Expedition: general discussions.

The effectiveness of armor and shields is directly proportional to the amount of hit points and does not depend on strength (except for direct limitations).

What are you talking about strength for? I'm saying that a damage dealer with high strength will also have armor, so the shield-bearer's advantage over him won't be that significant. Especially considering that his damage (and most likely, accuracy) will suffer, which raises the question: "who will take down the other faster?" Shields have a chance to block, which can be tied to some stat, such as dexterity. This means that the tank will also have to invest in dexterity to effectively block. Considering that he has already invested 20 points in vitality and 13 in strength, I don't think he will have many points left. Therefore, the chance to block will probably not be that high.

In PvE, a "tanky" character who can hold enemies for almost unlimited time while the others attack is extremely useful. Although it can be replaced by summons.

The problem is that this tanky character is designed to hold melee fighters. He has less chance against mages and archers. Also, in the game, monsters don't always target the fattest and strongest characters. This is not an MMORPG.

Added 3 minutes later

In fact, probably at least half of our characters were hybrids.

Exactly. And they weren't very effective compared to specialized characters.

And considering that we don't always go with a full party, creating versatile characters is quite justified.

To be honest, a pure character usually has a better chance in solo play. Do you think that Raveling or Alaina have a better chance in solo play than Acteon or Kaeldrin?