[Armando]

Hey, nice guide, Dirtyclown. Might want to add this little bit of info: the running Provoke macro. Not sure how many of you are aware of this tactic, but basically, most JA's are instant. It's actually the animation that "roots" you to the ground. However, if your character has blinked out from an equipment change, the JA (or spell) animation won't go off. In the case of JA's, since they're instant, this means you can do the JA while running and not stop [b]at all[/b.] The basic concept of the macro is to remove a visible piece of equipment, do the JA, and re-equip that piece of equipment. I usually unequip the lowest defense piece of equipment that's not actively being used in other equip change macros, like foot armor (and I specify "not being used in other equip change macros" because if the other macro screwed up earlier and there's no piece of equipment to remove, well, there goes that plan.) In other words, something like...

/equip feet
/ja "Provoke"
/equp feet "Gallant Leggings"

Depending on your lag you may need to toy around a little bit with adding a /wait 1 before or after the JA. Sometimes, if the lag is noticeable, you can also put the the ability/spell directly before the equipment change command and it'll still come out second (mostly applies to spells.

What's this good for? Lots of things. You can use it to pull with Provoke or spells without having the mob catch up to you. Likewise, you can save someone's life by pulling a deadly mob off of him/her with Provoke, and actually be able to run away yourself. You can use this to Charm a mob while running just in case it fails, and if it does fail you can keep running and Charming as many times as needed. You can use JA's while kiting without slowing yourself down, or you can use Flee to get away from a mob without rooting yourself to the ground for 2-3 seconds which can be the difference between life and death. In short, since we PLD are so prone to having to save someone else's ass, it's a VERY handy macro to have. Also works well with Invincible/Sentinel/Rampart/Warcry if the mob already has you on its hate list and you want to pull it off someone and run away.

[dirtyclown]

Originally Posted by ValisOfValefor

+1 emnity is never going to make that much difference, in fact I switched to the Honor Sword as soon as possible.

Every bit of extra Enmity helps. Even if it's just 1 point of Enmity, there is a difference, even if the effect isn't obvious. At the level that you can use the Grudge sword that +1 Enmity is probably the most effective, because later on you can pile it on, making 1 point seem insignificant.

Thanks for that Armando, I've known of the running voke macro for awhile now but as of yet haven't been able to apply it practically. Perhaps later on I might find it useful when I'm doing Dynamis or something. I'll be adding that plus a bunch of other stuff into the guide in the next few days.

[ValisOfValefor]

Originally Posted by dirtyclown

Every bit of extra Enmity helps. Even if it's just 1 point of Enmity, there is a difference, even if the effect isn't obvious. At the level that you can use the Grudge sword that +1 Enmity is probably the most effective, because later on you can pile it on, making 1 point seem insignificant.

True, True.

The main reason I guess I didn't find any emnity equipment that needed is because I haven't actually had any problems with hate holding. Till my party where I went from 48-50. There was an awesome monk who had the most pimped out equipment for the level

But after awhile we both worked out a system so I could hold the hate and she could still put out really impressive numbers though.

[dirtyclown]

Updates, guuuu! Still working on it right now but there's a few extra things in the Gear, macros, and jobs sections. Will be finished later on tonight hopefully.

[Loial]

I've known of the running voke macro for awhile now but as of yet haven't been able to apply it practically.

This trick is perfectly good except when kiting. I know, that sounds backwards right? Well, if you are kiting something and taking damage, and you are switching gear every 30s or so for provoke, your WHM is going to slap you. Every LS does things differently, but if you are in the case where a WHM is tabbing between the PLD to see who needs heals and you switch gear and that Cure V lands on someone else... let's just say that it might be counterproductive.

PLD that use it should be aware of this. That's all.

[dirtyclown]

And that's exactly what I meant by practical application. I prefer to Cure 3/4 bomb with a Hospitaler Earring when we've got a puller who doesn't have shadows up, otherwise I'd probably use the running voke more often. I'm cautious about using it during a BC fight or anything that might involve me having to kite mobs. That and I have this weird lag when I use macros that often makes them fail to work properly, so using it would be like playing Russian Roulette with only one empty chamber.

[Armando]

If you're already getting hit, though, there's not much of a point to the macro I will agree that it can be unreliable and depending on your connection, there is a certain ammount of luck involved regarding wether or not the macro will work, but when it does work and you use it from a distance, the mob shouldn't catch up (unless it has enhanced movement speed).

[Lmnop]

About 80% of my posts on this board mention equip swapping, as it's something I can't stay away from... Anywho, just wanted to note that while leveling my THF, I found that my SA and TA macros would do the "running" effect, just because I would blink out from equip swaps being used for stat boosts. Something like:

[code]/ja "Sneak Attack" <me>
/equip hands "Something Dexy"
[/code]

Likewise, any tank that macros on +enmity gear in voke gains this same effect. I.e. macroing off Rush Gloves for AF hands for PLDs.

[Aeni]

Originally Posted by Loial

This trick is perfectly good except when kiting. I know, that sounds backwards right? Well, if you are kiting something and taking damage, and you are switching gear every 30s or so for provoke, your WHM is going to slap you. Every LS does things differently, but if you are in the case where a WHM is tabbing between the PLD to see who needs heals and you switch gear and that Cure V lands on someone else... let's just say that it might be counterproductive.

PLD that use it should be aware of this. That's all.

So .. instead, have the WHM create macros specifically for that tank.

/ma "Cure V" "Armando"

That solves the problem.

[Loial]

WHM outside the alliance need to see the PLD's HP. If you are switching gear all the time, you'll wind up missing cures. Besides, WHM I've seen already have a nearly full macro bar. They might not be able to fit in macros for 2-3 tanks, plus editting them on the fly if one tank goes down and another comes in.

[dirtyclown]

I'd like to point out one thing real quick. This guide has nothing to do with endgame, so the direction this discussion is heading at the moment is completely pointless and is therefore null and void. Take it to another thread.

[Loial]

True, but when a PLD has just leveled all the way up to 75 following this guide, the only thing they can assume is to continue doing what they were doing if they decide to partake in end-game activities. It would be prudent to say, "Hey, here is something you should know." The scenario I mentioned just happens to involve end-game.

[dirtyclown]

You're assuming that they're going to jump into endgame and nobody's going to tell them any sort of strategy, and that by then they won't have learned any handy tricks for themselves. What infuriates me about these forums is that everyone attempts to bring endgame discussion into something that has nothing to do at all with endgame. This is an exp guide, not an HNM guide. Please GTFO if you plan to continue attempting to justify yourself by bringing up endgame situations that have little or nothing to do with the subject at hand.

[Loial]

Consider adding Parade Gorget to this guide. It is probably very useful to a leveling PLD, is level 50 and is not overly difficult to attain.

[dirtyclown]

Any idea how to activate the latent effect? I'd definitely add it if that piece of info was available.