Returning Player: Tank Accessories?

[spelley]

Hey all,

Returning player after ~1.5 year hiatus. Been back a couple weeks and gearing up my DRG is going well so thinking about re-gearing my DRK and getting back into tanking a little bit. Last I played, STR-based accessories were the norm but I think tanks get 1/2 DPS from VIT now or something like that? Just wanted to know as I'm guessing I should swap my Attributes to VIT *and* invest in some VIT accessories.

Also, is there a good guide for DRK openers and whatnot? Always interested in seeing that stuff.

[bardaboo]

Swap to vit. Use vit accesories but meld str onto them

[Delorean]

nope

stat weights for attack from STR are the same as VIT and from what I have read tanks took an overall dps nerf to compensate for it. so i dont know if dps is a little better off than it was wearing all vit before the change or if there was no gain. I've only been back for a few days myself.

[Claymore65]

You should swap to VIT.

Previously, attack power scaled exclusively with Strength, making Slaying DPS accessories a very significant DPS increase.

The new spread is (.45 * Vitality) + (.45 * Strength). This means that you gain the exact same benefit from Strength as Vitality, except for the fact that Vitality also increases your maximum HP. You gain almost nothing from using Strength over Vitality. New dungeons after the swap happened increased outgoing damage a fair amount, so Vitality is an even better choice now.

Your stats should definitely be in Vitality. With stats in Strength, you'll gain the exact same Attack power and lose HP for literally no reason.

Melding Strength into your VIT accessories can make them even stronger, and will be a better increase to damage than melding Crit or Det.

From a high end, BIS, optimization perspective the Secondary Stats on Slaying Accessories (melded with Vitality) can be a total DPS gain, but especially if you're just coming back switch to Fending accessories. Plus, you can actually roll "Need" on those.

[SyzzleSpark]

Also, is there a good guide for DRK openers and whatnot? Always interested in seeing that stuff.

DRK opener I use is this:

Unmend (this is to buffer/delay your opening GCDs for Trick Attack. Ignore if no NIN T_T) > (Dark Arts) > Hard Slash > (Low Blow) > Syphon Strike > (pot here if you're using one) > Souleater > (Dark Arts+Salted Earth) > Scourge > (Plunge) > Hard Slash > (Carve+Dark Passenger) > Syphon Strike > (Dark Arts+Blood Weapon) > Souleater > [spam Souleater until BW runs out or put up Delirium if needed first, then refresh Scourge > repeat+oGCDs as available/Delirium for MP as needed. If a WAR is doing an Unchained opener for you, the last combo before refreshing Scourge should be the Power Slash during which you voke from them. If they are back-loading their Fell Cleaves (using a single FC at the start of zerk and double FC at the end as opposed to the other way around), you may want to wait until after refreshing Scourge for the swap.]

If Delirum is needed ASAP for whatever reason, you can replace the first Souleater with Delirium and not suffer too much of a loss as TA and Storm's Eye typically aren't up until right here/immediately after. Wait until after Hard Slash to cast Dark Arts so that you don't overflow on MP and Dark Arts is still waiting when you use Carve.

I believe Xeno's opener uses Blood Weapon sooner, I like to delay it in case an AST gives me Arrow; Arrow+BW will cut your GCD down to almost 2 seconds flat making double-weaving almost impossible and thus destroying your opener, unless you have God-ternet. His may be better, as it probably helps him get an extra GCD inside of the pot duration, but its not a huge difference.

If you're tanking, the same opener should be used but replace the first Souleater with Power Slash, and use your pot in the same GCD you drop Grit. If you can't turn off Grit b/c no NIN, make the WAR pull and see the original opener. You will have to Power Slash a few more times throughout the fight after this, particularly if you have a MNK or something like that, just stay out of Grit for them. Hopping into Grit for 1 Power Slash is a bigger DPS loss than half a dozen Power Slashes out of Grit.

With the proper party buff timings, best HQ food possible, and BiS gear it is possible to hit 10-11K Carve and Spits with this opener and 9K Souleaters. Welcome to the 5-digit club Dark Knights

[Wyndam]

I wish I'd seen this sooner. It was a big argument at the beginning of Heavensward when I was last playing. I'd figured we'd moved on simply because tank DPS was so critical that DPS accessories were a given.