Tanking StatsFollow

I don't know if it's too early to start theory crafting or not but I'm going to anyway.

While running dungeons I noticed that other tanks had 100-150 HP more than my Duskwight Elzen. I realize now that Vitality directly increases your max HP, and that Duskwights have less base VIT than most races. I have been putting all of my bonus points into Strength at level ups instead of Vitality like everyone else because I know that it increases mitigation and indirectly enmity. The damage reduction seemed noticeable to me as it seemed like I didn't take quite as much damage as other tanks.

What I was thinking is that perhaps GLA is meant to be more of a mitigation tank while MAR is meant to be an HP tank. In other games Mitigation has always been better than just stacking HP except in cases where massive burst damage is caused. I suppose high HP would also be good for Caster enemies until Resistance gear is viable.

I know that the end result will be some sort of balance between the stats, but as Materia use becomes more commonplace this will definitely be something to consider. I for one will probably lean more toward Strength than Vitality.


Oh poo and there is Mind/Piety too.. whichever increases magic resistance... fun fun XD.

Except that neither affects magic damage intake at all, nor does INT.



STR, DEX, and VIT will all be tank stats for a Gladiator. STR affects the amount you negate on a block/parry, DEX affects the rate at which you block/parry, and VIT affects the health.

Going to need a balance of all three.

Fair enough, I thought I saw that one of them would. It sure would be nice to be able to mouse over the stats and see what they do. Hopefully they change that for release.

Thanks for the clarification on STR and DEX. the info I was seeing was saying that DEX was just Parry chance. I still think I'll lean more toward STR and DEX on GLA/PLD though. It's going to be fun trying to figure out a nice balance. So far there isn't a ton of high spike damage except on bosses and most of them will one shot you anyway. I feel the mitigation helps a lot more on groups of mobs than just stacking vitality. Having high HP doesn't really help your healer that much if they are on the ball.

Depends on how harsh the DR curve is. Usually there is (up to a certain point) exceedingly good value for the stat.

I like the implications of multiple 'key" stats. It opens the possibility of different build/gear options (although there will always be a theorycrafted "optimal" distribution), and multiple tanking styles, as seen between GLD/PLD & MRD/WAR.

Not to say this make or break but there was a legacy PLD complaining about cure doing 3-400 per hit when his HP was 4500 (I believe)

Im hoping it gets balanced out.

That being said, I was pretty bored tanking on my Glad/pug (pug because at low level you get an evasion buff) -plenty of abilities to keep enmity but it was rather dull for myself.

Also, there was a marauder I was partied with that had about 200 more hp than myself and was only 1 level higher. And all my points had gone into vit while the marauder had been taking str.


Edited, Jun 23rd 2013 9:05pm by sixstroke

Agreed. They definitely need tooltips for the stats so that we know what they affect.

Haha, that happened to me as well, only it was the tank that barely got hit by the bomb. It wasn't really a problem though since the slimes were slow and so little damage goes out anyway.

I thought Holy Succor was a quested spell. If it is, it could still be there, just not accessable, because we can't quest it yet.

Alternatively, one could read the manual.
Page 2, right below the battle section.


STR affects only shield block mitigation, and you rarely block.
Read the manual.

Edited, Jun 24th 2013 2:32am by Rinsui