Lets nerf them and make them less fun to Play so even less people Play tank.
GG :D
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Lets nerf them and make them less fun to Play so even less people Play tank.
GG :D
I know the question was directed to the op, but let me answer it.
Playing a tank is different than just mashing buttons, its more challenging and interesting, need to know about each duty you run, and you need to have a control over everything, you decide how well run will go and you get the rewards and instant queue times.
I found it jawn worthy to play dps, thats why i left it for tanking.
However i dont think the patch will make it less fun to play the tank class, but it will most likely drive people away from it, being disappointed with the patch notes, for the several reasons like their class being nerfed (PLD), because of the changes that they just dont accept for their main job (war) or thinks their job is being left over as inferior for eternity (DRK).
Its more about the mindset than the gameplay change, it could push some people to leave the job, even if the changes doesnt really break the job or barely has any impact on them.
I can't think of another way of saying "I got your back" than being a tank.
Im gonna answer this question IMO.
Playing a tank is being the main character of the story while everyone else provides support( healing, additionals damage, etc).
Playing a tank is YOUR CHARACTER is fighting the boss and the boss is fighting you. Enemies try to kill you because they know you are the toughest enemy out of everyone in your group and it will take several of them to take you down while it may take only 1 of them to take out someone else.
Playing a tank is protecting others who cannot protect themselves.
The reason I play tank is because it provides a challenge and thrill of being on the edge of your seat that no other class provides. It provides a sense of control to where you control the pace and certain aspects of the dungeon/fight greater than the other roles.
The fast queue times, adventurer in need bonus are just added on perks for me, and have no direct impact on me picking the job.
I think people dont like to play tank because they dont like to have all the control, they like to follow instead of lead. Or perhaps they are afraid they will mess up and be judged.
I think a big one is that some people like to cast spells and the only classes that do that are healer and dps and many go the less stressful route which is dps.
Most importantly people dont like to tank because of the responsibility that it portrays.
I think often times a new player will get in a trial with 8 players and see if a tank messes up and causes a full party wipe it sometimes pushes them away to even try tanking.
For me personally I think 4.2 will push alot of tank players away, especially those who play DRK and some who play WAR.
I just hope 4.3 fixes more problems than 4.2 created.
Actually i never thought about it that way, but hell yes, tank class fits the story and content better i guess. :P
I don't get this mentality its like oh no our damage gets nerfed throw a fit. I cant speak for DRK but I play a raid WAR and I like TANKING not doing some complex Beast Gauge math problem at all times to keep damage competitive. I am still going to put my best foot forward and push as much DPS as I can but if you want to FLEX numbers go play a dps the role action of tank means TANK.
Except nobody is really complaining about damage which most likely isn't even going to get nerfed. How many times does it have to be repeated? It's about playstyle being needlessly simplified and homogenized with PLD, nothing else.
What I don't get is this holier-than-thou mentality of some people, who think that if you care about how a job deals damage then you're automatically a "blue icon dps" or some other nonsense.
Disregarding dps rotations, imagine if they replaced all tanks with a new job that's only got Flash and Rampart. All it does is spam Flash for aggro and press Rampart anytime a tankbuster is coming. Super engaging, but hey, you're still tanking so it's fine, right?
[QUOTE=Nedkel;4552163]I know the question was directed to the op, but let me answer it.
Playing a tank is different than just mashing buttons, its more challenging and interesting, need to know about each duty you run, and you need to have a control over everything, you decide how well run will go and you get the rewards and instant queue times.
I found it jawn worthy to play dps, thats why i left it for tanking.
I disagree. Main dps here, I try sometime to play in tank (DRK and WAR most of the time) and everytime I switch from dps to tank, I feel bored.
Take Shinryu for exemple, in MCH, you have to think to your own mechanics (HG, Ammo, Turret, Burst...) AND Shinryu's mech.
On the other side, in DRK, the only thing that I've to be worry it's aggro and TB. And it's very easy with Provoke, Shirk, and the 1-2-3 combo from the DRK. I drop off Grit and using TBN when I know I'll take some damage, and it's just boring.
So no, it's not more challenging, neither more interresting.
And you don't have to know the whole fight to be a good tank, but to be a good MCH, to keep this job for exemple, you need to know the whole fight to time your burst.
