~First And Final Line Of Defense V2.0~

https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Malignance_Sword

https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Nixxer

https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Brilliance

I'd probably go with the Mali. Sword if you can work out the PDT/DT in other slots. They all are fine and have upsides. One has some block stuff, another fast-cast refresh high base DMG, and the other enmity and some gimmicky things.

I typically swap between Brillance or Naegling if able to hybrid tank. Usually Naegling.

https://www.ffxiah.com/item/20704/deacon-sword

I would say https://www.ffxiah.com/item/21630/moralltach path C.

A max augment Brilliance out of sinister reign is really nice if you can manage to get one.

Nixxer for 200 Domain Points (2 days of dragons kill)from Zurim (I7 Norg)
this can be done under 30 minutes if you kill dragon in DI before and after the japanese midnight.

then do Burtgang :)

I would go with malignance sword if you can get one.

nixxer isn't a bad choice either, and you can get it with DI points instead of looking for a group to kill T2 Ru'Ann (although, they aren't hard to kill, even with PUG).

I've been using Malignance Sword. It actually adds a pretty decent chunk of defense too due to the VIT.

I have been using Malignance Sword myself.

While it's no Naegling in terms of damage output, the Refresh +1, the Fast Cast, and the resist status ailments helps out a lot.

If I was soloing something with trust, I would use Naegling. If I was tanking something with my shell, I use Maligance.

R15 Excalibur?

nice joke

Well, to be fair, he did ask "not including Burt" so Excalibur could be considered.

Then denied.

Not much of a joke when it's very nearly on par with Naegling, before considering KoR's excellent skill chain properties.

I mean, don't get me wrong, Excalibur would be great due to it's KoR and aftermath. It's a great sword to get.

Not Burtgang level, but if you are a DD PLD, it's good to have.

I was actually thinking with new buff to reprisal if the +10% shield block + AM makes it best (after obviously Burt).

Is it a side grade from other MUCH cheaper options? Or is it 2nd place (a verrrryyy distant second?).

Key point, for the purposes of reprisal's formula, block+x gear does not count towards the base block rate. So you would have: (base*1.5 (3 if Priwen)) + BlockPlusValue.

Having an extra +10 block rate is almost always beneficial, but I wouldn't say that it has any particular synergy with the recent reprisal update. But I guess you could say that it may feel more worth while to focus on block rate for some shields now that block rates are higher, and Excal can contribute there without futzing with DM augs.

IF you are going to spend the gil to make and R15 a Excal cool, but you probably should have just put the gil towards burt. Feel the same about Moralltach really unless your only use for PLD is as the WHM for what ever reason then you really should just spend the gil on making a whm....lol. I'm sure some assura kid will come in push his glasses up and go "Well actualy...." about Moralltach but outside of some weird niche DD pld build or really want to play whmidin I can't say its worth the money lol.

lol some asura kid reporting for duty, but no, tbh I have a Rank 8 Excalibur, R15 Burtgang, and Rank 25 path C SU5. If I didn't have Burtgang I basically would just choose to weapon swap all the time and swap in malig for fast cast, and deacon for phalanx, and Excal only when I'm trying to skillchain.

Side note, I was screwing around in omen on Kei and was making skillchains solo with Burtgang AM3 + STP build so the mages could MB off them, Atonement > Savage > CDC for Light > Light

Moralltach is not only for curing...
It has +380HP, which is kinda huge amount. It improves survivability and decreases hate loss from taking damage. Cure potency let you probably optimize cure set better too.

I could also imagine you could make a Cure IV macro that drops your HP to around 2500 in precast that goes up to ~3500+ in midcast and let you spam Cure Iv on yourself for hate, doing similar work as Foil for RUN. I dont play PLD, so Im not sure if that idea is actually good.

1200HP Cure IV is ~280CE 1690VE

Im not sure why PLDs dont use it this way and cry they want Foil equivalent.

