Paladin Attributes

So I have looked over the guides and while they recommend what types of gear to get, I haven't found one that says what attributes to allocate. I have heard from some you want a 60 40 split in VIT and STR while I have heard from others you want pure VIT or STR. Any endgame Paladins who can tell me what is my best bet? Are there diminishing returns on STR or VIT?

Seeing as I have reached my reply limit of four today, I will just say my thanks in here. I will admit I put points into both but that was more out of not knowing for sure.

Update
Thanks to Gawan and Cadwgan for replying so quickly. I will reset my attributes next time I have the seals for it. I spent a lot on promotions recently. So I only have a little.

For those of you who just read this post, the answer is Vitality. Strength is not going to help out a class that does very little damage to begin with. Might as well stack vitality so you can last all day.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I was reading awhile back that people are dumping the points into STR because gear covers you more in defense or something like that...at the moment I'm just going split thought

Everyone I have asked says dump the attributes in VIT, STR gives to little bonus to put them there. Better to have a bigger buffer for the healers to work with.

Vitality. People will argue STR for (very little) extra enmity generation and damage mitigation but you might only break one tier for parry/block (a whopping 1%). 30 VIT will add a lot more effective health, I've lost count the number of times I've just survived due to a few hundred HP I wouldn't have had with STR attributes set.

the thing you need to understand about min-maxing is that when people optimize, they optimize according to their role in a group and the people that they play with. just because you go full str and that works while you're playing with your friends and your healers heal you up right after taking the damage, it doesn't mean it will work in your favor playing with a less capable and much slower healer. In the end, I really don't think it is a game maker but you will probably notice the VIT a lot more.

Stat allocation is quite a hotbed topic around here. A lot of people give advice based on "feel" or "this worked for me" without knowing the actual data figures to back the claims up. Jahaudant reposted an awesome summary in this thread here : http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...n-FC-confusion.

30 in VIT will give you roughly 10% more hitpoints depending on gear (+450, and starter tanks in average gear at 50 have about 4000 HP without this), and there are a number of hard hitting encounters at 50 where this -does- make a difference. It also slightly improves HP regeneration (I think it's a factor of Max HP, so should be 10% higher regen too).

30 in STR increases your block/parry amount but by such a tiny amount that it's less than half a percent increase in survivability, and maybe even 0% if you don't hit a "round-up" breakpoint. 30 Strength also gives around 2% more damage, which is barely noticeable. You might see +1 or +2 damage on some attack numbers but the difference in holding hate is virtually nothing - the Damage number on your primary weapon is the thing that makes the huge difference to damage/threat output. Strength isnt bad but it needs a huge amount to be visible.

So the choice is between 10% more HP, or 2% more damage. Suffice to say, every tank I've spoken to or read about (including myself) who started levelling with STR and then respecced to 30 Vit didnt notice a single ounce of difference in damage/threat by dropping the strength, but DID notice the big HP pool increase. Even early encounters at 50 like the Tonberry King can hit your tank for thousands of damage, and 450 HP really can be the difference between life and death in burst situations.

TLDR - Go full 30 vit for around 10% more HP. Full 30 strength gives barely 1-2% boost to anything it affects.

Just throwing a small wrench in there devil's advocate style. The +30 Strength would equate to about 7.5% to 8.5% damage increase (if you're going from around 290 to 320, may be less a percent if you're higher up). And in Shield Oath, this means you're attacks are generating 15% to 37% more enmity depending on the ability.

Don't remember where I was going with that now.

Also, you can have a set of +Strength rings and strike a targeting dummy for 10 strikes with your Rage of Halone combo, then try it without the Strength to see how it feels.

Taking off my devil's advocate hat, I agree with the Vitality approach if you're rolling more with Duty Finder randoms rather than friends, as you won't know their playstyle, may need the buffer, and they may be too stuck in their ways to see a tank in any other way and may lead to some grief about your HP = less enjoyment while playing the instance.

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Originally Posted by Fiosha_Maureiba

Just throwing a small wrench in there devil's advocate style. The +30 Strength would equate to about 7.5% to 8.5% damage increase (if you're going from around 290 to 320, may be less a percent if you're higher up). And in Shield Oath, this means you're attacks are generating 15% to 37% more enmity depending on the ability.

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Hmm is it really that high? I'd heard much lower. Still, I guess I can see 30 str equating to about that given a Paladin will have aroudn 300 strength at 50. So depending on weighting a 10% Strength boost would make sense for about that total damage increase.

I don't see how a 7-8% damage increase equates to a 15 to 37% enmity boost though. I was under the impression that Enmity modifiers are directly tied to damage output, so a 7% damage increase will be pretty much -exactly- a 7% threat increase wouldnt it?

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Originally Posted by Sapphidia

I don't see how a 7-8% damage increase equates to a 15 to 37% enmity boost though. I was under the impression that Enmity modifiers are directly tied to damage output, so a 7% damage increase will be pretty much -exactly- a 7% threat increase wouldnt it?

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Correct. 100 damage Halone = 1000 threat. 107 damage Halone = 1070 threat. 1070 / 1000 = 1.07

I have no idea where he came up with "15% to 37% more enmity".

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15% to 37%

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What a strange conclusion.