STR vs. VIT for leveling

[Atoli]

VIT, because at low levels its actually very powerful until you reach level 52. Then go strength.

All it does is give you a bigger HP pool, which is kind of pointless unless you do massive pulls and have a healer that can heal that many HP.
Like several people already said, defensive gear is important to reduce dmg taken, but VIT is just an extra cushion to fall on if all else fails so it's a waste of potential unless you feel too uncomfortable without the extra safety.

PLD shouldn't have trouble after level 40 when they get Shield Oath.

While Shield Oath is very useful in keeping hate, getting the first AoE skill at 50 had a lot more impact on me. Even with Shield Oath, Flash and rotating targets for threat combos, there is no way you can keep hate on really big pulls when BLMs and the like let loose right away. But hitting everything once with a nice AoE and applying DoTs on all the targets helps a lot to eastablish that initial threat that you can reinforce with your other abilities/skills afterwards.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Wow. Thanks a lot everyone. Appreciate all the input. First time I'll be giving tanking a go in an MMO.

[Jpec07]

Wow. Thanks a lot everyone. Appreciate all the input. First time I'll be giving tanking a go in an MMO.

You're absolutely welcome--and welcome to tanking! It can be a blast, but also really stressful. Just take it easy, read guides, and communicate, and you'll be fine. Good luck in there!

[Ashkendor]

While Shield Oath is very useful in keeping hate, getting the first AoE skill at 50 had a lot more impact on me. Even with Shield Oath, Flash and rotating targets for threat combos, there is no way you can keep hate on really big pulls when BLMs and the like let loose right away. But hitting everything once with a nice AoE and applying DoTs on all the targets helps a lot to eastablish that initial threat that you can reinforce with your other abilities/skills afterwards.

Unless you got to 50 only very recently, CoS didn't even generate enmity beyond what initial damage it dealt. Increased enmity was added in 2.4. I mean, I guess it was still an oGCD AoE, I just don't see how it would help more than Shield Oath.

[Atoli]

I just don't see how it would help more than Shield Oath.

I never said it was more useful than Shield Oath (or at least didn't mean it if it sounded that way?), I'm just saying that while Shield Oath alone is nice, PLD still has trouble again hasty AoE-heavy dps until he has Shield Oath PLUS CoS.

(and I actually got PLD to 50 in 1.0, back when everything was different and weird xD I was just talking about the threat from dmg dealt + DoT, the added enmity+ just makes it even nicer now)