VIT accessories not necessarily BiS for OT DPS

[Komoritane]

Obsolete message

[Synestra]

Frequent tank swaps in Midas kinda forces OT's to use fendings, now you could propably change one but i dont think it will be worth it. Havent dont savage yet but seeing how even normal is filled with all kind of resistance downs/vul's i bet MT and OT are swapping places alot.

[Syzygian]

Just get fending gear and meld it with det/crit/ss/what-have-you. The pinch of extra DPS is absolutely not worth it in the current new content.

[Ashkendor]

Just get fending gear and meld it with det/crit/ss/what-have-you. The pinch of extra DPS is absolutely not worth it in the current new content.

This. The adds in Sephirot EX hit like trucks and Midas is shaping up to have frequent tank swaps.

The STR meta is pretty effectively dead in the water by virtue of repeated asskicking.

[Choko_TS]

Just get fending gear and meld it with det/crit/ss/what-have-you. The pinch of extra DPS is absolutely not worth it in the current new content.

Agreed. Thanks to the extra lifepool, Mobs obviously hit harder now and the forced tankswaps doesnt make it easier. You can still meld a Str+15 Materia on the first Slot on any Fending Jewelery

[Awful]

This. The adds in Sephirot EX hit like trucks and Midas is shaping up to have frequent tank swaps.

The STR meta is pretty effectively dead in the water by virtue of repeated asskicking.

Agreed, the dmg output in these new raids/savages/primals is just too much to sacrifice for piddly little secondaries and a slight % dmg upgrade (and by slight I mean barely, barely noticable)

Mechanics > DPS this patch and thank god it is.

[BattleGrace]

Let go of the STR meta, its dead, leave it in the ground. stop spreading lies about VIT not being your best option, a dead tank does 0 dps and this patch will flatten you like never before.
if you can't let go, go play a dps, no tank wants a partner who gets them killed cause they die 2 seconds after a tank swap.

[SpookyGhost]

Full VIT for progression, no reason to use anything else. Once you've downed A8S, then you can start looking at how much HP you can shred off and if a STR jewelry piece will give you even minimal DPS gains then it might be worth it. That's at the extreme end of the min/max level spectrum, though - it's safe just to go full VIT and not try and put too much effort into it as you'll only see marginal gains to begin with.

Also, DPS hasn't gone away for tanks. You still want to be optimizing your DPS potential as much as you can, skipping mechanics is always a plus. However, this comes in the form of your rotation and ability to stance dance, not from accessory choice, which is how it should be.

[JammerSidewinder]

Of course comparing two pieces at a 210 ilvl where one has all stats that contribute to dps and the other has absolutely none outside of vit, that the slaying would seem to come out to better dps. Of course, we have to look at the big picture with higher ilvls and melds making up for missing stats that I don't think it's worth considering atm especially with the hard hitting mechanics in the current content.

[Lyth]

Bear in mind that it always feels like this at the start of a new raid tier. Tank growth tends to be non-linear, with left side pieces not only providing a vitality boost, but more importantly, defensive bonuses as well. This was what allowed you to transition from pentamelds to strength gear previously, converting a vitality/defensive upgrade on the left side into an offensive one on the right side, while keeping your overall survivability at the same level.

We're in a situation now where vitality serves a similar function to pentamelded gear from previous tier, providing a good balance of offence and defence. But if you're able to comfortably survive with vitality gear in the present set-up (mind you, Seph Ex really doesn't hit all that impressively on DRK, let alone PLD), in a few ilvls you could easily have plenty of room to experiment in the same fight. That's not to say that you should pick one over the other, but rather that you should approach it with an open mind and experiment as you gear up.

Of course, there's also the question as to whether small dps gains really matter, given that the relative contribution of tanks to raid dps has been diminished. But where do you stop with that line of thinking? If tank dps doesn't matter, can I completely ignore RA on PLD to get an even bigger enmity lead? Can I go grab a coffee while my character autoattacks the boss as OT?

Tanking is a multifaceted support role, and has always been about optimization. Tanks maintain enmity, but don't specifically seek to maximize it. Tanks mitigate damage, but don't specifically seek to maximize it. These are constraints. You either meet the check, or you don't. The optimization problem is maximizing your dps while simultaneously satisfying these constraints. So with the changes to stat weightings, you can be sure that there will be tanks out there looking at different ways to make the most of the new system. That's not a bad thing. Let's just wait and see how it plays out.