5.2: Is it possible to meld a single set of gear to be ideal for all 4 tank jobs?

I'm coming up on having 3 of the 4 tank jobs at 80, and will soon after have the 4th as well as my lowest (PLD) is at 72.

I'm also now tanking for a static, that is casual and planning to 'slowly get into static' - which once we do will have me finally "at parity" to the kind of tank I used to be before I left World of Warcraft (where I was a heroic raid maintank able to swap between all the tank classes with a roster of leveled and geared alts because up through their prior ex-pac at least, they made that easy).

So...

That background noted.

I rather enjoy all 4 tanks here (more than I did the roster I had in WoW, save for maybe Monk of about 5 years ago)...

I see that ideal Materia for the 3 I am most ready with is not identical.

I hope I am wrong here... but it seems like:

GNB just wants direct hit, and when you can't get any more Direct Hit, swap to Direct Hit... :P

DRK want Skill Speed until you can get off the right number of things, then Direct Hit.

WAR thinks Direct Hit is a social disease, and wants Determination...

Paladin I don't know.

I figure I can easily 'main' DRK and be almost equal with GNB is I make sure as much as possible of Skill Speed is in the DRK weapon, and depending on where I am in gear the extra skill speed I might need in other slots doesn't hurt me in GNB "too much"...

But all that Direct Hit I have put in means I have basically slid WAR over to "use this in the leveling roulette and to run back and forth around the Limsa Aetheryte spamming emotes like a fool".

Is there an ideal Materia that doesn't hurt any of the jobs, and benefits all of them - or at least makes 3 of them good (I need to read up on PLD soon, as it will be next on my list to finish leveling)?

Obviously there are various breakpoints in gearing where you have to favor a choice (when you get your raid weapon for one for ex, but the others are still on a crafted or tomestome weapon), but in between those moments I'm wondering if there's a way to materia that lets me randomly bring one according to my mood that day, into progression or at least up to 'whatever we have on farm right before progression'.

DH + Crit is what GNB, DRK and PLD want (Until a bit later in the expansion then Crit will overtake DH)

Crit + Det is what WAR wants.

DRK and WAR want a little smidge of SkS just to get that 5th attack during an IR/Del window.

You could probably get away with doing Crit + Det on all 4 tanks, it won't be BiS for all of them, but it won't be bad for any of them.

You're overestimating the importance of stats in this game. The difference between BiS melds and sub-optimal melds is miniscule, less than 1% dps in most cases. Even your War could go into Savage with DH melds and do well.

Crit + Det on all 4 is the best suggestion, with enough SkS to be comfy on the War for IR.

3/4 tanks yes with only small changes to SKS.
WAR.... bwahahahaha. No. WAR you are waisting melds on DH.

Use the one true meld....

Tenacity

But in seriousness, crit is still good on WAR since it effects both crit rate and crit damage so even WAR benefits from it unlike direct hit which only increases the rate so is nullified by IR. So if you really want your melds to effect all tanks then just meld crit instead of direct hit and if it’s capped on crit then go determination, these stats are straight damage increases for all tanks so it’s good on any of them.

You could meld full Tenacity and would see a miniscule difference in dps. Melds really don't mean that much, as long as you stick to a flavour.

Considering being semi-optimal, Crit/DH sans WAR. Crit/Det if you include WAR.

Please go to The Balance FFXIV discord for serious answers on this topic, as well as the actual math and facts to back up their claims. You won't find a serious answer here.

Few things though:

WAR: absolutely no Direct Hit, our biggest attacks already Critical Direct hit, we have no need for direct hit, as it does not provide more damage. Critical hit, however, has a Critical Chance, which is worthless to us, but also increases critical hit damage.. which is good.

TL;DR version: Stack as much crit as humanly possible, if you play WAR or DRK, put as much skillspeed as you need to hit five cleaves or spillers, missing 1 cleave or spiller regularly, is far more of a loss than any substat can give. Then meld direct hit if DRK, DET if WAR.

For PLD: Crit Direct hit, you don't need skillspeed at all, except for specific gcd tiers to make your rotation fit comfortably. The same rule applies for GNB, sometimes you will need a specific gcd tier of speed to make things absolutely 99th to 100th percentile on some of the fights, comfortably. This is only necessary if you are after rankings, though.

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Originally Posted by Aurelius2625

Please go to The Balance FFXIV discord for serious answers on this topic, as well as the actual math and facts to back up their claims. You won't find a serious answer here.

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Looking through, they do actually have an answer which is neat. Under the #tank_resources section, there are two omni-sets, one at a 2.38 GCD and one at a 2.42 GCD.

The 2.38 GCD build has two DH melds (Earrings and Bracelet) which PLD, DRK, and GNB can keep while they recommend WAR swaps those out. The 2.42 GCD build has five DH melds (two Weapon, Head, Earrings, Necklace) which PLD, DRK, and GNB can keep while they once again recommend swapping those out for WAR. Actual BiS is obviously going to differ for each Job, but the omni-sets will work well enough even if they are weaker.

