The ideal Promyvion PLDFollow

The Ajase beads are going to just be an HP+20 piece in Promyvion, so I'd actually suggest possibly using a Van Pendant (enemy crit rate -1%) instead. (Going with either a Holy Phial or a Spike Necklace are also options, depending on your current situation as far as damage output and how much your Cures are for.)

Having awesome gear's a good goal, but I think if everyone comes prepared with items you can avoid spending all that money. If people cycle hystero/psychoanimas you'd only be attacked for like, the first minute when it's slow and not bad at all. With regular anima usage it'll just be intimidated for the rest of the fight and the (I don't know your budget) potential thousands of gil spent on your gear could end up for the most part squandered.

That said, it may make more sense to find one person that's been up before to help out and farm recollections ahead of time, refining 'em for 2k a piece. Pretty cheap. I've done these many times and was in the same boat, camping NMs for the best 30cap weapons/equip I could get, farmed up ALL my own empty gear ingredients as a lowbie, and went in 120% gung-ho. Ended up being way overkill, and I reluctantly realized I had blown a lot of time on what essentially turned into a fairly simple color by numbers exercise.

However if superman gear is something you're still interested in, then by all means go for it. I'll never sell my empty gear because of all the time/effort I put into it in that first go-around.

PLD really didn't start to shine for me until the 50 cap events. Before that, I did everything on BLU. BLU makes a hell of a tank on the bosses, even if his two-hour sucks (for these fights - not enough good spells for Azure Lore yet).

With the exception of the Kite Shield, I agree that that has some of the best gear you could want, but PLD just doesn't have the umph needed and it's not even at its best Tank wise, either.

WAR/MNK or WAR/NIN with a Great Axe holds hate very well. Provoke + the damage from a GA + Mighty Strikes (when you're unleashing hell) is incredible at that level.

BLU/NIN spamming spells (with adequate juices to keep MP up) not only keeps the mob locked up (Head Butt + Animas is an amazing combination) but drops it fast. BLU/WAR if you have adequate healing support adds Provoke to the mix, as well.

SAM/WAR works ok (on par with PLD and NIN - see below), but since it's pre-Hasso/Seigan era, it's not as good as it can be. SAM/NIN might do ok - I've never tried it, but the damage output + shadows has some potential. It just doesn't have the "Get hate right now" feel that makes the above as good as they are.

Neither PLD nor NIN really has what they need to tank at level 30. Flash and Ni are both level 37. The elemental wheel is at 40. Both jobs rely on their subjob (usually /WAR) too much for their tanking at 30 to really add the hate holding that is needed for these fights.

Personally, I got incredibly used to using BLU/WAR on the Promyvion fights. When we first tried them, it took us a long time to beat Mea. First time I took in BLU instead of PLD, however, we walked right over him. I haven't lost a Promy since (and I used to drag 2-4 new people up there every few months when I led a "social" shell).

Please for the love of god bring an Antidote or two when you do Promyvion-Mea, get that Poison off you for when Impale hits you. I've seen it kill countless tanks, Impale lowers you to critically low HP but removes all your hate. Sure the mob is not killing you but the potent Poison will very quickly.

Ive tanked every cop fight on pld. this fight is all about coordinating anema's and your DD's two hours. Honestly, make sure you have all three animas. if you all come loaded up, this is a cake walk.

I would not worry about your maximum HP as much as i would worry about surviving the immediate moments following manuevers like throat stab. youll need to bring meds that others wont.

all three animas
potions
yagudo drinks (too early for refresh spell.

Honestly, those meds are more important than being in the pimpest gear. To put it in perspective, even with the pimpest of gear, youll find youll want these meds anyway. Anywho, your teams anemas will negate more damage than your gear ever will.

This. PLD does fine in CoP.

But really, for promies, ANY balanced parties with animas can take down the bosses. They're just really easy.

BLU/war is an incredible low level tank. They take less damage than anyone and they deal great damage while stunning the target every so many seconds. Provoke, Head Butt, Bludgeon, Wild Carrot, Healing Breeze all generate excellent amounts of enmity.

BLU/dnc is also very good; I actually prefer this over /war for tanking. You get more curing power with less MP spent, and with bludgeon to act as your provoke you really don't need to worry about hate. The combo of Drain Samba + Curing Waltz is just over powered at these levels, for nearly anyone. This is particularly true of BLU since you can deal WS-like damage in large chunks, independent of TP. And hey, Evasion Bonus is a nice perk - it actually does pretty well at this level (you end up with higher evasion than a ninja).

The critical spells are: Head Butt, Bludgeon, Wild Carrot, Healing Breeze, Sheep Song, Cocoon, and after that I'd set all of the VIT spells you can along with HP+ spells if you have left over spots. Also, since you'll be setting Wild Carrot anyway, you might as well burn 1 point on Pollen for Resist Sleep (and not because the spell is good; it's not). Sheep Song gives you Auto Regen and is just generally great to have since a tank who can sleep is a tank who gets attacked when monsters wake up, instead of mages.

Also, while not relevant for Promy, keep in mind that you can also set certain killer traits as needed, too.

Have fun, and good luck!

EDIT: Oh, I almost forgot. Battle Dance is your friend for climbing! When you get to the MR's, gather the babies up with Cocoon on you, and use this to wipe them. Anytime he pops more, hit it. This is how BLU/dnc can actually solo their way to the boss (literally, you can climb the promies with 0 other party members).

Edited, Nov 25th 2009 1:37pm by NatePrawdzik

BTW, back in the day, I used to run promys for new LS members and friends. And as far as set-ups goes a standard party worked fine. I ran as rng to make the climb faster. So Whm/healer, Rng(me), tank, and decent dd's, would work great. I forgot my record in there, was something like 40/1; The 1 loss was my first time in there when friends were running me through and Holla boss messed us up bad on first try.

Tips for better success...(if I can remember right).
1. a good healer
2. DD's with useful 2hr (I was blu first few times and although 2hr sucked at that lvl, other spells and support was great in promys and most all cop fights.)
3. Everyone comes prepared, RR, food, pots, !anima!
4. set order of anima use before entering fight, have members call out when they done so next person can go, and everyone pay attention.
5. have 1 person in charge from start to finish and everyone must follow orders, no allowing people to run off thinking they know where to go while party is going other way. (my rule was always "Stay in line, and stay behind me at all times" that way we could run by most mobs without wasting time fighting whole way up.)
6. Tanks. we usually used war/ninx2 trading hate and nice 2hr. Have had nin/war, pld/war, war/mnk, and even a blu tank with war back-up. All have worked, but war/nins always tended to be easier fights.