Tavnazian Tacos: When is it too early?

[Davion]

I'm currently lvling my PLD in my spree of trying new things. I've been reading up on what I'd need for the job later in lvls so I know what I need farm and shoot for but as far as food is concerned I draw a blank somewhat. Are the tacos good spanning all lvls? Does it matter what lvl I start eating them cause I started at lvl 5 XD but I wonder if it's a waste since I"m lvl 17 right now...

Any thoughts?

 

[meeze]

Did you seriously start at 5...

somepage has a source for what foods are good at what levels.

 

[Dejavu]

http://ffxi.somepage.com/itemdb/food.php

Go down to the part that says melee defense foods and based on your defense you can determine which food is the best to use

At level 17 id expect your actually going to get the most out of something like boiled crab, which is cheap as hell and gives you better stats than the tacos because of the percentage and cap

 

[Chiimister]

I used steamed/boiled crab till 25ish, chiimis cooking and fishing skills bring me Shallops Tropicale

 

[Vilurum]

Note that for some things (I'm looking at you, Kazham mandies) you really won't *need* any extra defense (I threw up Berserk in Yhoator just so they'd hit me hard enough that I'd have something to cure after Regen did its work), so something to improve your hate output by doing a little more damage may be more useful. The higher you get, the less you should prioritize this (as you get more and more and more and more hate tools), but it's worth consideration as a lowbie.

 

[Nycon]

I think I started eating taco's fulltime around lvl 55ish... I didn't start sooner, cause back then they were 50-65k a stack(if I remember correctly)...

 

[Jakey]

steamed/boiled crab till 50ish then switch to tacos is what I did

 

[Mishaela]

As said, boiled crab is the way to go. It's unfortunate that Homemade Cheese (10hp, 40def) is such a joke to get or that'd be the best food for quite a while. =/

 

[shmedly]

I used a couple different kinds of food, but I was going by def numbers and which food gave me more def compared to base def.

Boiled Crab until about 35ish
Fish Mithkabobs until about 52.
Meat Jerky and Meat Mithkabobs until 60(grr, I hate Colibri).
Shallops Tropicale or Taco's until 68. This all depended on wether or not it was a party I dared to eat 3hr food in. I probably should have just stuck with tacos after 60 but I was trying out different things. The numbers on Shallops look good but the extra Vit and Agi on the taco's help more than you can imagine.
Now at 68 I won't be eating anything but taco's from here on out.

Peace,
Shmed

 

[Romper]

I used boiled/steamed crab up until 35-40 maybe that is when I made the switch to Shallops Tropicale then at 60 depending on the party I would use tacos.

 

[Silenus]

Tavnazian Taco
Stacks: 12
Duration: 30 mins
HP +20
MP +20
Dexterity +4
Vitality +6
Agility +4
Charisma +4
HP Regeneration While Healing +1
MP Regeneration While Healing +1
Defense +25% (Cap: 150@600 Base Defense)

Sure seems good to me at any level; giving up only 2% defense for all that hp, mp, extra vit, resting hp and mp, etc.

Most people just don't use em before 50ish because there are cheaper alternatives. I skilled cooking up to make shallops tropicale for my pld and used those for a long time.

*edit* what am i thinking...the extra vit provides the "missing" 2% def. tacos for everyone!

 

[Keryan]

Elvaan pld

A lot depends on your gear and race. I am an elvaan 75 pld. I used pies until beetles in garliage. I also had mp macros for my rse. At about 35 i used roasted corn. than when my free supply of that ran out i went to boiled crab. that was about lv 40. then about 55 depending on the party and mobs i used crab or tacos or nothing. Sometime the tacos gave too much defense. So i did not get hurt fast enough to build good hate with cure 3 and 4. By lv 71 on imps i did not need any food to tank. If you can get it a vermy is very nice when you are in whitegate areas. Vermy, sanction, parade gorget is like having a rdm. You will have to figure out what food you need or if you need any based on your party and gear.

if your a mithra or taru you might start the foods at earlier levels. Just try to balance out your race with the job. I would also recommend comparing vit stats off items vs ring/earring/neck that give actual defense. 4 vit is about 3 Defense, so at 50 Phalanx rings might be better. <i used them> Enjoy paladin i know i did.