EDIT: Cure IV also has 8 sec base recast, so can be spammed way faster than Foil, especially with Majesty giving -25% recast to cure spells. You can probably cast next as soon as spell delay will let you.

tl:dr its harder to cure cheat with a bot whm

It was 10 years ago Tiamat days. Cure hate is hate, sure but you are better off spending the gil on burt and spaming atonemnt for hate in most instances. I think I'd still take the 1000~ cure 4 more enmity on the weapon PDT-II and less hate loss over some HP (Yeah its nice and a good chunk for sure) also hate gets split off cure hate vs multiply mobs so if you only have 1 mob it works out maybe ambu not sure how that mechanic works with shared hate.

I dont think thats the case. Dropping to 2500/2500 HP in precast wouldnt proc WHM bot to cure you. I doubt WHM bot would even register you going to 2500/3700 HP in midcast before Cure IV is finished casting.

Thats completely irrelevant. Foil and Cure IV is used when you want to build hate on group of tagged monsters (or on one target when you cant engage it for whatever reason). When you fight one target and can DPS it, you dont need self target enmity tools. Atonement shouldnt compete with cheat cure, because they are used in different scenarios. You can also just macro Moralltach for cure cheat midcast if you have Burtgang for idle tanking.

to bad cure enmity is split among targets on the hate list, 10 mobs, thats 28 CE and ~170 VE... Id rather have foil

Because cure enmity is split by the number of mobs on the hate list. Reference link. So that 280CE 1690VE with 5 mobs present becomes 56/338. With 10 mobs it's 28/169. It's not an effective crowd control hate tool. Foil is. They had such a good chance to change this for tanks(well, for PLD), and not for healers with Majesty... but they didn't.

It's also horribly MP inefficient and PLD doesn't have the native MP recovery tools that RUN does. So I hope you're getting refresh/ballads to support that spam. Cause you will dry up incredibly fast without it.

And finally there is a risk factor involved with significantly dropping your HP like that. Though I think the chances of it killing you are relatively small, normally. But if you're doing it constantly every 3 seconds that chances that something is going to wreck you during that split second start stacking up. I've been murdered in my phalanx set on RUN and PLD alike more times than I care to mention. And even in my flash set... (I implemented a PDT casting toggle and that's mostly stopped. <,<; )

For single targets it is a valid supplementary enmity method. I tend to only do so when I sentinel, for safety and high VE spikes at the start of a fight.( Depending on content. Not everything is so dangerous that I need to worry about it.) Or on Fetters in Namis D cause none of my /blu spells have enough range to cast from outside of AoE range. Just flash, long recast Jas, and cures... But, anyway points 2 and 3 still apply even on a single target mob.

Although I would definitely agree that Moralltach would support this sort of playstyle well. Cure potency, HP, and Refresh help mitigate some of the issues with cure cheat spam as a primary enmity method. But... that split enmity deal just really kills it when multiple mobs are around.

Now I understand :)

Yeah, they should change it to no-split with Majesty up...

They dont need to add it to majesty. Make it so Tranquil Heart is what splits the enmity generated from healing among multiple targets. Would make more sense.

Also, im still struggling to find a reason to bring a run to content over a paladin in any fight lasting more than 30s or a blm setup. And most fights with a blm setup run doesnt matter too much.

Being able to drop a whm for another support job like rdm is just far more valuable than the minor DPS run generates comparatively, especially with the DD support pld gives with better protect, cure spam, massively buffed rampart etc.

Rune relies heavily on short windows of emergency abilities to not take massive chunks of damage as well as damage to hold enmity well on a single target. Paladin will just have a general easier time staying alive, providing support and keeping its party alive in any real fight that matters that isnt a straight zerg, and a RDM will add far more damage than a Rune will over a longer fight just due to how much it helps melee DDs with their debuffs (and its not like RDM does 0 damage; often the RDM alone will out damage the rune anyway)

With all the massive utility PLD has now... i dont see a reason to bring RUN to anything that isnt a 30s zerg to nuke the mob macc.