Turning DRK into a tank was a huge mistake.

[SuzakuCMX]

*snip*

Yes it does work like that. You don't keep the tank topped off 100% of the time; that's a waste of MP. You keep them with enough HP to survive the next few hits with room to spare. If they are riding the VIT/STR line PERFECTLY, then yes, that means keeping them topped off most of the time.

If a tank buster and an auto-attack are going to hit you for 8000 HP then I'd prefer you have 20k HP and no defense than 15k HP and 20% defense. No exceptions, because the 2nd tank is still going to have a lot more room for taking hits than the first tank.

Unless you're in a battle that does % based HP damage all of the time, in which case it doesn't matter how much HP you have.

Regardless, you sacrifice 3k HP trading all VIT accessories for STR accessories. That is about 30% of your HP pre-accessories on a DRK and should not be done lightly.

If you are going to be outputting more damage than your healers with the STR accessories than your healers would be doing when you have VIT accessories you should sacrifice your personal DPS for the group's DPS.

Yes I will have to put out a few more heals to keep you at full HP. But you're not changing how much defenses you have with switching accessories and the VIT gives both you and the healers a lot more room for error. But currently the VIT differential is small between DRK and PLD, DRK can self-heal constantly, PLD has a self-heal, and WAR gets +20% healing done to make up for the difference in HP. The 3k HP from VIT accessories is a couple Cures or a Cure II....which means I can do an extra 2 DPS spells at least before I have to heal you.