Quote Originally Posted by Maeka View Post
A PLD's Shield Oath gives far more defensive power than a Warrior's tank stance, and a Warrior's DPS stance increases DPS by more than a PLD's Sword Oath from my understanding (I could be wrong about this, but eh).
If you're only gonna be tanking three mobs you might as well turn any DPS stance, no matter the job. Sword Oath by itself isn't great bc of the awesome deeps, but because it means not being in Shield Oath and taking a damage penalty.

Believe me, a three mob pack doesn't need Shield Oath if you know what you're doing, with the exception of levelling dungeons like Bardam's when you don't have stat-capped gear due to IL and level sync and things will hit you super hard. I'm obviously not talking for undergeared tanks going into levelling dungeons and not having tank stance on.


Also, WAR's Defiance works mathematically in an identical manner to Shield Oath. They don't have 20% mitigation, but the 25% extra effective HP is basically the same thing. WAR is slightly harder to heal in Defiance than PLD or DRK in ShO and Grit, but it's by a minimal margin.

Remember that damage reduction works in percents in this game. A PLD in Shield Oath will numerically take less damage than a (topped off) WAR in Defiance, but their HP bars will lose the same amount of % from the same hit. In the end, the % of the tank's HP bar is all that matters.

Similarly, Deliverance and Sword Oath both natively grant more or less the same damage bonus, the main difference is in the fact that Deliverance unlocks more powerful abilities in terms of potency, such as Fell Cleave and Decimate. Damage in Sword Oath is still 15% stronger than in Shield Oath, however, and this isn't factoring the added auto-attack damage.

Also? Sword Oath is as much for main tanking as it is for off-tanking. Of course, provided you know what you're doing to mitigate incoming damage.