NGD I am very very confused here. And this is my take on knights and there tanking and what truly annoys me about how you are going about this.
1. Ao1 - situational now, I can live with that but 10 secs at 400 mana on lvl 5 I think is a bit harsh. I would really like to see either slightly more duration or slightly less mana, your stated goal is to make fights longer using this skill set as it is is not within this vision in my view as it takes about 1/3 of your mana for 10 sec tanking, pretty much a waist of mana for a longer duration fight.
2. Defensive stance - It is only adding armor points which all in all does not help much unless being attacked by someone using a fast weapon for most part. It destroys ability to support in my opinion, very few choices of what to do if can't cast damaging powers aside from stand there looking dumb and feint someone every once in awhile. CC spells like balestra and ribs breaker should be allowed.
3. Rigorous prep/awareness/block/precise block - The only somewhat viable tank options are all luck/chance based. Anyone who actively plays this game will tell you 8 of 10 times having to rely on luck/chance skills will equal you dead.
4. Caution - Shared with barbs but only real feasible option for defense in my view aside from the passive resists in the weapon tree's which are also shared.
Now all this as is I could live with except for one MAJOR issue that I have. As defined by you the knights are the tanking class, ok. So most of there tankabilty I take it from your point of view should come from combinations of spells in number 3. Ok, I can deal with that. But if a knight is the tank class, why do other classes have tank skills that are NOT luck/chance based as a knight is going to be forced to be? To be a tank in my view you either need to give knights skills on par with other classes tank skills or give other classes skills on par with the knights tank skills. Let me list other class spells quickly.
Archers
Marks/Hunter - Acrobatic, Fixed reduction of damage not based on armor points.
Marks - Strategic position, Fixed reduction of ranged damage not based on armor points.
Barb - Frenzy, Fixed reduction of physical damage no based on armor points.
Conj - Steel Skin, Fixed reduction of damage not based on armor points.
These things in my mind are the things that piss many knights off, myself especially. I am supposed to be the tank but almost every other class has better true tanking skills especially now with Ao1 becoming even more situational based use. So either you need to give knights a true tanking skill on par with these spells. Or these true tanking skills that other classes have need to be completely changed and reworked to be Miss chance/Crit miss chance as what you want by Chilko's own post a knights tankability to be based on. Now I know other classes will hate this suggestion but that should just go to show you even more why it should be done. Make the tank a tank or make the rest be based on luck/chance same as the tank it is only fair.
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