This is the one issue I've always had playing as a tank over the years I've been playing this game. It provides a means to branch of into a unique build but you really don't benefeit from doing so because of the design of the game. Tanks have a specific stat that was created for them but it's worthless due to the way the game is made. For the longest time, CRIT and DH have always been recommended over any kind of defensive melds because as long as you can kill your target faster, nothing else really matters.

I feel like that's wht SE has made the changes to healing, wanting them to focus more on that than DPS-ing but still DPS takes top priority over anything.