/face palm... maybe its just another rager , i dont know and its getting old repeating myself because some flamer thinks he/she has an argument against me and feels it will some how validate their existance by atempting to discredit my own Ideals on how to play pld on this game.
Some facts about myself soo to maybe clearify just how OCD and detail oriented I am about ANYTHING I do:
I am a 15G in Army Aviation (air cav) I did not get my mos by any simple means. when graded on pass/fail tests in wich you normaly only get one chance to pass before you are forced to reclass, we are given a 1/64 of an inch grace in wich to get your mesurements down and actual fabrication on replacement parts/ sheet metal patches for these aircraft. It was intense and I enjoyed every minute of it. Parts that we get from manufactuers to put on these air craft dont even come that close in mesurement. I am not saying this to float my own boat, but to clear up any mis understanding of just how "dumb" I am.
As far as the mechanics of this game in comparison to the mathmatics involved in replicating parts for an aircraft, well to be honest, the game is childs play.
For the people who can comprehend what I am about to put out this SHOULD end this on going , and quite frankly, Ignorant debate.
1: Defense on the game works just fine. True that with boss fights the numbers dont seem to quite add up, making it seemingly worthless to add the def stat. If I may be soo bold as to assume that every mob, including boss mobs, have stats as well. I may be wrong, however I am pretty damn sure I am not, but VIT would be the counter part to STR and DEF the counter part to ATK, after the DLVL effect the numbers still matter. Obviously the higher the number you haver before the DLVL effect the higher the number you will have afterword. Again, this SHOULD be obvious but if CC has a STR of , and this is just a guess at best, 1000, and I go into the fight after dlvl with a vit of 300, I will certainly take far less damage then the person with 200 vit. same effect takes place with DEF and ATK. Altho I can not confirm this without a developer disclosing the information, I can say from my own experiance, both vit and def work , even in boss fights, and the more you stack the more stable you can tank bosses without avoiding attacks.
Now for HP. I do agree, and have always agreed that HP give a cushon for any tank in wich to fall back on in those "oh shit" moments, when there are no damage deflection abilities available. HOWEVER that is all it offers. And altho I do promote taking stress off your healers as a tank , It is almost universally understood that anytime the tank if going to get pounded on by an ability by the boss or mob, there is a good chance that the healer/s are already priming "cure bombs". IF the tank , up to that point, dosent need heals or needs very little in terms of heals , then the whm/s can easly cure bomb the tank with no to little fear of taking hate. aslo makes mp conservation much more easier. You can NOT take less damage by stacking HP or relying on the inconsitant and less the reliable act of dodging attacks. For the same reason I do not like "counter" I do not like counter, I also do not like using HP and evasive tatics as a defensive tank. Please let me explain
Subject A dose not evade ANYTHING, but build his tank to minimize damage it takes as much as possable. By not having to worry about avoiding as many attacks it can decisivly tank with and with more certainty know the outcome of the each fight.
Subject B stacks enmity and HP, and perfers to avoid attacks where possable. Even tho this is realitivly safe and can be done with some level of certainty, it is entirely impossable to say for sure weather or not an attack can or will be avoided. Removing all uncontrolable elements (lag, hardware,ect) Knowing exactly when the mob will proc an ability is not possable, making it all too passable to get caught in animation lock and be unprepaired for an ability hitting the tank. The HP buffer, if it hasnt already been used up due to higher damage because of less defensive stat stacking, will offer some saftey but dose add stress to the WHM/s as they know if subject B gets hit again by anything more then what they cured for, it is likely the tank dies.
back to the comparison to counter. Some offensive tanks use counter in debates as an arguement to strengthen their case for war tank having as good damage reduction means as a pld tank. This only proves to reveal the debater as "reaching" or being desprate to make a case or simply being ignorant to what they are talking about. As Blocking in a fight can be timed and can be counted on to a 100% certainty to happen (devine veild, ageious boon) counter , even in its best enviorment, can NOT. And it is that uncertainty that turns me away from counter, and evasive tatics. I will not say there is anything wrong with stacking enmity or HP as stats, but I would not recomend these two be on the top of your list for priority.
That is my basic case and point. Sure there are other aspects to this debate that I can adress but I am certain no one wants a full page post lol. besides I am just trying to cover the issues that are at hand.
I am also fairly certain there are some mis spellings in this , sorry again.