Crafted accessories are an issue.

[Syzygian]

That's actually a really bad idea. Tanks with their "cleric stance" on would get killed by any moderately powered boss AOE due to having no bonus vitality.

Not necessarily, it would be easy for them to work around that, they could simply make the base strength of tanks enough to survive with your tank stance and/or cooldowns when swapped with their vit, but not enough to DPS with outside of the appropriate stance. It could be balanced so that tank stance + tank cleric takes about as much damage as current tanks without tank stance, but not have to screw with their gear or enmity generation, and as an OT they could have SwO/Deliverance/etc. + full str.

Its only a bad idea if you assume no other adjustments be made to accommodate such a stance mechanic.

[Kidala]

Its only a bad idea if you assume no other adjustments be made to accommodate such a stance mechanic.

This is way more work than needed to fix the problem. Even with this it wouldn't help as gear levels increase. Or if the MT dies suddenly due to people being distracted or doing a mechanic wrong. Your OT, understandably not expecting this, will be in their STR stance with tank stance off. They're going to die very quickly once the boss switches to them, possibly even instantly if the boss uses a weaponskill or a spell on them. You have to give room for margins of human error, and not everyone has catlike reflexes. Even if they did, turning their stance back to VIT wouldn't put them at full hp, that'd be way too easy to abuse(See how Thrill of Battle works? Imagine being able to flick that on and off as you please.) They'd be at whatever HP they were at before and even with damage reduction it'd be a very bad situation.

[Shining_Tiger_Excalibur]

I'm actually thankful for how the game works in relation to stats and crafted equipment right now. The most important thing those do is bring about exposure to job imbalances and ideology of how the job is employed in practical applications. When the game was broken because of these 150 crafted accessories, it "zoomed in" on the cracks in job skills and job direction. Basically what I'm trying to say is Square-Enix actually has a good thing going right now, whether they realize it or not. These stats and equipment actually police job disparity better than any calculation or theorycrafting out there. "Police" in this use just means establishing order and parity through equal opportunity. I said a long time ago that if not every job can be broken to beat content then that's your first sign that imbalance among jobs exist. Had these crafted accessories and stats not existed everyone would have assumed every job was equal and that we just had to wait for more, better suited, equipment.

I actually want things to stay like they are....I see how much good these things can do and have done.

[Dhex]

I wear full Slaying in AS1 - and 3 Slaying 2 Fending in AS2/AS3 my pentamelds just sit in my inventory now.

[Tyrial]

I wear full Slaying in AS1 - and 3 Slaying 2 Fending in AS2/AS3 my pentamelds just sit in my inventory now.

I'm in a similar situation, except I still use a couple melded pieces in A3 due to having 0 luck at winning any of the decent fending pieces that we've seen drop so far and I can't be bothered going back into Alex NM for the 190 stuff.

[Kidala]

I wear full Slaying in AS1 - and 3 Slaying 2 Fending in AS2/AS3 my pentamelds just sit in my inventory now.

Regardless of what people are using for their accessories, the pentamelds have much higher primary stat totals: 60 primary per pentamelded i150 and 47 or 49 primary for i210. Take into account, for tanks, primary stats are at a 1:0.2-0.25 ratio to secondary stats, it's still ridiculous, and this is just for i150. When i180(we're guessing) come out, those totals will jump to 72 primary(if we follow current i180 primary stats on accessories,) while the 210 gear will still be at 47 or 49 depending on which you use. We won't see higher ilevel raid accessories until 3.2, and following these trends, they'll be somewhere around 56(slaying) and 60(fending). This is less of a gap, but it's still a problem, considering the crafted accessories are currently 60 ilevel below the best raid accessories

[Dhex]

Regardless of what people are using for their accessories, the pentamelds have much higher primary stat totals: 60 primary per pentamelded i150 and 47 or 49 primary for i210. Take into account, for tanks, primary stats are at a 1:0.2-0.25 ratio to secondary stats, it's still ridiculous, and this is just for i150. When i180(we're guessing) come out, those totals will jump to 72 primary(if we follow current i180 primary stats on accessories,) while the 210 gear will still be at 47 or 49 depending on which you use. We won't see higher ilevel raid accessories until 3.2, and following these trends, they'll be somewhere around 56(slaying) and 60(fending). This is less of a gap, but it's still a problem, considering the crafted accessories are currently 60 ilevel below the best raid accessories

Excess Vitality is excess Vitality. Sure you lose Vitality going from Penta-melds to Slaying but if you don't need more HP then why wear melds?

[Kidala]

Excess Vitality is excess Vitality. Sure you lose Vitality going from Penta-melds to Slaying but if you don't need more HP then why wear melds?

So we come back to the point of vitality not being worth it. A tank should not feel crippled by wearing fending accessories. They were designed to be used by tanks. They are not being used by tanks, because the design right now is flawed, which allows these pentamelds to shine until tanks feel they have enough 210 gear to use slaying.

[Launched]

I wear full Slaying in AS1 - and 3 Slaying 2 Fending in AS2/AS3 my pentamelds just sit in my inventory now.

Why would you wear 3 Slaying 2 Fending if you have pentamelds? Assuming i210 (which I doubt), that would give you 141 STR and 98 VIT. 3 crafted and 2 Slaying would give you 187 STR and 87 VIT, losing almost no HP and gaining 46 STR. Even 5 crafted and no Slaying would give 155 STR and 145 VIT.

[Dhex]

Why would you wear 3 Slaying 2 Fending if you have pentamelds? Assuming i210 (which I doubt), that would give you 141 STR and 98 VIT. 3 crafted and 2 Slaying would give you 187 STR and 87 VIT, losing almost no HP and gaining 46 STR. Even 5 crafted and no Slaying would give 155 STR and 145 VIT.

Generally accuracy. I could buy the Creed body but I don't really feel the need and it's not exactly stellar. My melded stuff was Slaying so I melded a few VIT then Det/Crit onto pieces and I still use them but with accuracy caps and progressing gear per usual I just start wearing the current iLevel Slaying set and only swap Fending into a slot if I need Accuracy or there is a mechanic that requires the VIT.