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

[Freyyy]

Im with you. A little complexity is aways good. If tank gear is going to be 100% fending in 3.2, i will be very desapointed.

Well, healer gear is 100% healing, MNK/DRG gear is 100% slaying, caster gear is 100% casting, NIN/BRD/MCH gear is 100% aiming. If they want to bring complexity to the game, they should do it for everyone, not just tanks.

[DarioSkydragon]

Well, healer gear is 100% healing, MNK/DRG gear is 100% slaying, caster gear is 100% casting, NIN/BRD/MCH gear is 100% aiming. If they want to bring complexity to the game, they should do it for everyone, not just tanks.

Healers who want to pull more dps aways have been geared with accuracy melded gear or vit+ melded gear to survive hard progression. DPS are the only ones that used only non-melded tome/raid gear.

[Alahra]

Healers who want to pull more dps aways have been geared with accuracy melded gear or vit+ melded gear to survive hard progression. DPS are the only ones that used only non-melded tome/raid gear.

DPS used VIT-melds at various points in early progression as well throughout ARR, so they could hit various VIT-checks, though they often only needed one accessory, perhaps two. It's something the developers weren't fond of, though, which is why they started delaying the release of crafted accessories.

[InfiniDragon]

Well, healer gear is 100% healing, MNK/DRG gear is 100% slaying, caster gear is 100% casting, NIN/BRD/MCH gear is 100% aiming. If they want to bring complexity to the game, they should do it for everyone, not just tanks.

Then don't start by going backwards and making all jobs basic. Start by supporting the tank accessories remaining as they are and the other jobs getting additional options too.

[Ultimatecalibur]

Now that I think of it, didn't they say they had lower level accessories than dungeon gear because they didn't want crafted accessories breaking progression like in Coil?

Pretty much. The whole reason for the 3.2 changes to Materia melding and tank damage calculation is because as they stand now pentamelded i150 crafted accessories give a benefit comparable to i260 accessories.

3.2 is likely to be the first patch since 2.0 that has accessories with ilevels comparable to the best crafted gear on release.

Then don't start by going backwards and making all jobs basic. Start by supporting the tank accessories remaining as they are and the other jobs getting additional options too.

They needed to. Pentamelded Str/Vit accessories are scaling to well for tanks. A 10 ilevel increase on level 60 gear raises a non-crafted accessory's primary stat by about +2.5 but currently increases a pentamelded accessory's primary stat bonuses by twice that.