Edit: seems something gone wrong with the quote
DRK used to be fun, it had a lot to do and it felt rewarding for doing it right. Simplifying things does not make them more fun.
Likewise, nerfing DPS from a tank even if that might not be their main priority does not help make it feel better either. Other MMO's i've played (while not as good or having nearly as good a community as ffxiv) make sure their tanks feel sufficiently strong at least so that tank players don't feel like JUST a meat-shield
each job is as boring or as interesting as you make it being a cry baby does not change anything.
Feels bad about those changes guys. :(
With those new changes, the rotation becomes much easier to execute which will not doubt increase an already existing issue in tanking, the very high learning curve intertwined to it.
Frankly, I'm not sure those changes will go through the whole 4.2 since it seems that the reaction throughout the regions is rather... explosive.
It's 'to each their own' really. Players will find jobs engaging, challenging, boring, easy, etc. based on their own playstyles. I find tanking to be challenging because I have to leave my comfort zone in order to play it. No matter how easy other players may find it, nothing about tanking comes easy for me. I've played DPS jobs as well, and like you to tanking, I find them boring, unengaging, and easy in the sense that very little responsibility falls on them that is under a microscope like healers and tanks.
What you're talking about here is what you know in comparison to what other players expect you to know. Generally speaking, players expect tanks to know the fight from bottom to top. I've never done fresh content as a tank, but I would imagine this is the only time they get any kind of a break for not knowing the fight. Knowing a fight to be better at it is a given for all jobs and roles. IOW, knowing a particular instance doesn't make you a good anything, and likewise you can go into content blind and still outperform everyone else because you simply are that good.
So it's an ego thing for you or...?
I actually find tanking to be the least stressful job. I don't play it that often but I find it relaxing to not have to worry about healing or maximizing my deeps all the time. Just pull all the things. Granted I'm just taking about dungeons.
It could be if you do something for the first time. :P
You dont only tank, you have responsibility to do dps as well and lead the party as a tank, on a DRK managing cd's, MP, blood gauge to pull out as much as possible is challenging. And still you are in charge and you are responsible for a wipe if you execute the mechanics wrong, got killed because of 0 deffences or position the boss so everyone gets killed by it. With trash mobs, pulling (making sure you hold aggro when pulling), positioning, dodging aoe's, keep yourself alive with various def cd's and doing dmg while managing your mp requires more engagement from the player than dropping few aoe and dot spells here and there (summoner).
There are for sure more engaging jobs to play, but that doesnt change too much in terms of the gameplay, because your job is just to do dps by the end of the day, zero responsibilities whatsoever, maybe excluding higher level content where people are counting dps, other than that there are none, if the duty will take 5 minutes longer or less its for the most part doesnt matter.
Provoke or ultimatum are useless for pulling, since its only puts you on the top of enmity +1, 1 more than the biggest value, its not generating any. When you use it and the healer is on the top of enmity list, one spell from the healer will pull the mobs back to him, and believe me this thing happens all the time basically.
I actually enjoy playing tank in other games, but just about every patch in this one has driven me away from tank more and more. For me I think the final straw was the damage stat reversions to STR. It was a complete one step backwards coupled with tenacity being fairly bleh. They seem to want to kill the tank DPS meta by nerfing tank DPS, but they won't give any other alternative ways to play. And that just feels not fun.
5.0 they will remove tank stance too, dont worry guys. Please look forward to it! :D
I think I mainly like tanking because it makes me manage the pace of the dungeon. And I don't mind the ally dps to be low, it's ok as long as something's happening, they are playing, while I dislike to see a tank waiting between every fight, at start, or whatever. I love to don't have that stupid 15sec or more countdown for nothing from some tanks... On my side, I use no countdown. If we are all here, full life and full MP/TP, no reason to don't engage in dungeon because someone who has to do something else will at least tell you "brb" or "2sec". It's their role to write if they need time for something I can't guess with my own UI.
On top if that, I enjoy adapting to my allies, if they don't want big pulls, I won't, if they want me to take more that I'm use to, I'll do it and see how it goes, I can even learn from that. And if someone if not synced because he is of the level of the dungeon, I like to do the whole dungeon if he asks me to, like I would like a tank to take a maximum of monsters when I'm coming as Healer or DPS of the dungeon's level to get more exp.
