Quote Originally Posted by Sylve View Post
Damage to the Tank is a steady constant in raid content. Its party damage that usually causes wipes, as that party damage distracts the Healer and opens up opportunities for the tank to get KO'd. Which is why I advocate frequent unpredictable party damage. You don't need to worry about Tank scaling, since the Tank getting tankier would only lessen the effects of being distracted healing the party. Everyones HP naturally rises with better gear, so as long as the party damage was tuned properly, a Healer would be managing the health bars of the party and occasionally throwing in DPS if they're skilled enough to open a window to do so.
No need for reinventing the wheel as far as Tanking/healing gear/mechanics go.
Except... In this situation, you've put the emphasis on party damage, not Tank damage. So... What's a Tank getting out of gearing up? When the difference between a wipe and a save is how much the healer can heal the party? Tank gets tankier and... It doesn't matter because it's about how much the healer can heal the party?

Not to mention, Tank damage is not a steady constant. In so far as gearing goes. Tank damage is the only mechanic that double dips in effects of gearing. Since, Tank damage is influenced both by how well the Tank is geared, so how much damage they're mitigating. In addition, to being effected by how geared the Healer is, in how potent fluff damage mitigation/restoration is (Stuff like Regens and Shields).

This means that a Tank's gearing can be overshone by healer gearing if things like Regens are overhealing them constantly, or if a random Critlo negates all damage between tankbusters.

All this goes back to the initial qualm you raised, whereby Tank and Healer gearing actively works against the opposite role. Tank getting Tankier means the Healer has to heal less. Healer getting stronger heals means the Tank has to mitigate less. Both get stronger in their respective roles and... You have redundant stats because now you're mitigating too much and being healed too much where neither party feels like they've progressed or have anywhere left to progress.

You can argue about "Just make the non-Tanks take damage lul" but then... What's a Tank to feel? They're supposed to be protecting their allies by taking the focus, but now encounters are designed around other targets randomly being blasted that they can't do anything about? With not even their own mitigation mattering any more? Then there's the whole what's a Healer supposed to do when people start dying because if someone makes a mistake it can randomly mean their death because they get a vuln stack or take some damage and then get blasted in the face by RNG and die without being able to be healed?

How is gearing up either of these roles supposed to matter when the Tank no longer cares about mitigation, because the threatening damage isn't targeted at them and when the Healer no longer cares about stronger heals because it's only the DPS (Whom scale less with Vitality) that are being targeted by damage and thus can by unpredictable party damage in combination with a messed up mechanic cause insta-kills and thus not be healed?

In theory, the idea of a Tank becoming Tankier so that a Healer can focus on healing other targets, whom will unpredictably take damage so that the healer has to react sounds reasonable. But when you actually think about it, it doesn't do anything with the issue regarding gearing and it instead opens up a can of worms that involve potential one shots (Due to how mechanics work in the game) to DPS.

Like, yes, less predictable damage should be used. As well as both party and tank damage. But there should be generally more focus on the Tank taking damage, since that's literally their role. That's why they have a ton of mitigation skills.

Though, this discussion on how damage is dealt, is independent of one surrounding gear scaling with Tanks and Healers. Since, how damage is applied, doesn't negate the fact that Tanks and Healers negate each others gear progression by making the damage the Tank takes double dip in upgrades - Which, when every piece of content is supposed to be doable with minimum item level across the board, can quickly scale into a point where returns from upgrades are neither noticeable nor relevant. Again, as opposed to the DPS role in which more damage scales infinitely and is unaffected by any other role (I.e. A Tank being Tankier doesn't make your DPS's damage feel any less relevant. Same with a Healer healing more)