Dynamis GearFollow

So how are PLD's gearing in Dynamis these days? Is it still Old School (i.e., Enmity, Turtling) or do folks throw in more DD?

Thanks in advance!

Oh, I don't disagree with you in the slightest about it not being worthwhile for gear. However, I'm only one of two PLD's in the LS! So I go and lend a hand or no one goes.

I've done Dynamis before. It's been years though!

I've got SAM leveled too so I wouldn't mind a piece here or there for that.

Edited, Sep 11th 2009 2:57pm by StormwyndofShiva

As far as actual gear from Dynamis, I'd second Dreakon's opinion that most of it is obsolete (The feet are pretty useful since Sentinel is arguably our best JA and they essentially add a Defending Ring onto it).

Since your question sounds more like you're already in a shell that happens to do Dynamis, I'd focus heavily on enmity. More accurately, focus on ways to generate enough spike hate to keep the mob on you for a minute while the DDs destroy it. Start by leveling either /RDM or /DRK, or both and play around to see which fits your shell best.

/RDM can work really well at keeping groups of mobs off your sleepers and other mages, while I've found /DRK to be pretty efficient (and more fun) if you're main assist. In that case you'll want to stack as much haste as you can get so your Flash and Stun timers are low, as well as Reprisal. Wear accuracy where you can't get haste so you'll have TP for Chivalry and Atonement, which can hit decent numbers after a few spells and/or JAs.

It may seem like you're making your mages work harder to cure you by not turtling up, but it saves everyone MP in the long run if mobs are smacking you instead of the surrounding DDs or sleepers.

Thank you everyone for taking a moment to reply and helpful input. It just convicts that I still need to level RDM. XD

This will be this LS's first attempt so we'll definitely be in starter cities for a while.

For /WAR, I probably won't gear much more differently than I normally do:

Hauteclaire
Iron Ram/Koenig
Lighting Bow +1 (I accidentally chucked my Smart Grenade ><)
O-hat/IR Sallet/Turban (Valor Coronet for Rampart)
Chivalrous/Shield
Suppa/Coral (Hospitaler, Insomnia)
Hauby/AF
IR hands/Dusk (Pallas's for non-Atone WSs)
Ulthalam's/Raja (Herc for macros)
High Breath/Amamet +1
Potent/Swift (Warwolf for macros)
Askar/IR Legs
AF Feet



Isiolia: Incidentally, I'm close to your neck of the woods.

OT- East Coast Paladins Represent! Hampton Roads VA here :)

Woot! :D We're all Mid-Atlantic to boot!

Edited, Sep 15th 2009 12:24pm by StormwyndofShiva

I usually go /WAR because it's too hard to convince 18+ other people (only a handfull I really know) that /RDM or /DRK might be worth a try.

My Gear for /WAR is Shield > Haste > DD > HP.
Change to Turtle for Xarc NM's.
If i'm on Slept Mobs duty it's Enimity/Haste.

Valor is good for Macro's, not essential, but worth having.

The few times I went to Dyna as PLD, I went /war in DD gear. I was main assist, voked to get initial hate away from the sleeper. After that its just DDs going crazy, move on to the next mob around 10%.

Could not agree more. I did the exact same thing to my first Sky LS (Both of us main tanks did, just showed up /anon and PLD/NIN) and after the first round of Gods nobody ever asked us to /WAR again. After that we kinda just started showing up whatever sub we felt was best, and that was pretty much always /NIN or /RDM.

PLD/RDM or even PLD/DRK blows PLD/WAR out of the water for Dynamis (If you're doing crowd control). PLD/WAR and PLD/NIN just CAN'T keep a large wave of mobs under control without expending tons of MP with self-cures, which you just can't do often enough unless your Dynamis group is killing at a Snails pace and you have tons of Refresh. It's not efficient by any means, compared to being able to simply Cure1 a sleeper, spam Barspells (Or rotate spells like Bind/Blind/Dispel/Sleep/Flash/Stun), and keep any size of mobs on you without a problem.

For me it's not a personal preference, it's the math of the game mechanics combined with a desire to do the best at the job I'm given.

There's a general PLD/RDM guide in the sticky, although it's more aimed for solo. Couple this with Kanikan's enmity table, and you've got the grounds to figure out what the best thing you can do to generate hate is.

Basic idea of PLD/RDM is to get Phalanx up and spam spells that build massive hate. Bind/Blind/Dispel are really nice for this if you have a single target. Barspells work even better if you have hate on a bunch of mobs and want to keep them all. Just rotate the barspells after curing the sleeper, and you'll quickly surpass the sleeper in hate so they won't be mauled when the sleepers wake up.

