The Tank DPS Thread

[Gamemako]

Final analysis: +1 Means A LOT, drastic dps difference.

Actually, that +2 weapon damage and +3 strength means 3-4% DPS increase (depending on how much STR you start with). It's not nearly as large as you think.

If you assume a 3% difference, WAR has a comparative 19.2% advantage in your test. Now, go back to my first post on these forums (math was already done from beta forums), and I predicted an 18% advantage for WAR in tank mode. I also predicted the negligible difference between non-tank DPS; your test would show a roughly 2% advantage for WAR after accounting for weapon difference, which is certainly negligible. It's far from perfect (I can point out a half-dozen things which have since been shown to function differently than I had assumed), but in the end, you ended up about where I expected 3 months ago.

And yes, I whiffed a good amount on my enmity estimates because the tank stance modifier was lowered from 2x in phase 3 to 1.5x in release. What looked like a 2:1 lead lost a lot of steam. Oops.

//EDIT: The design reason that WAR has higher tank DPS is two-fold. First, part of that DPS is beholden to a non-DPS rotation. Enmity demands will suggest SE->BB->BB rotation, which reduces the advantage due to losing SE bonus. You also will have trouble fitting Fracture into a tanking rotation, and you aren't going to drop Inner Beast, your burst mitigation ability, on cooldown. These all cut into your practical tanking DPS. Additionally, PLD also benefits from Storm's Eye, which means what when both are on the same target, the advantage all but completely evaporates. This will be especially important when we get a second job for MRD which is a DPS job.