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Originally Posted by Kalise

DH + Crit is what GNB, DRK and PLD want (Until a bit later in the expansion then Crit will overtake DH)

Crit + Det is what WAR wants.

DRK and WAR want a little smidge of SkS just to get that 5th attack during an IR/Del window.

You could probably get away with doing Crit + Det on all 4 tanks, it won't be BiS for all of them, but it won't be bad for any of them.

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Crit has ALREADY overtaken DH. This happened before 5.2 even came out, around ilvl 465 or so is where you have access to enough crit to outscale DH.

No, but Crit/Det is universally useful and the loss isn't that big.

I meld straight Tenacity and Determination for every Tank. There's no objectively "right way" to meld like others falsely believe, if there was, then the devs wouldn't have given us all the different choices they did; it all depends on your personal preference and values. The stat difference that melded materia makes is pretty minor as well, it's just meant to be seen a very slight boost/way to add personal flavor to your build.

Crit > DET sprinkled with some SKS.

You shouldnt really go for DH even if on paper it does look nice you have absolutely no control over which hits of your are going to proc the DH. Crit is better as a primary stat for everyone so you wont have so much DET to get significant amount out from it, you could easily replace it with DET and notice nothing.

Ultimately? No.

You CAN make a set work for both DRK and GNB, they use the same stats and need the same skill speed. For PLD and WAR though? Not really, not 100% optimally anyway.

You can do what i do and meld the GNB/DRK weapons with skill speed, to the point where you have a 2.38 GCD timer, and then Crit/DH everywhere else. I believe at level 80, 2.38 is 1522 skill speed minimum, try and keep above that number on DRK/GNB/WAR but as close to it so you're not wasting off-stats on skill speed you dont need. It wont be perfect for PLD or WAR with the DH, but it'll be serviceable and atleast then you'll have enough skill speed for the tanks that need it.

That all being said - You may need those tanks to be going a little faster depending on your ping, 2.37 or 2.36, whichever you can achieve the most consistent results with your ping.

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Originally Posted by Kalise

DH + Crit is what GNB, DRK and PLD want (Until a bit later in the expansion then Crit will overtake DH)

Crit + Det is what WAR wants.

DRK and WAR want a little smidge of SkS just to get that 5th attack during an IR/Del window.

You could probably get away with doing Crit + Det on all 4 tanks, it won't be BiS for all of them, but it won't be bad for any of them.

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While technically not false...You're forgetting that GNB needs sks too for the standard opener. If you dont have enough, you litterally miss a burst strike during no mercy

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Originally Posted by Liam_Harper

You're overestimating the importance of stats in this game. The difference between BiS melds and sub-optimal melds is miniscule, less than 1% dps in most cases. Even your War could go into Savage with DH melds and do well.

Crit + Det on all 4 is the best suggestion, with enough SkS to be comfy on the War for IR.

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Skill speed is essential for 3/4 of the tanks, the only one that doesnt need it anywhere is PLD.

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Originally Posted by TheForce

I meld straight Tenacity and Determination for every Tank. There's no objectively "right way" to meld like others falsely believe, if there was, then the devs wouldn't have given us all the different choices they did; it all depends on your personal preference and values. The stat difference that melded materia makes is pretty minor as well, it's just meant to be seen a very slight boost/way to add personal flavor to your build.

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Uh, no, there absolutely is an objectively correct way to meld and build every tank just as there is every job. Unfortunately for you, tenacity is about as far from that as is possible. That is not to say that tenacity is useless, because for prog the stat is valuable as there may end up being situations where you barely survive a hit, which was caused by tenacity. Other than that, however, tenacity is something you shouldn't be using. If you like tenacity then sure, feel free to use it. However, you cannot claim that your use of it is "good" because, frankly, it's not.

No, you cannot make a best in slot set for all tanks.

You can make an all tank set that is still quite good and the difference between the best in slot set is much less than people think. All you have to do is prioritize determination.

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Originally Posted by Beddict

Looking through, they do actually have an answer which is neat. Under the #tank_resources section, there are two omni-sets, one at a 2.38 GCD and one at a 2.42 GCD.

The 2.38 GCD build has two DH melds (Earrings and Bracelet) which PLD, DRK, and GNB can keep while they recommend WAR swaps those out. The 2.42 GCD build has five DH melds (two Weapon, Head, Earrings, Necklace) which PLD, DRK, and GNB can keep while they once again recommend swapping those out for WAR. Actual BiS is obviously going to differ for each Job, but the omni-sets will work well enough even if they are weaker.

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This has been kinda debunked to be the universal 2.42 GCD build being the best. Both DRK and GNB gain more by losing a GCD during their bursts with the slower SKS.