+1 relic weakest upgrade for tanks?

[Phreak]

They are BiS....

Arguing BiS over 2 potential choices in this game is really, really, stupid.

[Maelwys]

They are BiS....

Fine,

"In certain situations (like when you want +10 Parry over +24 Det) they're BIS.
Whereas Valor Body is ALWAYS BIS unless you're terminally short on Accuracy."

Happy now?

[MBTL90]

I'm currently working on t5, and still haven't bought +1 sword. The only time I have even slight aggro issues is on ADS, due to slash resistance. This isn't to say that I'm not spending tomes - I have valor head/chest/gloves/legs and myth ring. As long as threat isn't an issue, and it isn't for me, then I try to upgrade what will give me the highest ilevel boost.

[YarozeX]

Fine,

"In certain situations (like when you want +10 Parry over +24 Det) they're BIS.
Whereas Valor Body is ALWAYS BIS unless you're terminally short on Accuracy."

Happy now?

Happy =D
/10char

[Fersaken]

Generally this is the route you go. Agro = Relic +1 Mitigation = AF gear.

[Ipkonfig]

Allagan axe has heavy acc small DET and no parry, how is that better than SS and Parry?

If you look at the mix of ilevel 90 Accessories compared to DL you lose a large amount of ACC when you make the switch, so if you want to keep the 472 cap, may be forced to use Allagan Axe, or always have ACC food, but I like to be ACC capped without buffs. I know right now, with Warrior Helm/Gloves, Allagan Chest/Belt, DL Flanch, DL Access + Myth Ring I'm at like 492 so if I start getting Myth or Allagan Jewelry I'll get close to dropping below that threshold. Allagan Axe could fix that problem

[JBar]

The best upgrade for you is truly going to depend on the skill of your DPS, and the amount of gear that drops for them in your coil run. 3 Weeks in (we started playing in late Sept. We were way late to the party! :P) we've seen maybe 4 DPS drops. Out of those drops, I think half of them were for our Dragoon (OF COURSE!). I still have no problem holding threat. I can see that changing dramatically - especially on Turn 2 if you take the slashing debuff route and have a ton of piercing damage (Our blm and smn both switch to bard when we take the west route). I've found a fun way to test your threat is to do AK with your 2 best dps and see at what point you can AFK on the last boss and go make a sandwich!

[PiedPiper]

not true. if you need +1 as a paladin because your having trouble holding hate, your doing something wrong.

+1 shield is okay, but you should start with af2 chest or coordinate with the other tank if your in a static coil group.

Not all together true. Turn 4 as the tank doing the add pick ups (aka the actual hard part), you need all the threat youc an get so your dps can go ham. Also, as your dps gear up, they do close the gap. Before I did coil 4 & 5 I would have agreed with you, but now that we have mutliple dps in full left side i90, threat is much more heated.

Your primary job, as a tank, is to build and hold agro. No upgrade other than your sword will have as big an impact on this. Sword & shield should always be first.

[Maelwys]

Your primary job, as a tank, is to build and hold agro. No upgrade other than your sword will have as big an impact on this.

Not strictly true... because if it was then you'd see more tanks running +Str instead of +Vit.

You have to balance two things as a Tank: (i) Threat Generation and (ii) Survivability.

You can increase the former firstly via Weapon Damage, then via +Str, +Det and +Crit in that order (once Acc is capped!)
You can only really increase the latter by stacking +Defense/Parry for additional raw mitigation, and +Vit* to give your healers a bigger buffer to heal.

You're correct in that the +1 Sword is the single biggest bonus to threat you can get before downing Turn 5.
However there is a heck of a lot of +Def and +Vit to be gotten via Myth upgrades too, never mind +Acc.

(*Note: We already have certain forum posters advocating using melded HQ Gryphonskin accessories to exchange some VIT for DEX/STR, their argument being that at very high HP levels - 6.5k plus - healers already have plenty of HP to work with and additional mitigation chance and higher enmity generation could be more beneficial. I can see an attraction for certain highly-geared and well-practiced raid groups to trade ~5% of their Tank's maximum HP for a ~25% higher enmity ceiling... but at "lower" gearings going for +Vit is nearly always going to be the best option)

Sword & shield should always be first.

I'd always go for the Hero's Ring of Fending first.
Nothing else comes close in terms of additional stat bonus per myth point.

I'd go for the +1 Sword pretty soon afterwards (possibly after Body since the cost works out nicely in terms of the weekly myth caps)... but I'd not bother at all with the shield until you're i90'ed almost everywhere else. There are better stat boosts to be had from any other upgrade over Darklight (even from the belt which actually "costs" you 9 parry!) plus the +1 Shield is not BIS and the Allagan version drops from Turn 1. Combine all that with the fact that any shield is largely pointless on Turns 2 and 3, and really the only thing the Shield upgrade has going for it is that it costs exactly one week worth of myth - as soon as you're prepared to save anything beyond one week, it's hands-down the worst upgrade out there...

[Tigercub]

+1 weapon is a worthwhile upgrade when you're on turn 4. DPS really need to go all out in this fight, there's not much room to hold back for the sake of tanks. On top of this, tanks need to conserve resources, particularly the off-tank. This means threat margins can be very tight. The small boost in threat generation from a +1 curtana makes a very noticeable difference.

I was very reluctant to get my +1 weapon because stat wise other upgrades are nicer, but it changed my threat holding capability on turn 4 from shaky to solid. Though I thought I would, I don't regret it.