50% with some Coral/Merman gear.
Edit4: Clarified that Max HP is not all that useless. It slightly reduces CE loss when taking damage.
Edit5: Clarified that while MDT cap is indeed 50%, there is no 25% gear cap.
Edit6: Replaced Aurora Mantle (which PLD can't wear, shame on me) with Ram Mantle +1 for Ice Resist set.

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Kulgan/Seed
RichFatKids - rfklinkshell.com

I do things a bit differently, but all in all a very nice manuscript. Well done, and appreciate the effort put into this. This should help alot of inexperienced 75 plds find their way. Good job^^

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!!! Surprise !!!
~not a noob~

Interesting. This caught my attention so I investigated a bit, as this was never the case prior to my quitting the game on retail, around January 2011. It seems on the May 2011 update it was changed to not count towards the 50% cap (hence I didn't know about this until your post). This would be out of era if it were like this on Nasomi, and it would be nice as hell. If any Aegis holders could test it out, it'd be great

Thanks for the comments so far! I'll edit the "How to Play" section a bit, as it seems to be getting the most attention from the feedback I've gotten, and it's lacking some key info that's located elsewhere (like proper use of Sentinel or Rampart, for example).

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Kulgan/Seed
RichFatKids - rfklinkshell.com

Aegis mdt is regular mdt like it should be in this era, cap mdt with shellra5 and you dont need any more.

After reading your whole guide I have to correct a point : max hp is always useful as it will reduce CE loss from dmg : https://kanican.livejournal.com/31613.html

Thanks for the correction, Naimah, that fact slipped my mind.

Before I re-write it, I wanted to gather your thoughts on the matter so I can edit it properly. My question: Should we correct it from a conceptual pov, removing mentions like "Max HP means fuck all", or should we rework some of the sets? Or both?

To answer this, this was my train of thought:

CE loss being affected by max HP will be relevant only when taking damage.
There are two types of damage: predictable (shadows down, air phases, long spells) for which we gear-swap accordingly, and unpredictable (random physical/magical AoE, random single-target magical TP move).

For predictable magical damage, since we gear for it, we do not have much leeway in terms of macroing in more HP to reduce CE loss, as we want to favor a fire/ice resist setup anyway. I think we can skip this one.

Predictable physical damage, aka "Shadows are down", is an interesting one. Consider the following scenarios (none of which include D.ring) in which you're taking a massive crit to the face (I used a real number from my last crit taken at Nid). For simplicity's sake, I have only included PDT & HP gear from pieces where both options are available and you have to make a choice:


This shows us that we should aim for a Shadows Down set that includes Darksteel Hands/Legs and Jelly Ring as opposed to Homam/Koenig and Bloodbead combos to optimize CE loss. This would favor the hypotheses of changing the guide conceptually, as max HP is helping passively since we do not gear specifically for it.

For unpredictable single-target magic damage TP move, if we're fighting something that does that frequently and we do not have a specific set for it, we have to consider: are we meleeing the target or are we not? How frequent are those TP moves? Are we losing a lot of damage by swapping out Amemet +1, Suppanomimi and 2 acc rings for, say, Valor Cape, Cassie Earring, BQR, and Bloodbead? Considering the table above, same values, and assuming 50% MDT cap is reached through non-Aegis means (I actually realized the 25% cap without Aegis is easy to reach, amending that part too) we get the value on the last row.

So it all boils down to the frequency of those magical TP moves. All in all, I don't think it makes much of a difference as it's RNG-based.

My conclusion, and please let me know what you think, is that we should rephrase it as "when idling or when knowing you are going to take damage, max HP is important; gear for pieces with max HP where better alternatives like Shield Skill, PDT, or MDT are not available, and use Convert gear like Cassie or Intruder only if you aren't at max MP".

Thoughts?

P.S.: Sorry for the long wall of text!

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Kulgan/Seed
RichFatKids - rfklinkshell.com

I can contribute some MDT testing here as I have both an Aegis and a Defending Ring. These tests were done a few years ago on Sprinklers in Sky before they were buffed. When the test was done, the Sprinklers would only cast Burst, which would return extremely consistent damage. I discarded resist values from the results below and only wore applicable MDT gear. There was no other gear used for these tests than is shown below:



These results show that there is no 25% MDT gear cap active on Nasomi, but the overall cap of 50% is functioning as intended. The addition of Shell III, which should be a reduction of approximately 18-19%, shows the cumulative effects with MDT from gear and where the cap applies at 50%. I didn't have a RDM or WHM with me to test Shell IV and Shell V, but I believe the results show that the principle applies. The test also confirms that a Defending Ring contributes to MDT, as it should. The gear sets I used are as follows:

25% MDT: 28% MDT: 25% MDT + Aegis: 28% MDT + Aegis:

I added a Lamia Mantle +1 to the capped equipsets to show that the effects of MDB do apply beyond the 50% cap, as this is an independent value.