And I also like to know every dungeon to the point of using some tricks on all of them to go quicker, or even to the fun of showing some tricks to people who don't know them.
In short, I think I like to have that role of a benevolent leader, who is able to adapt to everyone, the best as the worse players without any problem... and to go to the pace I like (which can look paradoxal in a way).
(and I especially enjoyed in HW to prove people wrong --> that I could handle aggro, be quick for runs and survive even as Marauder in the whole story mode and beat Nidhogg + did extreme primals like this, even with some players who were with the max ilvl (so higher than mine), but that's another story).
The WAR changes in this patch were waaay beyond what I expected. However, this will make it less punishing when you miss a GCD during your burst and it should make timing your burst much easier. I don't like that berserk and IR were merged, I don't like the 90s CD on IR. I DO like that unchained will now be usable again and I like that if you need to go into tank stance during a recovery it's MUCH less punishing now. I still think WAR will be fun to play and will still give you a good variation in how you use your skills vs the strict FoF, GB, RA, RA, GB, Req, HSx5 PLD or the very simplistic 123 rotation that DRKs got stuck with at the beginning of 4.x These changes won't push me away from WAR much less tanking in general. I find the requirement of knowing the fight 100%, for timing rotations, CDs and boss positioning to still be engaging and fun. In the end, I think WARs will still push top DPS even with YOLO fell cleaves for 80s.
Given lack of changes to drk, I will play it a little less. Monk and blm got some nice changes and I recently picked up bard. I really like drk, the way it is designed the skills but the SB changes just aren't keeping my attention and they have really done well with dps in SB. So one less tank for roulettes most days. I will do the new Sigmascape as drk though. Sigmascape should be fun as it is more than pull, burn the trash and move on dungeons.
Lately i prefer healing in dungeons - easier to make run faster and can carry not-so-good groups. For raiding, tanking is fun when you have some trusty bro-tank at your side and both can and want to optimize. Raiding with PUG tanks or bad co-tank is a total cancer. I'm switching to BRD for 4.2 on a main, m.b. still will tank sometimes on alt.
When tanking became more about DPS then mechanics.. Does that surprise you? More people are crying about the tanks damage getting nerfed then actual tanking itself.
That's a different matter, that is, if you do all the roulettes. Leveling Roulette for example, a good amount of time going through that you're without half of your abilities, so it really is a brain dead pull all the things cycle.
Oh hey go for it. Judging from what I've been reading around here, the majority of folks either don't use them, or use them rarely.
Every class is essentially a damage-dealer with specific responsibilities outside of 'get that target dead', be it aggro, health, or specializing entirely in damage dealing. I don't understand this mentality where people point out the fact others are focused on the damage-side of changes as if it's against the norm - damage is part of every role, so yes, of course it is going to get attention when those numbers change. There are presently no 'emnity' problems, so why wouldn't it get our attention? It's not 'more about X than Y', it is looking at the most prevalent changes and asking 'why'?Quote:
When tanking became more about DPS then mechanics.. Does that surprise you? More people are crying about the tanks damage getting nerfed then actual tanking itself.
It should be no surprise that there is a large portion of players who are optimizing their class/role for more than just living up to their role-description (Tank/Healer/DPS). I'm a WHM main, which means I can pump out 20% (or more) team-damage in dungeons. Yes, that isn't my priority, yet if they randomly decided to nerf our damage output, you can bet your face that WHM's are going to want answers. This doesn't mean WHM's are randomly believing it's all about 'da damagez' over our healing capabilities. Why is it to be any different for tanks? In short, if said changes don't bother 'you' then I fail to see how it is worth your comment.
It is a surprise. If you ever played WOW, Everquest, or any other trinity based game then you understand this.
In WOW I tanked for nearly 8 years or so. Not once was my DPS as a paladin or a druid questioned. Alot of people migrated from other MMOS with that same mentality which is their job above else. If you tank you tank, you heal you heal.
Its really that basic.
