Tank Stance Redesign

[ArianeEwah]

An actual difference of game play between the stance.

Paladin somewhat has that with shield swipe (i'd reduce the CD to 5s max). That's one extra thing to do while tanking.

Something similar on the other job would be welcomed.

While I agree with your wish to add additional gimmicks for each job, it's hard to archieve. We had this in HW with DRK's parry procs, but they also increased DRK's DPS, so they had to MT. If you are going to lower the CD of Shield Swipe, not only you have to manage your oGCD usage way harder (esp. during Req. Holy Spirit window), but also force PLD into MT position just like DRK in HW. So far, there isn't any encounter in which you can get shield procs every 5 seconds without being MT.

As for more active forms of mitigation... I guess Sheltron counts as such... still feels kinda off because it has a 10s duration.

At least WAR has this kinda gimmick with their tank stance, (Inner Beast) WAR stances in general appear to be best designed right now.

I'll suggest more unique tank stances at the very least, something that might heavily play into the mechanics of the particular job and theme. Paladin and Dark Knight could both have some interesting stuff regarding this.

I tried to achieve that with my suggestions, but at the same time I didn't want to go into extreme. e.g. just increasing block rate for PLD 'cause it's still a random proc mechanic and doesn't affect crit hits. Additionally, it might prove less effective than a flat mitigation if PLD's got an older shield, thus weaker block strength.

Another idea was, (DRK) tank stance could reduce incoming damage by 50% and inflict additional 30% of incoming as DoT on them, but that would increase the burden on healers even further once the DoTs stack up.

Only tangentially related, but I always thought it would be cool if going into Sword Oath put your shield away and swapped out your shield based abilities for more offensive ones.

Do you think of something like WARs Beast Gauge actions which change once you switch stances?