My PLD needs a little work it seems.

I've been doing some thinking lately, and realized that two things about my PLD.

The first, is that I miss playing the job. PLD was my first 75, and immediately after I got it there, I rushed my RDM to 75 so that I could play a job that would have a better invite rate for merits. And from there, I ended up leveling various other jobs so that I could be more useful to my friends and the linkshells I was apart of. Unfortunately though, the end result is that I would rarely have the opportunity to play my PLD because the other jobs I would get to 75 would have more use.

As much as i'd like to be "selfish" at times and bring what I want to whatever event i'm attending, I much prefer seeing "success". So ultimately that means that when i've participated in an event, and if I had another job that would benefit the group more, I would end up bringing that job. And to be honest, this was never really a problem for me. The only time I would find myself irritated with bringing a job I would rather not play, is when I saw other people who could also do the same, yet never offered up to bring a more useful job. Instead, i'd see them bringing "what they want to play" even if the job they chose, wouldn't benefit the group as much.

But anyways, I just haven't really been able to play my PLD much in the last 3-4yrs i've played this game and seeing some friends who now have the job at 75, friends who are just about to get it to 75, and even seeing friends take up an interest and start lvling the job has made me a little bit envious in a way. I'm getting that nostalgic feeling.

And the second thing i've realized, is that my PLD is rusty. My macros are out of date, I haven't really updated any of my gear in a while and well... everytime I have been asked to bring PLD i've always felt very insecure about my tanking ability. I've been able to get some practice as PLD/NIN in the last year, but even still I find it quite a challenge to keep hate without provoke and feel that I could really use a lot more practice tanking with this subjob. I don't like feeling incapable of doing something, especially when I know that FFXI isn't really all that challenging of a game in comparison to others.

So what does this all add up to? A rusty and hardly used paladin.

What do I plan to do about it? Well, first things first... I have a little bit of gear updating to do. Its gonna take a bit of work, especially because I would rather farm up some more gil rather than spend the savings i've been eating away at due to my COR. I'm planning on doing some BCNMs as well as KSNMs as much as I can with Xean and other LS members... so plans to farm seals is already on the way. The other thing i'm hoping to do to help with this, is meriting. Lotsa meriting. If I can get one of those awesome 20k/hr parties, i'm able to accumulate at least 2k worth of Imperial Standing which I can then trade in for 99 Imperial Bronze Pieces which I then put up on the AH for gil! This is probably my most preferred farming method, because I usually enjoy meriting (especially on birds! go go DRG!)

With a little farming, and some questing (and waiting around to for some miracle opportunity to get a rare/ex piece from either my HNM shell that i'm in "part time" or find an endgame shell willing to make a deal for the B.Mask) my long term plan is to obtain the following:

• Ritter Gorget (Einhejar)
• Mermaid Ring (Quest)
• Hades Earring or Hades Earring +1 (both AH)
• Cerberus Mantle (AH)
• Bahamut Mask (purchase from an endgame LS that isn't going to rip me off for a ridiculous price)
• Aegishjalmr (HNM LS - Fafnir)
• Homam Gambieras
• Iron Ram Dastanas
• Iron Ram Hose
  

So, i've got a bit of work ahead of me. The hardest pieces to obtain from that list will be the B.Mask or the Aegishjalmr. I think I will have a better chance at getting the Aegishjalmr with the HNM shell i'm in part-time now, but seeing as I won't be able to participate much, I probably won't really ever have lotting rights unless I luck out and no one else needs the item the day it drops. Of course the other thing I have to keep my fingers crossed for, is that my HNM shell actually gets the claim on Fafnir when I DO attend. So far our shell has been having some bad luck with this other HNM shell called Absolution which from the word of mouth, seems to have a lot of botters. And while I guess any HNM shell could have that, their shell has gotten a majority of claims which makes it quite suspicious. So yea...

I'm also considering investing in a magic defense setup. I would really like to try tanking the ACP final mission fight, where a PLD/RDM is used. I have no experience though tanking with /rdm, nor with the idea of gear swapping at the right time before a magic move is used against me to swap in my MDB gear. Still, its something i'm probably going to look into though not as diligently as getting my other PLD gear.

Ideally, if I do pursue an MDB set i'll need to get myself the following:

• Merman's Ring x2 (AH)
  
• Corral Earring or Merman's Earring x2 (AH)
  
• Lamia Mantle + 1 (AH)
• Resolute Belt (AH)
• Iron Ram Lance (AH)
• Lamia Kaman (AH)

The lists look like a lot of work, but I think that like with my Burtgang progress... as long as I take it slow and don't stress myself out about getting it all asap, it won't be so bad. One thing i've learned about this game is that you don't always get to have the "uber" gear immediately, and sometimes you won't ever be able to see it at all depending on what it is. Its not exactly meant for every player to have, otherwise the rarity and value would be meaningless. But, sometimes the window of opportunity opens when you're patient and you sometimes find yourself getting lucky. Keyword though: sometimes.

Hopefully once I start getting a few of these pieces, i'll run into some more opportunities where I can play my PLD again. And if not, well... guess its time for me to put together some events where I can play it, and finally make everyone else that has multiple jobs come as something else so that I can have a little more fun XD (Well, maaaaaaaaybe. Its really hard for me to ask people to play jobs I know they don't enjoy)