Fending vs. Slaying accessories at this point in the game

[Borascythe]

I played a PLD for the majority of 2.0. Had a blast doing it. Recently started playing DRK and I have found I enjoy it a great deal as well despite all the glitches we're going through. In ARR, I just bought fending and never thought about it.

I've been investing so far in fending accessories, but the more I read on these forums, the more I feel like I should be going for slaying accessories. I like the extra HP since I don't belong to a static and don't have any reliable healers I trust. However, I sometimes wonder if I should just dump the fending accessories and go for slaying accessories.

So, as a DRK, should I be going for fending or slaying accessories?

[Kaedan94]

Could always go half and half.

Unfortunately, there's no good, catch-all answer. It really depends on the content. You need enough HP to survive big hits and be healed in time. Any more HP than that is better put towards STR for damage. However, that line moves depending on the content.

For dungeons you're probably pretty safe going with all STR as long as you use your CDs and your healer is competent. But for the most part, as I said, it's situational.

[aerolol]

When we get decent crafted gear, penta melded VIT/STR will be the best option for accessories. However it's gonna be very expensive to fully meld them, grade V materia will definitely be needed.

In ilv110, iirc you'd trade 1 VIT for 7 STR (comparing a penta-meld 110 to a regular 130 ironworks/dreadwyrm fending/slaying acessory), so it's a very good trade-off. It would be even more in, say, ilv180 crafted gear (assuming these existed/will exist)


At the moment we don't have many options for accessories, so what I'm doing is having 2-3 pieces of slaying and 2-3 pieces of fending, switching them as needed (if I'm MT or OT).

I try to avoid the fending accessories with parry all I can as a WAR, but maybe parry has its value for a DRK since Reprisal procs on parry.

[Kiteless]

I try to avoid the fending accessories with parry all I can as a WAR, but maybe parry has its value for a DRK since Reprisal procs on parry.

No, even for DRK, parry is a bad stat, and should be avoided in favour of pretty much anything else. It requires far too much investment for far too little gain in your parry rate, and still has the fundamental problem of being wholly unreliable. DRK might have some skills that benefit from parrying attacks, but don't think for a second that it actually justifies the investment in such a worthless stat.

[Stall]

I've always had the rather narrow viewpoint that I am a tank, and shall use fending jewelry because of it. I've found healers are always very appreciative of tanks who still use fending (random ones or my friends), and I get odd fulfillment from having a ludicrous HP pool.

That being said, I still do have slaying for soloing, off-tanking, or doing dumb group comps with my friends.

[OliviaBadger]

Did Ravana Ex and Alex 1-4 with points in STR and 2 STR accs, 3 VIT accs. Had no problems so far. Getting the best out of mitigation is a bit more of a learning curve than PLD though, so do whatever you feel comfortable with.

Choosing STR or VIT isn't a commitment. I will always get both sets so I can just swap things in and out for different fights.

[Dererk]

I'm a dark knight but I did 2 slaying rest fending and I only got slaying for the ring and bracelet since the fending didn't have parry on the bracelet and that's an important tank stat especially for DRK.

[Asierid]

I only got slaying for the ring and bracelet since the fending didn't have parry on the bracelet and that's an important tank stat especially for DRK.

When can we stop spreading this false information? Attempted parry stacking sucks. End of story.

OP: Fending until you are used to the content. You will make more mistakes, thus take more damage. This will somewhat mitigate that until you get used to the encounters. Slowly remove Fending in favor of Slaying til you are comfortable with how it feels in the end.

[Rhaja]

When can we stop spreading this false information? Attempted parry stacking sucks. End of story.

OP: Fending until you are used to the content. You will make more mistakes, thus take more damage. This will somewhat mitigate that until you get used to the encounters. Slowly remove Fending in favor of Slaying til you are comfortable with how it feels in the end.

^ this. I just got comfortable with the playstyle of DRK, and let m tell you actually getting a decent heal off Soul Eater is nice. Also at a certain point Living Dead is kinda shafting you buy having too much HP.

[SirTaint]

Alexander normal, ravana ex, bis ex all are fine with slaying.

Alexander Savage will more then likely require a good chunk of VIT on the right side.


Parry is useless.