Quote Originally Posted by ReiMakoto View Post
Tank gear has had the same amount of strength as other roles since ShB. To compensate for this tanks recieve less benefit per point of main stat than any of the other role (which as a result means that tank overall damage contribution has gone down slightly from 5.0-5.4)
Ah, you're right. I was comparing the Emerald RDM and AST weapons to the Emerald PLD sword instead of one of the other tank weapons.

In that case it makes sense for them to have a penalty rather than a bonus, so that they don't do the same damage as an equally geared DD.