Quote Originally Posted by Edewen View Post
I like being able to mix in str gear as needed. But I also see the benefit in forcing us to a single setup, a str/vit hybrid fending for example.

Think about the current tuning, in order to make dps check meaningful, they need to account for a full str warrior going balls to the wall in their calculations. This eliminates all choice anyway. You need to run str, and chances are unless your dpsers can make up the slack, you will need the warriors too. If there was one set that tank could use, not only could the dps checks be better tuned around skill instead of class stacking, the amount of health of the tank would be more predictable allowing tighter tuning of tank busters to require some skill to survive it instead of stacking enough vit to survive it.

Full vit is boring, but if you are going to turn it into an illusion of choice with dps checks like they are doing now, may as well take the choice away entirely and use the predictable numbers to make their tuning even tighter.
But we do have to ask two related questions, though:

1. What is the item level that the developers decided was the "intended" level of gear that players should be clearing this content at?
2. Is it necessary for the Tanks to stack Strength in order to meet checks at that intended level of gear?

If we go by the interview in which it was stated that the devs calculate DPS checks by factoring top-tier DPS at intended item level X and removing 10-15%, then we can surmise that we are definitely undergeared for Savage Alexander by a good deal since it's currently taking top-tier DPS just to barely meet the checks. In that situation, everyone's got to help out in ways that go beyond their stated roles. DPS have to maximize their utility and the Tanks/Healers have to maximize their DPS. More gear will relax what people currently think are hard requirements. Hopefully.