Vitality vs Toughness

[Arrowstormen]

So I'm having a hard time picking between these two stats, and it didn't seem like a profession specific issue.

Vitality:

More health, good against conditions.


Toughness:

More armor, good against direct damage like crits.



What do you do?

[Contravene]

I look at the benefits down the line to see if there is something that appeals to me more by choosing that one first, such as boons. Are you melee? probably toughness for the casual mistake.. If you are a squishy toughness seems futile.. But how you play and what benefits you get that help your playstyle is the way I see it working.

Level 56 Guardian so I really don't know squat yet

[Kelesti]

Toughness drops direct damage incoming. The majority of your deaths are going to be from spike damage, not little tiny hits like Mesmer Scepter spam. Being able to survive those would need a health pool the size of the average Battlestar, or at least a way to mitigate it. This comes from Toughness. It doesn't make it not hurt, but it makes the hurt survivable.

You'll also never die from two stacks of Bleed alone. It either needed to be a lot of Conditions piled on, and those are what's left (Decent condition removal), or in conjunction with a spike.

I generally go Toughness > Vitality, and try to keep Regeneration and Protection flowing to keep myself alive.

[Arrowstormen]

So, you believe that conditions are so few that toughness it the better choice in general?

Somewhere down the line, toughness might be for melee, and vitality for ranged, but since I like to be able to go from shortbow to some swings with my sword and warhorn without getting stomped, it doesn't make it easier.

[rhinomatic]

Are heals based on a percentage off your health pool or is it a flat value based on your level?

If it's the former, that works better for vitality, if the latter toughness would work better.

[Robbomb116]

Are heals based on a percentage off your health pool or is it a flat value based on your level?

If it's the former, that works better for vitality, if the latter toughness would work better.

Healing is based off your healing power stat + a value based on your level

[Arrowstormen]

Are heals based on a percentage off your health pool or is it a flat value based on your level?

If it's the former, that works better for vitality, if the latter toughness would work better.

That's what I think too.

[Fencers]

Vitality all the way. Toughness seems totally ineffective relative to the amount needed to be safe. Most lethal damage comes in huge bursts. Being able to soak such damage is crucial to survival in tough areas in my experience.

I am dodging, being regen'd, bubble'd, ward'd, etc almost constantly. That ridiculous spike damage from like the golems in Crucible of whateveritscalled or that volcano instance. Yea, f--- that. Vitality all day.

[Zeek Daniels]

Pretty sure Matt Sorg from Build Cast on Gamebreaker.tv did a whole chart on Vit vs Toughness. I would go watch ep 1-3 of Build Cast, its got alot of good pvp info, Even Power vs Precision and stuff like that.

[rezoacken]

I think the general feeling is getting both since a point in one boosts the other one. Whether you should go more vit or more toughness depends on your class, your build and the situation.

If you have a lot of healing (meditation guardian for example), and/or get hit mostly by DD and/or have a lot of condition removal; toughness is probably the better choice.
If you're taking huge hits or get hit by a lot of cond. damage, get vitality.

[Deleted]

Funny to see this thread as I had this exact thought yesterday in SPVP. Thing is, for SPVP you can literally carry around 2 sets of armor on it, one with vit and one with toughness. So that's what I did, switching out whenever the opposing team had more +power or +conditions damage. Worked great. Had to keep a clean inventory though :P

As for PvE, I have no idea. I would assume that certain encounters would require more of one or the other. Switching it out there would cost too much so I would err on the side of stacking vitality 3:1 to toughness. Should you find that you're getting ruined by certain mobs, check the combat log and see if it's to do with crits / dd. Stack more toughness if needed.

Tbh though, I'm only erring no the side of vit because that's what I've done in other MMOs. Anet might not approve.

[Keldrath]

whichever ones lower is the one you will get the most out of. That's a good general rule.

[nocturnus]

So I'm having a hard time picking between these two stats, and it didn't seem like a profession specific issue.

Vitality:

More health, good against conditions.


Toughness:

More armor, good against direct damage like crits.



What do you do?

I stack both on gear (warrior). Prio goes to toughness and vitality, after power and precision.