Does Tank Stance mean you're "bad?"

[Twilite]

It's called tank stance for a reason. Any body that scoffs at you for using it, NEVER tanked before.

[VanilleFang]

I'm inclined to say no, but tempted to say yes to cause some drama.

[TenZer0]

Tank stance is bad idea, it's generally useless. If you are not full str, you're bad and suboptimal, and also if you can't hold agro in dps stance, then a tank might not be the class for you.
I think you should try another class that fits you.

This guy has to be a troll lol...

[TenZer0]

I think the perspective in this topic is wrong. Being good is not knowing when you need to "use" tank stance.

By default, tanks are in tank stance. Being good is knowing how you can use your offensive stance.

You don't start in your DPS stance and figure out when you should be in your tank stance. You start in your tank stance during progression and should be actively analyzing damage intake and mechanics to figure out when it makes sense to swap to deliverance / sword-oath / grit-less.

I think this is spot on. I do this all the time on my DRK. I have all my attributes in STR, and my accessories are 3 VIT and 2 STR (switched depending on encounter). I drop grit A LOT in Void Ark, but only "after" I've established hate. I also drop grit during my savage runs..again, "after" I've established hate. I turn it back on when I see another player encroaching on hate, when a tank buster is coming up, and/or when I'm out of my regular cds.

[TenZer0]

I think the perspective in this topic is wrong. Being good is not knowing when you need to "use" tank stance.

By default, tanks are in tank stance. Being good is knowing how you can use your offensive stance.

You don't start in your DPS stance and figure out when you should be in your tank stance. You start in your tank stance during progression and should be actively analyzing damage intake and mechanics to figure out when it makes sense to swap to deliverance / sword-oath / grit-less.

In no way does using a "Tank Stance" make you a bad tank lol... Many times too, if other players are messing up mechanics and taking damage, you being in that "tank stance" can actually make it a little easier on healers. There's so many ways to argue this lol. And like the Graylle said, "Being good is knowing how you can use your offensive stance." When you figure this out your tanking outlook and world will change :-)

[fm_fenrir]

Reminder: A dead MT means the next target should 100% be a WAR if there is a WAR.

You'd think that, but that hasn't been my experience with VA. All the WARs I've seen either MT, or don't really do much of anything besides soak up fending drops.

[PinnyAerani]

OP, next time you hear something completely illogical like this, feel free to disregard it. Tanks are tanks first (who would have thought?), so keeping aggro while keeping yourself/your team alive is your #1 priority. Once you have built enough enmity and feel comfortable dropping your tank stance (because remember, you take 20% more damage outside of them), you're free to do so, but if people start catching up again or you're taking too much damage, it's right back into tank stance. If a team can't clear content because their tanks are in their tanking stance, I'll give you a hint: It's not the tank's fault.

[Merkava]

A tank that is unable to keep aggro on him/herself is a bad tank.
A tank that does not properly use cooldowns in a fight is a bad tank.

A tanks job is, primordially, to keep enemy hate and mitigate as much damage as possible. If you are doing that then you are a good tank.

An exceptional tank, however, tries to go beyond that and strives to also maximize their damage output. This requires knowledge of the fight and proper cooldown and stance management. The problem with this sort of stuff is that people often like to talk in extremes when it comes to this sort of thing, often making it sound like Tanking and DPSing are mutually exclusive (when they aren't in the least).

The tanks in your VA run weren’t bad for using their tank stance. They where bad because they couldn’t do something as basic as keeping hate.

[Februs]

Anyway, got a bit off topic there, does using tank stance to (at the very least) build aggro at the start and then turning it off if you want/need to dps more really mean a tank is "bad?" I just find it kind of backwards that a tank using tank stance is apparently being bad.

This kind of nonsense is the reason I never Tank those 24-man Cluster F***'s. There are too many idiots being hypercritical about a job that 90% of them don't know a damn thing about. Anyone who thinks that a Tank doing their actual job is "bad" is either an outright moron or some kind of lunatic.

Tanking in Tank stance (which is what it is for) does not make a tank "bad." It's their job. If a Tank wanted to run as Dps, they'd have come as Dps. Maybe all the Dps out there who ride along at the back of the short-bus should stop stuffing crayons up their noses and actually do their jobs instead of criticizing Tanks. They only have one job, after all. I don't remember ever seeing one of them optimize their Dps, so what right do they have to criticize a tank who's holding aggro?

[Syzygian]

The only time having tank stance on = bad is when you don't have aggro on something. Kinda self explanatory. Having it on while actively tanking is at worst "suboptimal" or "overly cautious" depending on context, and definitely does not graduate to "bad" by any yardstick.