Some classes are old and outdated, and then sometimes there's having to play Spartan again.
Phalanx amounts to giving Cidala 1/5 uptime on armored when they need to take a turn, which is not great at all. The 10% damage reduction passive alone isn't enough to keep them afloat either; if they decide to catch aggro they still get clocked. As tedious as it gets, it's still safer to guard them every other turn or so and use Aletheia to make up for damage.
I gave Daggerpeak a spin as a mainhand. It was ok; the damage on the nuke was kind of disappointing and that little bit of damage didn't feel necessary to cancel compared to keeping Cidala healthy with water switch. MC's delay went by with zero uses, if that's indicative of anything.
Water switch reduced damage enough that adding Just the Cure to the ragtag pile of healing between summon calls and Satyr 2 with no autocasts was enough to keep everyone healthy. I don't think I'd recommend it since it's such an inefficient use of a skill slot, but it worked.
earth ship 8%/earth reactor 10%
0:00 100%
5:54 75%
10:39 50%
15:04 30%