Request: Move all stances off the GCD, remove all mana/gauge costs, and buff Defiance

I believe this is the only way to give the tanks' stances parity. Right now WAR has too much riding on its Beast Gauge for it to tolerate any cost to it through a stance change.

Unfortunately, most WAR mains are calling for it to simply go back to being costless, which is not a solution; then we are back at square one with PLD and DRK having garbage GCD stance changes.

Here is the solution.

Shield/Sword Oath:
-Remove mana cost.
-Remove gauge cost.
-Move off the GCD.
-Give both a shared recast timer of 10s.

Defiance/Deliverance:
-Remove gauge cost.
-Buff Defiance so that you are healed, such that your current HP remains at the same percentage of your max HP, same as Thrill of Battle. This ensures Defiance provides instant mitigation through the HP buffer, giving it parity with Shield Oath and Grit.

Grit:
-Move off the GCD.
-Remove mana cost.
-Give turning it on a recast timer of 10s and have turning it off trigger this same recast timer, or if this is not possible to code properly, give turning it on a recast of 15s while turning it off remains instant.

Stance dancing is important to your tanking customer base and if you consistently make it feel like garbage for 1, 2, or all of the tanks, the negative feedback is not going to stop. If you want to limit it in a way that is fair, increase the recast timers that I have listed here proportionately (i.e. Oaths 20s, Defiance/Deliverance 20s, Grit 20/30s, etc.) so that the choice still has weight, but doesn't ruin your rotation or make you waste a GCD and precious resources.

As much as I agree. I heavily doubt SE will consider a change like that

Well then that would be really sad.

If they don't consider it, I fail to see the logic. Its an easy out from a long series of crappy design choices dating all the way back to ARR that have been messily and unevenly bandaged in ways that expertly evade balance and parity amongst 3 jobs that they promised us that they were making every effort to balance in lieu of adding a 4th job to the role.

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Originally Posted by SyzzleSpark

if this is not possible to code properly, give turning it on a recast of 15s while turning it off remains instant.

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This could be gotten around by programming in a status effect that has a duration of 10s that prevents using the Grit spell. Something like "Succumbed: You have given in to your Darkside preventing the use of Grit for 10s". That would be a very easy way to get around any coding difficulty so there should be no problem. Literally coding 101 solution.

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Originally Posted by SyzzleSpark

Well then that would be really sad.

If they don't consider it, I fail to see the logic

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The thing is, this had to come up when they were working on SB. They had two options, nerf WAR or buff PLD/DRK exactly like you're suggesting and they went with "nerf WAR" and made an entire complex system of skills and resources to make it work. They even changed the numbers on two of the stances. That must be the product of many people working many hours getting paid for that entire time.

I suppose they could just throw all that work away one month in and spend some money doing it over again, but if they don't do so this is the reason. Not saying I agree with it, but it's not totally illogical if they don't want to do that. After all, the devs are human too and the budget isn't unlimited.

However, I agree that it's still been extremely poorly executed if for no other reason than a DRK can pull in Grit without any penalty, which is clearly an oversight by the devs, not to mention the massive cost for going back into Grit means people will take bigger risks to avoid doing so. Also, the WAR adjustment is the opposite of everything Yoshida said they were going for with 4.0. It's raised the skill ceiling instead of making the job more accessible regardless of skill. It would be for the best if they just did what you suggest and I support your idea wholeheartedly.

Well. With healers being able to heal and dps as they want, I would even go as far and say we shouldnt even need tank and dps stances anymore

Here is the issue. Most of the tanks in this game have no intention of stance swapping. That should made apparent of the ongoing tank dps rage in these forums.

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Originally Posted by SyzzleSpark

Things I agree with

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From what I understood, and perhaps I did not understand SE correctly, they wanted to make all the jobs easier to play in SB so that we could focus more on mechanics. This SE, these changes would do just that, this would encourage more tanks to pop your beloved tank stance when needed, this would make more of the defensive tanks willing to try out some dps stance while tanking. These changes would make more tanks willing to change stance as needed not less like the current situation is doing.

No thanks, homogenisation shouldn't be the first solution to balance problems less than a month into the expansion.

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Originally Posted by Aniond

Here is the issue. Most of the tanks in this game have no intention of stance swapping. That should made apparent of the ongoing tank dps rage in these forums.

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Now hold on, it's not that people don't want to ever get out of tank stance. It's just that a lot of us like to primarily be in tank stance, with DPS stance being a more occasional tool for burst damage. It's a play style that means we don't die, because not everybody has amazing healers or maximum rotation or whatever.

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Originally Posted by Launched

No thanks, homogenisation shouldn't be the first solution to balance problems less than a month into the expansion.

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It's... super DUPER too late for that. The tanks are already very homogenous, and have only gotten more similar. This fix doesn't make them the same, it makes them less frustrating. Unless you have a better solution that would work all around without making it completely unfair to the other jobs?

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Originally Posted by Launched

No thanks, homogenisation shouldn't be the first solution to balance problems less than a month into the expansion.

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Explain how this would make the tanks more homogeneous in a bad way.
Why I fail to see your point is because this would simplify one aspect of the tanks, it would not change how the other aspects of the tanks work.