Sounds like I need to lvl RDM after I get DNC to 37.

I wouldn't consider myself to be a PLD/RDM expert, but what info I can provide is what I do. This is all in regards to Dynamis (COP zones and Glacier, we don't do Cities and I'm /NIN or WAR for Tav or Xarc) or Einherjar (Tier 1 and 2 if I'm not on WAR, I'm /NIN for Tier 3). The same principles apply in any Crowd Control situation.

The idea: Have more Enmity accrued on every mob that the group has pulled than the sleepers, so that when they wake up they come after you and the sleepers never get hit.

The spells: There are two good ways to do this, although I prefer the second method.
1. When the group of mobs get to camp and is slept, start rotating Flash/Blind/Bind/Sleep/Dispel on every mob, using as much Enmity gear as you have. (Low recasts, hopefully fast killspeed, so max Haste for recasts isn't as needed as raw Enmity since you should only be able to cast a few spells per mob before they're called)

2. When the group of mobs gets to camp and is slept, Cure 1 the person who slept all of the mobs. Begin spamming Barspells on yourself, nonstop. (You'll develop a feel for how long you need to do this to surpass your sleepers Enmity) Again, max Enmity since they have low recasts and you have plenty that you can spam. (I tend to only use the top three in the menu, since they're the lowest MP cost and by the time I finish casting the third, the first is up for use again)

Special situations:

Sentinel + Barspells: This is most useful on a particularly large pull, when you might need to hold mobs for a long period of time. Cure the sleeper, pop Sentinel, spam Barspells. This will guarantee that you'll be the target when things wake up, no matter how long it takes to kill everything. Keep spamming barspells after Sentinel wears off, only stop to avoid taking damage while things are being reslept. You can also smack Rampart during Sentinel for a quick VE spike.


Gear: I carry four main sets with me for PLD/RDM crowd control:

Enmity: Every bit of Enmity I have, minus Parade Gorget and Ares's Cuirass, to keep my Refresh rate maxed. (I never have a BRD for these situations, just Refresh and PLDs Auto-Refresh + gear)

Defensive: Every bit of -Physical Damage Taken gear I have, and I have another setup for max Shield Skill, then -Physical Damage Taken for situations when I can keep all the mobs in range to Shield-Block. (Sometimes there are too many to do this properly, so I use pure -PDT gear + Terras Staff, and no Shield Skill gear.)

Magic Damage Down: -Magic Damage Taken and +Magic Defense Bonus. Pretty self explanatory, used when something is being cast on me and I'm worried about it being reslept in time.

Enhancing Magic + MND: This is a bit of a luxury, but it helps me get more out of Phalanx and Stoneskin. Max out your Enhancing Magic for Phalanx. I use Enhancing Torque, Augmenting Earring, AF1 Legs (AF+1 if the stupid Temenos piece would ever drop). Max out your MND and Enhancing Magic for Stoneskin. The formulas for how much of each you need, and what the best balance is, is available on the wikipedia page.


I make sure to have Protect and Shell on me (Usually with a RDM so I get Protect 4 and Shell 4, but never have the RDM Phalanx 2 me). I make sure to have Refresh, Haste if the RDM can spare the MP but it's not very necessary. I keep Phalanx up 100% of the time, and Stoneskin as much as I possibly can. I use Tavnazian Tacos and I hit Reprisal when a group of mobs wakes up, to buy myself every second that I can while someone resleeps the group.

I also use PLD/RDM for Ouryu, we sleep him on the ground while I spam Flash/Blind/Sleep in full Enmity + Refresh gear. I do the same in the air, except that I'm in Earth Resist gear. Very easy to keep hate off any number of BLMs nuking nonstop in the air, just pop Sentinel and go nuts at the start of the fight while he's sleeping on the ground. It's honestly very boring to tank after a couple times.

I hope this helps, if anyone sees anything I can improve on, or has questions, I'm all ears.


Edit: Just a notation on calling. I'm not a fan of PLD calling, and that's coming from a hardcore PLD. I fully realize that a PLD can do a good job calling, and that a DD PLD can put up respectable numbers in Dynamis, but I personally feel that there is nothing in Dynamis that a WAR can't call, while doing a significantly larger amount of damage. (Resulting in faster kills and more mobs killed per run).

Edited, Sep 24th 2009 2:05am by NCCoda

We do almost the same thing that NatePrawdzik does for those mobs, we only take one PLD and his only job is crowd control (And sometimes cpulling).