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

[Launched]

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

[Kumori_Kumo]

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.

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.

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

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?

[Soraki-Muppe]

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

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.

[SyzzleSpark]

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

Ah, the homogenization card. I knew it had to show its ugly, idea-silencing face somewhere.

The stances would still be very different in what they do. PLD's stances alter the way you generate gauge and its DPS stance does something completely different from that of the other two tanks. Grit/Gritless locks two different abilities with opposing effects and alters your mana generation. And WAR's stances are vastly polarized and provide completely different abilities and buffs to your damage and mitigation.

The stances are VASTLY heterogenous in how they do what they do, and what abilities/mechanics are gated behind them. Their ease of use is apparently the sole needed metric that you have for homogenization and I submit that that is a fallacious and wholly incomplete (and frankly, a little uncreative) view of a larger picture.

For your statement to hold water, xOath/Grit/Defiance-Deliverance effects would be as follows:

Shield Oath: reduces damage taken/dealt by 20% and increases enmity.
Defiance: reduces damage taken/dealt by 20% and increases enmity.
Grit: reduces damage taken/dealt by 20% and increases enmity.

Sword Oath: increases damage dealt by 5% while adding a 75 potency to each auto attack.
Deliverance: increases damage dealt by 5% while adding a 75 potency to each auto attack.
Gritless (now a stance): increases damage dealt by 5% while adding a 75 potency to each auto attack.

PLD: AAs/blocks/Holy Spirit generate gauge regardless of stance.
WAR: All beast gauge abilities usable regardless of stance.
DRK: BW/BP usable regardless of stance, Syphon Strike MP regeneration and Souleater self-heal identical regardless of stance.

Now ^that's^ homogenization.

[eagledorf]

I mean, some things SHOULD be homogenized. How easy it is to turn on your damn tank stance is one of those things. Another is if you even have a taunt ability, for example (finally fixed with 4.0. Thank you SE.) I think WAR/DRK players can appreciate that getting a native taunt was a good example of homogenization! Unless some of you are thinking the game was way better back when the only way to get Provoke was by leveling GLD?

Some things shouldn't be homogenized or there's no point in having multiple jobs. Right now PLD has a casting phase where they have to turret, that's quite different from the other two tank jobs that only have instant abilities. These kinds of details should be diverse and doing something to make the tank stance easier to use wouldn't change that diversity in any way.

[Shurrikhan]

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

Hmm, and here I was thinking that added Role Skills and near-identical gauge systems, atop already near-identical combo paths and CDs, were designed with exactly homogenization in mind.

Certain universal quality of life adjustments can actually open up the abilities of tanks to further differentiate themselves through the rest of their previously restricted toolkits—just something to note.