4.0 Tank melds and right side optimisation.

[aleph_null]

Interesting question then. Provided you can't skip VIT acc and tank stance at the same time, is it better to be a VIT tank in DPS stance or a STR tank in tank stance ?

That's actually going to need some testing, assuming you can't have both. The dps difference between full vit accs vs full str accs (i270) is around 20%, which is around the difference between tank dps in and out of tank stance.

However I don't think it'll be relevant since you probably can get away with having both if you're good with managing cds, and have good co-tank and healers (ofc with pugs it'll vary and you probably want to have as much safety net as you can). Even if we need more catering from the healers or dps (with more heals, coordinated mitigation skills etc) it might actually be worth it over the huge dps difference of using vit accs unless the healers need to heal you like twice as much, which isn't the case at least in susano/lakshmi ex, as tested by some of my friends. Then again, depending on how much damage we're going to take in the new savage raids this may change. If we're taking so much damage that the vit accs are necessary to survive then we'll wear them.

I think they'll probably end up hard locking old accessories. There's no real reason not to.

That's what I think they'd do too. Unless they change their mind on the dmg scaling again.

[Reynhart]

However I don't think it'll be relevant since you probably can get away with having both if you're good with managing cds

I'm sorry, but if you really can clear the hardest content with around half the eHP you could have at best, then the content is really baddly designed.

[aleph_null]

I'm sorry, but if you really can clear the hardest content with around half the eHP you could have at best, then the content is really baddly designed.

Not really half ehp, it's around 25% of the max hp you can currently get. Something similar has happened before though, back in gordias tanks were using full slaying accs (somewhat required if you want to clear savage, thanks to the dps checks, unless your group has outgeared the contents). Back then I think the difference between full str and full vit accs were like 17k hp vs 23k hp, but I'm not really sure, it has been a while.

I don't want to go there but 20-30% ehp is nowhere near enough to bridge the gap between the best tank raiders and average tank raiders in the game lol. Look at how much heals those average drks in full grit need in a12s and compare them to the drks/wars in angered, delete monk or rushers. I'm quite sure you can put them into savage with half of the hp at max ilv and they'll still clear the raids.

[Reynhart]

Not really half ehp, it's around 25% of the max hp you can currently get.

That's 25% by equipping STR accessories, add another 25% by not being in tank stance.

[Alistaire]

That's 25% by equipping STR accessories, add another 25% by not being in tank stance.

Except that's not even right. Cooldowns are multiplicative, not additive.

[Reynhart]

Except that's not even right.

Indeed.

And on top of that, it will be far worse. Back in Gordias, you had the choice of being an i210 VIT tank or an i210 STR tank. You traded full eHP for full DPS. Now, you don't have the option of being a capped ilvl STR tank, since the highest str acc you'll have are i270. So, your DPS increase may not even be enough to significantly shorten fights durations and compensate for what you lose on eHP.

Well then I guess by your standards most of the raid contents in this game are badly designed.

For, me, yes, they are. The only purpose of the tank stance is to...well, tank. If you don't need it, then it's a big oversight. And if you want to separate good tanks from bad tanks, you can expand their rotation instead. After all, DPS don't have stances yet they have a pretty high skill ceiling.

If I were to design the tanks, I would have made things very differently from the beginning. No enmity bonus on skills, huge enmity bonus on stance, base HP on par with DPS but much higher damage mitigation from stance, and weapon skills that would actually contribute to active mitigation far more.

[aleph_null]

That's 25% by equipping STR accessories, add another 25% by not being in tank stance.

Well then I guess by your standards most of the raid contents in this game are badly designed. Though on the other hand if you make tanking much harder than now, that the good tanks need to stay in tank stance most of the time, people will just come to the forums and complain about how hard it is to tank lol. The devs can't design contents around the top performance of every job. Gordias was probably designed around dps jobs doing near optimal rotation to clear, and most people couldn't get past the dps checks. If there's a raid tier designed around tank jobs doing near optimal mitigation rotation to survive I can imagine something similar happening.