Tank Mitigation vs Tank DPS.

[ForteNightshade]

When it comes to fast progression, DPS are, indeed, the primary focus for all upgrades. This is due to us technically being right on the ilvl cusp, which makes enrage timers extremely tight. Additionally, unlike WoW and most other MMOs, FFXIV healers and tanks have an absolute bevy of tools at their disposal to heal or mitigate damage, respectively. Another factor is how scripted our encounter design is. You will always know precisely when high spikes of damage will occur—thereby allowing for planned mitigation. Perhaps the biggest reason why healers are very rarely the focus on initial upgrades is because they're essentially pseudo-DPS in this game. What most midcore and above groups tend to do is have their healers overheal/shield everything at the expensive of their DPS and remove the excess accordingly. For example, my group hyper-mitigated the Flare explosions in E2 at first. We wound up moving things around to primarily focus on the second set as the first didn't need it.

Please do bear in mind, the above only applies to statics. And not every static will prioritize this way. In fact, a lot may do a more fair loot distribution. It is something you will need to discuss with your group. If you're just pugging though, then roll on everything. You have just as much right to upgrades as anyone else in that scenario. So don't feel hesitant the DPS should go first.

Regarding Tenacity. It's... kind of meh for want of a better word. While it does provide upwards of 5% passive mitigation, it takes a massive amount—3,000, I believe. This is such a negligible amount compared to the damage you'll lose by sacrificing Critical Hit, Determination or Direct Hit that it simply isn't a worthwhile trade—especially when you consider your healers will be overhealing/shielding more than likely necessary to begin with. That being said, Tenacity isn't outright bad per se. Just lackluster. Put it this way, if you're low on funds and Tenacity materia is dirt cheap (it usually is), you're better off melding it than nothing at all. If you can afford it though, damage based materia will always be superior. When it comes to what melds, focus on Comfy Skill Speed > Direct Hit > Critical Hit > Determination. Warrior is the sole exception, and should ignore Direct Hit entirely.

If you want more information on melding and such, I highly suggest joining The Balance discord. They have everything from Best in Slot builds (some still being worked out) and just general guides on how to optimize and better perform on your job.

Hope this helps.

[Nedkel]

The difference in dps between tank with tenacity melds and tank with direct hit/whatever is 2% at best, more often than not it sits under 2% actually like 1.6-1.8%
The difference in damage taken and hp healed however sits at 4.3%, and this number believe it or not, indirectly affects the group dps because you require less healing and healers could on average use more offensive spells.

To be honest i would go with tenacity or direct hit on your place, as for me i choosed tenacity because its cheaper and i do more dungeons where extra mitigation matters a lot.
Do not go for direct hit if you want to play warrior, because it will be a waste.

[Aladire]

I like to mix between determination and tenacity since some gear comes with capped tenacity. I see that both increase healing received and damage done while tenacity helps with damage mitigation.

[Barraind]

In most content, 14 has two kinds of damage, Spike and Derp.

Spike damage comes from tankbusters, roomwide AE's and the like and can ALWAYS be prepared for.

Derp damage comes from you not moving out of things. The solution to taking less derp damage is to stop derping.


You cannot get enough mitigation on gear to replace cooldowns you already have to use, and therefore it is worthless.


The one place you may see it matter is 4 man dungeons, but you shouldnt be gearing for that.

[RareItems]

Don't raid but i do a lot of leveling dungeons. Skillspeed and Tenacity materia are great and cheap. It might still be Tenacity + Determination for PLD since PLD has magic attacks and heals. Crit is always a good 3rd materia option for all of them. But definitely Tenacity first lol. I've seen so many tanks dying to simple tankbusters because they loaded their gear with Direct Hit and Crit materia or taking so much damage on large pulls.

Tenacity reduces incoming damage by 1% for every 100 Tenacity and also increases your damage by 1% for every 100 Tenacity if your a Tank.

[Adrestia]

By far the most defense you get out of gear is from the physical and magic defense on the left hand armor. Maximizing your item level is the best way to maximize your mitigation, since gear of a given class (plate vs leather etc.) will all have the same defense at a given ilvl.

This was true for a lot of WoW as well. I could trivially tank heroics in WotLK as an arms warrior because of my passive armor stats being basically as high as a prot warrior.

As far as tenacity, it’s not that it does nothing on paper, but that it does close to nothing in practice. Even raid boss autoattack damage is mostly covered via regens and incidental heals coming from AoE healing the raid. So for that constant trickle of damage, you’re just turning a chunk of the healing into overheal. It’s not like you’d ever get enough TEN that your healers could skip an entire cast. For actual tank busters, they tend to fall in classes of “a healer will actually have to cast a GCD heal on me” or “I should use my invuln on that.” Some of them don’t even meet the threshold for the first and an essential dignity (btw welcome back to the game ASTs) or similar will top you off on its own. But they’re really not “if only I had 4% more mitigation” scenarios very often. “If I only had 20% more” sure, if you misalign your cooldowns. But you’ll never get 20% mitigation out of TEN.

E: tenacity isn’t reducing incoming damage by 1% per 100. That would make 3000 tenacity a permanent Sentinel buff. Tanks could skip using cooldowns entirely and never die.

[RareItems]

E: tenacity isn’t reducing incoming damage by 1% per 100. That would make 3000 tenacity a permanent Sentinel buff. Tanks could skip using cooldowns entirely and never die.

Yes it does lol. 100 Tenacity on tanks = 1% damage mitigation and 1% dmg increase

[Aramina]

E: tenacity isn’t reducing incoming damage by 1% per 100. That would make 3000 tenacity a permanent Sentinel buff. Tanks could skip using cooldowns entirely and never die.

It's .01% per 100 from what I have read. Definite difference, lol.

[Nedkel]

Its actually 330 tenacity points per 1% of damage, mitigation, healing bonus.
254 per 1% on determination
240 per 1% on Dh
360 per 1% for crit, which grows expotentionally the more you have.

They nerfed the bonuses in 5.0 patch, so you wont get crazy % chances on crit or dh.

[RareItems]

It's .01% per 100 from what I have read. Definite difference, lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMOVb-x6xr4

I was wrong. It's 200 Tenacity = 1% Damage Mitigation, 1% Damage Gain. Still pretty OP thou at 2000 Tenacity, you gain 10% damage Mitigation, 10% Damage Gain.