Quote Originally Posted by Makeda View Post
OK and that STILL DOES NOT APPEAR TO BE what the OP was referring to / complaining about...
He does refer to “tanks and cotanks”:

Quote Originally Posted by colorfulcheshire View Post
but for the past few patches, I've noticed an increasing amount of tanks and cotanks using Provoke/Ultimatum as a regular part of their rotation. . . .
So, it’s possible that he is referencing some 8-man content scenarios here. And, in 8-man content, (good) tanks and their (good) co-tanks regularly Provoke/Ultimatum and then Shirk to give the MT free aggro provided that there are not any upcoming swaps.

I was also challenging the last part of OP’s post: Provoke/Ultimatum + Shirk are not just sat on for adds and/or swaps, especially in endgame content such as Ex, Savage, and Ultimate. There’s a myriad of uses for them beyond just those. There are some instances in 8-man content where the co-tank uses Provoke simply to be second on the aggro list, like in Final Omega for his blue-marker laser beam thing (can’t remember what the name of the attack is called, but I believe OTs Provoke there just to try and end up second on hate there so it won’t target a DPS—which has happened to me before).