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

[Xyphon]

Despite how many times this argument comes up it never gets old. I was probably the one advocating full vit pre hw, and did so since 2.0. Then hw came around. I decided to test str as I lvled from 50 to 60 as a tank. I never had any issues the entire time, and cleared hw several days after it was fully released (early access ftw).

Now, what I used to do for "speed runs" was I would slap on full vit for trash, and swap to full str for bosses. It worked pretty well and I never had any healers crying about how much dmg I was taking. Why? Proper management of defensive cooldowns. I think this is the problem most tanks have, and its the reason the tanks rocking STR get so much heat. If you can't even properly rotate your defensive cooldowns, don't bother going full str (or let alone dropping your tank stance).

These are the tanks I see pop every defensive cooldown as soon as they are up. Rotating cooldowns is even easier if you know what's coming at you aka *ravens beak*, *mountain buster*, or etc.

Since there also doesn't seem to be an enmity ceiling, you can go far enough ahead of dps while being in full str gear; that you got plenty of time to breath. I experienced in my static what it means to be only "one" step ahead of dps in terms of enmity, and trust me it was very nerve racking. This was the basis for why I started experimenting with str.

Back to having the threat lead, depending on the tank job ; it gives you room to either do more dps rotations or for example on pld start using clemency/stoneskin. I'm not going to knock any tank who is in full vit; because they wish to play it safe. I personally always carry a set of vit acc around in case a healer isn't comfortable with my total hp. The funny part is since the release of hw, I never had any healer ask me to switch to vit gear.