Quote Originally Posted by Noxifer View Post
I'm not sure anyone has really said that healers outDPS strength tanks. What people have been asking, though, is, "If a VIT tank outputs X dps, his healer outputs Y dps. If a STR tank outputs A dps, his healer outputs B dps. Is A+B more than X+Y?" If the VIT tank's healer has the possibility to dps 50% of the fight (example number), but would have to forego cleric stance entirely with a STR tank -- whether it's because it's a non-pro healer or a non-pro tank. Does the extra dps from the Strength tank outweigh the fact that the healer can't dps at all? Because it's not really a matter of "STR tank does more dps than a VIT tank", and it's not "a STR tank does more dps than a healer". It's "does the increase from VIT to STR mean the total dps covers the lack of dps from the healer?"

Sure, if it's a good tank AND a good healer, the healer can still dps with a STR tank. If it's a healer who doesn't dps either way, STR tanks only brings an influx to the party's total dps. But if both tank and healer are 'average', or one of them is slightly below average (whether it's because they're not used to their role, or have other issues), would it still be only a dps benefit?
This is where I wish I could test this. I don't have access to a parser, but in lieu of that...

I agree that tank and healer dps should be looked at as a single unit. That being said, with the exception of odd cases like PLD AoE, the tank and healer would have to be pretty bad to see a better damage output with a pure VIT tank. With rare cases set aside, tank DPS will generally outshine healer DPS. This is not to say that it can't happen, I mean anything can happen in DF, but its not a common occurrence. I run with the same healer all the time and he prefers I run STR over VIT just because dungeons are faster that way. He might get to DPS slightly less, but the damage I get to do outshines the extra damage he would do if I had a little bit more HP.

If anyone would be willing to run a few parsed runs with a healer and gear VIT for one and gear STR for another, it would be great to see the actual numbers. If I was a gambler I'd say that STR accessories are more efficient.

Additionally, I have been proven wrong before. Once upon a time I ran full VIT all the time cause I argued that it was safer. However, I geared STR one day just to try it and was shocked to see my dmg numbers inflate.... but my HP stay stable. I even remember telling my healer after the run and he didn't even notice a difference.