Opinions: Should tanks work for aggro?

[Vyrerus]

As it stands right now, tank enmity is more powerful than it's ever been and the, "Tank less geared than me" side of the argument holds no water. You can tank for level 80 characters at level 60 with level 60 gear as it stands right now, but, of course, that wouldn't make much sense to do(though I have done it in synced extremes).

Other than designing fights with precision enmity control in mind, the only other thing to do is to add more abilities that directly influence it or that play off of the mechanics designed around it.

Let's take the one fight in the game where the enmity reset mattered many times in the fight, Neo-Exdeath. The enmity generation of tanks didn't matter as much for the most pivotal point if you had a WHM and PLD, wherein the WHM pulls their agro up to A with Cure III healing up the Beyond Death resolvers, and is promptly covered by the PLD during Aero III's cast, the PLD blocking Aero III and the subsequent Earthshaker, assuming precise timing on the cover. If we were to add in precision enmity mechanics, then we'd want tanks to have things like cover in order to react to the enmity list. Cause as it stands, the only mechanics that really matter, in general, are the ones directed at the highest enmity, but if we had bosses occasionally use lethal-to-DPS attacks on say #6 on the enmity list, then the tanks would have two ways to resolve it. Either they could precisely control their enmity via stance on/stance off for a long enough period of time, or they could blow their cover ability(something I think every tank should be having, honestly).

Further than that, since we aren't going to give DPS or Healers methods to affect their own enmity beyond damage and healing generating enmity, tanks would have to consider how much damage and healing certain jobs put out and actually pay attention to the entire enmity list, rather than just their spot in it. It would vary every time there was a compositional change, and it would also vary fight to fight, based on lag, personal performance, and the RNG of Crit/directs.

[Shurrikhan]

As it stands right now, tank enmity is more powerful than it's ever been and the, "Tank less geared than me" side of the argument holds no water.

We're designing for a system which at present basically lacks any and all interaction (i.e. is a "non-mechanic" apart from Provoke itself). There's no point in not future proofing. So long as Attack Power and its accordant effects on damage remains a mechanic, the problems that can cause will continue to hold water.

but if we had bosses occasionally use lethal-to-DPS attacks on say #6 on the enmity list, then the tanks would have two ways to resolve it.

Ngl, this sounds like an incredibly gimmicky "notice the subtle connection after dying to it, or die to it repeatedly" kind of mechanic. Moreover, just how much buttons' worth of enmity tools are we talking here, such that a tank could drop precisely to position #6 precisely before the skill's targeting is actuated?

Further than that, since we aren't going to give DPS or Healers methods to affect their own enmity beyond damage and healing generating enmity

That's not a requirement. It looks like most people here would prefer to avoid bloat, but otherwise this is, again, a theoretical system. Add away if it helps. To me, at least, there seems little point in shoving a bunch of (at present, likely incohesive) buttons into one role if you're not willing to flesh out that area of play generally.

tanks would have to consider how much damage and healing certain jobs put out and actually pay attention to the entire enmity list

How would this interaction occur? Even assuming slot-sniping were smoothly doable and somehow engaging, that wouldn't actually force you to pay attention to the entire enmity list, let alone give means to interact with it. It'd just be the slots in question.

It would vary every time there was a compositional change, and it would also vary fight to fight, based on lag, personal performance, and the RNG of Crit/directs.

To be frank, that sounds like maximal annoyance for no improvement in gameplay (and I don't even mean no net improvement).