CP DD Options (Sword Vs GS Vs Polearm)

what are the best options for DD pld in CP parties (Non-Rema)?

Swords (Kaja Sword or Malignance Sword)
or
Great Swords (Zantetsuken X or Montante +1 )
or
Polearms ( Kaja Lance / Shining One )

If you have enough gear to self-SC, Shining One lets you do a very, very mean Darkness by means of Stadriver -> Sonic Thrust -> Impulse Drive. You need to be careful about Sonic Thrust since it's a line AoE (so don't do it facing other mobs than the one you're fighting), but 1 or 2 of those SC should make short work of Crabs and Bats. Add Shantotto II to the mix for some added bursts and you're good to go for a while. Reso spam is meh unless you have tons of buffs, which you won't if you're soloing CP in the first place.

For solo with trusts you could spawn Ayame then close light with Savage, she is good for solo cp

PLD can't use Stardiver or Impulse Drive, those are WAR/SAM/DRG only unless something has changed recently?

On PLD I'd stick to sword and board. If you're just wanting to pump damage, I've got the Svalinn shield from A-skirmish, it can get up to 4% dbl atk as well as some acc. This along with other gear and /war you can get near 50% dbl atk which should allow you to solo SC or as Yiazmat said you can SC off of Ayame, but then if you unlock CDC you can do double light off of the SB sc if you have enough STP, buffs, and luck.

Can shatotto ii pull good numbers on bursts?

Im always sceptical on how useful DD trusts can be

I've only ever seen about 5k on a burst. I can get better on a solo skillchian > MB on RDM honestly.

That's why I advocate more Ayame > Savage > CDC because I have had Shan screw up that CDC hit before and that one gets 5-10k easy.

My trusts magic burst multiple times giving from 2K to 30K burst damage

Me - THF doing WS-Eviseration to trigger a WS from Arcelia (i think) followed by multiple bursts from Shantotto

AAEV
Iroha II
Arcelia II
Shantotto II
Monberaux

But you arent capping magic haste, isnt it?

Or monb can fix that?

Arcelia does haste and closes most skillchain. No idea about magic haste and if capped. Monberaux doesn't use any haste related items as far as I can see.

Use Montante +1/R15 or Zantetsuken X and go to town on Apex Poxhounds. Paladin gain a significant damage boost on them doubly, once from slashing weakness and second from undead killer (holy circle) and Sepulcher

Once I saw a PLD boting apex eft with savage blade spam. While with no skillchain properties, it was rocking 20k with just trusts setups.

Most likely using Naegling.

Look up Shining one. PLD wearable polearm that gives access to impulse drive.

Still can't Stardiver on PLD though.

Could still 4/5 step for darkness at least.

PENTA THRUST > SONIC THRUST (TRANSFIXION) > SONIC THRUST (DISTORTION) > IMPULSE DRIVE (DARKNESS)

IMPULSE DRIVE > PENTA THRUST (COMPRESSION) > SONIC THRUST (TRANSFIXION) > SONIC THRUST (DISTORTION) > IMPULSE DRIVE (DARKNESS)

I do have a R15 Caladbolg I might play with on Apex Hounds though.

Yep I completely forgot about that. Would that beat out a PLD using Naegling/shield and spaming savage blade?

Stepping in here as we've had several of us get our PLD's to 2100 this way. Best option would be to use Great Sword at Poxhounds with a good party doing Torcleaver -> Torcleaver for light. Montante+1 and a bunch of other swords are good options, Caladbolg is the best if it's available, Rag is also good as you can use Scourge for a three step that will kill a poxhound. (Resolution -> Scourge -> Torcleaver)

Poxhounds take extra damage from slashing and Paladins do extra damage on Undead with Holy Circle, so it's one of the few places where a Paladin can do good damage.

I theory is quite amazing but the pre-requisites to perform well in this camp are quite high.

Gonna need some proper setup of buffs. I believe solo is not viable as there should be no trust combination that hit the threshold of 1385 acc for a 95% hit rate, what should be about the requisite for a VD ambuscade and several VD contents.

Poxhounds are definitely not a solo camp, the monsters there are level 137-139 and you need around 1,384 total accuracy to cap hit rate there. It's a camp meant for a proper party setup, so bring friends.

DD (This is the Paladin or other slashing DD)
DD??? (this spot is flexible)
COR Samurai's + <Hunter / Fighter / Chaos / Corsairs>
Bard (HM + Victory March + Madrigal)
GEO (Frailty + Fury + Dia II)
WHM/SCH/RDM (heal support)

Poxhounds can give 65K per kill outside of CP campaign

If someone doesn't have access to friends or they are being forced to do this solo, the they can do Apex Raptors in Moh Gates up to Apex Bats in Doh Gates. Woh gates has Apex Frogs but then your getting to a place where trusts might not be enough.