Swerving back on-topic, I'm wary of tanking and don't find it nearly as engaging as Healing, despite almost everyone I know (who actively main-tanks) claiming it is probably the least stressful of the roles. DPS is what I go for when I want to comfort-play, given our responsibility is so clear-cut and little (outside of dealing damage) can be held within our control. Healing, however, requires you to be equally mindful of both yourself and everyone in the team, mechanically and positionally. It is very reactive as well as proactive, hence requiring quite a bit of attention on things that don't always include your own character. I don't buy this 'it makes sense from a story-PoV that the WarOfLight is a Tank' drivel given you cannot have a functioning trinity without all three roles present. You need damage to kill the target. You need classes to keep enemy attention. You need classes to keep people alive.
They are all as important as each-other, given the removal of any of those factors pretty much renders the team-effectiveness down considerably (typically to impossible), so no, it doesn't make sense that the WarOfLight is a specific class, especially not when enforced by the fact said character(s) can play whatever they want.
Anyone who thinks one role is more important than the rest are looking at a particularly small picture. You could debate small aspects of that point, but let's not pretend like Tanks are uber-special and everyone else is a less-important pleb hoping to live in their shadow.
Welcome to "Not-WoW", a game with different mechanics, communities, expectations and requirements. Please leave your WoW experience at the door, like I do as a 12 year WoW player who has Tanked, Healed and DPS'd across all iterations of WoW and during all of their own mechanics, community expectations and requirements. Both being trinity-MMORPGs doesn't magically make them identical.Quote:
In WOW I...
I'm finding myself tanking less and less as DRK as time goes on since SB landed. I used to enjoy leading the flow of things in dungeons, and back in HW I started tanking Ex trials for the first time. Pairing with random JP tanks on Sophia was really engaging and enjoyable.
Now though? I don't bother tanking trials because there is no longer the satisfaction in doing so as DRK. It wasn't just the skills from the class that were gutted; my enthusiasm was gutted too.
Now levelling my long dormant alt PLD class to see if I can find the spark in tanking again. So far: not really feeling it.
Curious thing to note; in HW you could somehow tell if someone was enjoying tanking even if a word was never said. It's difficult to describe, but now it feels like every tank I get in whatever content I'm doing completely lacks energy.
I answered your question to why people dont like to Tank. I made a refrence to wow. I left wow years ago. I started here around the end of 2.0. I haven't looked back at wow. All I am saying is people are use to things a certain way. Sometimes you can't teach a dog a new trick...
Mhm... I'd argue otherwise. The fact that the trinity is not in fact built on three equal pillars shows in the fact that both more healing and more tanking than necessary is useless, whereas more damage isn't. Moreover, healing/tanking tools are largely limited to healers/tanks, whereas DPS tools are given away to everyone - Literally because they need them to function solo. Furthermore, neither tanks nor healers can function without enemy damage dealers, whereas damage dealers can work fine without enemy tanks/healers.
Personally, I think it is very obvious that damage is of supreme importance. Tanking and healing are derived from damage dealers - They are mitigating/undoing the damage enemy damage dealers do and would lose their purpose without damage dealers. Damage dealers on the other hand can exist without tanks/healers, they only rely on health as a mechanic to function. Most bosses actually are just hyper cranked up damage dealers with no mitigation or healing, they simply got a lot of health.
And that leads to one common tanking gripe: Since tanking is a secondary role, tanking demands are artificial, which means they are only useful in a limited quantity and since that quantity is low in order to make the role accessible, you end up playing a lot like a DPS anyway. Your entire optimization process is revolving around how to minimize your core role in favor of more DPS without dying in the process. Why not just play a real DPS right away?
My own reasons for not playing tank are somewhat different, though. For one, I simply don't like going in first and getting bashed on. For another, in solo games, tanks are usually the most disposable units you have under your control and I never felt that to be a very appealing fantasy. If possible, it's either mindless undead slaves or the least liked character that's given the role. So for me, the fact that I am half a DPS actually makes tanks rather more bearable to me in this game and the more DPS, the merrier, but I naturally still prefer full DPS.
At this point tanks are pretty much glorified DPS that take more hits...
The hardest thing about tanking for me is finding a time to practice tanking. I've found that more then all the other roles, tanking requires the most in-game practice time. Stuff like what HP threshold do you need CDs, how high can you let everyone else's aggro get and still be holding it yourself, enemy placement, etc. can't really be learned by watching a guide. Tanks have to learn that by doing it (and often failing at doing it) so they can get a feel for how their role works. And so that the next time, they'll know what to do.
