Pld Magic Damage Resist Sets.

OK I have been searching for a post on most the Major FFXI sites(Except for BG due to work blocking that site.) and have been unable to find a post relevant to my question.

Here is the Question. What is the accepted best setups for the following:

#1 Pld MDR set for pld on a budget:

#2 Pld MDR set for pld that has gil but doesn't have an Aegis yet.

#3 The dream set. Best possible MDR set we pld can use.(Aegis+w/e)

Note: This isn't somthing really related to myself as much as it is related to newer end game plds. A post I can send plds too that want to build a good MDR set with getting more than just my output on it.

You are always aiming to reach Magic Damage Taken -25% and then stack Magic defence bonus.

Aegis makes this simple, but anyway.

A super cheap set up would be 5/5 Iron ram and Iron Ram Lance. Not much protection, but its all free and simple to get.

A slightly more expensive set would use Merman's gear (visible pieces, earrings and rings) as well as Iron Ram Lance and Lieutenant's Sash.

For the best you can get would be something like:

Valhalla Helm (5)
Valhalla Breastplate (5)
Merman's Ring +1 (4)
Merman's Ring +1 (4)
Resentment Cape (5)
Askar Gambieras (2)

That's 25% without taking up too many visible slots (that means you can wear more Iron ram) and not needing the Lance (thus saving TP)

If you have shadow ring, then that is worth getting in there (so in the above set add 2 merman's earring +1 and swap 1 ring for shadow ring).

(I excluded items like Dring, as that's out of reach to nearly everyone)

That's a pretty simplistic look at tanking magic. If you have anything specific to ask then I can try and answer it.

Iron ram set from campagin battle points is free but takes long to get. Iron ram lance is -10% dmg and pretty cheap. Lamia bow+1 is ideal but i use nq,theres 2 mdb rings that r pretty cheap. Mermans rings and earring if ur looking for the best, but i still use nq. Resloute belt and lamia mantle+1. only thing i can think of for neck is jeweled collar or +1.

As for the best ur looking at aegis,defending ring,minerva ring,crimson legs for movement speed+ elemental def.

Shadow ring is ok but its not 100% so u never know when it will work, not very reliable.

Probably one of the best "budget" items for any PLD's Magic Defense set is the Iron Ram Lance. Earth Staff will beat it for pure Physical Redux, but IRL has 10% on both sides of the coin and is ridiculous cheap.

Coral/Merman's Earrings/Rings (Sub Ethereal Earring if you need MP I guess).

Iron Ram Armor, Wyrmal Abjuration Armor (not MDR, but has Elemental Resists), Resentment Cape (Lamia Mantle for MDB) Lamia Bow +1, etc.

Coral/Merman are good for straight MDR, where IR and Wyrmal are more balanced with Enmity, Elemental Resist, and other helpful stats. Askar Gambieras are very nice with the reduction AND enmity.

For the Neck and Waist slots, might want to look into Elemental resist pieces based on what you are doing (i.e. Light Resist stuff for Ultima, etc.). I know that some of the Elemental Resist sets are easier to get on NIN than PLD because of things like the God gear that have +50 on them (although why Seiryu Kote lack Wind Resist baffles me).

Anyway, you can go for the MDR and then fill your other slots with MDB or make it targeted like a Fire Resist set for tanking Wyrms (or Wind resist as the case may be).

Let me get with one of my friends that has tanked JoL and Ultima more times than I can count and get back to you with more info...

dont forget avalon breastplate and assault breastplate

#1 PLD on a Budget:

This is normally what I reccomend for someone that doesn't have IR or a resentment cape yet.(like me where I didn't have time for it untill recently.)

