New Job: Pugilist Tank

[kukurumei]

If they want to get lazy with encounter design, they could always tack on a glancing blows concept for special moves, so that you're still "evading," just not the whole hit. Ducking enough so that you take it on the arm instead of the face is a good idea even if it doesn't get you completely out of the way.

Leave auto-attacks all-or-nothing so there's still general spikiness and evasion. Then make special attacks glance a certain percentage at base. Maybe a random range, say 5-15%. Then let CDs increase that percentage. For example, Featherfoot on top of the tank stance would push your auto-attack evasion to 100%, and your special attack glancing percentage from 5-15% to 15-25% (or whatever). Other CDs can futz with the percentages in other ways and/or do something with self-healing.

Throw in a longish CD that guarantees special attacks miss, but leaves you flat-footed (no glancing, no dodging) for X seconds afterward as an answer to HG/Holmgang.

So it's basically sentinel and vengence and inner beast except it says "dodge"?

And then there are static damage and DoT stuff. In the end evasion tanks don't work, but pet tanking is a possible answer.

Instead of fake shadows, you can actually have real shadow clones, that mitigate damage via redirection.

But the programing would have to be something in expansion level as the core of the code is not a simple "reduce damage" type.

[Jandor]

You could have the RNG be dynamically rigged for an evasion tank. Chance to evade going up whenever it is hit, chance lowering whenever it dodges.

[Kitru]

You could have the RNG be dynamically rigged for an evasion tank. Chance to evade going up whenever it is hit, chance lowering whenever it dodges.

City of Heroes did something akin to this with Super Reflexes (which was a pure evasion defense powerset), though, instead of increases to evasion whenever you got it, it provided you with a scaling quantity of DR with the intent of preventing you from dying as easily to high damage chain hits. Vacillation in evasion from one attack to the next simply increases spikiness, which is already what's problematic with evasion tanking. If you want to mollify the RNG, some form of reliable mitigation needs to be applied in a dynamic manner, but that's only really required if burst death due to RNG were a major factor (which it wouldn't be if the evasion tank had +hp).

[LukeyP666]

What's stopping SE from implementing a completely new, individual stat for a Pugilist Tank in the same way that equipping a Shield adds the two stats Block Rate and Block Strength? Just throwing it out there.

[PlayerEx]

What's stopping SE from implementing a completely new, individual stat for a Pugilist Tank in the same way that equipping a Shield adds the two stats Block Rate and Block Strength? Just throwing it out there.

Good point, designing such a job based on the current system alone would most likely end up with an unbalanced broken job. New stats would definitely open up some possibilities.

[Kitru]

Good point, designing such a job based on the current system alone would most likely end up with an unbalanced broken job. New stats would definitely open up some possibilities.

There's no reason it would be any more broken than anything else (which I've been saying and mathematically proving all along). As to creating an entirely new stat, it's redundant given that parry rating would benefit it in the exact same way as the other tanks, and it's not like either of the other tanks needed a secondary stat implemented for their given stance driven mitigation mechanism. If anything, a straight up evasion stat would actually make an evasion tank spikier and less playable because you're increasing reliance upon the spikiest mitigation mechanism there is, which is the exact problem that other games have made in implementing their evasion tanks.

[ImDingDing]

I believe that's called Ninja.

[PlayerEx]

I believe that's called Ninja.

Just a disclaimer, I am not attempting to revive the Ninja class from whatever game it was, i did not even have knowledge of its existence before making this thread. I simply believe that with the right adjustments a PGL tank would be manageable and add a new tanking job to the game.

I just attempted running Ifrit with a low level PGL and ended up trying to tank it. Even with no real tank abilities it was not half bad, granted we had a terrific healer and I was using Foresight. Fists of Earth is already a blanket 10% damage reduction, building on dodge and Fists of Earth would be more than enough to allow PGL to be a real tank, and by adding an actual job at level 30 a true tank could be born from altered form bonuses.

[BearGrylls]

Welp, I don't know about all that technical stuff, but I do know that I love tanking and I love punching stuff (Snow is mai husbando <3) so combining the two would be badass. I always thought dual bucklers or a double shield type fist weapon would be awesome too.

[Hulk_Smash]

Not sure if any of you have heard of a game called, World of Warcraft, but that game employs an evasion based tank. They call it a Brew Master Monk. Not only does this tank have high evasion, but also has increased hp. Brew is able to increase their evasion by spending stacks, similar to Wrath or WAR. This tank is able to not only evade attacks, but also able to cause enemy's attacks to miss. Brew has an ability that is on a 30 sec CD, called Guard. Guard is an absorb shield, that absorbs attacks for an amount based on % of total hp.

Evasion based tanks can, and do work. What every one needs to understand though, is that evasion is *not* their only mitigation mechanic.

In addition, they have stagger. A mechanic the allows them to take 80% of the unmitigated damage initially, and spread the remaining 20% over time. Basically a 20% DR. This 20% can also be completely nullified, purifying brew.

Brew master is also a hero in DoTA, and with the proper gear, is a very durable tank.