Cover should be a Role Action

[Lucy_Pyre]

That's not even a problem though considering role actions generally get used far less than other abilities.

Half or more don't get used in most fights, so Cover fits right in by that metric.

More importantly, why keep an ability rarely used as a core ability?

I'm not on board with deleting the skill entirely, because I think it's a fun ability to use, it just has such rare use cases. Ones that I don't think should be limited to PLD.

Edit - That all said, what ItMe said does hold in that if all tanks have a specific utility, they can add mechanics to require them. I see no downside.

Tank role actions: Rampart, Low Blow, Provoke, Interject, Reprisal, Arm's Length, Shirk.

Extensively used in all/nearly all EX/savage/ultimate fights: Rampart, Provoke, Reprisal, Arm's Length, Shirk

Used rarely in specific savage fights: Interject

Never used outside of casual content (because lolbossimmunetocc): Low Blow

Almost every single piece of the tank role actions sees extensive, regular, use. Now personally, ever since the change to Interject in ShB I've been a very vocal proponent of SE making more use of the skill in EX/savage/ultimate. Even though it was a minor thing I quite liked the bit in E1S adds phase where each tank had to interrupt their specific add's cast of Mana Boost in order to prevent the following cast of Mana Surge from wiping the entire party with a raidwide blast. Perhaps my liking of interrupts has to do with the fact that I played SWTOR before FFXIV, and interrupting of specific skills in PvP in that game was a very important thing, but I do feel that it's an under-utilized mechanic that could have at least a little bit more potential from a mechanical perspective in fights. As for Cover, well, if SE were to make it a tank role action with something like a 90 or 120s CD then I think some sort of mechanic where a tankbuster gets targeted on a DPS or healer, rather than the tank, forcing one of the tanks (or both if two of them go out) to identify the target it was going on and Cover them to mitigate it would be neat. I can see that wiping pugs in savage constantly though.

[DWolfwood]

Tank role actions: Rampart, Low Blow, Provoke, Interject, Reprisal, Arm's Length, Shirk.

Extensively used in all/nearly all EX/savage/ultimate fights: Rampart, Provoke, Reprisal, Arm's Length, Shirk

Used rarely in specific savage fights: Interject

Never used outside of casual content (because lolbossimmunetocc): Low Blow

Almost every single piece of the tank role actions sees extensive, regular, use. Now personally, ever since the change to Interject in ShB I've been a very vocal proponent of SE making more use of the skill in EX/savage/ultimate. Even though it was a minor thing I quite liked the bit in E1S adds phase where each tank had to interrupt their specific add's cast of Mana Boost in order to prevent the following cast of Mana Surge from wiping the entire party with a raidwide blast. Perhaps my liking of interrupts has to do with the fact that I played SWTOR before FFXIV, and interrupting of specific skills in PvP in that game was a very important thing, but I do feel that it's an under-utilized mechanic that could have at least a little bit more potential from a mechanical perspective in fights. As for Cover, well, if SE were to make it a tank role action with something like a 90 or 120s CD then I think some sort of mechanic where a tankbuster gets targeted on a DPS or healer, rather than the tank, forcing one of the tanks (or both if two of them go out) to identify the target it was going on and Cover them to mitigate it would be neat. I can see that wiping pugs in savage constantly though.

Even provoke isn't extensively used unless you're doing some weird unnecessary tank swaps, I mean come on.

Back in SB there was actually a NEED to voke->shirk, due to stances still reducing damage, etc., but even coming back to the game in 480 crafted gear tanking with 500 players, I had literally no problems managing hate. Even in tank swaps, just turn it off and you're fine 95% of the time (the other 5% being if the other tank literally does nothing).

Arm's Length is admittedly used a lot NOW, because it was ADDED in ShB.

And you haven't been raiding that long if you think stuns have never been used in raid tiers. Hell, even Low Blow itself had a specific purpose in stunning arms in A4S when it came out as part of DRK's first kit. Stuns were used more extensively than both Arm's Length and Interjects at some point.

One tier or expansion aren't the end all be all, and Cover can add more mechanics as well.

[Lucy_Pyre]

Even provoke isn't extensively used unless you're doing some weird unnecessary tank swaps, I mean come on.

Back in SB there was actually a NEED to voke->shirk, due to stances still reducing damage, etc., but even coming back to the game in 480 crafted gear tanking with 500 players, I had literally no problems managing hate. Even in tank swaps, just turn it off and you're fine 95% of the time (the other 5% being if the other tank literally does nothing).

Arm's Length is admittedly used a lot NOW, because it was ADDED in ShB.

And you haven't been raiding that long if you think stuns have never been used in raid tiers. Hell, even Low Blow itself had a specific purpose in stunning arms in A4S when it came out as part of DRK's first kit. Stuns were used more extensively than both Arm's Length and Interjects at some point.

One tier or expansion aren't the end all be all, and Cover can add more mechanics as well.

It isn't a question of what's inherently necessary. It's simply the easiest & safest way to do a tank swap for the tank taking aggro to voke while the tank swapping off then shirks to them.

[DWolfwood]

It isn't a question of what's inherently necessary. It's simply the easiest & safest way to do a tank swap for the tank taking aggro to voke while the tank swapping off then shirks to them.

If we're talking someone you can't rely on, yeah sure.

That said, there's still not that many tank swaps in a fight. Some never use them even.

Obviously it's a necessary skill with how the game is now, but you ignore the fact that the game could have just as easily been a single tank endeavor, and the skill would be completely useless given how easy threat is to manage in this game.

So again, giving a utility skill to every tank can open up more gameplay options.