Iron Ram Lance
Coral Finger Gauntlets
Coral Earring
Coral Earring
Ritter Gorget
Coral Visor
Lamian Kaman
Lamia Mantle +1
Raptor Leather Strap +1
Coral Scale Mail
Merman's Ring
Shadow Ring ( can be replaced with another Merman's ring and save the earrings for HP+ or put an BQR here.)
Ocean Sash
Coral Cuisses
Askar Gambieras

MDR-25% +5MDB +95 hp

#2 Pld with gil but not an aegis with access to IR gear:

Shadow Ring
Iron Ram Hose
Iron Ram Lance
Shark Strap
Lamian Kaman +1
Resentment Cape
Ocean Sash
Ritter Gorget
Askar Gambieras
Merman's Ring
Merman's Earring
Merman's Earring
Iron Ram Hauberk
Iron Ram Sallet
Iron Ram Dastanas

MDR-25% MDB+16 hp+190

#3 The Dream Setup

Aegis
Burtgang
Valor Cape
Lamian Kaman +1
Ritter Gorget
Ocean Sash
Cassie Earring
Ethereal Earring
Shadow Ring
Bomb Queen Ring
Iron Ram Hauberk
Iron Ram Sallet
Iron Ram Dastanas
Iron Ram Hose
Iron Ram Greaves


MDR-25% MDB+19 HP+319

With magic damage,like it has been said alot,you want to make sure you can reach -25%MDR and then boost your MDB as much as possible. That being said I don't think that there is a set that gives as much MDB+ more than Iron Ram. so you want to boost the other areas with -MDR gear and HP

With Avalon breastplate you are taking out the IR hauberk with has alot of MDB thus having you to choose another slot to fill that gap, which isn't possible.

With the Dream setup, as far as MDR gear goes people may agrue that there should be a Defender ring in there, but with the -25% already with Aegis, Defender ring wouldn't really be doing anything during a Magic attack.

As far as Resist sets go, that's a whole different monster. During those sets you want to try as much as possible to break the 300 resist mark before you can really count on it. Hence the reason why there isn't light resist sets on Ultima.

Any other thoughts on this?

Dizzmal you're my PLD hero!

*huggles*

i wont talk for the budget set because this part of PLD isnt meant to be "budgeted" or butchered as i call it. its a all or nothing situation, if you have 12 fire resist on your fire set, you wont save the day, same thing if you have 12% MDT.

you want to aim for 31,2% before everything, the 25% above is nothing spectacular and wont cut it. also Resentment Cape isnt a good choice because of the obvious limitation. the 5% arent hard to get back.

why 31,2%? because thats what you need to be capped with shell III (the best that PLD has). the thing is, you wont always have a WHM with a badass shellra V next to you (i actually rarely meet any WHM with more than 1 merit in shellra V) and there is more than events involving a tank party to PLD (PLD/RDM solo etc). there is also what we would call extreme situation etc, experience teaches this.

i'm personally not a fan of full iron ram (outside of aegis/D ring obviously) because it eats way too many MDT slots to begin with and the elemental bonus is a joke, simply.

A good WHM should have Shellra V 5/5 to maximize its potency, but Yuffy's right. Sometimes you don't have that luxury. However, I'd gear for Shell IV rather than III because you'll almost always have at least that much in group play and the few MDT short you'll be solo won't kill you. If you do lowman stuff without a RDM, WHM, or SCH though... by all means, go for the 31%.

@ Yuffy

Just remember that Resentment Cape latent is full-time in both Sea and Limbus, two of the places you might want it most. Also has Enmity.

Really?
News to me. Thanks for the info.

On topic. My character has an item set page with Capped MDT and ~20-30 MDB for about a million gil if anyones interested.

#3 The Dream Setup

Aegis
Burtgang
Lamia Mantle +1
Lamian Kaman +1
Resolute Belt
Static Earring
Shadow Ring
Volunteer's Ring
Iron Ram Hauberk
Iron Ram Sallet
Iron Ram Dastanas
Iron Ram Hose
Ataractic Solea

31 MDB
41 MDB on darksday

good for sea of course, just have to make a second setup but even then, you are talking about NMs not penalizing you for switching to iron ram lance (JoL, hope, faith, ultima) so we come back to square one: you can avoid the cape easily and still reach 31%.

as for the enmity, its totally irrelevant and there is something called macro. as we both know, there are better enmity back piece so this cape has no value on this side for a lv 75.

