look at it this way
say monster deals x damage
which is the same if it's caster or melee

melee hit does x - defense
crit does x(300-dex)/100 (just pretend)
caster does x(200-int)/100 (again, pretend)

say monsters are 50-50 caster and melee and suppose they crit 20% of the time while melee

vita reduces damage 40% of the time
int reduces damage 50% of the time
dex reduces damage 10% of the time

vita has a chance to completely absorb the damage (def>x)
int can shrink it to half, with increasing returns as it approaches 1/2
dex can shrink the crit bonus by 33%

so really, vita has the most potential
followed by int
and dex is last

imo the best tanker would be:

high int weapon
high EE plate
high int charm
heal acc for shits n giggles

100vita
rest int

statting int first since 1 mana > 1 health if you're using your heal charm

ideally this would result in 0 dmg 40% of the time
.5x 50% of the time
and 3x 10% of the time (though I doubt they crit even that often)

so all in all you take .55x out of a possible 1.7x

choosing vita as a main tanking stat will get you no where an int dex build on an ee place will tank better than anything wish ridiciulous life.

if you actually read his post you'd know that he's not using vit for the life.

Ahhh... so someone actually agrees that vita is a good stat for tanking.
I am not certain about 100 vita... but I have noticed that even 65 vita is not too shabby.
but then I have not tested that out much lately... being Monk... but... I still put 5 points into vita from the start
for BOTH... % Defense and life... just helps out

personally i don't think vita would be much use on a monk. the extra life wouldn't actually last that long since youre wearing robes, and you get an almost non-existant bonus to your defence too.

and +life is pretty useless in catacombs.

soloing it's helpful but in catacombs life isn't useful.

This post was edited by Cloudfire on Nov 27 2009 03:04am

his post said vit helps absorb damage and is therefore a better stat than dex of int for tanking. and its bs. lol. vita is not much more helpful than a 1k max life weapon if your going to tank. wut would u rather have 7k life thats going to drop VERY FAST. or 4k when you barely get hit for anything over 50?

vita increases your armor's defense...
dex is hardly a good tanking stat, it only helps you on the off chance the monster crits, and even then, not by much
int is much better than dex because it works by the same ratio, but many times more often
adding 50vita to get to 100 will add around 25% to your defensewhich could come out to being 50 damage less per melee hit, in catas that is quite a large portion of what you're getting hit for

This post was edited by J_B on Nov 27 2009 11:51am

1 point into vita = 0.95% Armor Defense
... for every 20 hard points... you get like 19% enhanced defense (work it out if you want)
1 point into vita = 2 life at placing point (1 life per level afterwards)

Above is suggesting adding Vita... how about go a different route...

I personally use a 24 Vita / 26 Dexterity MAIN charm...
I put 5 points into vitality at the creation of my Barb (65 Starting)
@ level 55 I use main charm... this equates to 89 vita without the life bonus... but giving me the best tank option

because I am not rich... or even have great gear... my barb tanks effectively and deals good damage.
The only thing that my barb is susceptible to... is magic damage because I do not invest any points into Intelligence

Besides weapon, the other items can be based around stats that you may need to reach:

Barb starts with 5 intelligence... so you want to reach at least 50 total:
... Minimum of 45 Int on Gear... without placing points into Int

Above... check out the stats of the barb... and you will see what is needed to become a great tanker and the gear
relevant to your requirements.

Note: calculate your starting stat points and each point upto level 55... this way you can distribute the points accordingly until you reach lvl55 and have MQ gear on...

50 int won't tank much
and your .95% thing is wrong for defense

I disagree in adding vit as you can achieve a *plateau* effect from just having enough EE on your armor. Considering all tank characters already have a base of 50 vit, I wouldn't recommend adding more to vit.

Also keep in mind adding dexterity will reduce the amount of crits you reieve as well as the amount of damage crits deal. Not to mention the fact that CS ignore defense so even if your only getting hit 10% of the time... that 10% of the time is ignoring defense possibly dealing more damage then the combined outcome you would have gotten from adding vitality.

ie: 10x 20 damge vs 1x 200 damage.

160 ee plate is generally enough.

Lastly, High dex (120) High Int ( 150 ish) EE plate will be best tank.