I'm gonna guess none of the PLDs on your server have anything remotely related to brains when it comes to DD'ing. ~.~
Company Sword is
the sword to use in a pt setup. Period. I see no reason to use anything else. In a full pt it has a base damage of 56, with normal sword delay. I don't use anything besides Tatami Shield if I'm DD'ing, and half the time I use it for normal tanking as well. If I do go /NIN (which honestly I don't very often, but it has it's uses anyway), I'm dual wielding companies. The damage output on that sword is better than any one handed axe I think, tho I haven't looked through axes for damage lately. I've seen a DRK hit a mob for roughly 220 with their Scythe, I'm hitting for 120-150 with my sword.
DD gear is Haubergeon, Tatami shield, Spike Necklace, Coral Earring x2, Ruby Ring x2, Battle Bracers+1, Amemet mantle, Warwolf Belt (Life Belt in case I'm actually having trouble hitting for some reason), and Royal Knight's Breeches. For building TP, again, depending on acc vs whatever we're fighting, I'll either leave my O-hat on, or switch out to Walahra Turban for tp building, then put O-hat back on for WS. I use Crimson Boots for TP building, and Hecatomb Leggings for WS. I put out WSs usually very little below other pt members, and my DoT makes up for it, since I hit for more per hit 3/4 of the time.
Simply put tho, PLD is not NIN. Either we tank, or we DD. You're not gonna get both. If we do both, we're gonna take some damage. There's just no way around that. =\
As to the GS argument, well...suffice to say most PLDs don't get the chance to keep GS skilled up while leveling. So when we hit end-game, in order to get GS caught up takes
massive amounts of skill-up parties. I just recently even broke into Spinning Slash territory with mine, and I'm a skill-up fiend with the weapons I can use on PLD (Polearm at 175 atm, and it's an E rating if that tells you anything). At end-game, lv.75, we cap GS at 250.
Just at the level for
{Ground Strike
}. So, in order to use GS as a decent damage dealer, we'd have to first cap it, which would still leave us 26 skill short of our A+ 276 with Sword. Then you'd have to add in Acc+ gear to make up for that lacking skill. All and all, if you've got it capped and such, yes, it's a viable way to exp...but personally, if I wanna put out good DoT and decent WSs, I'll keep my Company Sword and Tatami out. I get out GS and /THF37 just to toy around with. Not saying such a setup doesn't have good damage potential, cuz it
does have good potential. Or would if everyone wasn't obsessed with TPburn pts now days. In a normal skillchain using group with an alternate tank, a PLD could go /THF and toss on enough Acc+ till they get to tp, then toss on all the STR+ gear and SATA
{Spinning Slash
} onto the tank (something I'd personally like to do some time). Plus, if someone wants
{Light
}....yeah, lemme get out my GS...since
{Savage Blade
} kinda....well...sucks...yeah. <.<;;;
And before anyone says anything, yes, I'm a jumpy kitty on this subject.
I just get tired of seeing "PLDs can't DD" but then seeing "we don't want a PLD tank, NIN onry".....got that a
LOT leveling up through PLD, so I determined myself to prove that PLD
does have a use outside of just tanking. So far, I've managed to disprove the theory that we're tanks onry. ^^;