Endeavoring To Awaken --A Guide To Rune Fencer

Yeah got it.
Well as said before it's hard to define ONE dream set, because situational fights require diferent items. Like more HP (odnowa) or more Meva/MDB (Sanare) or just Meva (Eabani) or MP gain (Ethereal) or status avoid (Hearty) or damage combinations for hybrid setups and so on, just to make some very simple example with the earring slots.

With that said I personally envision my "dream" set very similar to the one you posted above (the first, with Turms+1 x2) but as I said I would put AF+3 body and Herculean hands with 4+ PDT or 3+ DT. Oh and of course Refined Grip+1.
Really, unless I'm going for content where I can afford to do some meaningful damage, I would never use Utu to tank. And in such a scenario I would use a Hybrid build anyway, not a full tanking one. (and possibly Lionheart instead of Epeolatry).
Refined is just too good, and if you want something else there's Meva grip as well if you can cap DT from the other slots.

Anyway, to make a sum of everything I said, text because I'm too lazy to create a set with FFXIAH's instruments:

Weapon: Epeolatry
Grip: Refined Grip +1
Ammo: Staunch Tathlum+1
Head: Futhark's Bandeau +3
Neck: Loricate+1
Ear1: Sanare Earring
Ear2: Ethereal Earring
Body: Runeist's Coat +3
Hands: Herculean Gloves (DT3+ or PDT4+, plus whatever else)
Ring1: Moonlight Ring
Ring2: Defending Ring
Back: Ogma's Cape (XX, Meva, Enmity)
Waist: Flume Belt +1
Legs: Erilaz Leg Guards +1
Feet: Turms Leggings +1

This is my "generic" dream set for RUN, suited for my tastes at least. I'd swap stuff around according to the content of course.
Also this is a set meant for when I'm actually engaged, if I have to tank when not engaged I would swap back for augmented Evasionist's Cape, legs for Runeist+3 (or crimson if I want mov speed) and feet for, I dunno, Erilaz+1 probably.

As I mentioned a few times before already though, Futhark Coat +3 is behind the corner, and I feel like there's a chance it could be quite a fantastic replacement for AF+3 body, granting you access to different setups (like Warder's in the neck slot instead of Loricate to name one, or that element+ belt in place of Flume+1, forgot the name sorry)

Engraved Belt

Yep, exactely that one :)

Altough if I had to choose only one slot to swap between the two, I'd probably pick the Neck one.
I'm kinda biased towards the 2% MP conversion on Flume.
Granted it's a very small thing, I found it useful especially when I'm /BLU or /WHM and wrecking my mana pool.

I agree with Sechs that Turms generally isn't worth it for the magic evasion alone. I'll only use it if I'm actually engaged, which I usually am not unless we don't have DDs or don't have a healer.

Here's my current pure DT set:

ItemSet 348167

Why aren't you usually engaged? You shouldn't be hitting TOO often and feeding TP if in tanking gear.

You guys know you can have more than 1 set of gear right?

If you're not engaged, you lose out on all that parry damage reduction.

I alternate between sets, depending on situation, such as disengaged/engaged, JAs up/down, avoiding specific debuffs, etc.

ItemSet 355625
This is why i prefer turms, still fits my set nicely even if i wasn't engaged.

I also usually do full swaps (weapon/grip) when I'm there for the sole purpose of tanking. Here is my evasion/absorb set, and then i swap necesaary pieces if being debuffed in a status alignement set which focuses on resist + first, then magic evasion. My 3 main sets are on BG, and they're the top 3 in the end game section.

ItemSet 355626

What fights is it better to not be engaged, as a RUN? I don't own an Epeolatry so I don't have the benefit of -75% DT. So I need all the inquartata I can get. Please elaborate.

I always engage. Just use emp gear if you don’t want to feed TP.

Only fight that comes to mind is Schah. I don't think our tank (pld not a rune) engages until adds are dead but i could be wrong as I've never tanked it myself because i go rng or cor.

schah I can understand since the hate is affected + potentially dealing with tp moves you dont want to while the other adds are killed in the meantime. I was just confused when it was stated there are sets for disengaged, since I've never once not engaged in any fight I've tanked, unless I was utsusemi back tanking. The whole point of RUN = magic resist + parry, so by fighting disengaged, you remove the possibility of parrying, which is not like PLD who can block without being engaged. The inquartata bonuses from cape/turms feet+1 are lost, so it really just becomes a high meva/regen piece.

Yeah, i always engage. Turms is nice, especially rocking the set with that HP recover +100.

Kiting situations. Usually do this disengaged.

