Age Old Question: VIT vs. STR

[Rbstr]

Strength materia are cheaper. Ruby will have you doing a bit more dps. There's little but personal preference to go either way, except getting more more hit in in some circumstances. Mix and match, if you want.
If you really want more dps, drop an i90 melded for an i110 strength acc.


Aside: There's no reason parry is better on pally than war. Not that you want to stack it on War either.

[kro]

As someone with 4/5 i110 STR accessories and fully melded Ruby Rings, I can say that Ruby is the best multipurpose option hands-down. Without HA axe, optimized i110 gear, food, or potions I do about 310-320 DPS on a dummy solo over a 90 second period. Putting on a pure i110 STR set increases that by about 5-10 DPS under the same conditions.

Solo HP in Defiance with STR set: 7695
Solo HP in Defiance with i90 melds: 9053

The only offensive melds I have on Ruby are 10 Det per piece with the rest in VIT and ACC. The 80 extra skill speed from Ruby works really well for WAR because you can reliably sneak in an extra fully-buffed Fracture in your Unchained/Berserk/IR combo and still end it with Inner Beast.

People say that going full VIT while learning is the better option, but being able to deal enough party-wide DPS to push phases or kill adds quickly is more important than an extra 400-500 HP. But even worse than going full VIT is the failure of tanks to swap stances in Titan EX or T6. That alone would increase your DPS in fights about 40-50 DPS. I see a lot of burn party PUGs in T6 fall just short of clearing even when the DDs do a good job for their ilvl.

Swap stances and put some effort into your DPS and you'll be much more useful than your average run of the mill meat shield.

[VargasVermillion]

So if going full STR, should you only do so if you are at the max current ilvl? If so wouldn't that mean you'd have to swap back to VIT when the next set of content comes out anyway?

[SirTaint]

So if going full STR, should you only do so if you are at the max current ilvl? If so wouldn't that mean you'd have to swap back to VIT when the next set of content comes out anyway?

Everytime the ilvl is bumped the 30 allocated stats are less useful. For progressive learning the 500hp might matter but once there is a video and strat for the battle they are no longer necessary.

ex. Going from 300 vit to 330 is a 10% gain
Going from 600 vit to 630 is a 5% gain

[VargasVermillion]

Everytime the ilvl is bumped the 30 allocated stats are less useful. For progressive learning the 500hp might matter but once there is a video and strat for the battle they are no longer necessary.

ex. Going from 300 vit to 330 is a 10% gain
Going from 600 vit to 630 is a 5% gain

Oh I see, might switch to STR at some stage then once I've gotten a little more gear. ty for the info.

[Traek]

Everytime the ilvl is bumped the 30 allocated stats are less useful. For progressive learning the 500hp might matter but once there is a video and strat for the battle they are no longer necessary.

ex. Going from 300 vit to 330 is a 10% gain
Going from 600 vit to 630 is a 5% gain

The same can be said for STR allocation. I'm not really on either side, I just don't think there is a blanket answer for this question. It depends on your gear/progress/skill/group.

[Ehayte]

VIT if you are in a static group that is not very strong / not very hardcore

STR is your group is full of awesome players

Somewhere in between if you are somewhere in between.

Both my WAR and PLD have 30 vit on them right now because I main MNK for my static but I will fill in as PLD or WAR if we are missing either for some reason, instead of trying to PUG that spot. With me not doing SBoC as a tank often enough, I feel better with the extra VIT since I feel that my strong suite is enmity generation in a timely manner, and one of my weaker points as a tank is CD management on things like... uhh... we'll just say 1st add phase in T7 for example (moving, grabbing hate, dodging circle blade, etc).

[MythToken]

Ive gone 15/15 and just stopped worrying about it. Best of both worlds.

[SirTaint]

The same can be said for STR allocation. I'm not really on either side, I just don't think there is a blanket answer for this question. It depends on your gear/progress/skill/group.

Ish

STR is always useful. VIT is only useful if you need the extra HP. 7700 is the max you need on PLD and even then it's rare. (Ravensbeak maxes out in the 76xx range)

But when doing a fight like t9 the chances of a tank not having a CD, SS/Aldo or parry/block proc is extremely rare and most of the time you'll have 2-3 of those thing happen to mitigate.

Pro-groups/tanks can do everything outside of savage coil with 7000ish HP probably less.

[Donjo]

Ish

STR is always useful. VIT is only useful if you need the extra HP. 7700 is the max you need on PLD and even then it's rare. (Ravensbeak maxes out in the 76xx range)

But when doing a fight like t9 the chances of a tank not having a CD, SS/Aldo or parry/block proc is extremely rare and most of the time you'll have 2-3 of those thing happen to mitigate.

Those Ravensbeak numbers seem pretty accurate by my observations in getting smacked with it in the fight, but I've also noticed that it's almost always immediately followed by an autoattack. Thus, I'd say that a completely unmitigated Ravensbeak will result in a PLD taking 8300-8600 in that instant before there's a chance for any heals. Of course, you're completely right when you state that it would be rare for party skilled enough to get to Turn 9 to not have their mitigation abilities properly staggered for it, but mistakes do happen and having over 8k health can save you sometimes.