Valefor.Prothescar said:
»Neither of those things were as apparent or disparate as the current situation.
Fact: PLD deals upwards of 20-25% more DPS than its closest competitor, WAR.
Fact: PLD has more utility and group-wide support than either DRK or WAR.
Fact: PLD has more stable mitigation than DRK.
Fact: PLD pays the least by switching stances out of any of the 3 tanks.
None of the mystical sky fairy magic of "lets see how they play" that people like you are spouting off about will counteract any of these points, except in AoE centric fights where WAR could pull ahead in DPS.
For bolded.
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Switching Between Tank Stances
By: Me
Warrior:
Pros:
-+5% extra physical damage dealt when switching to
Deliverance.
-+1% critical hit rate per every 10 Beast Gauge accumulated when switching to
Deliverance.
-Access to Fell Cleave and Decimate, heavy physical damage finishers, when switching to
Deliverance.
--20% physical damage dealt, +20% to all healing received, +25% to maximum hit points, and +25% Enmity accrued when switching to
Defiance.
-+1% parry rate per every 10 Beast Gauge accumulated when switching to
Defiance
-Access to Inner Beast, an on-demand mitigation tool, self heal, and moderately high potency physical finisher, and Steel Cyclone, an AoE mid range AoE physical finisher with bonus enmity accrual, when switching to
Defiance.
Cons:
-On switch, halve Beast Gauge. This forces you to either spend all Beast Gauge prior to switching (thus either losing potential potency or losing access to an immediate Inner Beast) or lose up to an entire Fell Cleave/Inner Beast/Decimate/Steel Cyclone/Upheaval. This equates to a moderate to severe loss in potency or personal utility just for having the gall to switch stances.
Dark Knight:
Pros:
-+20% damage dealt and halts natural/song MP recovery while under the effects of
Darkside.
-Ability to use Blood Weapon, a powerful self buff that recovers MP, increases attack speed, and increases Black Blood at a rapid rate, only usable while under the effects of
Darkside.
--20% damage taken, -20% damage dealt, and +25% enmity accrual while under the effects of
Grit.
-Blood Price, a heavily nerfed shell of an ability which restores MP by a portion of damage taken in addition to providing 5 points of Black Blood over the course of its duration, only usable while under the effects of
Grit.
-Ability to absorb a fraction of the damage dealt by Souleater while under the effects of
Grit.
Cons:
-On activating
Grit, halve Black Blood. This equates to either having to spend all of your Black Blood before activating
Grit, or losing up to an entire 520 effective potency attack, a 210 potency AoE attack, or a spike of MP recovery in addition to a hefty extension in either Blood Weapon or Blood Price duration.
-Costs a fairly moderate chunk of MP to activate
Grit.
-Activating
Grit costs 1 GCD.
Paladin:
Pros:
-Add 75 potency to all auto attacks while under the effects of
Sword Oath. This is an enormous increase in DPS, superior to the raw damage+%/crit+% benefits of either Darkside or Deliverance.
-Accumulate Oath Gauge points with each auto attack while under the effects of
Sword Oath.
--20% damage taken, -15% damage dealt, and +25% enmity accrual while under the effects of
Shield Oath.
-Accumulate Oath Gauge when blocking an attack while under the effects of
Shield Oath.
-Accumulate 20 Oath Gauge on casting Holy Spirit while under the effects of
Shield Oath.
Cons:
-On switch, halve Oath Gauge. This equates to either having to spend all of your Oath Gauge before activating an oath, or losing up to a single 100% block with added MP recovery or a 10%, 15%, or 30% 6 second single target party member targeted mitigation ability.
-Activating an oath costs a moderate amount of MP.
-Activating
Shield Oath or
Sword Oath costs 1 GCD.
Warrior potentially loses the most out of any of the 3, managing the gauge will be a headache, especially in Main Tank scenarios. The potential of not being able to switch from Deliverance into Defiance and pop off an Inner Beast without sacrificing an entire Fell Cleave/Decimate/Steel Cyclone is enormous.
Dark Knight is in the middle, losing just about as much as Warrior DPS-wise but suffering slightly less utility-wise. However, I could also argue that Dark Knight suffers more than Warrior based on losing access to Blood Weapon in tank stance and Blood Price in DPS stance. The cost of 1 GCD is heavier for DRK than it is for PLD, whose main source of Oath DPS is attributed to Sword Oath. Also worth mentioning that activating Grit costs more MP than you make back from Blood Price, lmao.
Paladin loses next to nothing; none of its abilities are Oath dependent and both of its Oath Gauge abilities are tack-ons; the most you could argue for losing is Sheltron during a tank buster, but its value is of questionable utility to begin with outside of MP recovery.