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

[zipzo]

Because you're presenting a subjective issue (that's just not shared by everyone) with no concrete example of what could be changed to make the job more interesting (by your standard) and without hurting low/high skill balance.

Managing the conflicting priorities between mitigation and dps is interesting and engaging to me. It ain't perfect because it's currently too easy to reach the diminishing return breakpoint but the concept itself isn't bad.
That's not to say other designs can't be better but bring exemples/ideas to the table so we can have an open discussion.

...

I literally did. I outright declared exactly what I think should happen. Remove the stances and replace them with a more interesting enmity rotation that boils down to something more than a 1-2-3 cycle that makes DPS class rotations look like rocket science in comparison. I’m not sure if your reading comprehension needs work or what, but I literally opened this post with my “ideas”.

Darkside is the equivalent of Storm's Eye. I think you'll have a much better understanding of how tank stance works once you level DRK (or for that matter any tank) to 70.

It doesn’t take a college degree and 3 years experience playing lvl 70 FFXIV to comprehend ability descriptions and observe how they work and interact with one another. FFXIV is a long way down a long list of MMOs I’ve played (mostly as a tank), so you can throw ad hom fallacies all you want, doesn’t change that the stances are essentially a waste of abilities in their current form.

I not dps-savvy on my tanks, but I WILL say this:

You must not know DRK that well, because our strongest potency attack (at 650) comes from being in Grit + Dark Arts (it's name is Bloodspiller).

I do know that. What’s your point?

[whiskeybravo]

It doesn’t take a college degree and 3 years experience playing lvl 70 FFXIV to comprehend ability descriptions and observe how they work and interact with one another.

Yeah, but you could at least, ya know, finish leveling up your tanks in this game. Otherwise I just don't think you have a complete picture of the tank scene with only 51 PLD, 52 WAR, and 62 DRK.. Like, you're literally in the easiest content in the game.

Tanking needs to be both accessible and rewarding. The basics of tanking need to be easy enough for any player to handle, pick up quick and go. It would be a detriment to the community if tanking was overly complicated early on, it would eventually drive players away and make level/dungeon grinding more miserable than it already is. I'm not saying is "perfectly accessible" right now, there's always room for improvement, but if you were to remove tank stances it would certainly make it less accessible and more complicated, for no good reason.

[zipzo]

Yeah, but you could at least, ya know, finish leveling up your tanks in this game. Otherwise I just don't think you have a complete picture of the tank scene with only 51 PLD, 52 WAR, and 62 DRK.. Like, you're literally in the easiest content in the game.

Tanking needs to be both accessible and rewarding. The basics of tanking need to be easy enough for any player to handle, pick up quick and go. It would be a detriment to the community if tanking was overly complicated early on, it would eventually drive players away and make level/dungeon grinding more miserable than it already is. I'm not saying is "perfectly accessible" right now, there's always room for improvement, but if you were to remove tank stances it would certainly make it less accessible and more complicated, for no good reason.

Again, your ad hom is a poor rebuttal to my (admittedly bulletproof and objective) argument.

So you're worried about it becoming tougher for bad players?

Is that all? I'm just clarifying that this is your entire argument.