 

[shmedly]

if your a mithra or taru you might start the foods at earlier levels. Just try to balance out your race with the job. I would also recommend comparing vit stats off items vs ring/earring/neck that give actual defense. 4 vit is about 3 Defense, so at 50 Phalanx rings might be better. <i used them> Enjoy paladin i know i did.

Very true with the Taru and Mithra thing. I'm taru and need all the def/vit I can get. Also FYI 2 Vit = 1 Def.

Peace,
Shmed

 

[Keryan]

Very true with the Taru and Mithra thing. I'm taru and need all the def/vit I can get. Also FYI 2 Vit = 1 Def.

Peace,
Shmed

I thought that too untill i started playing with my strength status gear. At some point you get extra attack point. so it is more like 2 vit is 1.25 def or something near that. This was tested pre-update to the 2 handed things. You can only really tell with the str and vit since it shows up on att and def.

 

[shmedly]

I thought that too untill i started playing with my strength status gear. At some point you get extra attack point. so it is more like 2 vit is 1.25 def or something near that. This was tested pre-update to the 2 handed things. You can only really tell with the str and vit since it shows up on att and def.

Well, I can get a +26 increase on Vit and I only get 13 def points so that's where I'm coming from.

Peace,
Shmed

 

[Davion]

well when I was lvling PLD at start I was able to handle tough+'s without much of an issue unless it was a lizzie that did Bafeful Gaze. The taco's helped alot.

 

[Sharpe]

A lot depends on your gear and race. I am an elvaan 75 pld. I used pies until beetles in garliage. I also had mp macros for my rse. At about 35 i used roasted corn. than when my free supply of that ran out i went to boiled crab. that was about lv 40. then about 55 depending on the party and mobs i used crab or tacos or nothing. Sometime the tacos gave too much defense. So i did not get hurt fast enough to build good hate with cure 3 and 4. By lv 71 on imps i did not need any food to tank. If you can get it a vermy is very nice when you are in whitegate areas. Vermy, sanction, parade gorget is like having a rdm. You will have to figure out what food you need or if you need any based on your party and gear.

if your a mithra or taru you might start the foods at earlier levels. Just try to balance out your race with the job. I would also recommend comparing vit stats off items vs ring/earring/neck that give actual defense. 4 vit is about 3 Defense, so at 50 Phalanx rings might be better. <i used them> Enjoy paladin i know i did.

Please don't tell me you tanked in a Vermy.

 

[Keryan]

Please don't tell me you tanked in a Vermy.

When you can hold hate well and only get hit for 65~75 you can tank in a vermy just fine. Mind you i am an elvaan so i do not have the 450 mp a pld taru gets, but then again i have more than 800 hp. I have watched taru plds chain without refresh before. Besides I used it when there was no refreshers in the party. Was pld, drk, sam, whm, rng, war. Hard for a pld to hold hate without his/her trusty spells. It wound up being a very nice party we went from lv 68 to 70 that night. <it also saved me when we had a crap rdm that would not refresh anyone but him and the whm> I have also seen Galkas tank in vermy's. Player ability, race, gear plays very much into how you play pld. When players both JP and EN tell you in a party how great your tanking is you know your doing it right. It might not be the cookie cutter everyone else does, but that does not make it wrong. It just makes it your way.

 

[Vilurum]

2 VIT => 1 def, period. If you get more than 1 def, then I suspect you might have an unintentionally flawed test case. Possibilities:

- Doing your tests while some def+% JA is up, such as Defender.
- Doing your tests while under the effect of some def+% food.
- Most +VIT comes on gear that also has a base defense stat (read: most armor), and an easier way to get higher +VIT is to compare NQ and HQ gear. HQ of most any gear that has base defense, will have 1 more defense than NQ, and that should be accounted for. (VIT rings, of the non-HQ2 version - those have defense too - make for the best test cases.)

 

[Mishaela]

Please don't tell me you tanked in a Vermy.

If the tank is "too good" then they won't be able to self-cure, so this "too good" tank must obviously sacrifice potential acc, att or enmity slots for lower-defense gear, so that they can get hit for more damage and thus need to self-cure more!

Because that's what good tanks do! 20mp/min > enmity, accuracy, and /or attack! And defense is a detriment to GOOD PLDs!
...Wait, what? Seriously, if a PLD somehow has "too much defense", they could at least use a f-!king Haubergeon. Sheesh...