Equipment for the 40-45 PLD

[Wyver]

At 40 a lot of equipment options open up to PLD in the form of earrings, rings(like the HP -20, MP 20), Plate, CP(Sandy) chain with dex/agi, and on and on.

My question to Elidrin, Whren and the other higher level PLDs is based on your experience, what equipment should an Elvaan PLD focus on in the 40-45 range? For Elvaan, is the MP gain from electrum rings worth the loss of 20hps. Is the 1 dex worth the 1 less def you get from the plate BP? Can you see any noticeable gain from using wing earrings? Would drone earrings be 30k gil better? ie worth the investment?


My current set up:
Wing earring x2
Tiger Stole
Bomb ring
Balance ring
Warrior's belt +1
Iron Musketeer's Armet
Breastplate
Cuisses
Elvaan rse gauntlets
Elvaan rse boots
Kite Shield
Hunting Sword

My main dilemma is in the hand/feet/earring/ring area. With out the gil to buy and test the effects of the different combinations its hard to tell what the actual benefit/value is.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Wyver

[imac2much]

I'm not Elvaan, but I'll try to help.

Drone earrings... meh, I tested once again with an extended playtime using 2 drone earrings as opposed to my black earrings (and bat earrings when I get to that level), and I noticed no difference. Supposedly 6 AGI should mean I get crit less (the 3 evasion isn't significant) but I could not notice a difference. With no drone earrings, monsters still miss me when I use flash so... meh. But as an Elvaan I guess your AGI is lower than mine (only slightly though)... I don't think 2 AGI you lose with wing earrings will make much of a difference but then again, you will probably keep those earrings your entire career, so it won't hurt to get them.

I'd prefer an Electrum Ring to your Balance Ring, even as an Elvaan... won't make much difference though when you start PTing with Refresh RDM and Ballad 1+2 BRDs...

Replace Tiger Stole with Holy Phial. Later you may want to change to Sandorian Collar (or whatever, it adds acc and atk), though I am sticking with Holy Phial until Darksteel Gorget.

Warrior's Belt+1 isn't too bad, I kept Friar's Rope until Life belt (most Elvaan go RK belt instead of Life belt though).

Difference in BP and RylSqur Chain is hardly noticeable, 1 DEX isn't going to make much difference. I thought it would look sexy so I bought it, but was shocked by the ugliness. At 45 get the uglier Chess Board armor (Brigandine) for enhanced DEF and other stats.

You'll probably want to replace Kite Shield with Heater shield at level 42 I think, not too big of a difference though.

RSE? Hm... the def you miss out on gets pretty apparent, you should probably use IM gauntlets and boots. Sorry, I'm not very familiar with what stats Elvaan RSE add, but nothing can be worth the DEF loss between RSE and IM at this level.

The cookie-cutter Elvaan PLD setup at level 50 is as follows:
Tact Mag Espadon
TK or RK shield
Full IM gear, though some people opt for lvl 50 Sandoria CP esp for gloves, but since you'll be gettin AF for that soon might as well wait
2 Drone Earrings
Earth Mantle
RK Belt
2 Phalanx Rings

[foobar]

At 50 IM boots and gloves aren't that good. No point in getting lvl 40 items that add ranged accuracy. If you're short on cash and you're not Sandorian go for the mythril boots and gloves (lvl 49).

[imac2much]

I politely disagree. Mythril boots and gloves are only better than level 40 IM boots and gloves by ONE defense each. On the other hand, keeping the level 40 IM gear allows you to have equipment for things such as BCNM40 while only sacrificing TWO defense total. If you want to upgrade at all, upgrade to sandoria CP lvl 50 boots and gloves... don't bother getting mythril if you already have IM.

[TheBruce]

The defense you gain with the IM gaunts/feet is negligible at 40, as long as you use boiled crayfish you'll most likely be over the defense limit and so an extra 2-5 armor will not be noticeable. RSE is a good choice because you don't have a friar's belt and a holy phial yet.

Wing earrings is what I used until 60 and I bought 2 bat earrings. They are fine and are so cheap compared to the other equip slots.

I really really wouldn't get hp==>mp items. You'll need every bit of hp for the exorays you need to fight for your genkai 1. Those things are paladin killers with their silence special attacks.

Basically your equip is gtg. You should start looking into ways of making money before you hit 50. Blowing 400k at lvl 50 isn't a big stretch.

[foobar]

instead of getting the IM armor at 40 you could get the cheap plate armor which again, sacrifices 1 defense point but saves you from bankrupcy.
In this case, you get a 4 defense boost with mythril. IMO, every point counts, even 2.
I had the boots but never used them at 40 and sold them at 50 since I went Mythril. Too close to AF to spend the big bucks in Sandoria CP items.

[Arnda]

Originally posted by foobar
instead of getting the IM armor at 40 you could get the cheap plate armor which again, sacrifices 1 defense point but saves you from bankrupcy.
In this case, you get a 4 defense boost with mythril. IMO, every point counts, even 2.
I had the boots but never used them at 40 and sold them at 50 since I went Mythril. Too close to AF to spend the big bucks in Sandoria CP items.

Plate Gauntlets and Boots, yes, I agree with you that it's cheaper.

