Fending vs. Slaying accessories at this point in the game

[Xenosan]

It's so funny to me how many DRGs forget about Bloodbath and Second Wind...

And that Elusive Jump reduces enmity by 50%.

Usually have to use it by the time Bfb wears off

[Belandrus]

Clearned a1 savage in three i190 vit, one i180 vit and one i190 strength. Cleared a2 savage with three i150 penta melded slaying, two i190 vit. Next week, I can probably wear five crafted for both fights.

[Tila]

I note that a lot of healers insist that vit tanks are much "easier" to heal.

That makes no sense, extra HP in and of itself is not mitigation. All the extra HP buffer does is help on tank busters, and even then, mostly when the tank doesnt have a def CD on hand. Extra HP do not mean a tank is taking less damage, but it seems many people think thats what it means.

If your tank is taking a lot of damage and is a struggle to heal, its because they are doing a bad job at tanking and not mitigating properly. They would suck even in full vit, and the extra vit wouldn't help them take less damage.

[Allyrion]

I note that a lot of healers insist that vit tanks are much "easier" to heal.

That makes no sense, extra HP in and of itself is not mitigation. All the extra HP buffer does is help on tank busters, and even then, mostly when the tank doesnt have a def CD on hand. Extra HP do not mean a tank is taking less damage, but it seems many people think thats what it means.

If your tank is taking a lot of damage and is a struggle to heal, its because they are doing a bad job at tanking and not mitigating properly. They would suck even in full vit, and the extra vit wouldn't help them take less damage.

That's not why having more VIT is easier to heal.
HP bars are like mini limits for healers. Or like wack-a-mole, where the bigger the HP the longer the mole stays up.

Basically, tanks take spike damage and the HP buffer allows the healer more time before they have to get the tank back up to full.
Healing is all about timing. Patching people up in danger zones, stabilizing.
If everyone had 1mil HP, it would always be about stabilizing, which is fairly trivial.

Sure, you'd still have to heal that amount back up (because you're right, the damage taken is unchanged), but they would never be in danger of dying with just basic healing.

It's a bad argument that it should only be an issue to heal if the tank is bad.
You could be the best STR in the world with perfect mitigation, but if you had switched to VIT you would be easier to heal.
That's just the case. I'm not saying it's worth the dps loss.

It's not about damage taken overall.
It's about how damage spikes and lulls are handled. How much they threaten your life.
It's trivial to heal you back up to full, it's less trivial when you are being bombarded (and so are others).
Perfect mitigation doesn't make boss damage completely negligible, nor should it.
It just helps.

Likewise, VIT gives breathing room for the healers to work around damage spikes.
It's up to you and your healers to decide where you all are comfortable with as a group, especially with the heavy dps checks in Savage in mind.

But dismissing VIT simply because it's not mitigation is misguided.
VIT will help make healing you easier.
Do you or your healers need that help or is it worth the STR sacrifice is the question.

[Meow9000]

As someone who played Paladin throughout 2.0 with some War exp in there as well going Full Vit until I was overgeared for content, in which I used STR accessories, I'm playing Drk and using STR accesories. In dungeons I always tank my mobs in Grit stance as trying to heal a tank getting pelted by mobs without a tank stance Is hell I know. I usually drop my tank stance on bosses at around 75%- when I've felt I've built up enough aggro to star spamming DA Soul eater. I know how to rotate out my cooldowns and how to avoid unnecessary Damage by avoiding mechanics and switching back to Grit if I've messed up a mechanic or know a lot of damage is about to come my way. I also stay grit during bosses if my healer is undergeared, and if it's that by I'll often to switch to vit accesories. I personally think it's really all about catering to the other members of your party. It's a game and it should be fun and stressing out your healers unnecessarily isn't fun, Yes pushing damage is fun and if your party can handle that then by all means hammer out that dps- a lot of players will appreciate you but at the same time at the end of the day your job isn't to deal damage but to take damage. If the damage you are taking is too much for a healer to handle then you should adjust yourself to make it easier on them even if its just by maintaining that tank stance. Yelling at people and telling them to get good because they can't handle a STR tank is too elitist of a mindset in a game where you can't guarantee the skill of the people you are randomly matched with. If you can't handle working around the skill of your randomly matched party members then don't use DF

[Valkyrie-Amber]

for pld fending max 1 accessory rest slaying due to dps checks the other 2 fending 2 max.

[Arkune]

All this VIT & STR discussion leads to nothing, everyone should Play his Job, he likes too.

for my personal opionion:

In a perfect Static in a perfect World i would go full STR (Points and Acc's), due the fact that random dc's happens, Players doin misstakes, i would never wear full STR as a tank.

The Only reason i see to wear Full STR in the current state of the Game is couze of Alex Savage. People want to clear it NOW and dont have time to wait. Healers Need to DPS, Tanks Need to DPS to reach the DPS check. Since i only do Alex Normal i couldnt care less about savage (damn even the gear looking the same as Ilvl 190).

in 4 Weeks, when everyone gets up to 195-200Ilvl there will be no Need anymore to let Healers or Tanks dps, couze the DPS can do it alone.

The only valid reason i can see is that you can Speed up the fight, a Little or help to reach the dps check.

I dont know if Square Enix made a misstake or did it on purpose, to give tanks 3 different stats to work with, i can remember with the release of 2.0 when PLDs said they go full DEX couze of Block Rate, other PPl said i go full VIT couze they dont like the rng part of parry/block and other ppl said they go for STR couze they can block or parry more dmg.

For me SE should rework the stats for tanks, or start creating acc's only to Jobs instead of all classes.

VIT should enhance your PDef and MDef, your Maximum HP and Hate Generation.

STR and VIT gear is situational, where i would only wear a mix of STR and VIT acc's.

When it gets to T4 Alex Normal with my PLD (18,5k HP in full VIT) as a MT, i always take 3-6 Balls, if the OT is in quarantine. Healers have an easy time with me to heal me up, they have enough time to heal dds or OT's running into balls or getting healer debuffs while the Tank Buster is on me.

[Sessurea]

Our warrior wore full slaying in A1S , if that helps.

[Tila]

Warrior question.

What would be a good defiance HP to sit at when I start bringing in slaying?

[Donjo]

Warrior question.

What would be a good defiance HP to sit at when I start bringing in slaying?

The last number I heard VIT-wise for people to aim for is 900 Vitality, but that precluded any entry into A4S and the lesser beings still don't know how hard it hits. Without the game right in front of me to play with numbers, I'm inclined to say that 900 VIT puts a WAR between 21000-22000 in Defiance. You'll have to coordinate with your group to figure out how that number would work out.