Are Pentamelds still BiS?

Choker = Slaying > Fending
Earrings = Interchangeable
Wrist = Interchangeable / Fending has Accuracy, Slaying doesn't
Rings = Interchangeable

The important thing about crafted accessories is to get the STR + VIT, so if you can afford to meld the Fending Choker but not the Slaying one then get the Fending. I personally recommend just getting 3 accessories, ideally Slaying Choker + Fending Earrings/Fending Bracelet + Slaying/Fending Ring as with i190+ that will give you enough health for A1S-A3S, and with more gear it'll give you enough for A4S. If you can afford all 5, get all 5, but if you can only afford 3 then you'll be solid too. Even 2 pentamelds is a solid number if you have some i200 or i210 gear on your left side.

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Originally Posted by Keagian

I'm not completely sure but I'm assuming that the reason most go for Str instead of Fending is because some of the Fending has parry on them which is pretty much an undesirable stat. However if the secondary stats is a none issue then going with Fending would be cheaper to meld.

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Furthermore, you have to meld 31 str vs meld 28 vit.

Also the idea is to max damage while maintaining some hp, not max hp while maintaining some damage, so you want to have max str and then get "some" vit.

Well, actually it's partially due to the fact that Vitality Grade IV materia give +8 Vitality whereas Strength Grade IVs only give +7 Strength. The cap of str/vit on ALL accessories, whether fending or slaying, is 31 Str and 29 Vit.

To meld 31 Str on a fending you MUST do 4 Grade IVs and a Grade III. Five melds, no other way to do it.

To meld 29 Vit on a Slaying you can do it in either 4 Grade IVs with a spare slot, or 3 Grade IVs with a Grade III and a spare slot (only hits 28 vit but is cheaper).

Fundamentally the only difference between slaying and fending other than cost is the open fifth meld slot in the Slayings. However, secondary stats have very minimal impact and depending on weightings you might find that the base stats on some Fendings are -better-.

If Grade IV strength materia gave +8 Strength then you'd probably see most people going primarily Fending accs.

Case in point : Fending Ears and Wrists are Acc+Crit, which imo is the strongest combo of two secondary stats on tank gear. Slaying versions have no acc, so I'd say Fending is the better option in these slots over Slaying with an Acc Materia. Fending Rings and Slaying Rings are identical secondary stats (Sks+Crit) so Slaying are objectively better here. Slaying Neck is also much better than the Fending neck as the fending neck wastes points on Parry.

Slaying Neck, Fending Wrists, Fending Ears and two Slaying Rings, max melded with either 31 Str or 29 Vit, with Grade IV Heavens Eye materias in the 3 slaying acc's empty slot. This, to me at least, is the optimal setup.

They still are BIS yeah, but with the gear you get and the confort you get on new raid you can start swapping one pentameld for an i210 slaying accessories.

I myself have 5 pentamelds, and depending on the content i use earring/bracelet i210 slaying since i've enough hp. Like in A3 savage i use 4 crafted slaying and 1 i210 slaying, for A1 and A2 i use 3 crafted and 2 slaying i210.
The overall HP threshold for alexander seems to be arround 18k hp (for drk and paladin and in deliverance for warrior).

There's also one thing to consider regarding the hitpoint thresholds.

Everyone is focused on the idea that once you have "enough" hitpoints to survive a tankbuster, you should go all out on Slaying. People say use Pentamelds initially and gradually fade them out for Slaying as you get more and more gear Left side.

However, I counter by saying that whilst DPS is very very important, your DPS will still be increasing as you upgrade your Left Side. Once an encounter has been beaten you also have "enough" dps as a tank. If Pentamelds are the best all-round option then I don't necessarily see the fascination with swapping them out for Slaying all the time if you're also increasing "healer safety net".

I know conventional wisdom this meta is that DPS>all, but once an encounter is beaten I'd personally prefer to keep my pentameld setup and increase both my DPS and my survivability equally rather than continually sacrifice large amounts of health for small dps increases. At that point unless you're going for world records of speed kills the most important thing is killing an encounter consistantly without silly wipes, and I still feel an all-round set of 5 pentamelds is better for this.

By all means swap out Pentas for Slaying if you're still working on an encounter where you're failing due to raidwide DPS checks, but the sheer amount of health you potentially lose when going glass cannon barely feels worth it once you know your raid is at a comfortable DPS level for an encounter.