Sorry, but no tank should pure vit stack right side.

[Sleigh]

Sword Oathing any boss worth while is beyond stupid if your MTing Savage. And even if your are spanking some dungeon boss, a good DPS will rip enmity right off you if you tank in SO. What are you even saying?

I'm really confused. Why is this beyond stupid? Especially with the gear we have at our disposal at this point.

Sword Oath over Shield Oath makes you do over 300 more DPS and is barely less survivability in practice. It has to be spike damage that will bring a Sword Oath PLD down in FFXIV, not sustained, and considering how scripted these fights are, you should always have a CD up for them. Even if your healers are DPSing a lot, there is no way a healer losing a few (and it really is just a few) GCDs over a long period of time to keep up a Sword Oath PLD can make up for the 300+ DPS gap between Sword and Shield.

Also, why is a PLD using VIT > a PLD using STR? PLD in excessive VIT won't let your healers do too much more DPS, damage incoming is just too low, but PLDs CAN pump out some legit DPS. A PLD in full STR spec + i150 accessory/i210 slaying hybrid is survivable enough to take on any encounter in the game. Yes, even Pepsiman and Faust's father in savage.

[Eye_Gore]

Its just funny watching people respond like this as if everyone is wearing the same gear. Everyone isn't.

What is funny, is it really doesn't matter. I have not had a single instance that was failed because I had more VIT and not enough STR or vice versa. I have not had a single instance where I was told I do not have enough VIT or STR. I have not had a single instance where someone said "wow that went so fast, thanks tank for wearing full STR to get us through so quickly". I have not had a single instance where someone said "wow that took so long to get done, tank why are you wearing full VIT?"

Come to think of it, I have had no instance where anyone said anything about what I was wearing. So it seems, it really makes no difference. Now this is all in response to the comment in which I quoted about dungeon bosses. If there is such an issue that in regular dungeons, my choice of STR or VIT gear is going to make or break the party, we have problems other than what I'm wearing.

[Syzygian]

What is funny, is it really doesn't matter. I have not had a single instance that was failed because I had more VIT and not enough STR or vice versa. I have not had a single instance where I was told I do not have enough VIT or STR. I have not had a single instance where someone said "wow that went so fast, thanks tank for wearing full STR to get us through so quickly". I have not had a single instance where someone said "wow that took so long to get done, tank why are you wearing full VIT?"

Come to think of it, I have had no instance where anyone said anything about what I was wearing. So it seems, it really makes no difference. Now this is all in response to the comment in which I quoted about dungeon bosses. If there is such an issue that in regular dungeons, my choice of STR or VIT gear is going to make or break the party, we have problems other than what I'm wearing.

This actually a very valid point. The issue is that STR spec is such a popular idea and people QQ about the expenses of pentamelds (I've never achieved more than 5 million gil, which is very much 3rd world, in my entire time playing this game, and I have a full set of i150 pentamelds), that most people don't know how to properly take advantage of a skilled tank that just happens to have a large HP pool. While I haven't encountered such comments either, myself, I have seen even sillier stuff (people criticizing fending gear with str melds as opposed to slaying gear with vit melds)...

...the whole fallacy of it all is that individuals out there think they know of some magical unicorn BiS for tanks when really the concept of a BiS for tanks is moronic, any player that takes tanking seriously should be ready and willing to swap gearsets at a moment's notice depending on the demands being made of them. I played a good bit of DPS in 2.x, I know what it means to have a REAL BiS. Tanks don't have it, nor should they. Its the job of a tank to be adaptable.

[Tyrial]

While I haven't encountered such comments either, myself, I have seen even sillier stuff (people criticizing fending gear with str melds as opposed to slaying gear with vit melds)...

...the whole fallacy of it all is that individuals out there think they know of some magical unicorn BiS for tanks when really the concept of a BiS for tanks is moronic, any player that takes tanking seriously should be ready and willing to swap gearsets at a moment's notice depending on the demands being made of them. I played a good bit of DPS in 2.x, I know what it means to have a REAL BiS. Tanks don't have it, nor should they. Its the job of a tank to be adaptable.

VIT gear being melded with STR is only a negative when said VIT gear has parry on it, otherwise they're pretty much identical. Only real difference is with STR accessories you have one extra slot for a secondary meld.

Tank BiS is nothing more than meeting ACC cap, meeting HP requirement for Tank Busters and avoiding anything with parry on it if at all possible. For WAR it includes hitting that magic 9-hit Zerk Skill Speed number as well.

[Kemas]

It's quite noticeable when you get a tank (myself included) who uses proper stancing and STR build over one who uses ONLY tank stance and VIT build. It can be argued to the moon and back that it doesn't matter but in reality, if the class is being maximized to its full potential it makes a noticeable difference.

[RapBreon]

Awwww bummer, my post got deleted; qwe qwe.

[KeluBehemoth]

i have no problem holding threat on DRK as either or. I almost always use VIT when I'm MTing. As long as there's enough DPS you don't need to worry about the tanks DPS.

I'd rather clear and keep all bases covered than wipe to a mistake in last phase.

[Felorr]

If the dps can't pull threat off a vit tank, then it's less about you being good and more about them being bad.

A dps playing optimally should not pull off a tank. If they do, you're not doing enough aggro as a tank. Like others have said, if dps have to tone damage down to aid your aggro management, youre a very subpar tank.

[Syzygian]

VIT gear being melded with STR is only a negative when said VIT gear has parry on it, otherwise they're pretty much identical. Only real difference is with STR accessories you have one extra slot for a secondary meld.

Tank BiS is nothing more than meeting ACC cap, meeting HP requirement for Tank Busters and avoiding anything with parry on it if at all possible. For WAR it includes hitting that magic 9-hit Zerk Skill Speed number as well.

Well, that may be fine for WAR, but as a DRK you can actually suffer if you gimp your parry stat. While I use pentamelds and equip slaying accessories if needed, I don't literally go out of my way to shrink my parry stat. I think that's a really poor thing to focus on. STR is a great stat but DPS secondaries are a joke on tanks. We're talking single digit variations in DPS, perhaps more (as in the case of SS thresholds for more Berserked GCDs), but not enough to make up for all the extra, free off GCD damage parry helps proc for DRK at least. With the ludicrous damage that WAR's get they actually could be argued to have a BiS because they really just play like DPS jobs with a lot of HP.

[Tyrial]

Well, that may be fine for WAR, but as a DRK you can actually suffer if you gimp your parry stat. While I use pentamelds and equip slaying accessories if needed, I don't literally go out of my way to shrink my parry stat. I think that's a really poor thing to focus on. STR is a great stat but DPS secondaries are a joke on tanks. We're talking single digit variations in DPS, perhaps more (as in the case of SS thresholds for more Berserked GCDs), but not enough to make up for all the extra, free off GCD damage parry helps proc for DRK at least. With the ludicrous damage that WAR's get they actually could be argued to have a BiS because they really just play like DPS jobs with a lot of HP.

The parry on your accessories isn't doing nearly as much as you may think it is. There are numbers floating around somewhere on here that show just how terrible parry scaling is. It's something along the lines of needing max parry value in every single gear slot to go up a few percent on your parry chance. It's hardly worth it and you will definitely see better results by opting for DPS secondaries regardless of your oGCD being tied to parry.