Is it Time for Active Mitigation?

[Absurdity]

I don't remember that being the case. As I remember it, tanks had an aggro combo and a damage combo, with PLD also having a DoT combo. WAR might have had something like what you're describing (I didn't really pick it up until just before 4.0), but I didn't think it was rotational.

If you started with Stormblood then of course you wouldn't remember that, since it existed in the 3.X era. Warrior for example worked slightly differently in that Maim applied a +20% damage buff, Storm's Eye applied slashing resistance down and Storm's Path applied a debuff to the enemy that reduced all damage dealt by 10% for X seconds. This meant you would be switching between 2 combo finishers to keep the slashing and damage reduction debuff up and, if enmity allowed for it, would do your Butcher's Block combo whenever possible since it dealt the highest amount of damage between all 3.


Dark Knight had 3 finishers for their dps combo, the Soul Eater we all know, Scourge which was a DoT effect and Delirium which reduced the enemy's intelligence by 10% and therefore their magic damage for 20 seconds.


For Paladin was mostly the same as in Stormblood, except their 2nd combos were switched around, this was actually an issue for paladins back in Heavensward since all of their attack combos did increased enmity which made tank swaps awkward since Shirk did not exist. Rage of Halone reduced the enemy's strength by 10% and therefore their physical damage.

[Kabooa]

Dark Knight had 3 finishers for their dps combo, the Soul Eater we all know, Scourge which was a DoT effect and Delirium which reduced the enemy's intelligence by 10% and therefore their magic damage for 20 seconds.

Scourge was standalone.

They had power slash, delirium, and soul eater for finishers.

[Sarkhane]

Yeah and I miss those effects maybe not the slashing debuffs but definitely effects like delirium and str down etc. Just tanks defensive spenders even like old inner beast that reduce damage dealt briefly. Make tanks choose when to try to dps vs mitigation for themselves and the party. I'm even fine with bringing back the tank type diversity like when War was the easy to heal with high raw hp, and drk had damage and magic specialized etc. You can make the way tanks take and mitigate damage as part of their class identity.

Just some ideas
Drk- uses own hp[or blackblood] for skills etc but passively takes less damage or tbn shields get higher closer they get to dying.

Pld-traditional tank blocks damage with shields say every x amount blocks heals or allow for a free ogcd clemency, holy spirit or something


War- higher hp pool and receives more healing, but takes overall more damage but taking X amount damage applies mini blood baths healing them for damage dealt. As they get lower hp% the bonus healing goes up

Gnb- expand on the cartridge system give them 3 different combo skills that loads a xy or z shell when they use their ogcd spender they gain an effect based on what was loaded. Like xxx would be a damage nuke but xxy could be something different kinda like the gambit system from wardens in LotRO or could dull it down to being like nin mudras. Essentially the Gnb would have different skills to mitigate, heal or damage depending on what they loaded.

[Lyth]

Depends on what you mean by active mitigation.

Rotational abilities that maintain mitigation effects (STR down/INT down) previously existed but are gone because they forced groups to pick certain comps. Short recast cooldowns (Shelltron/RI/TBN/HoS) exist but most damage is focused on either raidwides (non-tank) or tankbusters (invuln -> swap). There isn't much in the way of Living Liquid style fights to test your cleave timings.

If you want to have active mitigation, you need fight design that forces tanks to actively mitigate. You also need invulns to be less powerful than they currently are in relation to content.

[Hierro]

if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[Lyth]

Next expansion: Tanks do no damage, and only generate enmity. Tanks can no longer roll on gear, as tank gear progression no longer exists. Bosses position themselves. Tanks take no damage outside of four tankbusters per fight. If your tank tries to deliberately die, an NPC appears to tank the boss for you. If you're a DPS and mysteriously cannot find a tank to do content with, the Trust system will provide you with an equally capable NPC tank.

Yeah, if the formula works, why not? Just make sure that there are some suitably appetizing melee dps jobs for us all to switch to. Mystic Knight please.

[Jpec07]

if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

That's the thing--it IS broken. Tanking is absurdly mindless right now, and this thread is spitballing one way to potentially fix that.

[Rymi64]

That's the thing--it IS broken. Tanking is absurdly mindless right now, and this thread is spitballing one way to potentially fix that.

Go back to arr style bosses. No cast bars for busters random roomwides pain. At least this would be for ex since normal trials and stuff have to be accessible for all. I wouldn't consider it broken for this.

[Absurdity]

Go back to arr style bosses. No cast bars for busters random roomwides pain. At least this would be for ex since normal trials and stuff have to be accessible for all. I wouldn't consider it broken for this.

That doesn't fix the issue since most of the tanking you'll do will still be normal dungeons, even if you're a savage raider you're not going to only do savage.