Tanking with an MDT setFollow

Hey all, I just wanted to share with you some follow up thoughts on a discussion we were having a few months ago about new armor sets inside abyssea. We were talking about max hp sets and MDT and PDT sets and etc, but at the time only a few people had such a set and there wasn't a lot of info on the MDT potential. It's taken me a while but I've put together a pretty nice MDT tanking armor set. I'll list the equipment and I'm curious to hear your opinions on what may be a good tweak or two if anything.

Note: I don't yet have a magic defense kila to work with so I'll be omitting the weapons. The obvious choice for MDT tanking dagger would be at least one (or two) MDB/mind Kila +2's, but even that may not be necessary if you get a good set and decent support. So here's what I'm working with



And with a white mage merited shell V I tanked Shinryu Thf/War and ate Thundaga IV to the face, his most powerful nuke, for 957 damage. I was using razed + gnarled + Atma of Apoc to hold hate on him, but my only magic defense atma is the brother wolf anyway, as I've yet to complete WoTG missions or get vicissitude.

I also played with this set in vunkurl earlier to solo a jewel of voyage by taking down Div-E-Sepid, the flayer, and both Durinn and Dvalinn, although I just used max regen atmas for div-e-sepid to negate bio aura. I was a bit paranoid and used sea daughter during daytime, razed and stronghold for the dvergrs and flayer, but looking back I would have been just fine with mounted champion and not needed to hit myself with the slow.

There are a few things I want to point out about my set. First is that I didn't opt to go for maximum MDT and I could have added in coral/mermans hands, legs, feet and thrown in the Lieutenants sash. I also chose to use the Lamia Mantle +1 but there is also the colossus mantle to consider. While this is an MDT set, I would be unwilling to give up my haste for a little more damage reduction... that 18% haste is too much and is not worth an added 9% MdT IMO, but I'm curious to know how others feel. There is also one other consideration I'd like your thoughts on and that's homam. I'm torn between raider's culottes +2 and ballerines versus homam cosciales and gambrieras. The homam was always a favorite tanking set of mine because it gave me haste as well as hp, and the hands of course add enmity as well. I was using turban on my head before I re augmented my anwig salade to better fit the purpose, and I love the fact that MDT comes paired with enmity, but turban probably beats the pants off merman's cap because 5% haste and 30 hp is really nice.

Anyway, I'm curious to know what kind of experiences other thieves have had with MDT tanking sets, or MDT in general. I'm going to try this set out with some good regen atmas against Turul sometime and see how it goes. I wanna see if I can solo the mighty Amphitheare WITHOUT using a brew.

Edited, Jan 30th 2011 10:27pm by Melphina

I should have mentioned that actually. I DO have a secondary MDT set with my coral subligar, leggings and hands (I'm gonna try to hq mermans in the coming week and work on a leuitenants sash... sometimne. I only have like 10K IS and it costs 56k). The set I listed above is specifically my MDT tanking set which I use on mobs that have an unnaturally strong magical TP attack or super fast cast. Shinryu's ancient magic I and II are both instant cast, so that qualifies as pretty quick (and dangerous). I've found that shinryu's normal melee hits only do 350-400 damage anyway, but his nukes do upwards of 1900+++ if I'm not wearing MDT stuff. Every spell shinryu casts is a high tier -ga or instantaneous Ancient Magic I/II so I tank him /war with a fulltime MDB tank set because I've found shadows don't work very well, and his accuracy is astronomical so evasion doesn't do that good either.

When I tanked the flayer in vunk I actually used my standard tp set for straight melee and swapped to my maximum MDB set when I saw a -ga coming at me and just let my shadows absorb the single target V's like I always did from day one. I definitely think there is a place for a maximum MDT set if you have the capability of carrying one, and that's mobs with no fast cast at all but several dangerous -ga nukes. There are some mobs that have an unnaturally powerful magical TP attack (thus instantaneous), such as Ahlmuk's vermillion wind attack, which I would probably use my MDT tanking set for. Turul also has an ungodly fast ccast and his nukes hurt, so I'd use my tank MDT set on him for sure.

