Amemet +1

Amemet +1 is a perfectly good back piece til you can obtain Cuchulain mantle/cerberus Mantle while subbing /nin(engaged). Unless you already have a foragers, or getting it for your DD jobs, just for pld is a waste vs amemet+1 or cerberus, just b/c cerb mantle can be used for ja/flash/etc and fire set.

When you arent subbing /nin, Shadow mantle/boxer mantle will do you better to migrate the inc damage you will be taking.

If you can swing your sword at a mob, there is no reason why you should not be DD-ing it with DD gear. What else are you going to wear? enmity, does nothing, vit/def? wont affect much against mobs of higher level, shield skill? unless while shadows are up, HP? also 90% useless while shadows are up, or unless in a perma spot, soon as you macro it out, you lost 80% of its usefulness.

Being a good pld, you need to macro efficiently:
TP: acc/haste/refresh/att
flash: haste(til you cap your timers) enmity
JA: enmity
Cures: enmity
ni: haste noblinkable shield gear if you want
ichi: haste/shield
ohshi noshads/terror: Shield/damage taken gear, when you have nothing left then vit/def
Rampart: Vit/enmity

:note: most pld gear is built with HP so wearing HP gear isnt the most efficient thing you can do as youll macro it out anyhow, but if you arent sure of yourself or healer, HP gear is fine, just keep it on you perma to make the best of it.


DD pld is a great thing, it produces better results on HNMs than it does in exp, however, that doesnt mean you shouldnt gear for DD in exp.

Stay focus'd, spam your hate, cure yourself(very important, stop draining your whm/rdm's MP), count your shadows, learn to blink your shadows, know your enemy.

while I agree with most that pld isn't a 'DD', it does have the ability to do so in situations where feeding massive amounts of tp isn't too dangerous. the increase in efficiency is too great to over look when it's viable and not using a proper build means that it is wasted potential. I'm just throwing this out there because it seems to be the basis of most of the arguments I see here.

When it works DD pld holds more hate than turtle pld. It does so because VE is very easy to cap either way meaning pld only needs help with CE. DoT, Atonement and cheat cures are all great ways of raising CE and with shadows reducing CE bleed significantly a good DD pld can build a massive hate threshold very quickly indeed. Enmity/resistance/shield gear can be macro'd in when needed and defensive gear provides no benefit when shadows are up. In short if you have the support you need (pretty much 50% total haste) a pld has nothing to lose from using a DD gear set to gain tp in but a lot to gain from doing so. As a result not only does a DD style hold more hate but it works in 90% of fights and strategies.

Boxers Mantle is useless with shadows up and not everyone has Sea access.

Cerb mantle is a slight downgrade in DoT from Amemet +1 which offsets the +3 enmity somewhat during the tp phase. Obviously it's better for JA's and cures but for tp it's a wash between them.

Gigant mantle is a macro piece and shouldn't be full timed and as such it can't really be compared to Amemet +1, they serve a different function. Same goes for Resentment and Valor.

Forager's and Cuchulain's Mantle are both clear upgrades as they do exactly the same job only better.

There are loads of examples where a full shield set up is overkill even for the faint hearted but a pld is still required or desired, like sky farming, most limbus runs, city dynamis mobs etc... It never ceases to amaze me when I see other pld's flailing around like a failure with a macu +1 and full time enmity gear vs something like an Aura Statue. Just learn to count to 3 and put some DD gear on ffs...


tldr;
Amemet +1 is just he cheapest of the acceptable DD back pieces, it's not wrong for a pld to be wearing it as long as it's worn for good reason as a good DD tp set is a staple requirement of a good pld.

Amemet +1 is ok if your hate is fine(So no HB mantle). Swap in Resentment cape for JAs/Spells since it's no use to keep amemet +1 on for that. For level 75; Spellcasting/JA=Cerb(+1), Idle=Boxer's/Shadow/Cuchu/Cerb, ALL works, but they are situational. Max shield=boxer's. I also use boxer's over shadow for "bloodtank"(Personal preferance) Gigants mantle for "fake cure3" macro, wich pushes your max HP up to gain hate, then swaps back to your idle set. Ever since atonement came out, cuchulain's is opional for the added ACC to WS spam. For HNM's(Tougher than fafnir), I'd use cerb or boxer's for idle.

Find wich mantle works the best for you, but remember that gearswaps is there for a reason. PLD got TONS of great mantles.