PDT Or Shield Gear

Just wondering which works out better nowadays and how valuable shield + gear is at 99. Has it been replaced by DT gear. You hardly need /nin now for NMs so dont need shield + gear to get utsu back up again. I'm considering

Mollusca mantle vs boxers mantle vs Atheling mantle
Shield Torque vs Twilight Torque vs Creed Collar
and even
AF1+1 feet (12 shield skill) vs AF3+2 feet (faster enmity and TP gain)

At 75 every paladin was told to get every bit of shield + gear. Is it worth doing now for aegis ochain and standard shield paladins? How much damage reduction does 10 shield skill offer? Obviously this stuff is situational but if we could consider the main thing paladins are used for i.e. Voidwatch t3+

You don't have to fulltime any of those pieces, you can swap to Atheling/creed/af3+2 feet for tp gain and swap to the PDT otherwise, Shield skill gear is alot less useful than it used to be

gear swapping, something this game privileges you to do via macros where most other games don't allow it, take advantage of it.

All sets are useful and have their situations but I find myself in more PDT then Shield skill without a fanatics up, for when Reprisal & Palisade gets dispelled, it never hurt to carry a shield skill set tho.. I guess.. :/

Nope, shield skill sucks now, Wear PDT

Trust me I swap gear. I have various spellcast sets I use dependant on mobs Im fighting ... melee tank MDT gear PDT gear. I usually start in tank mode but usually switch to a dd/melee set if someone pulls hate to try recover hate faster.

The reason I aksed is because I have shield torque, af2+1 feet and boxers mantle I still carry round but not macroed in for much anymore. I may put them in storage for the odd occasion I need to use them.

Metallon Mantle/twilight torque/Askar/Jingang feet

Shield skill will never outweigh PDT gear.

If shield + gear means u block 10% more with 80% damage reduction each block thats the same as 8% damage taken reduction so it could be possible shield skill beats PDT gear. 5% more block rate is 4%PDT etc.

At 75 askar feet (2%DT) were inferior to Af2+1 feet (12 shield skill) straight tanking so "Shield skill will never outweigh PDT gear." is a generalisation. There has to be a point where shield skill will win.

you wont reach the point, nore will you gather enough shield skill gear to outweigh PDT, u randomly said "shield + means block 10% more" i hope you realize it takes ALOT of shield skill + to increase it by that much lol, enough that you wont obtain, and even if it were, it'd cover up so many spots that you could get WELL over "8% dmg taken" on

I think the highest I have in my current shield skill set is around 470ish, and I don't see any difference really with it on and with it off when tanking something, PDT is the way to go, if you're gonna take a hit you might as well take half the damage.

I tank in 49% PDT, 95% MDT as PLD. (36% Damage Taken).

There are 2 or 3 slots where i place shield skill gear (Feet AF+1, CreedEar and sometimes Kaiser Hands) -- i'm still not sure if i'd be better off using other peices. I don't know if this is nessecarily correct to use DT over shield gear, but it seems to work nicely for me.

You should probably be tanking in haste gear.


4-5 shield skill will work out to about a 1% block rate. Furthermore, keep in mind PDT works on blocked and unblocked hits. So, it's a generalization that is going to prove correct in every practical situation. What you're arguing is completely pointless. Don't use shield skill gear. Move on.

We are friends now

This is the rule of thumb information I was looking for. Thanks and love to you all.

If only there was a PLD FAQ sticky in this forum that gave the answer to this exact question and even posted links to that research.

If only someone had taken the time and trouble to do that..

ftfy.