I'm sure it's not necessary to go all out, but I'm enjoying the versatility abyssea has allowed. I'm still focusing mostly on my thief because I simply enjoy it more than other jobs and I've changed how I carry my inventory because of that choice.

Normal inventory --> whatever I'm doing at the time (sh*t's situational.... duh)
Mog satchel --> medicines and expendables. Everything from remedies/antidotes/holy waters to warp items and my fellowship pearls.
Mog Sack --> this is where I store my armor sets that I'm not using at the time. I swap between here and my active items a lot.

Because of this I have extra room so I've added the following sets to my arsenal

Magic attack bonus --> I use this in aeolian edge and when casting the elemental NI wheel. It includes the new nebula set at lvl 87, uggy pendant, moldy, aquilo's rings, and etc type items. I use aquiline belt for r acc and mab both.

Magic Defense Tanking set --> outlined in my OP

Maximum Magic Defense set --> a simple variant that removes haste choices for more MDB. I only wear this to stop -ga spells from wrecking me or single target spells if I anticipate silence or shadows down.

Elemental NI Jutsu spells --> OK I keep these in with expendables. Thief can get their own Azure lights with these, so whenever I solo abyssea I don't need to bring a mage for azure. I'm totally self sufficient. How much damage do they do? Well when I wear my MAB nuking set coupled with beyond + baying moon and MM they hit for ~~~ 320-350 damage on normal mobs each if unresisted, and ice can hit 400+ thanks to beyond. If I were able to get a round of 6 spells unresisted I could dish out over 2k damage with em. Very nice for self blue boxes. I also use these to hit grellow weakness on Nms whenever possible. I've gotten grellow several times because I had the elemental wheel on me, and that's a nice added touch.

I've found a great deal of versatility in my favorite job. I haven't attempted a PDT set but that would incorporate earth daggers and twilight + quested earrings in vunk + dark ring. I haven't met a standard mob yet that I can't evade + shadow tank though, so I don't expect to make a PDT set. I may add in an elemental MAB kila or two at some point, but I'm not rushing the kilas because they take so long.

... and now that I just got way off topic I'm done. Sorry for that small novel, but there's a few ideas for those who may want to try them out.

Edited, Jan 31st 2011 12:19am by Melphina

I have noticed the new atmas but I haven't gotten to them yet. My abyssea linkshell used to run daily from 7PM-midnight which resulted in a lot of people getting burned out, and recently reformed to purge a bunch of people who probably should never have been there to start with (seriously the shell was too damn big). The leader has been busy with college and I work full time so scheduled events have been heavily relaxed (I welcome this change). Since I have 3 celerity and 4 sojurns and a RL schedule I have traverser stones coming out my ears, and I've taken a liking to seeing how much stuff I can solo. I have a small group of 7-10 friends I can call upon to get help if I need it, and we're working on some empyreans together, but I enjoy being able to just go into abyssea and solo for whatever I want at my own pace in my free time. It's really liberating to log in and say "Ok today I wanna do this" and go in and cap my own lights (azure included), swap gear and atmas as needed, and go do w/e. There's a lot of versatility, and my magic defense armor has proven to be highly effective. I keep my max evasion set handy for most stuff, but since my tanking MDB set has 22% haste as well as MDT and MBD it attacks "almost" as fast as my standard tp set so if I have support I can use my regular DD atmas without flinching because I'll have shell V and cures (I've duod mobs with intense magic attack TP moves like this), and if it doesn't have instant magic I can use my regular TP set with max MDB swap instead.

I don't think I can add much more at this early hour without sounding like a broken record, but I'm glad I have my extra sets and thanks to the mog sack I can carry everything with me at once and pick and choose which sets I wear on the fly.

