PDT- Worth It?

I'm pld 75, blu 78, drk 80 and I know that i want to make my blu my soloist since it can fill virtually every roll. At first, I figured I'd like to be like a curing nin that can /dnc, but found my eva to be lacking. Because my pld is 75, I feel that the PDT- sword via ToM will be helpfull no mater what so i am going to get that. The question then becomes; do I opt for second pdt-? I can get a total of 33 pdt- (feasibly) and still be able to dish out dmg, or take a dif rout. All i want are your thoughts on blu solo. Please keep in mind that I can use this setup for tanking too as we can fit the roll of pld well... not 100%, but close... maybe 80-85

Soloing on blu you are better off headbutt locking /nin. Using actinic burst to help put up ichi if you actually need to cast it. And helping your damage and acc/macc would be more useful.

Or regurgitation spamming.

As far as dmg mitigation goes using a pdt swd and genbus shield would be better. At least until they come out with a trial that puts the swd to idk at least 12 I'd say.

Either way generally 100% pdt (utsesmi) is better than whatever you can get in gear.

I don't really see it as very useful imo. PLD will want to atonement spam something they can hit, so use joyuse. For things they can't hit they would most likely have shadows up, if not then I would say its a good idea. BLU doesn't really benefit from it much considering you want to optimize for dmg. Shadows, like Dasva said, will most likely take care of that.

What exactly do you mean by solo? most things that i solo/duo on blu usually are not difficult enough to worry about dmg reduction and shadows+ head butt tend to be enough. So would need to clarify what you solo.

Off the bat if you are looking for dmg reduction, however, i would suggest offhanding a genbu shield, its more dmg reduction + can shield block for bit more reduction. But again would need clarification on the above i think.

edit: dam beaten

I do blood soloing on rdm/blu. Strong def+cocoon + pdt and the big important thing at the end phalanx are very useful on pretty much any mob that will melee you for less than say 250 on a normal melee hit in normal mage gear.

And by useful I mean getting dmg down to less than 50 a hit. Hell I even made a thread about it cause somebody was so flabbergasted by what I was doing that he though I was hacking.

Works *** wonders.

Shamshir: VIT+6 Physical Damage Taken -8%
Dark Ring: Physical/Magical Damage Taken -3%

Total PDT: Day: 45% | Night: 51% (Cap is 50%)



That is my set.

Could potentially get more on the ring and keep a better sword on for more dmg if wanted.

Well that's pure damage reduction there, and I don't have a Defending Ring laying around and haven't gotten anything better from the Dark Rings. But yeah, I'd opt for an OAT/OAThree Khanda and some Haste in spots over the miniscule amounts of PDT would obviously be better for most situations, to get TP up faster for Sanguie Blade (assuming you have a good set for it).

ACC Capped situations where I'm melee tanking, I'd replace certain pieces with TP pieces: Acuben's Helm, Tiercel Necklace, Swift (Goading/Speed/Velvious if you have it), Dusk Gloves (+1/Ocelot Gloves), Homam Feet, etc.

Anyway, in regards to the OP: PDT is nice if you're fighting mobs as BLU/RDM (hi2u Phalanx and Sanguine Blade boosts, Convert, etc), that won't hit you for ridiculous numbers like 250+, where PDT+Phalanx+Protect+Cocoon will actually nullify most of the damage.

Otherwise if the mob is hitting hard enough where PDT is not viable, you either should not be tanking it as BLU (unless you are actually set to be a real BLU tank), or you should be /NIN.

As you may or may not know, BLU is now the new RDM as far as tanking goes, we are now the best un-engaged endgame tank. That being, obviously, anything you're tanking where you will not be meleeing the mob. May I refer you to this for those who have not seen it by now: http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/37619-Blue-Mage-Job-Findings?p=3969884&viewfull=1#post3969884

I found my -PDT set to be worth it when hunting for the BLU spells that require I get my head kicked in. Several times I would see myself hacking the mob's HP away with minimal effort, but they would only use three maybe four TP attacks, leaving me to either kill it or turn back and let him whack on me.

For more tactical/less experience talk: -PDT set, a REAL -PDT set, as Dasva said: will mean that you intend on taking damage from a mob that either hits too fast to reliably stake up an Utsu-lock, or uses TP moves that can either strip Utsusemi (Pecker Flurry), or works around it. Otherwise, a -PDT set will really only patch the few holes the Utsu-lock can come across, and Actinic Burst does a good job of buy the seconds needed to throw up an Ichi.

Should you build one? Absolutely. If you can cap it or get close to it, have it on a macro and utilize it when necessary. Do you need it? Really depends on how balls-to-the-wall your events are that your rushing your BLU to. I made my -PDT set (which I think is 35%) a side project, if I end up getting more gear (like an Umbra Cape, D-ring, augmented Dark Ring, w/e) then thats pimp.

tl;dr: I would make one, but would only dump a ton of money into it if you have money specifically for it. Good -PDT set is costly.

Or holding multiple mobs at once lol. Like in that thread I was solo skilling up on enough eps at once that you couldn't see them all lol.

Interesting point... shield skill go! oh wait...

Took me all of about 1 hour to get from 80-160 skill on both shield and parrying on rdm lol.

I thought he was talking about for his BLU. There's been several instances where I'll walk my BLU out somewhere to level a skill that they don't innately get (Throwing, Shield)

Oh yeah but the idea is similar...gearing is similar and for blood tanking to really work you need phalanx

Phalanx + Cocoon + good defensive gear = COME ON HIT ME I WANT YOU DO IT HIT ME!! HIT ME!!