Strength vs Vitality while leveling

[KaitlanKela]

Hi again everyone!

I jumped into tanking and I currently have GLD 22 and MRD 12, so still a long way to go before I reach competency with any tanking class. As such, I noticed while lurking that the vast majority of threads are about cutting edge content. I definitely agree that VIT left, STR right and STR points is the ideal build for most situations in endgame (especially if you communicate with your healer), but does the same hold true for leveling dungeons? I haven't done many dungeons as a GLD but I have been putting my points in VIT because healers have less big heals in their toolkit at this level...but I'm having problems holding threat. Most people re-running the first dungeons are doing their roulette on alts and I don't really wanna make the runs more unpleasant then they have to be. Any advice would be appreciated!

[AlexiIvaniskavich]

This greatly depends on your comfort level and skill with the class. The higher those two are, the more you should lean toward strength. You don't need to go cold turkey though, and go from full VIT to full STR, start by sprinkling in some STR pieces until you are used to tanking in that style.

This assumes that your left side gear is sufficient for the content you are running.

[mcspamm]

I personally used full VIT on all three tanks until 50 (including stat points), after which I started swapping in some STR accessories and/or melded STR+VIT accessories and reallocated stat points to STR.

But yeah, how up to date your left-side gear is should have a large impact on how you gear VIT vs STR, especially while levelling pre-50.

[Callidus]

If you're keeping up with mostly level-appropriate green/pink/blue gear, I'd advise a mix of the two if you're leveling with PUGs. If you go all STR points, maybe go 3 or 4 of 5 VIT accessories. I personally advise this method since you can need VIT gear, but you can flip it around if you go all VIT points. Really that's just a baseline and it will depend on your playstyle and confidence level, as well as if you're leveling with competent friends.

If your gear starts getting a bit out of date, you might consider skewing a bit more toward VIT. Then again if you are lucky enough to be leveling with a healer friend that you're confident in, it gives you way more leeway to focus on STR.

With the exception of hitting 50 or 60 with players that have ilevels way higher than yours, you shouldn't really have any serious threat issues regardless of build if you use your skill correctly. It's mostly about staying alive and contributing what you can to DPS.

Regardless of what your go-to build is, try to keep around some extra right side pieces so you can mix and match as needed.

[Malicewolf]

Yea, agree with everyone else here. It's really a comfort level thing. If you are confident in your tanking to the extent that as long as the healer doesn't full out ignore healing you, you'll be fine, then going STR build can definitely help in holding aggro as well as breezing through trash mobs quicker. I personally went the STR route while leveling up, but many say VIT is the way to go until you reach a certain level. But I also have 2 PLD builds. One for pure VIT gear incase I realize that too many wipes are occurring and some extra HP might prevent them (it gives me about 3000 more hp with my current gear. My STR build is 4 STR and 1 VIT. Used to be pure STR though.

And it's kind of funny when you go into 8 man trials with STR build and the other tank is VIT. Almost always, the VIT geared will see your hp and go "I'll MT" but then can't hold it in comparison. I often find I have to back off, even in Sword Oath against a tank stance (which is really not helping overall). But this is only in the case of left gear being about the same ilvl. Very seldom do I actually see the health difference being THAT big of a deal in dungeons so long as you have a decent healer.

[winsock]

I'd go all STR. The bar is extremely low for these dungeons.

Learning to keep threat can be challenging if you don't have experience with it, but most dungeons are extremely forgiving for tanks otherwise. Heck you don't even really need a tank for many of them.

The only thing I can think of where the extra VIT could benefit you, is possibly taking overlapping AoEs. If you're skilled enough to recognize that standing several overlapping AoE markers could really hurt and can successfully avoid them, id say go STR.

[Malicewolf]

SNIP

Um. What kind of DF are you queuing for? Cause I want in on that. In my experience, tanks get the most crap for doing anything wrong. As for the advice, eh, kinda. I often find the extra hp isn't because I necessarily need it. It's more for the healer to have a bit more time to heal me (like those who wait to START casting a heal when you're at your last 10%). That's a dangerous boundary to play with without an instant heal and it only takes a second for that to turn from edging to a wipe.

[SnugglesD]

You could always level GSM and craft and meld your own leveling accessories.

[FeliAiko]

At lower levels (pre 30), you're going to have threat issues, which will change once you get your jobstone (and in WARs case, a tank stance) that makes things easier. Provided you got a handle on tanking at this stage, you could spec into STR from the onset, but if not I'd suggest staying in VIT until at least lvl50. By that point you should be attuned enough with tanking to then feel comfortable making the switch.

[bounddreamer]

I went with a 1/3 str/VIT build on all my tanks while leveling and never had any issues with that as far as allocating points. You can always reset your points when you hit 60 if you want to go full STR.

For leveling I'd recommend two to three str pieces and two to three fending. You can carry full sets of both jewelry to mix and match. If it seems like your health is constantly going up and down, you can put on more VIT. You don't get many good cooldowns, certainly not your full tank repertoire, before 50. But it's harder to generate aggro too, esp for PLD, and str helps with that.