Gunbreaker breaks my heart

[kikix12]

Tanking works well enough in games like Overwatch precisely because they have the ability to thwart offenses against their team (via interception paired with their mitigation) despite not necessarily being the most desired target -- certainly not in the long run.

Except those games are shooting games which use large-scale obstacles as shields, alternatively damage redirection. There are also many tanks that cater to the other side of what a "tank" is. As in, hard-hitting, tough characters that don't actually help other members. Except by happening to be in front of them.

Though yes, I did shoehorn this kind of games into what I said wrongly.

When talking about typical MMORPG however, tanking becomes more and more difficult as the distance between the enemy and the target shortens, or as the speed of their attack grows. This is assuming that there's no "accuracy" check simulating manual aiming typical of action titles. At that point it becomes another factor.


Now, don't get me wrong. There are numbers of skills that can work to deal with it (the aforementioned redirection of damage or large obstacle like barriers generation, mainly, but also automated 'blocking' when near someone and similar). There's a large amount of possible crowd control skills that would push, limit movement etc. of enemies making it harder for them to approach the target. But ultimately reality is that tanking in RPG's requires mechanisms that simplify it, otherwise it would require reflexes that are just incredibly rare.


As for the phalanx, I'd say that you should know that if you're to correct that, you should say that the Romans legionaries formation was no longer a phalanx (but derived of one), not latch onto that word and imply I mentioned the Macedonian one.
Especially when searching for Roman Phalanx in Google obviously shows plenty of the relevant content.