Quote Originally Posted by Shurrikhan View Post
My response literally pointed to any such change to make optional mitigation worthwhile without relying on gimmicks being largely impossible in isolation, and was specifically on when at-cost defensives would be optimal even when you are not "forced" (do or die) into them.
Again, missing the forest for the trees. You have assumed the defensive stance only affects one GCD on the healer side, but not how it affects the tanks. First we would need to determine whether it's a GCD swap or an oGCD swap, is there any recast and if so, how long is it. With a GCD to swap, you are effectively making the potency for that GCD 0, of which you might need another one to swap back, so if a healer can save 1 GCD of healing, it needs to outweigh the 2 GCDs the tank loses at minimum and this is before we talk about how it affects the burst phase.

If it is an oGCD, whilst there is no GCD cost, it would be stupid to have it on a 1 second recast as, what's the point? In my opinion, you might as well have another defensive to fill that slot, if it is required, otherwise, how the defensive stance affects your damage needs to be taken into account, which can span multiple GCDs, of which that potency adds up and can outweigh the 1 GCD the healer has saved.

If we then talk about altering GCDs so they serve a different purpose in defensive, then how does that affect potency?

I can go on and on about hypothetical situations where it could be more beneficial for the healer to lose the 1 GCD of potency as you get more out of the tanks, there are going to be situations where it is beneficial for the healer to do the damage and the tank takes the hit. However, none of that is relevant until a basis of what it means to have a defensive stance/offensive stance and how that affects the tank.


Also, to address these points:
[*] (talking about healer GCDs) "Yes. Since that also be to the benefit of healing kits and healer gameplay in general." I would also agree, however, with how healers are now, you would need to provide some DPS benefit for the GCD heal. I'm pretty sure tying the healing and damage together would help alot.
[*]"Wrong, unless by "forced" you mean "whenever, under perfectly performed mathematical calculations, it would be an increase to party DPS."" No, nothing for DPS, party or otherwise, was insinuated in that point. It was implied that, the only time you would go into it was when you had no other options, but why has it come down to the point of no other options? Is it because the tanks defensive kit has been neutered so you cannot cover ALL tank busters (at a minimum) with the kit and so are 'forced' to make this decision just to survive? Is it the case that the defensive stance is so strong that it is needed to survive specific hits, at which point it is forced on the player? (assuming your invulns cannot cover them all or are ineffective). In each case, you have to ask why you want to do this. Why do you want to force the tank to do something that feels bad to use. Ignore DPS, just concentrate on how it feels. Can you honestly say it felt good to be forced into tank stance back in SB because a DPS was being lazy with Diversion? It is the same here. You are being forced to reduce your contribution just because someone decided to. We already do less damage, which is fine, but why reduce it even more for some weird concept of 'defensive stance'.