Tank Balance - Thordan EX 7-WAR 1-WHM Clear (Really SE?)

[Reynhart]

Has been since they were buffed in 2.x, iirc.

Not exactly.

WAR had "enough" mitigation since 2.1, even though the gap between PLD and WAR was higher than now (thanks to Raw Intuition and the parry buff) and was the highest MT DPS.
BUT, without a DPS stance and no skill out of Defiance, it actually did less damage than a PLD in SwOath, as long as Storm's Eye was applied.
So, wether you wanted to play safe or go full damage, tanks just had to switch places.

Now, Deliverance and Fell Cleave are a much higher boost than Goring Blade and Royal Authority, so PLD fell back under WAR in both MT DPS and OT DPS...without anything significant to compensate.
The other reason is that stacking is bad. So, it was always better to go PLD+WAR than WAR+WAR or PLD+PLD. Now that DRK is here, "not stacking" is not enough to ensure a place for each tank.

[lawlHT]

Main tanking as WAR requires skill. Off tanking, does not.

Main ranking on any job is easy. Hold hate, pop cd for tank buster, repeat.

Off tanking is the one that actually requires raid awareness to pick up mechanics as they happen as opposed to standing in one spot all day

[Brian_]

Main ranking on any job is easy. Hold hate, pop cd for tank buster, repeat.

Off tanking is the one that actually requires raid awareness to pick up mechanics as they happen as opposed to standing in one spot all day

Well first off, you don't stand in the same spot all day as a MT. Second, most mechanics in this game are a joke. It might be too hard for bad players, but what's so hard about most mechanics?

I play both PLD and WAR. On PLD, I primarily MT. On WAR, I primarily OT.

There is just way more stuff you need to think about as a MT. When you are OTing, you basically just sit there in your DPS stance and do your rotation while popping dCDs off CD to push stacks. Oh, I have to dodge this AoE, deal with this tether, pass this debuff, pick up this add. Wow, so hard. As an MT, you have to think much more about your dCD timing -- if I just use this dCD now to push more DPS, will it be ready for when I need it to mitigate mechanic damage? You have to think much more about your stance dancing -- if I stance dance here, can I fit in enough DPS-stance GCDs to make it efficient or is it a waste of GCDs? As an MT, you actually have to use a lot more of your skills.

[Riki_Namu]

Snip.

Except stance dancing isn't a requirement of tanking end game content. You could sit in Tank stance the whole fight and still clear just fine. Provided you aren't carrying dps and the OT.

[CookieMonsta]

/sarcasm
We should nerf DRK, because they 7 DRK + 1 SCH Ravana Extreme
/rolleyes

[Brian_]

Except stance dancing isn't a requirement of tanking end game content. You could sit in Tank stance the whole fight and still clear just fine. Provided you aren't carrying dps and the OT.

Stance dancing is required to maximize your MT DPS and your MT DPS matters in end-game progression. After you out-gear the content and/or have DPS / OT / Healers that can carry your bad MT DPS, then it's no longer required.

[Reynhart]

/sarcasm
We should nerf DRK, because they 7 DRK + 1 SCH Ravana Extreme
/rolleyes

4 DRK, 2 PLD, 1 WAR : Kill time = 8m49s. (August 2015)
Usual setup : Kill time = 4m48s. (July 2015).

Yep, toooootally the same

[Isius]

Except stance dancing isn't a requirement of tanking end game content. You could sit in Tank stance the whole fight and still clear just fine. Provided you aren't carrying dps and the OT.

/facepalm

It is clear you don't do any endgame content.

[Faeon]

I agree, you need to stance dance, though tbh! you are doing it less frequently if you are playing a PLD, but as a WAR once you know the encounter your should be dancing. I would say when its new no dancing until you learn the mechanics and know when you can pop in and out of your defensives.

[Ashkendor]

Except stance dancing isn't a requirement of tanking end game content. You could sit in Tank stance the whole fight and still clear just fine. Provided you aren't carrying dps and the OT.

So, during phases when the damage I'm taking is minimal (or the boss isn't hitting me at all) I should inflict a 20% damage penalty on myself... what, to prove a point? Okay, but explain again how this helps the party clear Savage level content.

Main ranking on any job is easy. Hold hate, pop cd for tank buster, repeat.

Off tanking is the one that actually requires raid awareness to pick up mechanics as they happen as opposed to standing in one spot all day

Kind of ironic to find a comment like this in a thread about Thordan EX, of all things.

MT - Drags the boss all over kingdom come (Eye in the last phases, possibly have to move out of a charge as well)
OT - Tanks one add, soaks one mechanic, otherwise is basically a DPS