Just make tank stances a bigger deal

Problem: Tanking is a bit boring right now.

Reasons: SE wants a low skill floor, so that new/casual/lazy players can get through MSQ, and so DF PUGs aren't a total nightmare. So they're never going to make managing enmity too difficult.

But tank players want a high skill ceiling, otherwise they're bored. So, once aggro is taken care of, we need a way to contribute.

Solution: Make stances more meaningful. Like, more than double their effect.

DPS Stance: You can't survive a tank buster, or a bunch of adds. You just can't do it. You also generate no extra enmity. In return, your DPS can be 80-90% that of a DPS class. Essentially, when you pop DPS stance, you become a slightly sub-par, squishy DPS.

Tank Stance: You can't do much damage. Not much at all. But you generate loads more enmity, and your health is similar to where it is now in tank stance. Basically, you're an old-fashioned tank.

Result:
For new/casual/lazy players, it'll make no difference. Sit in DF PUGs, soak up hits in tank stance, don't worry about damage.

For players who want a challenge, it'll make learning fights, and learning your limits, really meaningful. It'll dramatically increase the skill ceiling. Know a tank buster is coming? Gotta be in tank stance. Know nothing's going to hit you hard for a bit? Swap to DPS stance and optimize those rotations. When you screw up, you're punished. When you succeed, you're rewarded.

Other good side-effects:

• Solo content isn't tedious because now you hit like a DPS.
• Tanks in raid statics don't get benched for an extra DPS - just OT in DPS stance, then swap to tank stance for adds.
• Progression will require more caution (tank stance on all the time), but farming will be faster. Which seems like a good trade off.
• Tanks stop pissing off healers by going DPS stance all the time, then just expecting the healer to keep up and forget about their own DPS - because, as a tank, you can no longer go DPS stance most of the time when taking loads of damage.
• Doesn't require a massive rebalancing of the entire game to fix one role.
• Tanking will be much more fun, so there will be more tanks.
• It will finally make sense that Warriors and DRKs have massive 2H-weapons.

Possible cons:

• SE will have to rejig the hp of raids a bit to reflect higher damage from better groups.
• Some (bad) DPS might be salty when OTs out-damage them.
• SE will have to work out how HP restoration/conversion is done between DPS and Tanks stance. OH NO!
• Tanking will be more fun, so there will be more tanks, so we'll get less DF bonuses. :(

Conclusion:
I think that, by creating a Tanking-versus-DPS dynamic within the tank classes, it'll radically improve the experience for everyone - without a massive rethink of the entire game's mechanics.


Thanks for reading.

Why don't became like Ast's sect? once your are in the fight you can't change stances? Ast already does this thing tho.

I would much rather see holding enmity be made harder, and mitigation becoming more important. I play tank to tank, not because I want instant queues.

The only problem I see here is that DRK does not have a DPS stance, they are like WAR of 2.x, Tank stance or no stance. But that could easily be added.

I have long believed that enmity generation in the DPS stance should be pretty much eliminated, by that I mean, the enmity multipliers for moves would not count, only the raw damage number. I understand why it was originally there, due the ill conceived plan that PLD does not get his tank stance until 10 levels later the others.
I love the idea that DPS stance would also turn a tank into a squishy DPS character, like a penalty, you take 30% more damage in this stance.

PLD/DRK stances would be something like:
Tank - take 20% less damage, do 25% less damage, increase enmity
None - no modifiers, enmity modifiers are normal
DPS - take 30% more damage (needed due to tank HP totals), do 25% more damage, enmity multipliers do not have any affect

WAR stances would be something like:
Tank - 25% more life, do 25% less damage, increase enmity
None - no modifiers, enmity modifiers are normal
DPS - 25% less life (needed due to tank HP totals), do 25% more damage, enmity multipliers do not have any affect

The other benefit would the ability to return the damage calculation back VIT+STR because a tank would not be able to run the content in DPS stance and maintain enmity or survive. Which would end the continuous argument about the uselessness of the Tank accessories.

As for stance dancing, you would do something akin to the Astrologin. Once in battle, if a stance is active (DPS or Tank), only the other stance could be activated, removing the option of doing the Tank stance on/off only scenario.

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Originally Posted by Age_of_Oblivion

I would much rather see holding enmity be made harder, and mitigation becoming more important. I play tank to tank, not because I want instant queues.

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But then it'd end up being too tough for casuals. The trouble is that tanking successfully is binary - you're either holding hate, or not. Once you manage it, you need something else to do. So this suggestion makes holding hate the same as it is now, except that there's an extra dimension to the class.

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Originally Posted by ChameleonMS

Snip

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Exactly. Percentages would probably be higher, but I'm not an expert at crunch so can't give a proper number.

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Originally Posted by aqskerorokero

Why don't [tank stances] became like Ast's sect? once your are in the fight you can't change stances? Ast already does this thing tho.

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Not to sound like too much of an asshole, but that is an absolutely awful idea. Have you ever done any 8-man content that requires 2 tanks?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aqskerorokero

Why don't became like Ast's sect? once your are in the fight you can't change stances? Ast already does this thing tho.

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That would kill any endgame fight with tank swap mechanics.