Sounds like you are leaving out stats on the item it probably has a large vitality and strength stats making it ideal for a tank and decent for a melee dps. Now while you would use it until a more specific dps item dropped the tank will use it until he gets a higher level / rarer drop that's the difference. And I can say as a tank I have had to greed several items more geared for a dps role that would have been great upgrades from my current gear. But I gladly passed it up knowing there's more ideal fear for me.