Quote Originally Posted by aleph_null View Post
But dps always benefits the group, since it covers for mistakes (deaths, missed uptime/positionals, failed casts, suboptimal strategies) which happen a lot during prog. Also sometimes you're racing against dps checks or enrage timers. There is a reason why most, if not all progression groups give upgrade items to dps first before tanks/healers.
You can contextualize it all you want, the fact of the matter is that getting 'fending' one week is no different than getting 'slaying' another, because the stuff is clearable with the i320 crafted / Omega story.

In this regard, getting fending over DPS/Healing isn't a huge detriment, especially since it's only on the right side, which is significantly less than leftside upgrades.

I can't speak for the day-1 clearers, but I doubt any of them saw nothing but Slaying drop, and those drops likely did not influence the clear orders at any significant margin.