The only problem is, most other people in the game aren't willing to give newbie tanks the time to be well... newbie tanks. Try to go slow because you've never tanked a dungeon before (or the last time you tanke it you screwed up)? Everyone else wants to go faster even though you know you can't take three pulls at once. Try to learn CD management on old trials you know the healer can heal you through so long as you don't mess up mechanics? They start complaining about not being able to DPS as much as they would like.
Granted, I have had runs where the other party members are willing to let me go at my own pace and figure stuff out and those are the runs I actually learn things in. But most of time I get runs where party members think I'm going too slow and pull extra mobs on purpose. Even though I know I have no CDs left and what they just did will result in a wipe. As for Trials... lol, no. Unless you're tanking when they first came out, you're better off avoiding those as a tank until the next expansion. Then at least you won't have to worry about dying as much if you're CD usage is wrong. You've probably learned how it's supposed to be positioned already from when you cleared it as a DPS/Healer at least.
This stuff is not really as complicated and difficult as you, and many others, make it out to be.
A lot of tanking concepts can be learned by watching/reading guides, both job and content. Of course you will still need to get hands on practice to get the "feel" for it all, but that is true of any job and any role.
Using defensive cooldowns as a tank isn't about "HP thresholds" for when you pop them. If you are using them reactively and waiting until you are running low on HP, you are already using them too late.
Defensive cooldowns in this game are planned mostly ahead of time and cycled to fit to what the content you are tackling is.
In dungeons you formulate a general "pull plan" where you map out what and how big of pulls you will be doing. You then match defensive cooldowns to the difficulty and size of the different pulls. For example, you are starting off a dungeon run with a big pull, which is often the case, you would then allot your more powerful/longer recast ability (Sentinel/Vengeance/Shadow Wall) to that pull.
When you have completed the pull and are now tanking the group of mobs, you pop the biggest of the cooldowns that you have planned for the pull right at the beginning. This is when you will have the most mobs on you and will be taking the most damage, so you want to front-load your biggest defense to counter it.
As the fight goes on you then cycle in your other weaker defensive cooldowns as needed, progressing from stronger to weaker since as the fight goes on more of the enemies will be killed off and therefore you will be taking less damage and need less defense.
For boss fights, you just pre-plan your cooldowns to match to the phase/mechanic cycles of the boss and make sure you have a cooldown available to be used to catch any tank-busters. All the tank jobs have good defensive abilities that are designed for and really shine for countering tank-busters and these tend to have short durations but short recast times, making them ideal for using against hard-hitting single attacks.
Just watch the aggro "meter" shapes next to the enemy names in enemy list. If everything's green, your aggro is good. Yellow means someone has is creeping up on aggro but is still a bit behind you. If someone is showing orange that means they are getting close to overtaking you on aggro for that enemy. If anyone is red, it means they have top aggro on that enemy.
On top of that there is also a meter/bar at the bottom of the job icon for each member in the party list. This shows the aggro for each player on the enemy you currently have targeted. This provides a more exact display of where each party member is on aggro. If anyone is getting close to having that meter fill up (asides from you of course) then they are getting close to overtaking you in aggro.
General rule is to group up the enemies between you and the rest of your party, that way any directional aoes are aimed at you and away from the group and so all the enemies backs are pointed at the dps making positionals easier for them. You normally do this by moving through/passed the enemies you are engaging and then turning around you are then facing them. They should now be sandwiched between you and your group. Easy peasy.
As far as specific "where to pull to" or "where to tank the boss/enemies", that will depend on the content.
For most dungeon pulls it tends to be flexible and once you grabbed the last group for the pull, just put them all behind you and flip around.
For bosses it depends on their mechanics which you can learn from a guide or just learning the fight same as any job. Most of the time though if you don't know where to tank they boss, just tank it in the center of the arena, watch what the boss is doing and adjust as necessary.
Here's the problem: there's a big difference between knowing all that your head and actually being able to do it.
Currently, I find the game is pretty toxic to people who are trying to be able to do it. Tanking is an all or nothing game at the moment.
Healing and DPS get a lot more leeway from other players and so more people play them.