Tank Stance Redesign

[PangTong]

I agree tank stance definitely needs a rework. The 25% dps loss is absolutely massive in a game where dps is everything. The fact we meld Direct Hit over Tenacity which is a 4-5% mitigation loss and a 1% dps gain says a lot about how much more important damage is.
I'm not sure about changes designed around "forcing us into tank stance". If you make it mandatory at certain points, it's no longer a choice. It's just something you predictably do at set intervals or situations. Tank busters already have this issue of predictability without adding more.
I don't agree with attacking our emnity or making us paper in dps either. Remember the changes should be fun to play, rather than attacking or punishing pieces of our toolkit.

Personally I'd like to see both stances become viable playstyles, that define the player. For example, a tank stance player could be a brick wall that healers would actually be happy to have in their party and a dps stance player would be the edge needed to beat a strict enrage, but both would be an asset to the group. Both stances could have abilities to master, the tank could choose to specialize in dealing damage or in being unkillable and focus towards that goal.

If we're talking about it as a "stance" that's either on or off then there's simply no way to create a state where you can simply be in one or the other all the time and they're equally viable. One will be determined as having the potential for more damage (whether in raid dps or otherwise) and therefore the only one worth using. To give a defensive ability value in this game that's all about damage, it either needs to have almost no negative impact on damage (like cooldowns) or it needs to be absolutely necessary for clearing content. And there is nothing wrong with having it be required. Complaining that tanks have to go into tank stance, is like complaining that healers sometimes have to use GCDs on healing the party when they could be doing damage.

It seems ridiculous to me that there is even an argument about whether tanks should be required to do tank things. Of course they should! They're tanks! I get the whole aspect of wanting to optimize for DPS, but that doesn't mean the game should go in a direction where actual active tanking becomes less and less important so everyone can just be a pseudo-DPS job and not worry about it. If DPS is so superdy-duper important for tanks that they desperately do not want to do anything tank-like, that ought to change! Cut back DPS requirements, or make tanks a smaller proportion of raid DPS if need be, just do something to save tanking as a distinct role.

I don't see anything wrong with forcing tanks into tank stance at least sometimes. Making it enmity based doesn't mean it's completely predictable either, as enmity will vary depending on the group. Having to balance damage output with tank responsibilities sounds like a perfectly fine concept for a tanking role to me. If the game ends up in a state where tanking is just a side effect of certain jobs doing their DPS rotation, that's a complete failure to design a tank role.