Off tank mechanic Ideas

[Atreus]

What would be the benefit though?

More engaging gameplay. Doesn't mean it has to come back in the exact same form it was before. If I had to design it myself, I'd likely consider stances giving you access to different skills for different situations.

The old ones were understandably removed as they had no upsides, only downsides, because of the fact that "extra mitigation" has no value in FFXIV because tank DPS beats healer DPS. So tanks want to spend all their resources on damage if possible, while making healers heal less is never worth it if it would cost tank DPS to achieve that.

Yes, you wanted to optimize your time in DPS stance but you still needed tank stance for enmity spikes and mitigation. Still more engaging than it is now.

Hence staying in DPS stance as much as humanly possible. And that's why they were removed, it wasn't a player-interactive thing, it was a "Do I haaaaave to be in def stance? Siiiiigh, okaaaaay mum...", swap over, do the bare minimum, swap back.

I mean, god forbid players do what they need to do when the situation calls for it.