So, instead of people fighting about STR, why are they fighting about VIT?

[therpgfanatic]

20% is a pretty big nerf no matter how you look at it. Its somewhat silly to say otherwise. I'm not taking sides, but I just had to comment on that.

It seems a lot of people don't understand splitting AP point gains between two different attributes results in a nerf.

Whereas before, 1 STR materia gave you 1 AP, now it just gives .44 of a point. Same with VIT, it just gives .44 AP.

Since math is hard for some people...

Before Patch:

4 STR = 4 AP

After Patch:


4 STR = 1.76 AP

2 STR + 2 VIT = 1.76 AP

4 VIT = 1.76 AP

It doesn't matter how you slice it, tanks cannot recover the DPS they used to be capable of. It's mathematically impossible to do so. The nerf is there, and it's very real. You can't compensate for it by just stacking VIT which is what a lot of players think they can do. But they can't because that's not how the math works.

The worst of it is that this nerf addressed none of the problems it was supposed to address, which was mainly that WARs were preferred over PLD and DRK because they deal more DPS and that helps clear DPS checks.

WARs still deal a good deal more DPS than DRK and PLD, and will still be preferred by progression raiding min-maxers.

And progression guilds will still favor WARs since every bit of damage matters for clearing content. Sure, the encounters are designed so any tank can do it, but that's how min-maxers behave. They always gravitate toward what is superior, even if it's just a fraction of a point better.

The nerf also didn't improve tank survivability for anyone except perhaps WARs. PLD and DRK don't get a significant increase in HP for stacking VIT, and the only reason WARs do is because of Defiance.