Quote Originally Posted by Donjo View Post
Yes, everything is easier once you learn the fight. However, the OP is obviously someone who hasn't. Only when a fight is mastered should its participants experiment with stats, equipment, and specialties. In all other cases, the (main) Tanks should stack Vit and Parry. There is no question about this. It's simply what's safest. Save the experiments for after the down.
You'll learn to effectively mitigate the damage pretty quickly (well before your first clear); you don't at all need to have "mastered" the fight. I wouldn't recommend what I did if you needed mastery of the current content.

The point of more STR is to make your first clear easier. That is, the main hurdles of T9 are NOT tank mitigation management or healing. Rather, the difficulty of T9 comes from managing mechanics and clearing DPS checks. Neither of these are much impacted by your VIT and/or Parry.