Stayin’ Alive

As tanks, we know Vitality is the prime stat.

Having a large health pool gives healers more time to keep tanks alive.

How much vitality do we really need? How important is each point in vitality, as opposed to other tank stats like Health, Dexterity, Defense, Melee Combat, Resists, Armor, Evasion + skills…. etc.

Vitality gives the following :

1. Each point of Vitality adds 6.25 health.
2. Vitality increases Shield wall absorption.
3. Vitality increases Defense via Defensive Formation
4. Vitality increases Armor via Protective Stance
5. Vitality increases Taunt and Warcry amount

Though it may look like stacking vitality is the only way to go, at high amounts it slowly becomes very expensive, and the bonuses , besides health, experiences diminishing returns.

For example, Shield Wall absorption.

The current working formula taken from Celtic Heroes forums, first posted by Papi, finally by Swan. The formula is correct to 99.9325%, I tested the formula myself using my in game stats and a neat spreadsheet.

Level 50 Shield Wall Damage Absorbed = 65.35*sqrt(Vitality) + 20.662*sqrt(Melee Combat) + 726.98

After 1200 points of Vitality, the increase of shield wall absorption drops below 1.0 point per 1 point of vitality. It is not a bad thing to stack Vitality just because of diminishing returns, it just means that equipment with direct tanking stats becomes more attractive at point.

For reference, the chart for other skills as follows (all using same formulas from Celtic Heroes Forums) :

Level 50 Defensive Formation Defense Boost = 16.664*sqrt(Vitality) + 5.1654*sqrt(Melee Combat) + 101.07

Level 50 Protective Stance Armor Boost = 13.86*sqrt(Vitality) + 3.9263*sqrt(Melee Combat) + 142.46

*edited – Thank you Evann Crom, for pointing out Vitality does not increase Shield bash damage.