I keep getting mixed advice for DRK Tanking

[AzraelX]

ok my dark is at lv 49 and will be lv 50 soon.I have never tanked in FF14 before and don't want to be a liability. The issue is that I continue to hear mixed advice on going STR accessories/ all sTR attributes vs all VIT accessories/attributes. could a seasoned DRk Knight help this novice out?

[Giantbane]

ok my dark is at lv 49 and will be lv 50 soon.I have never tanked in FF14 before and don't want to be a liability. The issue is that I continue to hear mixed advice on going STR accessories/ all sTR attributes vs all VIT accessories/attributes. could a seasoned DRk Knight help this novice out?

Start with all VIT and all your points in VIT once you hit 50. This is the safest route to go while you're learning.

When you've got an idea about how much HP you actually *need* for any bit of content, you can start swapping in some STR accessories/attributes.

[NeaturalBomber]

[QUOTE=Giantbane;3152318]Start with all VIT and all your points in VIT once you hit 50. This is the safest route to go while you're learning.


This is the best answer you'll get . Stay on vit gear until you know the content confidently enough that you can swap a few out . Considering the dark knight doesn't not have a large range of CD's I wouldn't swap to many over once you do
As long as you do your job confidently gear does not really matter
Only run strength of you want to try improve your play style with a bit of extra dps

[Viviza]

Start with all VIT and all your points in VIT once you hit 50. This is the safest route to go while you're learning.

When you've got an idea about how much HP you actually *need* for any bit of content, you can start swapping in some STR accessories/attributes.

This is good advice.

One more point of caution I'll throw in as a healer main -- the lower your health pool the thinner the margin of error, even if it is, in theory, 'enough' to handle the encounter. Things don't always go well. Being able to take some hits without a healer glued to your health bar frees up their time to do other things and allows a greater margin of error in panic scenarios.

[Kotemon]

Start with all VIT and all your points in VIT once you hit 50. This is the safest route to go while you're learning.

When you've got an idea about how much HP you actually *need* for any bit of content, you can start swapping in some STR accessories/attributes.

This is about the same advice for new paladin and warrior as well. However for 3.0 (by the way stats are worded now) Dex was removed from the block/parry rate and Str from the amount blocked/parried. Those are no longer part of the tank selection. My mix of right side pieces Str/Vit was mostly anything that had +accuracy. In fact I'm still trying to pick accessories with either +Accuracy > +Determination. However I don't know how much changed with determination in 3.0 or if its still relevant to stack it. The only thing I can think of that may be a third stat for dark would be piety melds on accessories. But I've yet to read anything that suggests a buffed Mp pool would be of any use at this time.

I remember being told by folks in DF (2.50), who want to speed run or do large pulls to drop +str for +vit so healer can dps more. Or (when everyone else was over geared) to have more +str to make up the difference so you can better maintain hate. Especially if youre weapon is/was lower than the rest of the party.

I am aware there were folks that had a recommended max Hp for Paladin and Warrior based on what turn you were on. Then you could swap vit for str once you reached that point in gear. Otherwise the Hp would be overkill and the -str would lessen the overall party dps. I've yet to find any thing that gives a +vit = Hp break down for new 3.0 content yet by the tanks job. Let alone the changes to parry stat and how it actually affects the parry rate now. Hopefully someone reading this thread might have an idea, however this would lead more into secondary matera melding on top the stat allocation/builds.

[Hypie]

Right at the Start your are WEAK! You have no Gear which supports you and everything. You want to learn your Skills, figure out how to combine Stuff and so on.

So you want to grab everything that makes your Health go up and mitigate more DMG. When you hit 50 and dont have any Tome Tank Gear around the Ishgardian NPC's sell you a complete Ilvl 115 Set. Costs around 150K Gil. It's worth the investion.

You can always reset you Points later with a Drink at your Grand Company. So take Vit until you think you got the hang of the Class and slowly start exchanging Vit Gear with STR Gear. Heck i have Alexander clear and just started exchanging Vit against STR Gear. Don't let other Players mess with you. If you are uncomfortable with that HP Pool they tell you and you should wear STR Gear and Shit. Take the Vit Stuff. While its true that Tank DPS can matter its not true in "Normal" Content.

Alexander Savage will be the first Encounter where Tank and Healer DPS really will make a difference between Do or Wipe.

[GeekMatt]

People suggesting STR for tanks aren't wrong, it's just misleading to passerbys reading the forums.

Tank priority is
Manage Aggro > Survivability > DPS and Support.
If you don't manage aggro, you're of no use to the party and are probably dead anyways.
Once aggro is managed, the goal is letting the healer keep you alive, focus on this.
If and only if the first two priorities are confidently met, should you start working on DPSing more and focus on whatever additional support your tanking job has to offer. More DPS means a smoother run for everybody, but if your healer is struggle-busing then it's not worth the trade off.

[Tiqa]

Tank priority is
Manage Aggro > Survivability > DPS and Support.

Start with all VIT and all your points in VIT once you hit 50. This is the safest route to go while you're learning.

When you've got an idea about how much HP you actually *need* for any bit of content, you can start swapping in some STR accessories/attributes.

This is actually how to make it smart. You shouldn't brainlessly listen ppl saying "real raid tank go full str u noob", or "got all vit and get sturdy".

Start with all vit, try and gradually swap one piece of accessory at time if you feel you don't need so many HP.

You can consider turning progression points from vit to str using Keeper's Hymn instead of swapping an accessory as it about same amout than one (about 30 str/vit).

[Timat]

Ummm.....if you are LEVELING your DRK go STR all the way.

I did and had no problem tanking the 4mans and was able to kill stuff reasonably fast which means smoother leveling.

Once you get to 60 then you can work out str/vit

I will say this thought.......increasing your HP is only as good as the amount you use.

If you have 15k hp but you never go below 3k in any given run on a usual basis....that extra id say.....2.5k isnt doing you any favors.

[GeekMatt]

Snip...

My POV on this is.. Levelling my AST I didn't experience the DRK-squish until Aurum Vale. Even then it was the player not the job. On the other hand when levelling WHM from 50-60 finding a DRK that wasn't squishy compared to PLD/WAR was almost unheard of.

...personally I like a challenge when I heal, but I still think it's dumb to squish-up your tank with DPS accessories in those level 51-59 dungeons. Especially since I haven't seen any DRK ever that did big pulls and didn't require everything in my arsenal to keep him alive.