Opinions on WAR stats

[Galactimus]

It's important to know the various changes Tanking and Raiding has gone through as both sides of the argument were correct at some point in time. If you don't plan to do Savage raiding content then stacking Parry and Skillspeed isn't a big deal. But if you do want to bring out your classes potential than the meta of the game becomes pretty interesting to follow:


The Tanking Timeline
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Bahamut T1 - T9: When 2.0 started Tanks spec'd full VIT and Parry. HP caps were balanced around this. And fights were designed around being as Tanky as possible. Enrage timers weren't really an issue; it was all about mechanic survival.


Bahamut T10 - T13: Tanks suddenly had more HP than they needed. Beating enrage timers and pushing phases early became much more valuable than 1,000 extra HP. Penta-melded Strength Accessories suddenly became popular as long as you had at least 9,000HP total. Tanks boosted their DPS by 200-300 literally overnight. Parry started being noticed as a worthless stat.


Alexander A1 - A4: Tanks (Paladins in particular) had to spec full strength, wear all Strength accessories, wear Crit and Det on everything, and even Tank bosses full-time in DPS stance just so the party could barely beat A3S's extremely strict enrage timer (for a first clear.) Parry officially became a useless stat after raid groups realized how much DPS is added by a full Crit / Det / Strength build. Skill Speed also became useless for Paladins due to running out of TP so fast in A4S.


Alexander A5 - A8: Changes to the Vitality stat finally made it superior to Strength. 1 VIT now adds just as much damage as 1 STR, but also increases your HP total at the same time. However, Tanks lost a good 10% of their total DPS due to these calculation changes. This sudden loss made hardcore Tanks upset; after all they just spent six months raising their DPS by every possible mean, only to be torn back down. However, this same patch also introduced the ability to meld all of your Raid gear. As soon as you stuffed Crit and Det into your left side, and Strength into your right side, that 10% loss vanished. Crit and Det still remained superior to Parry and Skill Speed.


Alexander A9 - A12: DPS checks have become incredibly easy to pass. Even when equipped in gear from the previous patch. Raiding as a whole is a little easier. The Meta of Tanking hasn't changed but it's no longer as strict as it used to be. More freedom is given to focus on mechanics rather then praying your RNG crit rate is 16% at the end of the fight instead of 12%. The total DPS of Melee and Ranged classes may be scaling up faster than Tanks, but the role itself hasn't lost any of it's edge. It's still important to do as much DPS as possible when raiding; and Warriors are still the Kings of the trio.


Current Meta:
- Meet the A12S accuracy cap of 700.
- Prioritize Vit > Str > Crit > Det
- Warriors have certain Skill Speed milestones to pay attention to
- Meld Strength into Vitality accessories.
- Use Vitality Potions for DPS (and good food for higher Vit)
- Ignore Parry
- Ignore Parry (seriously)
- Ignore Parry (until 4.0)