Perhaps a Simple DRK Solution

[Jukebox12]

I say 80secs because that is how often you can cast it. The initial 20secs of that you are under the effects of BfB. I think we agree, but are just saying it differently? The difference with WAR is that outside of defiance they are just returned to their original hp pool. The don't take increased damage because of their stance dancing. Dropping grit would return you to your "normal" condition like the WAR but you would also suffer the increase in incoming damage due to BfB being up. That makes stance dancing as a DRK under the effects of BfB far more risky than stance dancing as a WAR.

This i do agree with but when your tanking your trying to maximize how much dmg u take and dish out allow holding agrro war lose 25% or was it 20% increase to there hp when they switch stances so basically there taking more dmg when tank stancing

[Noxifer]

war lose 25% or was it 20% increase to there hp when they switch stances so basically there taking more dmg when tank stancing

All tanks take more dmg when stance dancing. The difference between DRK/PLD and WAR is that our tank stance "defence bonus" takes the shape of additional HP instead of taking less damage. We still take just as many hits before reaching 0 hp (disregarding defensive cooldowns, hp regen ticks and healing done). The main difference is that when stance dancing, PLD/DRK gain their extra defence immediately, whereas WAR don't gain current HP but only max HP when switching to tank stance (basically, they immediately take 20% damage based on their new max hp). Math hidden behind a button, cos... it's sort of irrelevant to this discussion anyway.

Assume that a tank has 1000hp as a base (i.e. without tank stance), and are standing still in tank stance, doing nothing, in a fight where the enemy hits for 100 damage each hit.

Base HP: 1000
WAR HP: +25%, ergo 1000x1.25=1250
DRK/PLD HP: 1000

DMG taken per hit: 100
WAR dmg: 100
DRK/PLD dmg: -20%, ergo 100x0.8=80

1250/100 = 12.5
1000/80 = 12.5

In conclusion, all three tanks would in this case take 12.5 hits to reach 0 hp.

Generally speaking... It would be interesting if they added a third crossclass class to every job. If they didn't add any more skill slots for it, it'd force people to pick and choose which ones they'd want. Especially those jobs that today have to choose between two or three "equally useless" abilities would gain something from it, of course, but even the rest of them would, too.

So for example, DRK could be GLA/MRD/LNC (and PLD/WAR would also be well served with LNC, I think). And you'd be able to customize your crossclass skills depending on what your role would be in the content you went in for ("Today I'm the OT, so I'll grab B4B instead of Foresight.") and what your personal play style fit with (Overpower-happy WARs would be able to slot in Invigorate to use while in Defiance, for example).