But you cannot, CANNOT replace that IM Armet's +2 VIT. So the cheapskate lv40 PLD would buy all plate and an IM Armet, and that should put you in good stead without completely breaking your wallet.

Likewise, poor ~50 PLDs can get Mythril for like what, 6k apiece? I saw that when I was upgrading and buying stuff (everything I need to the 40s now ) and it floored me. I could sell my Centurion at lv40, upgrade to plate first and mythril later, and make a PROFIT. Kind of silly.

[Wyver]

Thank you all for the quick replies.

For those that don't know the stats on the Elvaan rse hands and feet they are as follows:

Magna Gauntlets
Armor Type: Racial Gear
Slot: Hands
Defense: 6
Level: 27
Special Properties:
MP+24 DEX+2 INT+1

Magna M Ledelsens
Armor Type: Racial Gear
Slot: Feet
Defense: 5
Level: 29
Special Properties:
MP+20 AGI+3 INT+2

The replacement for these at 40 would be:

Iron Musketeer's Gauntlets
Def: 12 Ranged Accuracy: 5

Iron Musketeer's Sabatons
Def: 10 Ranged Accuracy: 5

So the total difference between Elvaan RSE and the IM is:
IM = +11 def -43mana -2dex -3agi -3int

I’m thinking the answer might be a combination of the 2. Use the IM gauntlets because they give the highest def gain(+6) and keep the RSE boots for the mana and agi. If the def is a problem I could use def food over my normal meat mithkabobs.

Thoughts?

Again thank you all for the helpful advice. It’s nice to have a supportive PLD community to come to when we have questions.


Wyver

[TheBruce]

I wouldn't use mithakabobs if I were you. You're not there for damage, you're there to soak up the damage. And the amount gained from eating a boiled crayfish/crab (crab is a waste, cuz your spending a good portion of your gil on food when you should be saving for equip) will signifcantly lower the damage done to you. Its probably about as much as what going defensive would give without the side effects. And having both defensive/crayfish on when somethings up will greatly help your group and reduce you and your whm's deaths.

The beetles/exorays you'll be fighting soon are no joke, and really put the hurting on at your level.

[Arnda]

In my experience, the damage I take when eating crab is significantly less than when eating crayfish at lower levels. While crayfish might pretty well push you to the defense limit after 40, before the low 30s I can say from experience that the 20% benefit of crab is much, MUCH more critical. While I certainly take less damage with crayfish (my standard, because I'm poor), I take remarkably less with crab.

That edge is starting to go away now that I have Def II and Sentinel, however, as I'm starting to see much more consistent (and low) damage against things I'm tanking. I'll need to get some Crab again and see how it works viz-a-viz crayfish, as it may not have the effect it used to. However, these monsters I am fighting tend to have lower attack relative to other monster types (you know the ones, the pre-CN ones). Against high-attack monsters like Exorays, however, I would imagine the extra defense might be worth it again.

As imac and I have demonstrated through our mutual intellectual headbutting, there is a defense threshold SOMEWHERE; buying food and armor, you have to ask yourself which will cause you to reach that threshold more cheaply. The answer may not always be scrimping for that better piece of armor, especially as your defense goes up and 10% or 20% of that figure becomes a bigger and bigger chunk.

EDIT: And meat mithkabobs are anathema. Bad Paladin!

[TheBruce]

How do you afford to use boiled crab at level 30?!? You are correct and boiled crab does help a great deal, but seriously man, if your blowing that type of money for an exp session you are either very rich or don't exp that often in relation to doing other things. That is just a waste of money, most people can exp without any food buff, and having a boiled crayfish will help damage mitigation a great deal, but blowing 1k an item to lower the damage by a small percentage isn't wise imho.

Now if your fighting an exceptionally hard monster, boiled crab and fishkabobs are "don't leave home without it".

[Arnda]

1k an item? Hardly. Crab must be terribly expensive on your server, because I can get a stack for 3.8-4.9k, with the occasional 5k+. I normally CAN'T afford it, but I have a bit more money than other people (several of my friends have quit the game and given me their stuff, which I turned into what little cash you can get from lv20 equipment), so I will now and again buy one or two crab and a stack of crayfish. I use the crayfish in regular groups, becauseI don't feel like dying, and if the group turns out to be awesome, they get a crab upgrade for a few hours.

[asushiman]

3-5k for food for an experience group. dang you're rich. I would only use the corns coz their so darn cheap but effective. hey +3 VIT and +6 HP for 600 a stack of 12 isnt bad.

[nuvas]

Boiled crab is around 6k and Fish Mithkabobs fluctuate from 6k-6.5k on Midgard.

Been using one or the other since my late 30s.

[Kagi]

Most of the stuff has been said by everyone else, and I'm not elvaan so I didn't bother about mana/agi, but every single elvaan paladin I knew at the time was using IM for boots. Also if you have more money to burn you could try dodge earrings instead, straight evasion+3 each and quite a few high level jp plds use them as well.

Just a point to note... I was level 42 on the pld af1 trip with Thebruce and some other pallies and they all laughed at me for still using that kite shield. :sweat: So upgrade that when you can. :spin: