Damage Taken setsFollow

Hello, Ninja community. I just hit 75 this week on NIN and am working on gearing up my tanking sets for NIN/DRK.

I've looked around for information and the consensus seems to be that there are caps of 50% PDT and 50% MDT (of which 27.3% can come from the WHM that I dualbox with max Shellra V). This leaves 22.7% needed from gear in order to cap MDT.

So far I've come to the following sets:

PDT - total of 50% 
================== 
Terra's Staff         20% - OK (Earth is same, but have this from BRD) 
Arhat's Jinpachi +1    6% - OK 
Arhat's Gi +1          9% - OK 
Denali Wristbands      2% - Nyzul drop rates hate me (darksteel+1 same) 
Jelly Ring             5% - OK 
Patronus Ring          2% - OK 
Desultor Tassets       4% - ASA Next on my list (have 3% darksteel+1 now) 
Darksteel Leggings +1  2% - Checking AH regularly 

MDT - total of 16% 
================== 
Merman's Earring       2% - OK 
Merman's Earring       2% - OK 
Denali Wristbands      2% - See Above 
Merman's Ring          4% - OK 
Merman's Ring          4% - OK 
Lieutenant's Sash      2% - Working on rank for Perdu Blade anyways 

With the obvious exception of a defending ring (which is out of the question unless I get lucky on my number in the latest mog lotto), does anyone know of any ways to improve these sets?

It seems like NIN gets stuck having to rely on elemental resistance gear over MDT in a lot of cases, while PLD can use I.R. Lance to cap out (with Shellra assistance, of course). I assume filling in the remaining slots with either MND or MDB (whichever is available in higher quantities) would be best for this general magic set, where a full resist set and foregoing the MDT would be best for things with only one element to worry about?

For the physical set, any improvements would obviously not increase the PDT, but either add beneficial stats to those pieces or free up slots.

Before it's mentioned, I obviously have haste and enmity sets as well, but I'm looking for the best sets to idle in, swap to for big attacks, etc.

Good point. I forgot that a lot of areas are perpetually "outside of nation control" (as well as the fact that I'm Bastokan and we can't even keep Gustaberg reliably, so it'll be active quite a bit).

What do you plan on using the MDT set for? The only thing I ever really used mine for was JoL Idle. Almost anything else, you're going to want an elemental resistance set instead (Fire for Tiamat, Earth for Ouryu, Ice for Jorm, possibly Light for Ultima[never looked into this myself]). As for improvements to your build, the only difference I really had was a Lamian Kaman +1 for the additional 1-2 MDB, Lamia Mantle when resentment wouldn't activate, and a storm turban which I got out of luck. The only two improvements from my build is an AV drop and D.ring, so I don't think there's much else you could get for all-purpse MDT. In the extra slots, I pretty much just went Regen > HP > Enmity/Evasion/etc to not be naked.

Something to also keep in mind with -MDT sets is Magic Defense Bonus. This will open you up to items like Lamian Kamen, Storm Turban, Resolute Belt and Lamia Mantle (though the consensus is Resentment Cape for back, but it can take a long time to get and a Lamia Mantle +1 is pretty cheap), as well as some rings and earrings (though their names escape me at the moment).

I believe the conversion for each point of MDB is roughly -1% MDT. The above stuff would give you roughly another -7% to -10% MDT, depending on what you can get a hold of.

Also the katana ultrarichard mentioned is an excellent addition to an MDT set and it has the added bonus of having the same DPS as Senju.