Edoras wrote:
. One of the threads I linked earlier is a poll thread where 83% of the 29 votes said "Prone should not set your stance to neutral." In that thread, multiple staff members chimed in to say that they didn't like prone removing stances.
That was eight months ago.
Pretty sure that change was only introduced as a balancing mechanism for hedgehog and wolverine stance, which would be completely fine if the swashbuckler couldn't be "knocked" out of those stances if they get bashed, tripped, etc. Qulrokil and Gann pretty much nailed the problem. You get punished for standing front row or attempting to play a tank. Prone resets your stance, magic resistant barbarians negate your buffs from the second row, gear has been nerfed so petrify even from recited scrolls can kill you now much less when cast by a 14 art sorcerer, necromancers with a dozen pets, etc.
You're nuts to sit up front, so it's not surprising there are no tanks to do PvE because the rest of the game punishes you for specializing in weapons that require you to be front row. You're better off picking a polearm or a missile weapon. Or waiting until you age and picking up a tanking specialization with your third slot. Or you just play a magic resistant barbarian and not have to worry about gear, consumables, PvE, petrify, etc.