Dark Knight and stance dancing

[MagiusNecros]

inner beast is much like a conditional rampart/shadowskin, and not really much similar to the stances by themselves. and just as a war can do deliverance -> inner beast both drk and pld can do grit/shieldoath -> shadowskin/rampart. only difference being one needs stacks and the other two needs time

More like they all need time. Whether it be GCD locks, recast times, etc. PLD/DRK use up resources to make an immediate change and are on GCD while Warrior sacrifices nothing but 10 seconds until they can revert into a different stance. And technically they could run a 20 second pseudo Defiance mode in Deliverance through Thrill of Battle and Convalescence.

[SuperUguu]

More like they all need time. Whether it be GCD locks, recast times, etc. PLD/DRK use up resources to make an immediate change and are on GCD while Warrior sacrifices nothing but 10 seconds until they can revert into a different stance. And technically they could run a 20 second pseudo Defiance mode in Deliverance through Thrill of Battle and Convalescence.

but the entire point is, as a pld or drk, you gain an immediate effect of 20% badass, where you as a warrior gain absolutely nothing unless you got 5 stacks ready or your next heal. pld and drk work on a matter "ok, it's done" and war is "one moment please"

and as the topic is about the reason for the cost of changing stances, that is exactly why, pld and drk gain so much more the moment they hit that button, where as warrior doesn't gain a nugget of anything until he or his healer does something about it.

[Ragology]

but the entire point is, as a pld or drk, you gain an immediate effect of 20% badass, where you as a warrior gain absolutely nothing unless you got 5 stacks ready or your next heal. pld and drk work on a matter "ok, it's done" and war is "one moment please"

and as the topic is about the reason for the cost of changing stances, that is exactly why, pld and drk gain so much more the moment they hit that button, where as warrior doesn't gain a nugget of anything until he or his healer does something about it.

This is correct.

(Gonna copy paste what I wrote once in a similar topic)

DRK and PLD have a penalty for stance dancing because their stances activate immediately while WAR's does not.

First I'll explain how the stances work (for those who don't know)

DRK and PLD get a 20% incoming damage reduction while WAR gets 25% more hp. Lets say that all three tanks have 100 base HP and then turn on their tank stances.

PLD 100 HP
WAR 125 HP
DRK 100 HP

And now a mob throws 5 rocks at them, doing 25 damage each.

Since PLD and DRK get damage reduced, the rocks only do 20 damage to them. They will be killed in exactly 5 hits. (20 x 5 = 100)

WAR takes the full 25 Damage, also dying in 5 hits. (25 x 5 = 125)

In this case, the stances are equal.

Now lets say all three tanks were fighting as off tanks but have decided to provoke and tank swap.

PLD and DRK are at their 100 HP base and ready to to go already. WAR on the other hand is stuck at 100 until it gets a heal since switching to tank stance increases the health pool without filling it.

If the same mob decides to hurl 25 damage rocks at them, PLD and DRK can take 5 hits before dying while WAR would be killed by the 4th rock. (25 x 4= 100)

In short, making sheild oath and Grit as convenient as Defiance would turn it into an extra 20% damage reduction ability with unlimited uptime and short cooldown.