Edited, Jan 31st 2011 7:07am by Melphina

I assume you just skimmed over my posts and missed several points I made. I have a max MDT set to swap into which I use for most mobs for stuff like -ga spells and use my standard tp set the rest of the time on them. But inside abyssea there are several mobs that have an unreal fast cast (like Turul) and others that have strong magical tp attacks (like vermillion wind) which happen too quickly to swap back and forth readily. As you noted, shinryu is another place where ancient magic II is instant cast, so a hybrid MDT set DOES have a place in abyssea. It's more situational, but it's definitely not a bad thing. Especially when I'm soloing stuff with magic tp attacks in which case I'm not going to have a mage close by to cure me or keep me hasted, but want to cut down the damage the attacks cause anyway.

Brulo is another example of a mob where a hybrid set would be a good idea, although for him a specific fire resist build is more ideal. I'd use brother wolf and instead of stuff like merman's and dark rings throw triumph and whatnot with a cerb mantle in place of lamia while keeping my haste armor as mentioned earlier. But nevertheless, I'd still use a hybrid fulltime because you never know when he's going to use Inferno, and it just causes too much damage to risk NOT having your resist set on when he uses it. I would also use this type of hybrid set when tanking Orthrus at low hp because Gates of Hades is another instant ability I would want to block. I wouldn't feel safe trying to do standard --> full set swap on him and would probably opt for a hybrid haste/fire resist/mdt set there as well.

Also I agree on denali hands. I just don't have them, but my runic is level 70 now so I can farm it in my leisure now that 3 people can wreck Nyzule.

Edited, Jan 31st 2011 10:39am by Melphina

Why bother with gimping your DD when it's not necessary? Unless the NM can one shot you a WHM can keep you alive MDB set or not. I've tanked Orthrus with Cloak and Dagger Brother Wolf and Razed Ruins with my normal TP set, didn't bother with shadows and just lived on my evasion and the bastard never even came close to killing me. WHM is just that good these days. They have ascended to a higher plane of existence.

Edited, Feb 2nd 2011 9:35pm by Lobivopis

This set got my attention. I'll start to work in one soon, what is the MDT cap? I guess 25% right? but if you ask me, I would replace Raider's Culottes for Ocelot trousers (-1 haste but +6 enmity 10 evasion) I think is a matter of if you are solo or duo. For my Aeolian Edged I use Ultimate instead Baying Moon.

It was my first time tanking him and I played it safe. Next time it will be VV RR and Apocalypse.

You don't need an MDB bonus set for THF and WHM duo unless the mob can nuke you from full HP to dead in one shot. The WHM can throw cures at you as fast as the timers allow and he will never run out of MP. You pretty much can't loose unless the mob can do something that will outright kill you at full HP.


Edited, Feb 4th 2011 6:48am by Lobivopis

You're kind of re-inventing the wheel here. Tanks have been using MDT sets forever, and they've found it's generally best to not just TP in them. I macro mine in and out as necessary on Dancer. Mine is currently:

Twilight torque/Merman's Earring/Dark Ring (MDT-6%)/Dark Ring (MDT-4%)/Avalon Breastplate/Lore Slops (because I have them anyway for -Enm Waltz)

With capped Shellra V (27.3% MDT) this put me at -50% Magic Damage Taken. I intend to put Denali hands in and leave Lore Slops out when I get them, but it's hard to make people do old content these days. I could look to whore magic defense in the remaining slots, but the relatively minimal gains from that don't warrant a slot in my inventory these days.

Concerning yourself with maximizing the WHMs MP efficiency is purely academic when his MP bar never moves away.



Edited, Feb 5th 2011 9:33pm by Lobivopis

Shinryu is a special case though, 95% of the time you will not.

Besides which I duo Shinryu with RNG and PLD. a well geared PLD can solo tank Shinryu the full 30 minutes if need be and RNG covers 80% of the blue triggers.

Edited, Feb 7th 2011 7:37am by Lobivopis