Four Ways to Die - why the Tank Meta feels "off".

[Dhex]

Currently everyone is a DPS role - with Healers and Tanks fulfilling auxiliary functions. Healers maintain raid health while maximizing DPS, and Tanks maintain monster orientation and utilize survival cooldowns while maximizing DPS.



If you roll back the clock to early 2.1 onward most Tanks were using large HP-pools and still needed constant attention. We were basically being baby-sat by Healers - all while contributing very little to completing the raid (killing the monster) outside of properly orienting/placement and utilizing cooldowns.







I personally would think it would be a step backward if as tanks we were again reduced to being baby-sat for the duration of an encounter.

[Alahra]

I don't think they're likely to go back to a 2.0-styled raid design, at least not completely. I'm sure they realize that the new meta has attracted a lot of tanks to the job that wouldn't otherwise be tanking. I think they're more likely to make Fending accessories affect damage, such that they'll be superior to Slaying accessories, and balance future raid content around the new baselines for tank DPS and health totals.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

I don't think they're likely to go back to a 2.0-styled raid design, at least not completely. I'm sure they realize that the new meta has attracted a lot of tanks to the job that wouldn't otherwise be tanking. I think they're more likely to make Fending accessories affect damage, such that they'll be superior to Slaying accessories, and balance future raid content around the new baselines for tank DPS and health totals.

They would piss off players who spent tokens on Slaying accessories. =P

[Alahra]

They would piss off players who spent tokens on Slaying accessories. =P

They'll be uncapped by the time these changes are implemented (in 3.2), so in the grand scheme of things, that's likely not a huge concern. If the changes were coming in 3.1, it definitely would be. But they have a lot of good reasons for waiting for the tier reset in 3.2, a relatively clean slate for gearing priorities being one of them.

[Ultimatecalibur]

They'll be uncapped by the time these changes are implemented (in 3.2), so in the grand scheme of things, that's likely not a huge concern. If the changes were coming in 3.1, it definitely would be. But they have a lot of good reasons for waiting for the tier reset in 3.2, a relatively clean slate for gearing priorities being one of them.

Heck, it only takes 4 weeks to get the Eso to buy an accessory set now and we have 14+ weeks until 3.2.

[Alex_Lenderson]

Seems to me this problem is due to content design for this raid tier.

Make it so it is worthwhile to have a 'brick wall' tank AND an off tank that can DPS and the problem goes away.

[Hydrium]

I personally would think it would be a step backward if as tanks we were again reduced to being baby-sat for the duration of an encounter.

How would it be a step backwards to be able to focus on your mitigation? It's called a tank class for a reason...it tanks, if you were confused at character creation that's a problem on your end. As it stands it's like you said, we're all just DPS classes except some of us have a few more defensive options and a few others have some healing utility.

[karateorangutang]

How would it be a step backwards to be able to focus on your mitigation? It's called a tank class for a reason...it tanks, if you were confused at character creation that's a problem on your end. As it stands it's like you said, we're all just DPS classes except some of us have a few more defensive options and a few others have some healing utility.

This begs the question though.

Would it in fact be a step backwards?
I believe it might be.

Look at player trends from 2.0 to now. The more tanks were able to focus on DPS the more people flocked to play a tank class. It's dynamic, important, and fun. The real question isn't that tanks be tanks, it's how do you make tanks work in a game like this. Tanks need to have a feeling of power just like DPS and healers. In 2.0 they lacked that, hitting passive cooldowns in surviving damage was pretty boring to alot of people. This was fun for some, but the greater population hated playing tank. Many leveled DPS jobs and only raided on their tanks. As we progressed through 2.x you saw tanks gain more dps, it had the exact effect that you would imagine. Tank to other class rations went up. Queue lines went down. Tanks were more available then ever by the time 2.5 rolled around.

With the release of 3.0 they skewed it even further. There are more tanks in this game that in any other MMO I've ever played. They are considered to be fun to the greater population and that is a good thing. It's attracting new people to the roles and so we are a growing population that can keep up with the sheer numbers of DPS jobs in the game.

If this is replaced with a more classic meta there is a good likelihood that tanks will revert back to the state that they were in at release. Queue times go up for everyone and that strikes a bad balance with the rest of the population.

Theres more to look at then what you or I want. There's a trend in the ratio of these jobs to look at.

[Alahra]

Would it in fact be a step backwards?
I believe it might be.

This is almost certainly true and it's one of the main reasons I don't think we'll see any major decrease in tank DPS, regardless of how they adjust the calculations. I suspect what we'll end up with is tank DPS on par with full pentamelded accessories, so there might be a small decrease relative to going full Slaying, but I don't foresee tanks returning to the way they played in 2.0.

[Anthius]

The more tanks were able to focus on DPS the more people flocked to play a tank class.

Have they though? You're saying you notice more tanks. I myself haven't noticed any difference in the number of people playing tanks, none of the people I know, have switched, and in fact some people I know who do play tanks have stopped. My wait time as a melee dps in 2.0 was never long aside from when ninja's were first released and it's not really any different now so I don't notice this big influx of more tanks you seem to be talking about.

That being said I do think tanks should contribute to DPS, maybe a little less than they are now but not much. That is really up to SE who have the numbers to decide on where they want it to be though.

I honestly hope while they're adjusting numbers for tanks in 3.2 they remove the damage reduction from tank stances. Tanks should be at their best while tanking, and for me dropping my tank stance while tanking a boss just feels wrong. I do it, but I don't like it.