Paladin BiS Accessory Reddit Discussion

[Maelwys]

AHp is a metric used to figure this and is the only reasonable one that has been determined to examine the effects of avoidance in simplified terms.

All of which is true, but AHP is still the wrong metric to use in this comparison. Because it looks at total time taken for a tank to drop from 100% HP to 0% without outside healing.

Which doesn't address the issues I raised above, namely that:

(i) STR/DEX equipment setups will be able to survive a greater amount of damage than +VIT setups (on average) before the healers start struggling to keep up with the incoming damage

and

(ii) that for any HIGHER damage, STR/DEX setups will only possibly die more quickly than VIT setups. Because of their increased enmity generation allowing them to use delaying tactics (Stoneskin, Stuns, Kiting, etc) without putting any pressure on the rest of the team to lower their damage or healing output.

You are correct that Blocking and Parries are a "chance" rather than always-on mitigation.

However this does not detract from the above statement.

Just because you cannot rely on them to kick in at any given moment does not mean they are less effective over the long term (particularly with Bulwark up).

Even in a worst-case scenario, such as fighting ADS where you have no chance whatsoever of blocking, then STR/DEX setups are no worse off than VIT setups as long as your healers never let you drop below 5% HP - and it's not as if you can't just swap back to +Vit accessories in those situations anyway

But until AHP gains more from stacking Avoidance gear over VIT gear, there's no argument. You are becoming less tanky by doing so.

That's the thing: you do NOT become less "Tanky" by stacking STR or DEX.

You become (arguably, see above comment on enmity and stoneskin) slightly faster at dying under extremely heavy damage which is heavier than your healers can handle. But you become able to handle more damage before your healers start struggling, and you become better at holding enmity.

A Tank's role is to (i) hold enmity and (ii) weather damage. Increasing STR/DEX ticks both those boxes - you are certainly "tanky", you just have slightly less of a raw HP buffer between you and death.

The fact that Block/Parry is not a guaranteed chance to proc does not really matter, because even if the mitigation doesn't kick in, you lose virtually nothing - a STR/DEX-setup tank will remain identical in performance to a +VIT-setup tank unless their healers let them drop below 5% HP. And whenever their mitigation DOES kick in, it gives those healers a slight breather.

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aHP, like eHP, is a useful metric when comparing the amount of damage a tank can Take before dying. But it is NOT a helpful metric when considering how much damage a Tank can actually withstand before their supporting party starts to struggle (either with keeping up with healing the tank, or with having to hold back due to aggro control).

Bottom line is that STR/DEX gives better performance than +VIT in all but one situation: when an extra raw 5% HP would make the difference between you living and dying. And I honestly can't say I've encountered many of those.

I'm all for allocating all your character's Distributable Points into VIT, but being able to swap 25 Vit for 45 STR/DEX via easilly-unequippable accessories is a very nice trade in most endgame situations!