Poetic (Ironworks) Gear

[Kuwagami]

snip

Oh I am not arguing that point ^^
I even said so here :

Now does it really matters ? Well, not that much. After all, you're gaining more from blocking than you're losing on the alternative (parrying) so overall your mitigation improves, and is better than the one of a WAR.

I am well aware of the math going on behind the mechanics (even though my personal "let's go for the worse so we'll never be disappointed" led me toward 2nd formula ^^).

PLD does get a way better mitigation overall thanks to his shield, that's not even arguable. And WAR benefits more for every point gained in parry than PLD.

Thus, having less Parry won't hurt a PLD as much as it can hurt a WAR.

This is the point though. As tanks, we'll get a hell lot of physical hits, and some are really nice to block/parry (Death Sentence or Ravensbeak to quote the worst of them I witnessed at this time ^^) As a WAR, you'll want to stack a lot of parry for that, but parry is detrimental to the other side of a WAR. Every point in parry is a point lost in crit/deter. So you need to achieve a reasonable parry rate while not hurting too much your dps.

PLD gets the same problem, but in a lesser way, as their primary goal is to nullify damage rather than to soak it by self heals or than to deal damages, etc. They can do it, but it's an extra. So stacking parry hurts less as the other stats have a lesser impact on their overall role. Starting from here, while every point in parry adds less to your mitigation than WAR, it is also hurting less your utility, and the balance is more easily made.

PLD have the advantage that having more or less parry won't hurt them as much as it can hurt a WAR


At least that's the way I understand it



TL;DR :
considering parry alone, WAR gets more than PLD for that stat. Once put into real action, PLD gets more benefits from it than WAR. For both though, balance is required not to detriment other important stats, even though PLD will suffer less from a poor balance than WAR in a MT gameplay optic. (Parry being totally BS in OT gameplay anyway xD )

[Donjo]

The point in your TL;DR was what I was using all of that to really convey.

On the topic of secondary stats themselves, though, I believe secondary stats to not matter at all in the sense that there is no combination of stats that will literally prevent you from being able to complete a piece of content except for too little accuracy or too much wasted accuracy. Going by Role:

Healer: Secondary Stats literally don't matter one iota. Choose your favorite and have fun.
DPS: The difference between the "least optimal" build and the "most optimal" build is a difference of less than 0.02% in overall potential DPS. The only consideration that needs to be made is not to let Speed get too high in relation to long fights.
Tanks: They only slightly matter here for damage, because Tanks have the ability to switch damage increasing secondaries for Parry. I'd figure that you could eke out an extra 4-5% overall DPS at maximum if you switched all Parry for all Damage. An extra 4-5% on low damage which is further reduced by Tank stances.

If you want to increase Tank damage, stack more STR. That's the only way it'll be worth anything noticeable.

[Kuwagami]

snip

I would argue on the significance of secondary stats.

DPS : agree. the average player cannot notice any difference in dps whatever the set is (at comparable ilevels, full left 100 and full right 120 isn't comparable by a iota to the reverse)
Tank: same. Only STR accessories make a noticeable difference. Though a slight increase is still an increase and CAN matter (getting T9's P2 2 seconds faster would help my group having only 4 meteors. even though it is more a dps work here, if I can help in any way I will try to do it)
Healers : That's were we differ. There is a huge difference made by crit. SCH tend to stack it as much as possible to improve adloquium (and succor in a lesser way) and the spell speed bonus from their pet (more likely to happen), it's a bane at high rates for WHM in AoE heavy fights (in T9 at the moment my group's P3 transition is a bit... random due to various avoidable mistakes) so they'll prefer to stack a bit more spell speed in comparison (or even more mana if they feel like it).


Well, of course awesome players will see a noticeable difference, but average joe shouldn't matter that much about secondaries, I'll follow you on that ^^

[Donjo]

When I say "don't matter one iota", I mean that it'd be possible for a healer to heal the content if they had 0 points in Crit, Determination, and Spell Speed. I consider Piety to be a Primary Stat, by the way. Thus, when I say "pick your favorite", SCH goes for Crit and WHM goes for Det or Spell Speed. Helpful, but they shouldn't ever have to make or break the fight

As for DPS, I think that the overall benefit of the secondary stats as a function of "percentage of total potential DPS that they provide" has been lowering with each gear tier. Primary stats and Weapon Damage are increasing on gear at a faster pace, making them matter less and less.

Tanky damage: As a function of exceeding limits and having fun trying the content in new and interesting ways, more power is a-okay. However, if you need to increase Tank damage in order to meet a basic DPS check(as in, the minimum amount of damage expected to even win at all), you're probably carrying a DPS.

[Raffounz]

I cleared the Turn 1 of FCoB 2 weeks after the patch and got my dread feet (I buyed body at the time). My co-tank bought ironwork feets as first piece and then on the second week dread feet dropped again. So wasted poetics are wasted poetics. My advice, start from the deeper turns drop and go up if u are progressing. So Body (T13) > Shield (Only if u clear T11, push back if u have i115 until u get a Carbontwine, Dread drop in T12) > Legs/Belt/Head (T12) > Hands (T11 but wortless acc/ss) > Choker/Earring (T11, get an ironwork accessory only if u have full left side OR dropped a carbontwine) > Ring/Wrist (T10). If you don't progress in FCoB buy whatever piece, i120 is useless outside progression FCoB so...

For the Weapon, again i120 is useless against i115 Nexus. Buy it as last piece or if u can got it i130 ASAP.