Gunbreaker breaks my heart

[kikix12]

...decent threat, precisely because threat is what creates safety every bit as much as a barrier.

Threat in RPG games is exactly what enmity is...so on one side you are agreeing with me that enmity can't be used for a right-proper tank, on another you are showing it off as a proper method of accomplishing a "tankiness" in characters.

If we'll remove the idea of enmity as threat and go for ACTUAL threat...we just made a tank that's superior to DPS in every single way...hence why even have DPS?! The only way for tanks to be a greater threat than DPS is by outperforming them in attack. In FPS that works, because you can limit their range, slow them down, slow their attacks down to make them easier to avoid etc. In non-action RPG games it does not, because the only penalty you really can do is extend the cooldowns, but at that time their DPS merely becomes more bursty, but still they end up being lower threat over time. And melee is a very common range in fantasy games to fight at so you can't really depend on decreasing it that much either. Except if you specifically made every melee a tank and non-melee a DPS...but that's not something viable in a game with more than a handful of classes.

Tanks have the eHP and toolkits to push areas that other heroes would be unable to, opening lines of attack against enemy threat, but no role is denied whatever contribution its toolkit would rightly allow.

I'll say this. I have not played Overwatch, only read the skills of most characters. And from what I remember, what you said is correct only for select few of them. The only universal thing about the tanks in that game is that they are harder to kill solo because all of them have some skill that increases THEIR survivability. Not all of them have skills that increase the survivability of others though.
In case of Wrecking Ball there is the denial with the mines (though I reckon they are not visible to most enemies, so they're more of a DPS thing) and in case of Roadhog there's the hook which relocates enemies to him, which CAN be done to save an ally from an enemy by breaking his line of fire or orientation momentarily.
However Junkrat alone have both of those. Concussion Mine both damages AND relocates enemies. It can also work to both decrease and increase the distance, unlike Roadhogs hook. And that shows that neither the area denial nor "crowd control" skills are limited to tanks. In fact, there are several characters using knockback. And then there's Bastion, which is a DPS with a literal "Tank" mode, with a self-repair (at a price) ability that is more typical of tanks. Not even barriers are actually tank-only. Symmetra have a powerful (seemingly) barrier with infinite range as an ultimate. Again, it's got its downsides (being "ultimate" as the biggest of them), but is a perfectly "tanky" skill.

So yes. Does Overwatch have tanks that work?! Yes. Are they clear-cut for that role?!...No. Their only really unique characteristic is them having more personal survival through one way or another than even most defensive DPS's (well, one could argue that Wraith Form of Reaper is better with its invincibility, though he cannot attack then). And all of that is still in a setting where it is viable to "tank" by standing between who you want to protect and who you want to protect them from. Something that can be done by literally anyone in a pinch with enough success. After all, eating some hits for someone near death as a DPS/Support won't really matter if you're going behind the corner with a healer nearby and both of you will be healed soon enough.

So sorry...but I still say that Overwatch and other shooters are a poor example of how tanks can work in RPG's. Especially non-action RPG's.

The necessity of one role or another does not exist arbitrarily; it is determined precisely by whatever actions are necessary to win the fights given the time, enemy space, enemy charge, and enemy composition.

The necessity or lack of it thereof is not part of the discussion. The poster to which I originally responded was merely asking whether there is an MMO that did "tanking" really, really well. Whether the tanks are mandatory or not is irrelevant here. In most action games (RPG and FPS alike) tanks are completely optional because it comes with the territory. As I said, if a player can avoid any and all damage by quick reflexes and utilizing the minimum defensive skills that just about anyone have in action games (rolls are common in RPG's), someone that "tanks" is never necessary. Just makes it easier to survive for those less skilled.

Except the phalanx was never a name for an interlocking shield technique so much as, very specifically, a unit of long-reach infantry.

Reread what I said in my last post, this time carefully. You latched onto the word phalanx which I agreed with you that I used wrongly. Then I provided reasons why people that don't know history too well and/or are not native English speakers may have done that mistake in the first place, because it's very easy to come across "sources" that are incorrect like that, only for you to state what is at that point obvious...that they are incorrect.

To simplify...What you should have said is not that "While I don't at all think that the Macedonian phalanx is particularly iconic of "tanking", let alone the limit of such a space-making role in real life (...)" but "While I don't at all think that the Roman Legionaries are particularly iconic of "tanking", let alone the limit of such a space-making role in real life (...)"...or however you think of Roman formations and tanking.