Feedback on Frontline balance – tanks are too oppressive

[Valence]

It's fine they promised role action changes for 7.4, and we got a single change on... Healan. Surely this was going to fix all role action related issues.

[Ankhira]

It's fine they promised role action changes for 7.4, and we got a single change on... Healan. Surely this was going to fix all role action related issues.

We got a whole new FL map. We're not getting any PvP stuff until 8.1 let's be realistic here.

Next points are not aimed at you, just a general statement just quoted you to reply to you with my first line of text

But yeah, idk, I'm really tired of Tanks just being unkillable, you can argue "Just CC them" which sure, but I only have ST CC, and the rest of my team abandons me or doesn't press their CC, or has already used it on another tank. So what can we even do? Like we were fighting a gunbreaker who kept healing himself, I polymorphed him, used my role action but the others are not doing anything to help and he just kept rolling us, I couldn't get away cause they have a gapcloser too for some reason.

I understand its a team game mode, but if you need more than 3 people to spam CC to kill a single person it's a problem.

Premade of AST > DRK > WAR > GNB or triple GNB just running over anyone they look at is not my definition of fun. Sure, it could be solved by changing how battle high works since there's always going to be one outlier in balance but I'm far from the only one who is just not having fun in FL anymore with the last two patches. "Not everyone knows how to pvp, balance is fine." is also kind of a bad argument in my opinion because how can anyone learn when these three outliers keep running the show with premade parties so nobody can stop them?

It's fine in CC, I guess, but in FL it's just a complete mess right now and has been for a while. I just wish the devs were more transparent because again, SCH and SMN had to much power for too little risk = nerf them for FL specifically but the tanks and to a degree certain melee are exempt from this for some reason. I do think melee takes WAY more skills than the tanks so I'm mostly fine with how melee are, I mostly feel atleast SOME impact when I CC them compared to tanks. It's just tanks that are way too good at everything.

[ChrysOCE]

the rest of my team abandons me or doesn't press their CC

No matter what you do with pvp or frontlines or premades or abilities. this will be the problem. address that problem

[Ankhira]

No matter what you do with pvp or frontlines or premades or abilities. this will be the problem. address that problem

I’m talking about balance not mind‑controlling 24 randoms to be perfect players. If the only solution is ‘pray your team actually knows how to play,’ then that kinda proves my point. In a mode where 72 people get thrown together, no job should require perfect coordination just to stop it from steamrolling everyone. SE could make a few small tweaks to FL and instantly reduce how oppressive some jobs are.

Sure, it’d be great if all 24 teammates played perfectly, but that’s not reality. Tanks (and some melees) are way overtuned compared to the rest of the roster. If it takes multiple CCs to kill ONE tank, that’s not good design. And while you’re blowing all that CC on one guy, there are five more tanks ready to roll your team anyway.

[Valence]

Tanks and melees have always been a bit overpowered in the hands of good players, and bad in the hands of casuals that just go in and die. Something of a nightmare to balance properly, but it wasn't that bad before the introduction of their infamous role actions last tier. Rampart, Rampage, break the game especially in the hands of optimized groups that just run stacks of tanks and steamroll every lobby.

[ChrysOCE]

I’m talking about balance not mind‑controlling 24 randoms to be perfect players. If the only solution is ‘pray your team actually knows how to play,’ then that kinda proves my point. In a mode where 72 people get thrown together, no job should require perfect coordination just to stop it from steamrolling everyone. SE could make a few small tweaks to FL and instantly reduce how oppressive some jobs are.

Sure, it’d be great if all 24 teammates played perfectly, but that’s not reality. Tanks (and some melees) are way overtuned compared to the rest of the roster. If it takes multiple CCs to kill ONE tank, that’s not good design. And while you’re blowing all that CC on one guy, there are five more tanks ready to roll your team anyway.

you dont need to be perfect to press buttons. you said yourself, they either dont press their cc or run away. so you can make any adjustment you want. you can roll back the role changes. do all the re-balancing you want. you will still get the same results.

there will always be people who can dive into a crowd and escape untouched, because some players join pvp to not pvp. or they dont make any effort to understand what their job is capable of. i was in a game a few days ago. 3 people running away from a bh0 bard.

if you enjoy pvp, your best bet is to lean into the jobs that can make a difference and queue up with friends who also like pvp and play with them. hopefully they will press their buttons and wont abandon you.

[NorthernLadMSP]

I agree. They are way OP in Frontlines, especially DRK and GNB - which is the worst offender. Every single game, you'll see them all BH5 in a matter of a minute or less, and they normally remain that way for the full game.

[Gaiinahat]

I die a lot as a tank. I don't expect to get a lot of BH. Because people like to jump my bones.

[TofuLove]

I like how every frontline threads devolves into premade talk.

Yep, it's because everytime a class gets brought up, "a premade" is used as an example of how broken that class is.
Just because regulars get an organised group going doesn't mean that job is overpowered. These same regulars will be demolishing casuals with any class.
You can't balance for that.

I agree. They are way OP in Frontlines, especially DRK and GNB - which is the worst offender. Every single game, you'll see them all BH5 in a matter of a minute or less, and they normally remain that way for the full game.

As a mostly solo drk player, DRK is by far the most neutered job in frontline. The reason why it keeps receiving nerf is mostly to do with CC.
Lowest damage reduction out of all the melee classes. Lowest damage dealt reduction in all the classes (only drg has similar). Longest limit break charge out of all the jobs (+45s, which is 3 times higher than any other job).

Friends shared pvp stats with me of their encounters with DRK players in all of their games (i am on ps5, but they have some tools that let you see the stats), and DRK has the highest death per minute rate of all the jobs, and highest damage taken out of all the jobs on average on most regions as far as i can see. It's also the least played tank class, and one of the least played classes.

Try playing it (solo) and see how difficult it is to get to BH5 compared to literally any other job.

Gunbreaker, on the other hand, is massively overtuned.

[Laerune]

Tanks needs nerfhammer both in PvP and PvE. Last frontline, 6 players trying to kill a Paladin and the Paladin survived.