Fending Accessories

[Brannigan]

It's no secret that fending accessories are kind of weak. High level encounters have a heavy emphasis on DPS, and in nearly all cases melded accessories give you enough HP to survive tank busters while giving a substantial strength boost.

Right now, compared to 150 melded, a full set of 210 fending gives

+100 VIT = +2050 HP (food/party bonus not factored in)
-155 STR
Increased secondary stats

I don't think the tradeoff is worth it. I don't recall having ever used Fending accessories for progression (though I probably stuck them in there once or twice while feeling out a fight), always opting for the lower level melded stuff instead and then outright slaying gear once we had it completely on farm.

Let's brainstorm some ways to make unmeldable fending accessories more attractive. One simple solution I think might work is to give them defense and magic defense. That way, they actually make you tougher and maybe let your healers pick up some of the DPS you're dropping.

Other possibilities
-reduce chance to be crit (1% per piece?)
-flat mitigation
-free parry on every piece (so 3 substats, max parry, max X, sub Y)

What would you like to see on fending accessories?

[Casper]

What would you like to see on fending accessories?

Strength.

I am not even kidding. The difference between a full fending 210 and crapily crafted 150 accessories (just maxing out on vit and str) is 155 strength -- that's 25% increased dps, at a ridiculously low cost in health.

Nothing you add except for some Str will make up for that. And certainly not parry (lol). The design of accessories for tanks right now is just bad, period, because unlike other classes they really really rely on two main stats instead of just one. As long as "tank" accessories only have one, and arguably the least interesting of the two, they won't be used over crafted accessories providing both.

If 210 fending had the str of i150 crafted accessories, tank would remain the only ones using them, but they would at least be used over crafted accessories SIXTY !?! ilvl lower.

[Brannigan]

I pretty much agree with you, but I think it would have happened at Heavensward if they were going to do that. I'm wondering just how much toughness would need to be added in order to lure tanks onto accessories with no strength on them. 10% passive? 15? Maybe something like cutting tank stance penalties in half?

[LordHousewife]

The problem with fending accessories is that they don't actually make you any better at tanking. They give you health, but adding more health doesn't change the amount of damage you take. You are still taking the same amount of damage so as long as you aren't getting 1 shot, there is no reason to take fending accessories. If they really want these accessories to matter, then they need to add some sort of defensive incentive to take them. Even if they added some amount of STR onto the fending accessories nothing would change. As long as you don't get 1 shot people would still be running around with slaying accessories. The only way to fix this is to actually make the stats on the accessories worth something. Give me a reason to want that Parry. Give me a reason to want to stack VIT. I think SE has realized this by now though and just accepted it. If they intended to do something about it, they would have done it a while ago.

[Gooner_iBluAirJGR]

Yeah I've always been upset with the value of VIT accessories in this game. In FFXI Vitality, instead of increasing health, reduced the maximum damage you could take from an attack and added defense which made it a legitimate defensive option. Not saying that should happen here but something alone the lines of actually making tanks harder to kill would be something nice to see out of Fending Accessories.

[rawker]

Oh twelve forbid that they will lower the vit on all left side equipment to force us to take fending accs

[Valenth]

Yeah I've always been upset with the value of VIT accessories in this game. In FFXI Vitality, instead of increasing health, reduced the maximum damage you could take from an attack and added defense which made it a legitimate defensive option. Not saying that should happen here but something alone the lines of actually making tanks harder to kill would be something nice to see out of Fending Accessories.

Sounds like a good idea if they did that here as well, make VIT reduce damage to a degree.

[Ninimo_Babamo]

Yeah I've always been upset with the value of VIT accessories in this game. In FFXI Vitality, instead of increasing health, reduced the maximum damage you could take from an attack and added defense which made it a legitimate defensive option. Not saying that should happen here but something alone the lines of actually making tanks harder to kill would be something nice to see out of Fending Accessories.

Yeah, I think if this happened here, you would then see healers in this exact same situation that tanks are in now; melding i150 accessories with Mind and Vitality.

Adding def and m.def seems like the only way to truly make them more attractive to the group than they are now, without putting someone else in the same situation. Then healers could dps more.

[Argyle_Darkheart]

What would you like to see on fending accessories?

Strength.

Alternatively, make tank damage scale off of VIT, I guess?

While it's fun optimizing tank gear, it's also a massive hassle (especially for new/uninformed players).

Also (because it can't be said enough), the parry stat is garbage. Either revamp or remove this stat please, SE.

[Donjo]

The only way to "fix" Fending Accessories is to make them necessary, either by making it impossible to survive anything without wearing them or just plain locking out both Slaying Accessories and the ability to meld Strength to crafted Fending Accessories. Regarding crafted accessories: I find it incredibly strange that crafted battle gear as a whole was nerfed in Heavensward, but accessories for Tanks are just as powerful as they have ever been. It's almost like they missed a spot during Spring cleaning.

But... Tanking is just sad right now. In this game, Tanks revile defensive stats and are shunned if they maximize their main stat. Let that sink in for a minute.

There is nary a thing about Tanking in FFXIV that isn't horribly broken, and the relationship between Strength and Vitality is at the center of it all. And you know what? I'm honestly not sure if SE has actually realized what Tanks are doing these days. Just look at how long it took them to acknowledge the DPSing Healer.