Quote Originally Posted by aodhan_ofinnegain View Post
This is pointless, unless Bulwark was guaranteed damage reduction, it's a terrible skill, RNG is this game is pretty bad if you do any crafting/ gathering you'll know. the biggest issue is crits also which blocking does not currently mitigate. So some form of bulwark would be pointless in all instances in trying to offset sentinels 3minute cooldown.
Not at all. Having a chance to mitigate brings issues for TB's, but not for multiple hits. Bulwark was better than Rampart for Autos or mobs. It also built up Oath for more Sheltrons. This doesn't really matter though as the skill could have been changed to anything. I even suggested a fix for the TB issue by having Bulwark build up a shield.

There's nothing wrong with some degree of "homogenisation" ooohhh big scary word, so what if some things are similar, tanks are the most balanced they have ever been, and if having some homogenisation means all tanks are taken and not a HW situation with PLD, or SB for DRK, then it's a worthwhile "sacrifice".
Homogenization isn't a scary word, it's descriptive term. I don't see a sacrifice to be made and that's where we seem to disagree. We don't have to have copied skills to achieve balance. It certainly makes things easier for the devs but it's not required.

Quote Originally Posted by Yrantis View Post
You guys keep saying that balance shouldn't require homogenization, but in the case of mitigation specifically with how this game works? It absolutely does. Consider how much DRKs hate Living Dead, and that's one of the more "diverse" cooldowns for defense.
Pointing out a problem with one skill doesn't really say much though. The other three invulns are pretty much fine and balanced within each tank's skill set. Living Dead could be made a clone of one of the other invulns or it could be changed into something completely new that doesn't share the current drawbacks. Even if balancing requires near parity between skills, that doesn't mean that we can't try to achieve some kind of differentiation. It might just be limited to a small amount. Would increasing, say, Sentinel's mitigation by 1% break tank balance? No. What about 2%? You can keep asking yourself while increasing the value and I think it's clear that the skill can be given an advantage over the others without making the other tanks totally useless. The devs just need to find the right values and tradeoffs.