Magic damage taken:-22%
Merman's earring -2%
Merman's earring -2%
Merman's ring -4%
Merman's ring -4%
Iron ram lance -10%

Magic defense bonus:+25
Iron ram sallet +3
Iron ram hauberk +5
Iron ram dastanas +2
Iron ram hose +4
Iron ram greaves +3
Lamia mantle +1 +4
Resolute belt +2
Lamian kaman +1 +2

This is a very strong setup if your White mage has shellraV fully merited.
Things you can change around: Replace Lamia mantle +1+4mdb with Resentment cape-5%mdt. Replace Resolute belt+2mdb with Lieutenant's sash-2%mdt. Sometimes you might even want to swap out a Merman's earring-2%mdt for Ethereal earring.

Here is another question. What is your normal HP @ with your magic set on?

might want to look into
Jeweled Collar (+10 wind,fire,earth,water,ice,thunder)
Moon Amulet (+11 light,dark)
to add to the above set

as far as HP goes i have 7/8 HP merits and with the boost IR gear gives im around 1400hp in MDB set (1500 /nin tank set)

vs things like P.Ultima i use carbonara for the +175hp boost on CB

my gear for diff siuations
IR Lance -10% dmg
Lamia Kaman +1 mdb
Iron ram sallet +3mdb
Iron ram hauberk +5mdb
Iron ram dastanas +2mdb
Iron ram hose +4mdb
Iron ram greaves +3mdb
Resolute belt +2 mdb
Merman's earring -2%
Merman's earring -2%
Merman's ring -4%
Jeweled Collar +10 wind,fire,earth,water,ice,thunder
Moon Amulet +11 light,dark
Nimue's Tights +20 Light
Crimson Greaves +20 Light, Earth, Wind, Ice

1500~ i believe with MDT set, way less with a fire set (maybe 1350 or 1390).

so does anyone have 1700+hp with the max MDR and +MDB gear?

Reason why I asked was because I seen a LS applcation format that required their plds to have at least 1700+ hp with full MDR set. I can get around 1500+ but thats it without taking out some MDR or MDB gear out.

I can't see that happening, not without aegis.

Not with a real MDR build. Sure you can slap on some Iron Ram and call it a MDR build, but then you need 1700HP cos your going to take 1600 damage.

As a Galka with caped HP merits you only have 1360HP naked.. So you need 340 HP from gear (Humes would need +500HP)

whoever asks 1700HP minimum on MDT set either ask this just in case you have no shell and want to make sure you survive or is drunk (i think drunk is the right answer though).

if you take 1600dmg on Citadel Buster, the problem isnt your HPs, it is you. i dont remember taking over 1600 from citadel buster since i stopped to come as BLM or SAM.

the max i took with my MDT set was obviously from citadel buster and even then it didnt break 1100 dmg as i was able to survive it without being cured at all after switching from my atonement idle and taking a hit. in general it does 800-900, i hardly take more. and i didnt even have 32% back then, "only" 27 and no particular MDB (lamian kaman +1 only).

less paper discussion, more experience discussion please. if its to throw useless numbers and "GL working with that", its totally useless and you dont help anyone understand, especially when you throw false information.

also, % will always have more effect than stupid MDB. therefore, slaping some iron ram alone will make so much of a difference that instead of dying from an overkill, you'll still die from an overkill, enjoy your MDB.

between a galka with 2100 HP and full iron ram and some MDB gear and a taru with 1100 HP but capped MDT, its very easy to know who will survive something like citadel buster.

Just a btw... both the Taru and the Galka would survive. >.> Unless weather proc'd, in which case your Taru friend is *** without additional MDB after capping MDT.

But yeah, 1700 HP is overkill. I worked out the damage for somebody looking to tank Proto-Ultima using a fairly cheap set (22 MDT 13 MDB) and it came out to just under 1000 damage without a weather proc but with 5/5 Shellra V active.

id honestly use gigant or valor over Lamia Mantle +1 in the happening that this ls ask you for 1700 hp (also if I remember right, that ls ask for 1700 w/o food). I mean as long as you have +-28% DMT-... 4% MDB wont screw you up too much.

Eh, Resentment Cape is hard to pass up for Sea. 5 MDT is a pretty sizeable chunk.

