Strength vs Vitality while leveling

[Syzygian]

Yeah okay but we're speaking about a beginner tank here who doesn't have the perfect judgement calling that an experienced tank would have, and wearing STR makes all of this much easier for them.

Hmm, I feel like this highlights an issue with the STR meta; it trivializes enmity as a part of your job. I almost feel like new tanks should level with VIT so they can understand enmity and how to get it quickly and keep it. In full STR you hardly have to even monitor/tab between targets to check your party's enmity. Just toss an AoE here and there and hit whichever target you want to, and not even necessarily with enmity combos.

At the risk of sounding like a crotchety gtfo-my-lawn tank, I feel like I'm all the more qualified to run around in full STR because I know for a fact that I have the skill to hold enmity even in full VIT right side. Some newer tanks hit 60 without this full appreciation of how to effectively change their rotation/playstyle in a situation where enmity is an issue and DPS may have to come second until it is secured.

I definitely feel that the game is balanced for tanks to be able to keep enmity in vit and that STR breaks this system, for better or for worse. If you look at in terms of design; PLD has the hardest time holding hate and is generally considered the beginner tank, the tank that needs to learn that skill, first and foremost. DRK is the new, advanced tank and enmity is barely a part of the job, you practically get hate by standing there existing, with the difficulty and complexity of the job being found in far more intermediate and involved mechanics. The best DRK's tend to be folks that used PLD/WAR in 2.x, and the entire playstyle of the job lends itself to an already experienced tank, as if to say "yeah blah blah enmity you know all this, here's some crazy fun interesting shit instead and a hate combo strong enough to put it out of your mind for the entire fight" and that's great, and experienced tanks can do that on any tanking job, but it doesn't translate to newer tanks, at all. The whole get-aggro-out-of-the-way-in-3-gcds-then-pewpewtime workflow we endgame tanks have has to be earned, yet we lose sight of it because of how easily and naturally it comes to us now.

If you can get/hold hate while leveling in VIT, you'll absolutely never lose it at 60 in STR. New tanks that level in STR are more likely to not tab targets, check their own enmity in relation to their party members, focus their DPS' target in between AoE bursts, etc. Not necessarily because they are bad but because leveling in STR exempt them from the necessity of doing so. When you level in VIT you can't get away with just hitting whatever target you want and not watching your party's enmity meters on various mobs, and learning when its safe to use more damaging/utility based combos as opposed to those that are for enmity.

Definitely makes you wonder why people consider tanking in VIT easy mode when it actually makes the most fundamental part of the jobs a consistent challenge, and a mechanic that you are always involved/keeping up with.

All of this is to say that I think the game is designed for enmity to be a *skill* that you learn to master while leveling. STR takes the hard work out of this. And there's certainly no harm in wearing full VIT in pre-50 dungeons if you're prepared for that challenge and still know how to maximize what lesser DPS you are bringing for the sake of holding hate. I just feel like that's an important skill that a new tank that levels in STR gear may gloss over and miss out on accidentally. I'm tempted to suggest this is why we have a lot of bad level 60 tanks, is cause we told all those tanks while leveling to wear full STR and then they get to 60 and are going up against end-game-geared DPS and haven't had any of the growing pains/experience to teach them to keep an eye on hate, lest they lose it.

Anyway, just food for thought.