Tank Balance

[Phoenicia]

Snip.

Yeah, that's called "active mitigation". WAR has some of it with Wrath building and IB usage. DRK kinda with Souleater but not really.

But yeah, active mitigation is a lot more fun than passive mitigation. This game is in the middle though, popping a CD to mitigate busters is a form of "active mitigation" but it's not active enough.

I feel I should be adding more to my posts but too lazy and tired to elaborate. haha. I should sleep.

[Reynhart]

This game is in the middle though, popping a CD to mitigate busters is a form of "active mitigation" but it's not active enough.

And it's definitely not "challenging". Maybe that's why the endgame challenge as a tank is to do the max DPS while surviving.

[Alahra]

And it's definitely not "challenging". Maybe that's why the endgame challenge as a tank is to do the max DPS while surviving.

Which is by design, I think. They realize that in terms of social pressure, tanking is seen as an "important" job and a lot of people who don't tank choose not to because of that pressure. That's why the tank jobs (with WAR being something of the exception for variety) aren't as demanding rotationally as DPS classes are, so that they have less to worry about and (hopefully) more people can learn to like tanking.

The current setup works pretty well, I think: serious tanks can go all in for DPS maximization, and those that are just tanking for their roulettes or friends can get by just doing the meat shield thing. They need to do something regarding parity in the OT role and probably to make PLD more desirable in 8-mans, though.

[Reynhart]

The current setup works pretty well, I think: serious tanks can go all in for DPS maximization

For me, the second part of your sentence completely contradicts the first.
And I fear this will bite us really hard if they decide to add other tanks in the next expansions.

Adding a real "gameplay" for mitigation would lift a lot of complains because player skill would "blur" the gap between each tank, like it does with DPS.

[Alahra]

For me, the second part of your sentence completely contradicts the first.
And I fear this will bite us really hard if they decide to add other tanks in the next expansions.

Care to explain how it's a contradiction? SE wants tanking to be approachable, and at it's base level, it is. You don't have to optimize damage to tank beyond knowing your enmity combos. However, those tanks that are dedicated to the job and want to get more out of it have a lot of room to push for damage, learn how to squeeze in periods in DPS stance while MTing, and so on. In my mind, it's a solid enough compromise and ultimately probably good for keeping tanks available for content.

[Reynhart]

Care to explain how it's a contradiction? SE wants tanking to be approachable, and at it's base level, it is.

I don't think it works to make "serious tanking" solely focusing on DPS, because it puts all tank in a bottleneck.
We should have more ways of improving so that each player can pick the tank that match their playstyle.

[Alahra]

I don't think it works to make "serious tanking" solely focusing on DPS, because it puts all tank in a bottleneck.
We should have more ways of improving so that each player can pick the tank that match their playstyle.

Well, in that regard, yes, it doesn't work for serious tanks that don't like to DPS, but SE is kind of stuck in the middle. If they make defensive tanking too active (following WoW's example), it will reduce the number of tanks in the long run for non-raid content (say what you will about queue times for DPS here, they have always been and still are much longer in WoW), as people won't want the "responsibility" on top of the more complex playstyle.

Things as they are now is a compromise, this much is true, but there is at least plenty of room for serious tanks to differentiate themselves from the more casual ones. It works even if it's not to your taste.