From one tank to other tanks..STR Gear is not a thing anymore..Get used to it now!

[ChameleonMS]

SE needs to be careful what they do If they did a census now I'm sure it would show a drop in tank

A census right now is a false positive. There are two reasons for this:
1. SB introduced two new DPS jobs, and many a Tank/Healer main is playing those.
2. This is a lesser case which personally affects me but can be extended to other players. I play all three roles equally and transition from one to next without a care in the world. I have just completed the SB MSQ on DRG for simple reason, I did not want to re-roll my retainers. I will level my Tank and Healer and other DPS in the near future.

But for right now, the numbers are skewed, once everyone has a had a chance to level up their multiple classes, the tank percentages should return to the normal distribution.

[Klongol]

The accessories, at best, melded optimally, give ~400 tenacity, that's closer to 1-2% not 8%, where'd you get that maths from :P

That might be a valid point, but you you're also not coconsidering all the extra crit, det, and sps on the accessories that are 40 ilvls higher than the str ones.

I'm just saying, when you take the total Tenacity you gain from all gear it adds up to a large sum and IMO is worth the trade off. Also, as ilvl increases str gear will perform worse and worse.whereas Tenacity is a scaling % increase which will only get better over time.

[Gravton]

I really don't understand why ppl say vit = mitigation. Hypotheticaly. If I have 20k hp, take a 10k tank buster, and the healer has to do 2 cures to heal the damage taken. If I have 30k hp, take 2 10k tank busters (damage isn't mitigated), the healer needs 4 cures to heal the damage. How is this mitigation? Why are is there an argument to increase tank hp so that healers can dps longer, but in the same breath say tanks are not dps. Neither are healers.

[Klongol]

Higher hp = more leeway for mistakes and possible use of more mana efficient healing methods or spells. It also allows the healer to use an extra cd or two dpsing without worrying about the tank dying.

Extra HP is a form of mitigation by giving breathing room to the healer and group.

[Gravton]

Plus, as a healer/dps, all of your skills scale off of your primary/secondary stat. None of the tank's mitigation abilities scale off of vit. They are all (except one or two) flat damage reduction. So if a boss swings for 10k, I reduce it by 30%, I take 7k. In max vit gear, the skill is unaffected and I take the same amount. The only thing that lowers that number further is the def. on our gear. (Accs. Are not a factor there). So why is it that every other job can have gear affect there abilities, but when a tank wants str. to increase more than half their toolkit, people think we want to be dps?

[Gravton]

Higher hp = more leeway for mistakes and possible use of more mana efficient healing methods or spells. It also allows the healer to use an extra cd or two dpsing without worrying about the tank dying.

Extra HP is a form of mitigation by giving breathing room to the healer and group.

But by the logic of this forum tank =/= dps. So why does healer = dps? Or how come mnd is the main stat for healers and not piety? More mana - more cures right?

[Ibi]

Add in melds to both left and right side for tenacity and you're easily exceeding 2k Tenacity total. On top of this, you keep your 25% larger HP pool

I don't think I'd call a 10% adjustment to ALL 3 areas to be a miniscule bonus. Hell, I'd argue that taking these increases far outweighs the, at most, 15% increase in DPS a tank does with STR accessories.

In full i320 fending gear, melding tencacity to (and, in many cases, a few points over) the cap and eating tenacity food, the absolute maximum tenacity currently obtainable appears to be 1674, which is not "easily exceeding 2k Tenacity total."

[Kosmos992k]

In full i320 fending gear, melding tencacity to (and, in many cases, a few points over) the cap and eating tenacity food, the absolute maximum tenacity currently obtainable appears to be 1674, which is not "easily exceeding 2k Tenacity total."

I couldn't tell from the link how much of the Tenacity there would be melded and how much just from the gear itself. I'm guessing it's about 600 from melds. so the difference between a tank stacking Tenacity and a tank avoiding it like the plague is about 600 points of tenacity. Remembering this is the tank specific role stat, I'd be interested to know how those 600 points of tenacity square off against the inevitable combination of Str, Direct hit, Critical Hit and Determination. IMHO, the Tenacity should be as good or better than any other combination of melds - as of now, I'm feeling safe assuming that it is not.

[Kacho_Nacho]

I don't have an iron in this fire. None of my tank alts are even at level 50 yet.

With that said, I'm going to ask an important question for the benefit of tanks and healers.

How should a beginning level 70 tank be geared (including materia)?

[Ibi]

I couldn't tell from the link how much of the Tenacity there would be melded and how much just from the gear itself. I'm guessing it's about 600 from melds. so the difference between a tank stacking Tenacity and a tank avoiding it like the plague is about 600 points of tenacity. Remembering this is the tank specific role stat, I'd be interested to know how those 600 points of tenacity square off against the inevitable combination of Str, Direct hit, Critical Hit and Determination. IMHO, the Tenacity should be as good or better than any other combination of melds - as of now, I'm feeling safe assuming that it is not.

That's a pretty good guess! 74 from food, 609 points from melds, 637 from base gear stats, 354 base value.

Barring some major changes though, you'd never realistically meld tenacity onto accessories instead of strength. That represents 142 of the 609 tenacity from melds, so it's a significant part of the difference.