Quote Originally Posted by Zfz View Post
I happened to have collected all the quest HQ gear from 64 to 68. Here are some relevant values:
  • defense head + body + hands + waist + legs + feet (VIT)
  • Lv 60 270 Shire: 343 + 480 + 343 + 297 + 480 + 343 = 2286
    (VIT = 117+190+117+88+190+117 = 819)
  • Lv 64 273 HQ: 389 + 545 + 389 + 337 + 545 + 389 = 2594, meaning Shire + 13.5%
    (VIT = 120+195+120+90+195+120 = 840)
  • Lv 66 279 HQ: 482 + 674 + 482 + 417 + 674 + 482 = 3211, meaning Shire + 40.5%, or the Lv 64 set + 23.8%
    (VIT = 122+199+122+92+199+122 = 856)
I'm not familiar with the actual damage reduction from defense, so I can't offer how much actual difference they pose. But I'd wager there's a huge difference between someone at level 66 or syncced wearing their level-appropriate gear and someone at level 65 who only has access to the first two sets.
I'm also not too familiar myself with how damage received is exactly calculated but to help put your numbers into perspective, here are the jumps from Lv. 50 to 56. The percentage boost is the same across the board for the SB gear so I'm just going to make the same assumption here:

(Lv. 50 equivalent) i130 Body - 167 DEF / 59 VIT
(Lv. 54) i333 Body - 168 DEF / 59 VIT (basically no change)
(Lv. 56) i139 Body - 203 DEF / 60 VIT (21.5%+)

So, going from i130 to i139 is a gain of 21.5% defense while going from i270 to i279 is a gain of 40.5%. Now there's the potential that damage received formulas might be adjust for post 60+ content but if you assume that formula remains the same and content is tuned around these higher defense values in mind, a lower ilvl tank will suffer more damage in SB content versus pre-SB content - which in turn lower ilvls more more squishier than compared to that same ilvl gulf in pre-SB.