Quote Originally Posted by Sensual View Post
But i'm a tank, not a DPS.
Yeah. Keep that narrow-sighted mentality. You're right. You're only here to take hits and use that blade/axe as a dance accessory just to keep enemy's attention and nothing else. Maybe you should also consider being a pink-haired female Miqo'te with a japanese name and using Coliseum gear as a glamour and have a macro that screams "Notice me senpaiii~" everytime you use a CD to be an even more efficient attention-whore. That's totally for this reason that you got Deliverance, Fell Cleave, Decimate, Maim, Fracture, Sword Oath, Royal Authority, Goring Blade, Spirits Within, Blood Weapon, Dark Passenger, DA Carve and Spit, Scourge, Salted Earth, Plunge. You see, all of these moves are purely DPS-based. And there's a LOT of them. They don't have an enmity multiplier. They don't bring anything that makes you tankier. It's just more DPS. (Okay SW can be used to silence targets but it's in the vast majority of the fights totally useless as well as the DA Dark Passenger blind effect). The developers themselves want tanks to DPS. As well as healers. White mages got Assize, Aero III, Stone III from 50 to 60. SCH got Broil which is more potent than SMN's brand new Ruin III.
In other MMOs I would agree that tanks are here to tank and healers are here to heal. But in this specific game, they especially made tanks and healers having really decent damaging capabilities to give them the possibility to also DPS while performing their role at their best if played at their maximum potential. That's a reward for taking the risk to actually surpass your role and it's actually required for Alexander Savage fights. That's what makes the difference between an averagely-good tank and an amazing tank and the same for healers. An averagely-good tank will have no agro issues, and will have a perfect CD management while minimizing movements for melee DPS positionnal requirements. He will also apply buffs and debuffs that can help the party if needed (like Storm's Eye and Path, Divine Veil, Delirium, Reprisal, and PLD will even sometimes toss a Stoneskin here and there, maybe Clemency if the healer is struggling). But an amazing tank will be able to do all of that while beating the shit out of the boss as hard as he can as a tank. It's called skill, or optimal gameplay. DPSing as a tank doesn't prevent you from doing your role at all, it's built in our abilities. You just have to use them properly.

And for that,

Quote Originally Posted by Sensual View Post
I'd rather have a lil less DPS than 10k less HP and die 1000x more often.
This is complete BS. You'll never have 10k less HP when wearing STR accessories (unless you're already in 4.0 and level 70). The difference between a full VIT tank and a full STR one is 4k HP at maximum. Considering that you almost never need these 4k HP (outside of Savage for which the safety cap is something around 16 to 17k HP which is completely attainable with 3 slaying 2 fending or even 4 slaying if you've been lucky with left-side gear loot) if you're playing right, it's wasted. And if you die more often because of it that's because you're not doing it well. Face it. And git gud.
You also don't have "a lil less DPS" when being full VIT. You have a REALLY shitty bad DPS compared to full STR or even hybrid (which most optimal tanks will prefer).

And if a DF healer is not able to keep you alive with full STR accessories and you're doing your tank job correctly, it's a really shitty healer and will struggle as much and for a longer time if you're full VIT. As long as your healer's healing output is below the damage you take, you'll die no matter if you have 10k HP or 30k.