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

[ManaKing]

Im hoping they make VIT the main damage stat for tanks. Just remove STR from having any effect on tanks. If they need to lower the damage contribution since we would be double dipping that would be understandable. My only concern is being able to keep hate if they adjust our damage output down. PLD is still the problem child of the threat game as well as the DPS game. Im hoping 3.1 is very kind to them.

Im pretty sure this change would mean an overall reduction in Tank DPS, which is fine if they sweeten the deal. Since 3.0, STR and DEX contributions were taken off of parry and block because we were obviously gaming our stats and getting too much out of them. Im really hoping that the parry stat at least increases the amount of damage that is parried much like our STR used to. They could also make parry and shields more offensive. Making parry the equivalent to determination + increasing parry chance would make it attractive. Plus if you really dont like skill speed or crit, then a VIT accessory with parry + DET would be very attractive.

I would hope that shields are also enhanced so they go back to being the superior mitigation substat/tool. Presently i think shields are garbage and the lack of prevalent/dangerous physical damage makes them even worse. Heavy shields should surpass parry heavy builds in maximum mitigation and have similar block chance; bucklers should be the equivalent of a parry heavy build in mitigation but with higher block chance. Also, Shields should include a bonus damage stat to Shield Swipe and Shield Swipe should not be affected by the -20% damage from shield oath so PLDs can at least have a chance with single target hate.

The only other fear i have is that they dont do something generous, progressive, and interesting because the statement they made about materia melding is effectively ending our current tank meta. Tanks are currently more popular than they have ever been...possibly in any MMO. I will tank almost regardless of what changes are made because i really enjoy it and someone has to do it, but i doubt most of the new tanks since 3.0 will have the same opinion. 3.1 and 3.2 has the potential to make tanking different/better or different/burnt at the stake. I have a reasonable amount of faith in our dev teams ability to deliver, but im already taking note of the people who have stopped playing because 3.1 is a month later than we all expected and im currently leveling other jobs...because...reasons...so the sooner they can be transparent about what the general details of that change are going to be, the sooner they can regain the confidence of their player base.