I'm not an expert PLD, I prefer RDM tanking in almost all situations, but I leveled it and finished an Aegis for our AV straight tanking fights. Naimah's statement above is correct, you don't need any of this gear with Shellra V and an Aegis. Without an Aegis, there might be situations where this gear fits, but based on the level of your enemy, elemental damage reduction gear like a fire set for Tiamat is going to be much more effective. The only time I ever used this MDT set was for tanking JoL as a RDM, where the element of damage you receive changes constantly.

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Fid: 75 DRK/RNG/COR/THF/BST/BRD/NIN
Mini: 75 RDM/PLD/BLM/BLU
https://www.topshelf.team/
2017 TS Fantasy Football Champion

Arguably one of the most important things ever posted on these forums as far as mechanics are concerned

_________________
!!! Surprise !!!
~not a noob~

Thanks for providing those test results, Fid, those are exactly what I was hoping for! Ironically, I also prefer RDM to tank almost everything in the game, it's more fun to me.

Idling in MDT was only for situations where random magical damage happens, like the JoL example you mentioned before. Definitely use Resist gear for Jorm/Tia.

Updated OP to reflect:

- MDT cap is overall 50%, but there is no 25% gear cap. Shellra V provides 27% MDT so gear accordingly if needed. Resist gear is still preferred over MDT for Jorm/Tia.
- Max HP is useful passively, in the sense that it reduces CE loss on damage taken. While you should not gear for it, it's good to have in slots where there are no PDT options available.

_________________
Kulgan/Seed
RichFatKids - rfklinkshell.com

This is an excellent guide and hopefully a big help to many PLDs, both existing and upcoming who read it.

I am curious why you elected to use PCA in the TP set instead of a Fortitude Torque.
I could see it for extremely evasive targets perhaps like Byakko.

I think you could also do a little bit of discussion about WS sets. I know personally I use Hydra w/ Haubergeon for swift/vorpal blade (No excal) to maximize accuracy for consistency and enmity+ to get more out of them. This gear set is mainly worth discussing because you're already carrying so many gear sets so you have to work with what's available. Just curious to see your thoughts on WS gearing.

Thanks for the kind comments.

On PCA vs Fort Torque, it's situational, mostly depending on whether or not you have an Excal and whether or not you have Madrigal / Sushi. With an Excal, I'd favor PCA over FT for sure, as I don't think ~7 atk would out-do ~3 acc on a high level target where you want your Excal procs to happen. With a regular sword I'd probably recommend FT if you're using sushi (which you should, if you're meleeing) as you want to hit for more than 0. Again, there's no clear cut solution for every scenario, and both options are generally valid. In all honestly, I forgot about FT when putting together those sets, lol.

For WS gear it depends on what the goal of your WS is. Is it damage? Is it opening a SC? Is it gaining enmity? Depending on the answer, you'll be using one WS or another.

Generally speaking, multi-hit WS suck against high level targets where your acc is nowhere near capped (read this if you're bored, it's truly eye opening: https://rukenshin.livejournal.com/16428.html#cutid1 ) and should generally be avoided.

Despite this, if you still want to try and land Vorpal/Swift on a HNM, I'd still favor ACC > STR over Enmity, as further reducing your ACC on a multi-hit will result in a much lower damage and thus less enmity generated than you'd get with less enmity gear but a better WS (see the linked post for more details on the detrimental effects of lower acc).

If you want pure enmity, gear for it and for +HP on slots where you have no Enmity and use Spirits Within. Personally, I never do this.

If you are on SC duty, you'll most likely be doing Savage Blade. Since your damage in this case is irrelevant, but landing it is the goal, I'd go full out on accuracy (bust out that Ohat, yo).

If you're WSing anything that's not a HNM, hands down use a proper DD set for WS, as it'll give the most damage and enmity.

Hope this helps!

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Kulgan/Seed
RichFatKids - rfklinkshell.com