How should tbn get changed/updated?

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

By that logic it'd be strictly preferable if every tank had every effect separated and as many of them as possible, no? Maximum flexibility! And it clearly has no downside, just allows you to spot more people!

Way to go, you exaggerated the point I made about its' flexibility and made it ridiculous. I did NOT say that it would be ideal that EVERY tank had every effect separated and split into as many cooldowns as possible, I said that Oblation being separate has its uses/positives and by extension DOWNSIDES. Besides, without any changes, a couple effects like the 4s duration bonus mitigations on the 25s CDs would be a hassle to press VS Oblation's 10 seconds duration.

The button-bloat comes from being already able to do that. TBN can already be used on other people. We already have a percentage damage reduction for partymembers (even multiple!), independent of three extra percentage damage reductions on ourselves.

Yes, TBN can do that and then you can still Oblation up to two more targets VS other tanks either having to make a distinct choice on how they spend their gauge/25s cooldown or reserve stuff for themselves, in return their Short CDs are simply more potent.

Dark Missionary has a 90s CD and can't be free-balled like Oblation can, nor can you freely choose between using it on yourself or party members without having to heavily weigh that decision (in high-end content), it is also only 5% physical. With Reprisal's shorter CD you "can" make that decision more easily in 8-man and higher content, but there is also a possibility that you do not get the opportunity to debuff an enemy in the first place.

And even then, that's the beauty of it - if you want to give up to two players a 2nd 10% mitigation and a 3rd player a 25% shield, that's DRK's strength and niche. You call it bloat, I call it an extra strength. It's similar to Paladin - weaker individually, but more independent of other factors.

[...]independent of three extra percentage damage reductions on ourselves.[...]

Uh-huh... why are we talking about the baseline CD lineup all tanks have (rampart, 40%, extra CD) with just some differences in the bonus effects and all of them being self-only? That's like saying "Paladin is fine even without the ability to Sheltron and Intervention for 100 gauge at the same time, they still have three other % mits for themselves". Yes they will be fine, but god forbid there's a niche?

This means that if the need for more of this exists, it should come from CD-reductions or CD-resetting trigger effects on these abilities instead of adding yet another button for yet another CD to track.

I'm on board with that idea in theory, but the devil's in the details. Very much entertaining the idea though.

Plus it's not neutral, it comes with the very real downside of this approach of "just add more flexibility" washing out the identity of every individual effect. Which can be good in a pure approach (a shield is a shield because it's a shield, oh ja), but in FFXIV we are rarely doing that. Meaning that just like GW2, skills derive character from their plethora of extra effects. and then instead you get Oblation which is a 10%DR with no other effects on a fairly long CD. No trigger effects, no extra shielding, no runspeed effects, no healing received, no nothing.

Ok first, Oblation to my knowledge is the only defensive ability that was made like this where every other ability to my knowledge is actually leaning into the GW2-style skills with plethora of effects within a single ability. The 40%s, the Extra CDs (Bulwark, Thrill, DMind, Camou), Rampart, the party mits (particularly Veil & shake) and the varying short mitigations including TBN (MP + Dark Arts interaction) are like this. The closest thing to Oblation is literally just Aurora.

So I genuinely do not understand the "this approach [...] washing out the identity of every individual effect" like what do you mean by that? The vast majority of skills are UNLIKE Oblation, from what I am reading you are making a mole out of an ant hill.