What they mean by "change the damage calculations of tanks"?

[DarioSkydragon]

In response number #52 of the Live Letter's Q&A, the translator says: "... in Patch 3.2 we will be making adjustments that will change the damage calculations of tanks into the more appropriate state."

What do you think this information mean? Will they make the DPS of tanks less relevant, so that tanks stop using STR accessories and focus only on tanking? If not that, for you, to what they are referring to?

[DarioSkydragon]

(I really like the tank meta as it is today with tanks that can contribute materially to the overall DPS of the raid and would not want it to be changed in the future.)

[Lastelli]

Probably that STR will have a lower weight or VIT will contribute to your dps or a combination of the two. I don't think they'll change the meta at this point (which is good).

[Cynric]

"Many of those attempting instanced raids in the early stages tend to use advanced materia melding on accessories, which lead to tanks being required to meld STR or VIT. Due to this there were times where the melded accessories were better than the accessories which dropped from clearing the instance. In order to resolve this issue, in Patch 3.2 we will be making adjustments that will change the damage calculations of tanks into a more appropriate state. "

The only thing I can really think of is to make our attack power scale from vitality. But who really knows for sure?

[Nutz]

I get the feeling that tank damage will likely depend on STR and VIT, maybe a 70/30 or 60/40 split favoring STR. This way you'd still do more damage in full STR, but the gap wouldn't be so wide with VIT contributing to damage as well. Possibly they'll go with something more complicated (like one stat being a multiplier of the other or something) or just base all tank damage on VIT and remove STR.

[Kydi]

My guess/hope, VIT will be the main source of attack power.

[Chiramu]

I just want Parry to be worth something, I need those stacks of Wrath to give me more mitigation ><.

[Cidolfas86]

My guess/hope, VIT will be the main source of attack power.

I interpreted it as the samething

That makes the most sense honestly. Making it based on both STR and VIT in some ration mix sounds messy, and no job in the game has such a damage formula. The current meta would be maintained without forcing one class to blow millions on accessories. Fending accessories would be something to be excited about again as well.

[Xenosan]

Just as the OP alluded to, I'm not so sure it's something to look forward to.. The skeptic in me is thinking they're going to nerf Slaying Accessory loadouts for tanks.. Now that Hybrids are out the window, they've got to kill the full Slaying right-side as well.

My fear is that they're going to make STR provide diminishing returns in the calculations of Attack Power (a STR cap). The only way to increase the STR cap is with higher Weapon Damage (ie: wait for higher iLVL Weapons in a future patch). I'd hate to see it but honestly it's the most likely thing I can imagine.

It'd give them complete control of tank DPS predictability throughout each patch.

[eagledorf]

Who knows for sure, but obviously they intend to diminish the value of melding STR.

Reddit surprisingly had some interesting possibilities like

Eliminate the value of STR, make attack power scale with VIT (so we go from the getting too much value from two primary stats to only having 1)
Decrease the value of STR, increase the value of WD to compensate
Decrease the value of STR, increase the amount of STR tanks gain on the left side to compensate
Decrease the value of STR, increase enmity modifiers to compensate
Decrease the value of STR, increase enmity in tank stance to compensate (so force us into tank stance)

They'll probably use this opportunity to normalize tank DPS to whatever they think is right since in any of those cases there's no way to appreciably change it by switching gearsets.