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

[Thela]

It depends completely on gear whether or not tank stance is required or not for tanking something right now. What a sub-i290 needs a tank stance to tank is not necessarily the same as what an i340 tank needs tank stance to tank.

Many of the things that an i340 tank would need tank stance to tank are likely to be things that an i280 tank can not tank even with tank stance, but a large amount of content is expected to be done by players at both extremes.

Anyone calling the Tank Stances "easy mode button" is really forgetting where the easy mode is really coming from: their gear which is anywhere between 20 to 60 ilevels over the minimum.

That's simply not true. The only thing you really need tank stance for is the added enmity nothing else.

[Ultimatecalibur]

That's simply not true. The only thing you really need tank stance for is the added enmity nothing else.

An i340 tank (~55k hp) has 27% more hp than a i300 (~43k hp) tank. This is greater than the difference between an i300 Warrior being in or out of Defiance.

This is without factoring in the differences a roughly 12% increase in Def/MDef (4525 to 5066) and any additional mitigation from increased Tenacity.

An attack power increase of ~1700 to ~2140 (~25%) also shortens fights significantly and severely reduces the number of actions you need to perform in order to generate more enmity than needed to hold a target against your dps.

[Thela]

An i340 tank (~55k hp) has 27% more hp than a i300 (~43k hp) tank. This is greater than the difference between an i300 Warrior being in or out of Defiance.

This is without factoring in the differences a roughly 12% increase in Def/MDef (4525 to 5066) and any additional mitigation from increased Tenacity.

An attack power increase of ~1700 to ~2140 (~25%) also shortens fights significantly and severely reduces the number of actions you need to perform in order to generate more enmity than needed to hold a target against your dps.

Obviously gear helps you, but the question was whatever or not the tank stance was needed or not. I'm by no means a top player, and neither are the team I'm playing with, yet we cleared 1-4 savage with both tanks in 0% tank stance in 320 gear outside the pull establishing a small enmity lead that lasts for the rest of the fight.

This is exactly the crux of the problem, tank stance is just not needed for anything the game can throw at you outside of giving you an easier time with enmity.

[Ultimatecalibur]

Obviously gear helps you, but the question was whatever or not the tank stance was needed or not. I'm by no means a top player, and neither are the team I'm playing with, yet we cleared 1-4 savage with both tanks in 0% tank stance in 320 gear outside the pull establishing a small enmity lead that lasts for the rest of the fight.

This is exactly the crux of the problem, tank stance is just not needed for anything the game can throw at you outside of giving you an easier time with enmity.

Actually your very statement puts you in the "top player" group and your situation points heavily to your groups ability to push over the edge where tank stance is needed/not needed.

This is another case of the high skill Dunning-Kruger effect causing miss-analysis of difficulty and necessities.