1700 with or without food?

Also, As people have said aim for -25% MDT and hope you have a WHM in the tank party (Any endgame WHM should get 5/5 Shellra V merits) capping you at -50% MDT.

Then in any other slot you can chuck in some MDB gear.
Even with a small bank account it's not overly difficult to reach 25% MDT.

safety vs random. taru wont die unless CB gets a spike (which i didnt see happen with MDT yet but with 50%, its np), galka will survive only if he gets very lucky.

there is simply no excuse to not cap MDT if you fight something involving this set regularly. you can cap it with AH alone for less than 1.5M. if you do ultima or kirin on a regular basis, its a god send. i litterally laugh when i take a stonega IV alone on kirin, i think i took 800 last time, probably less. when magic becomes annoying just because of the hate it makes you lose rather than the risk of dying, the game isnt the same anymore, especially as a reliable tank.

28 is rather solid, its what i did almost all my ultima with but 4% is 4%, MDT is like PDT (in a much easier way though) a kind of set that you aim to cap or else its meaningless (or at least close to cap if the pieces are a pain to find).

but thats only events, there is a lot of situations where my MDT not capped with shell III annoyed me (sup solo LoO) but it only works toward the people that play PLD outside the big lines.

or maybe i'm just a lost perfectionist that likes when things are done fully :(

Check your numbers again, the Galka would survive that even without the MDB. Citadel Buster's base damage is 2088. Both of them will get their ***pushed in if day and/or weather procs assuming no MDB on the Taru. ~1304 damage with 50% MDT, no MDB, and only weather procing; ~2229 on the Galka with 5/5 Iron Ram (17 MDB).

EDIT: Galka number did not include 5/5 Shellra V. ~1676 damage with it up and weather procing.

That said,

Agree with this 100%. Cap your MDT, squeeze in some MDB, your healers will love you and the odds of ***going wrong due to nasty spell damage are drastically reduced or even eliminated.

MDT- caps at -50%. Even with Aegis there's no reason not to use other -MDT gear unless you have a WHM with shell5 with 3-5 merits in it (forget how many) which puts you at -50%. Then use MDB.
Also you don't need anywhere near 300 resist for CB, Ultima is much lower than Tiamat, 120ish is pretty consistent for me.

Anyway for OP:

MDT
Merman's Rings, no idea what these cost anymore.
Coral earrings/hands, same here.
Resentment cape, it's free
IR lance (I'd vote against this for JoL, use a shield and you can survive astral flow by blocking, will probably die with lance unless you get off a sentinel.)
Askar feet, -DT but works.

MDB (Use when MDT capped or you have no MDT- for that slot)

IR set is the best available right now.
Resolute belt, leutenants sash etc
Shadow ring
There's some MDB rings but I dont recall the name
Lamian mantle +1, pretty cheap
Lamian Kaman +1, this is pricy
There's no MDB neck piece I know off, so consider INT here, magic damage is casters Int vs target's INT. Prudence torque (+5) and some cheap stoles are available.

Not sure how i'd list these buy budget sets, just buy what you can afford really.

That's all I got off my head.

i actually wasnt aware of the base number, learn everyday. checked wiki, the other numbers explains the results iv seen during my ultimas i guess (people in the LSs iv been through usually dont stun dissipation, hence the need of shell III capped for me and thats where my numbers are from). edit: only way to go against weather is HP gear on top of capped MDT, unless the MDB reduces more than adding HPs. but even then, we are far from the 1700 asked :)


once again there must be a huge ocean between this and what iv experienced because i dont remember using sentinel on JoL for anything but making hate. SS and PDT set (you can switch to shield with the said PDT set and since you should be casting reprisal ...)has always been enough to eat Astral Flow and be FAR from dying. reprisal didnt even exist back then actually. so keep the lance and just macro shield with PDT/shield gear for JoL when adds are on you or AF is used, you shouldnt full time the lance anyway if you are making hate but as idle, its the best choice if only for Holy which is like the only thing that should be "dangerous" about JoL <_<

Can also use a SCH in Tank party (We used to for JoL) to give counter-weather, SS, Phalanx