Off Tank Stance?

[ShariusTC]

Turn off your tank stance for 2 or 3 GCD if i dont want MT, then turn on incase something happen and MT die, shirk if you feel that you about to take over MT

[Vahlnir]

As an OT it is best to turn it on only after the MT has established aggro, and even then it is usually best to leave it off for the most part. One thing I tend to do though is turn it back on every now and then, do a few rotations and then turn it back off to help keep myself as the boss' next target should the MT die. What annoys me is the tanks that enter, put on their stance and stand there expecting the other to do something. From my perspective, if you've got the stance on and are not removing it before the pull then I'm going to assume that you want to MT. If nothing happens after a short time has passed I will take matters into my own hands, but it is one of those little annoyances for me I guess.

[Duskane]

Normally i leave it off till a little after opener/burst since WAR/DRK/GNB can easily
Juggle aggro
Aurora can be a Aggro sucker too if for some reason you pop it on yourself with stance

[Hierro]

I'm tempted to say "you're talking in the context of casual content, so it doesn't matter."

However, I'll put in my two cents: Always be prepared to MT. Yes, that does mean I am telling you to keep your stance on at all times, but be prepared to MT for whatever reason. Do not let yourself think you'll be off-tank. In the realm of casual content, if someone else is MTing, they're very likely to die at any time, so it's a good idea to be 2nd in aggro. Though, be prepared because you may also rip aggro and become MT by default.

If you take aggro, you're doing more damage. To save everyone the trouble, simply put if you're dealing more damage you deserve to be taking the wheel anyways.

[Bright-Flower]

In 8 man stuff provoke/shirk works. In alliance raids where you can't provoke, you can just toggle it a bit early into the fight and then eventually leave it on when the main tank has a healthy lead, so that when the MT goes down it'll go to a tank and not a dps next.

[winsock]

Just keep it off when off tank. Voke and turn on when/if needed.

Keeping it on / turning it on early can cause issues. If you outgear the MT or the MT has problems, you're just going to need to turn it off anyway. If you need to turn it off and you're not paying attn, it could be pretty terrible depending on the fight. Since you've got to pay attn anyway, I'd recommend paying attn for when you need to voke instead of when you need to disable tank stance.

[Warskull]

You should have your tank stance on. Turning your stank stance off and leaving it off is lazy/bad tanking. All you have to do is start with your tank stance off, then turn it on after a couple of hits, somewhere between 3-6 works great. This gets the main tank a decent lead. Then after your opener shirk the main tank. This should give them a significant lead. If you pass them after all that, you significantly outgear them or they are terrible. In that case you should just be main tanking.

There are fights in this game that have mechanics that specifically target the off tank. The off tank is defined as whoever has the 2nd most agro. If you leave your tank stance off this will be a DPS and they will die.

On top of this, if the main tank dies and you don't have tank stance up, the boss will start going for a DPS. If you are unlucky and the main tank failed a mechanic, they may immediately go into a tank buster before you can provoke and get your tank stance up. So now you have two dead players.

[Kewitt]

If I'm off tanking, which I don't do often, I pop on stance after 1st rotation is done, if I steal hate at this point which often happens out side of savage. I just run with it and assume the other tank clues in. But every now and again I see 3 or 4 vokes in different 24 man raids

[DRKoftheAzure]

To be fair, we now know what happens when enmity combos are removed and people either don't know how to use use shirk, don't want to use Shirk, or hate how much of a hassle it is just to target your co-tank for enmity dump; threads like this are created...

[Aurelius2625]

To properly answer this question because the first page was full of idiocy and memes:

If you are pulling, have stance on, if not, don't unless the situation requires that both tanks have aggro, as the 1 and 2 aggro slot may be selected for mechanics at times.

If you do not immediately need tank stance on: put it on AFTER the opener.

Contrary to the Epeen crowd, WAR is not the godmode tank and you need AT LEAST until the 4th GCD, your first inner chaos, to have aggro. DRK's burst is too strong, they have a 500 potency spam fest going on with more potency added in with weaving.

PLD has a very weak few GCDs before they start their FoF window or Req window, so they too, need at least until the 4th GCD to be fine before you stance on. GNB is fine, as by the 3rd gcd you should be in your Gnashing Fang (two gcds with BFest weaved after lightning shot and NM after your first or second GCD).

Alternatively, if you NEED both tanks in aggro to take double autos like in Levi Savage, both have stance on, then the one that is the off tank will voke-shirk the other guy, problem solved.