Quote Originally Posted by Absurdity View Post
What could however still be a choice is when you want to use it, which would at least add another decision to make in any fight. If I have to eventually use my defensive stance to survive, when is the best time to do so and when is it better to use my cooldowns while staying in offensive stance?

Granted this would only be temporary as well because people will quickly have mapped out the best timings for any encounter/party composition.
But why has it got to the point where you need your defensive stance to survive and how strong is this stance? Tanks have a plethora of defensive tools available, all of which should be considered before you even get to thinking about a defensive stance. Bear in mind as well, fights are (currently) designed so that you do not run out, which I believe also includes ignoring the fact tanks have invulns. The moment you design a fight to tear through all of those, just to force you into defensive stance, would that really be fun? or would it feel forced? Yes, I am currently forced to use defensive cooldowns to survive a tank buster, but I do not lose offensive benefit, but if I was forced inti defence stance just for the mitigation to survive a hit, at the cost of my offence, that feels worse, at least to me (back to what I keep saying that it feels like a punishment system rather than a reward system).

Also, just because I don't visit topics unless there is a new post, I think I missed this:

Quote Originally Posted by Shurrikhan View Post
We will always choose, within given constraints, whatever produces the most long-term throughput (i.e., whatever value clears the fight). But that does not mean the tank's offensive choice will always be the best choice regardless of incoming damage, even when that damage wouldn't kill them.

The crux is that the equation for solving best rDPS doesn't involve only the tank; it also involves their healer(s). If healers, for instance, had less of their total (both offensive and curative) ppm locked into healing CDs and instead had greater potency-per-GCD (which they could then choose to use as they see fit), then a defensive resource spent to afford a healer 400 extra offensive relative-potency (a Dosis III even now is 429 relative potency, due to Healer's +30% damage trait) by spending one fewer GCD heal on you is going to be worth more than doing an extra 300 relative-potency of damage yourself.
So, to make a point, you adjust how healers work. Which is fair, but if we are going to look at how adjusting things can potentially change the interactions, we need to look at everything, ie. tanks defensive kits, do they have enough to survive (before considering tank stance), what is the incoming damage to tanks, not just via mechanics, if we are tying more healing to GCDs, would this then be something that is more expected across all content, so that every GCD is not a damage GCD? etc.

With so many variables, you can see why changing one thing to make it better suit a particular narrative (whether intentional or not) can come across as a bit disingenuous. Why just change the one thing when there is so much more that needs to be considered. However, it still doesn't change the fact that the only time you would use it is when you are forced into it. Which, as I mentioned above, doesn't necessarily feel good.