Erinys

Which is why we said use different pieces in those slots if you're not engaged.
They're awesome but they're not "mandatory".
Not like RUN wasn't an excellent tank already even before those pieces existed.

Man, I wish you could put damage taken stats on Ambu capes; that would open up a crazy number of options.

If you don't need Inquartata (not engaged) Evasionist's Cape is excellent. Otherwise there's the Moonlight one of course, granted that's expensive.

Speaking of other monsters where you don't need to engage, in addition to all the ones already mentioned, all those monsters with No-Parry Aura that's up too much or simply can't be removed.
Personally I don't engage on Kei either.

Why WOULD I engage, if physical damage isn't a concern? Most stuff hits me for 0 anyway, so parrying isn't a massive benefit in that scenario. And I've got two AF+3 and one relic+3 in my set, so that's actually a fair bit of accuracy. Throw in the Turms Leggings +1 and basically the only slot without accuracy would be my legs. That's just unnecessary TP spam on the mob. Unless you're super low-manning, mobs don't need more TP than they're already getting from a couple of DDs.

So many people these days completely ignore enemy TP gain. It does make a difference.

If the mobs are hitting you for 0, they aren't very dangerous.
If your set-up allows for DDs to melee, the mobs are not particularly dangerous (or debuffed to the point of not being very dangerous).

Engage, Parry and /SMN to mew if you are so worried about TP gain. But you shouldn't be, since the same measures that you are taking to take 0 damage and allow melees to be in range also diminish the threat implied by an enemy's TP gain. So instead of mewing, weapon skill instead.

Er, what hits even a 75% PDT RUN w/ enhanced Phalanx for 0 and isn't a complete pushover? Even magic focused mobs hit harder than that.

Also, even if they're hitting for 0, you can still parry and get HP back via Turms, and Parrying can block physical TP moves too, and their status effects in the process.

Even if they aren't hitting me for zero, I rarely see parrying to be worth giving the monster extra TP. Omen bosses, for example, will frequently hit me for 20-30 damage. However, their TP moves will hit DDs for 500+ and give ailments like amnesia.

So yeah, I could engage and parry to reduce the number of times I take 20 damage, and as a result feed the mob a lot more TP through my attacks and get more AOEs dropped on my melees. Or I could just not engage.

I feel like folks are trying too hard to justify swinging their RUN DD epeens around. This ain't FFXIV where every member needs to contribute damage. My only goal as a tank is making the fight go smoothly. I think there's only 1 NM in all of Omen that I'll pull out my weapon for longer than it takes to Rayke/Gambit, and that's Glassy Craver because he's just gonna reset my hate anyway so why not join the fray? Edit: And sometimes I'll engage Fu if he absorbs too many buffs and gets all uppity, but that's really it.

Unless you're running with monks and NINs, you hitting an Omen boss isn't going to make a difference; they're going to have enough TP to WS after their spells anyway. This is especially true if you're not DDing like you claim, since you're probably not using accuracy food or gearing for accuracy, nor using buffs like Temper.

If you're trying to make it as smooth as possible, keeping yourself defended and healed via parries will let your healer concentrate on the melees.

You seem to be mixing strategies. You won't be using G/R for a melee set-up. You will for mages, ranged or pets. None of those will care very much about the target's TP gain.

It isn't so much about epeen as efficiency. If a tank is taking so little damage (and it isn't some weird fight like Erynis or Schah) it may as well DD a little.
Find some way to record a battle with and without engaging. Count the special attacks made by the target. You will be surprised by how little changed, and you will likely have completed the battle several minutes faster (looking at your HQ idle gear, I'm wagering that you also have HQ weapon skill gear).

To add to this, it's also not uncommon for enemies to have additional effects (either from regular attacks or physical TP moves) that can be parried as well.

I have to agree that there is no one set I would use for every situation and I have 8 sets which I can toggle into depending on the fight and party setup. I do have one set that I find i'm most often in:

ItemSet 357207



This lets you reach PDT/MDT (with shell IV) and still lets you utilise the Runeist's Coat +3 and both Turms pieces and just about makes the PDT cap.

the Relic +3 head would be better for MDB and magic eva (+ the 6 PDT)

I'm sure he knows that, and just doesn't have it for budget reasons.

Probably super tanking situations.

I don't engage in dynamis pulling mobs, mostly because engage lags, mobs die fast and it's much easier for me to have better awareness of the entire situation. Such as flashing missing mobs that wasn't on hate list or going after backlines etc.

Personally I tend to super focus on currently engaged mob and fail to notice what happened in surroundings due to how camera and engaged control works. Staying disengaged seems to make it easier to make better decisions on where to stand and move.