Are tanks currently too OP?

[ItMe]

That's not quite what I was pointing out with that comment. I don't believe the level sync is an issue.

You're right.
I was just awkwardly trying to say what the poster after me said better lol.

[Duskane]

you dont even need healers for most dungeon bosses
ive had healers die very early on some boss fights and manage to not die and keep DPS alive

[SaberMaxwell]

To answer the question behind your question, yes dungeons are too easy. I vividly recall tanking Swallows Compass on Red Mage back in the day once because the tank disconnected and we didn't wanna kick them. Sometimes dungeons just don't hit hard enough to mandate tanks or healers.

The question that follows is "why are they too easy?" To which the answer is "accessibility" and "poor power syncing." Dungeons at base are meant to be cleared by anybody with a pulse, because first and foremost they want people to experience the story. This exacerbates the latter problem, poor syncing. In Skalla, you're iLv synced to that raid tier's top gear level--essentially you're running around as a near-BiS party in a dungeon specced to handle people with gear as low as the previous raid tier's bargain bin gear. Things will fall over hard and fast, and outside of mechanics, will prickle at best.

What's the solution? Good question, nobody can really agree. I think tighter restrictions on iLv sync (and not nulling materia on sync but rather syncing it down to lv appropriate variants) would help a bit at least though.

[Kalaam]

Well, the damage scaling down when 6.0 drops will likely alleviate the issue of synced content to an extent.

[Rongway]

Well, the damage scaling down when 6.0 drops will likely alleviate the issue of synced content to an extent.

They've stated that syncked content should feel the same after the squish as it does now. Unsyncked content will be more difficult.

[Liam_Harper]

Is soloing multiplayer content in an MMORPG desirable though?

Yes, being able to solo or part-solo bosses as tank in a MMO if you really know your class well is indeed desirable.

Tanks are generally seen as higher responsibility and less players use them in group content. Having a tank that feels like a juggernaut and can do amazing things if you master it, makes that role more desirable and gives more reason to play it a lot and learn it. You need some of those "glory moments" to live for in MMO's anyway. In the majority of cases, the average tank will just die so it doesn't really throw the overall balance out too much. If you feel it's "unfair", there's nothing stopping you rolling a tank.

The main issue is more that level cap dungeons (60/70/80) are way too easy and under-tuned. If anything, tanks could be a little more OP, have more depth to their rotation and the easier content could hit harder. A game where everyone is balanced to uselessness outside of anything that's strictly within the basics of their role and what they "should" do, feels dull to play and lacks moments of excitement or innovation.

[Ultimatecalibur]

True. After the healer died, the other DPS and I eventually died from unavoidable damage, but the tank never fell below 60%. He was never in danger at all from dying. I just never seen anything like that before in an MMO where tanks can solo stuff like that.

This has been happening with Tanks that rely on Regen, Self Heal, Shield* and Life Steal effects for survival as long as the RPG genre has existed (it became more noticeable with MMOs). As long as the average incoming damage is equal to or lower than a character's recovery capabilities the character would be immortal, but once the average incoming damage begins to exceed recovery the character starts dying and just dies quicker and quicker as incoming damage increases.

This was pretty noticeable early on in CoX with Regen builds as compared to Mitigation builds and it was also the reason for the changes to Warrior in 2.1.

*The status effect that absorbs damage until it breaks like TBN rather than the piece of equipment that reduces damage by blocking attacks.

[Lyth]

Tanks soloing retired content is as old as the genre itself. Forget dungeon content. I remember seeing Death Knights go back to solo classic raids during WotLK, and I'm sure that there are examples out there which are even older. Survival is a core theme in tanking. These little unexpected achievements, like solo runs and 8-tank runs, are how you capture players' interest and make them want to actually try out tanks. If this is news to you, this is probably your first MMO.

The real problem, in actuality, is that DPS jobs like RDM often end up being even better choices for solo content (like PoTD/HoH) than the tanks themselves. That's just a reflection of how far the power balance is skewed in this game. You're trading off a marginal loss in survivability for a massive damage dealing advantage. There are no glass cannons here.

I would love to see this game let the squishies actually be squishy again, but the devs are much too afraid that some slow tanks are going to ruin their paying customers' day by not picking adds up efficiently enough. It's not just tanks. If it's not a tankbuster, it's not a threat.

[JisKing98]

Naw its really a matter of skill with the job. Ive witnessed a WAR solo red comet from 65% in bozjha even after everyone died. dude barely moved to avoid the aoe attacks.

[Bhearil]

Skill is a part of soloing group content, but the main issue is due to make content "accesible" to most people plus bad sync system, makes people with decent skill and gear steamroll most of the content. And it becomes more and more glaring the more geared and skilled you become.

Lv 50 dungeons on release were NASTY (Andapor Keep and Pharos Sirious mainly imo), now if they appear on roulette are a joke due to scaling