What they mean by "change the damage calculations of tanks"?

[ManaKing]

Im hoping they make VIT the main damage stat for tanks. Just remove STR from having any effect on tanks. If they need to lower the damage contribution since we would be double dipping that would be understandable. My only concern is being able to keep hate if they adjust our damage output down. PLD is still the problem child of the threat game as well as the DPS game. Im hoping 3.1 is very kind to them.

Im pretty sure this change would mean an overall reduction in Tank DPS, which is fine if they sweeten the deal. Since 3.0, STR and DEX contributions were taken off of parry and block because we were obviously gaming our stats and getting too much out of them. Im really hoping that the parry stat at least increases the amount of damage that is parried much like our STR used to. They could also make parry and shields more offensive. Making parry the equivalent to determination + increasing parry chance would make it attractive. Plus if you really dont like skill speed or crit, then a VIT accessory with parry + DET would be very attractive.

I would hope that shields are also enhanced so they go back to being the superior mitigation substat/tool. Presently i think shields are garbage and the lack of prevalent/dangerous physical damage makes them even worse. Heavy shields should surpass parry heavy builds in maximum mitigation and have similar block chance; bucklers should be the equivalent of a parry heavy build in mitigation but with higher block chance. Also, Shields should include a bonus damage stat to Shield Swipe and Shield Swipe should not be affected by the -20% damage from shield oath so PLDs can at least have a chance with single target hate.

The only other fear i have is that they dont do something generous, progressive, and interesting because the statement they made about materia melding is effectively ending our current tank meta. Tanks are currently more popular than they have ever been...possibly in any MMO. I will tank almost regardless of what changes are made because i really enjoy it and someone has to do it, but i doubt most of the new tanks since 3.0 will have the same opinion. 3.1 and 3.2 has the potential to make tanking different/better or different/burnt at the stake. I have a reasonable amount of faith in our dev teams ability to deliver, but im already taking note of the people who have stopped playing because 3.1 is a month later than we all expected and im currently leveling other jobs...because...reasons...so the sooner they can be transparent about what the general details of that change are going to be, the sooner they can regain the confidence of their player base.

[Clarkamite]

That way when you're tanking you can have an excess of HP that you don't need and be able to say you're not gimping the party that hard. If full STR is still the way to go though you can bet I'll still be avoiding VIT acc's like the plague.

TB hits for 18k unmitigated. Random Tank, "Good thing I'm stacking like 24k HP!" SE, will have to find the right balance. They want tanks to have correct mitigation for the TB's but them encouraging the stacking of even more HP might let tanking become an easier job. You can miss a CD and it might not even matter with the excess of HP.

[ManaKing]

Yeah the upside to all this is that you would always gear for max HP. When you want to increase damage you'll drop your tank stance the same way you do right now. This doesnt mean tanks will be designed to do terrible damage, but that it will most likely be an active choice to increase your damage output instead of wear full STR and hope your healer will keep you alive.

[Sir_Hermes]

I think they should make Vitality the base damage for Tanks, and make it increase less health per point

[Katlyna]

Probably that STR will have a lower weight or VIT will contribute to your dps or a combination of the two. I don't think they'll change the meta at this point (which is good).

I suspect Lastelli is correct. Personally I'm hoping the skills are changed so increasing Vit increased their DPS more, making Vit > Str for both survival and DPS. This would fix so much of the ill equiping which is occuring for tanks right now.

[Starkbeaumont]

I think they should make Vitality the base damage for Tanks, and make it increase less health per point

or just rise damage done to the tank by bosses. and since vit goes higher than offensive stats through gear atm I would only use 80-85% of vit in the attack power conversion. with current full 210 vit gear you would be looking at a value of around 945 (at 85%, depending on your race, for pld, war/drk is a bit higher) which is about the same str you would get with melded accessoiries atm.

[Reaver_Bharash]

If they're changing it so we scale off VIT instead of STR I really hope we're gonna get compensated for all the eso we spent on slaying accessories.. I have like maybe 3 fending accessories at or above i200, I'd hate to be using STR accs when STR is useless to us, I'd feel like a drg running around in aiming accessories >_<

3.2 will unlock the Esoteric limit and release a new capped tomestone so argument nullified there.

Maybe tank and dps stances will have cleric stance type effects? Switch STR and VIT depending on stance?

[Syzygian]

Str specing your tank or vit specing it has ZERO to do with your in-combat skill and ability to maximize your dps rotationally and mechanically, so no matter what they do with gear or behind-the-scenes damage calculations, maximizing your performance as a player with your job isn't going anywhere. If anything this will balance the playing field and show who is actually playing their job right.

Essentially what people are scared of amounts to seeing smaller numbers on the screen, nothing more. As long as you are maximizing your performance it doesn't matter as long as encounters are scaled to whatever tank dps winds up being (honestly probably not much lower than it is now, if at all). Players that are bad that rely on str gear to pump out decent numbers will be a thing of the past at least.

[ManaKing]

Partially agree. Secondary stats are not extremely prevalent yet in the raid cycle which is one of the reasons STR stacking and double melding is so attractive. Once there is enough skill speed in the game that WAR can 10 hit berserk, then gearing has lots to do with maximizing your performance. Its not like gearing choices are irrelevant and i doubt that's what you were trying to convey. But honestly all of the bad STR Tanks are just trying to maximize their performance in a lackluster patch that doesnt have a lot of good options. They just probably suck at it.

Im hoping they give us better options so we dont have to rely on abusing mechanics to gear well.

[SpookyGhost]