I don't understand the point of the various tank/dps stances for tanks

[zipzo]

So for any of these abilities to actually have a point (Grit, Defiance, Shield Oath), they actually need to be at the very least on the strongly recommended side of the scale when doing any kind of tanking.

Maybe tanking without it is POSSIBLE but it should be extremely taxing on the healer, and or reduce the mitigation options available to said tank to the point that being out of tank stance is a real risk.

So far the way it feels now (just kickin' around, since coming back, leveling in Stormblood), tank stance is irrelevant and unnecessary for anything other than a sort of arbitrary difficulty switch you can either turn on (to make it easier) or turn off (to make it only slightly "harder").

I can go through whole dungeons, even AOE pulling without even looking at Grit, not mention keeping Darkside up the entire time with good MP management.

What is even the point of a tank stance if you don't need it to tank? At this point just REMOVE these skills entirely and replace it with some more rotation complexity for us to focus on. I mean, is there any sort of loss by removing them and just balancing the tanking classes around simply being tanky without needing a stance on or off? Keep the meters/gauges/whatever for the special mechanics involved with them, but replace the stances with, say, more interesting abilities that must be weaved in to our rotation.

It just kind confuses me why White Mages got the logical treatment of getting cleric stance removed (although they have other issues, IE being boring without the stance switching), but for some reason on tanks it's still reasonable that we need to look at it on our action bars. In an ideal run, these go completely unused, so there is just no point to them.

[Pence]

You're doing dungeons - you hardly even need a tank for them. Stances are more relevant endgame when doing actual content.

[zipzo]

You're doing dungeons - you hardly even need a tank for them. Stances are more relevant endgame when doing actual content.

I've been doing a lot of reading on the new end game, and everything I've read says tanks need to do everything in their power to not activate their tank stance, even in on the toughest content available, pending the capabilities of their group/healers. Is this not accurate?

[LunaChild]

Tank stance was meant to make keeping aggro is easier.

Then players complained they still can't hold aggro, SE buff tank's enmity by a lot.

Then players who don't have problem don't need tank stance (and some still have aggro problem)

just my opinion..

[Faeon]

I've been doing a lot of reading on the new end game, and everything I've read says tanks need to do everything in their power to not activate their tank stance, even in on the toughest content available, pending the capabilities of their group/healers. Is this not accurate?

As a tank in the end game I am hardly in tank stance tbh! the only time I am actually in tank stance is for the initial pull. Then it is dps stance all the way, aslong as your team knows how to manage there enmity . This is a dps focused game so its all about the dps. Personally I feel the tank stance system should just disappear, when we are more in our dps stance than tank stance something is amiss especially since this is using the wow holy trinity style it would be more fitting to call them a dps with tanking abilities.

[Pence]

It depends on the competency of the group. And given that this is XIV.....shield stances are more than needed.

[Phileas]

ffxiv damage is very tank buster heavy. Each boss usually has one mega buster that takes down 50% or so of health. Auto attacks and raid wide damage do tickle a little bit (aside from thw odd crit).

This is why a lot of tanks on raid/dungeon bosses can plan cooldown usage with the timing of tankbusters and stay in dps stance theoughout fight. On trash tho i usually stay in tank stance to ease the healing burden.

By all means tanking in dps stance isnt mandatory. You can tank in tank stance all the time if you like. I have never been kicked for utilising tank stance 100%.

[Phileas]

Adding to this, i wouldnt recommend experimenting with dps stance tanking till at least ilvl 320 or above if you really want to do it. I never really did it till i was a lot more comfortable with cooldowns and have better knowledge of fights. Dps stance tanking on a boss ur not familiar with is really tough for me.

[Keldion]

Knowing the fight (and having a solid party) make an impact on your ability to be greedy with dps stances. Use tank stance to maximize your progression time, then you can start thinking on how to trade your redundant survival for extra damage.

Alte Roite in V1S is pretty tame when you consider it can only threaten the tank during autoattack+Wyrmtail, Twinbolt, or Charybdis. Meanwhile in V3S, White Flame put a 60k hole in my pants when no shields or cooldowns were used with tank stance.

[Sarcatica]

Strictly speaking no one needs tank stance. I view it as a tool to enable easier tanking on the lower level or at least when you are doing some progressions on contents. On the highest level (usually on contents you are already farming), sadly no one is pulling with tank stance due to the nature of Shirk (this skill is new to 4.0) and the fact that the tanks are abusing this to have MT doing more dps, i.e. Double Shirking makes aggro kiddy grade.

Like I can tank dungeons without tank stance but in comparison to that, especially if I pull a lot, healers tend to lose a lot of uptime on the mobs. You tend to make the dungeons slower to clear if you aren't in tank stance and are pulling a lot more than normal, mostly due to healer's dpsing less, this still depends if your healer is any competent to dps because majority of them refuse to dps at all. There are a lot more to discuss but generally tank stance is a "net safety" for its purpose.