Viability of Lancer as a Tank?

[Peregrine]

Actually THM makes a pretty beastly little tank on certain mobs.

THM is a better tank than any meleer on every mob, and a better tank than gladiator on every NM because unlike GLA it actually does damage with that party slot.

I dunno. I think a lot of marauders and pugs who think their class can tank are under a placebo affect simply because their abilities tell them they can. No one actually guaranteed them that those abilities actually made them successes at it.

As a healer of any kind of tank, honestly there's gladiator...and pug mrd lnc...you're all about the same. Pug is a blood tanker who thinks they can evade. Mrd is a DD who thinks they can tank. Lnc at least has class-only 30 second enhancers. Rotating those to keep hate, you KNOW the mob's not moving, because no one can

life surge ferocity taunt raging strike hawk's eye speed surge provoke lifesurge....

like a lancer.

Really at any piddlydink content that any pug or mrd would be allowed to tank, lancer is probably a better tank. Again, because their damage mitigation suffices and they have two extra 30 second enmity-enhancers that no other job has.

[Krausus]

THM is a better tank than any meleer on every mob, and a better tank than gladiator on every NM because unlike GLA it actually does damage with that party slot.

I dunno. I think a lot of marauders and pugs who think their class can tank are under a placebo affect simply because their abilities tell them they can. No one actually guaranteed them that those abilities actually made them successes at it.

As a healer of any kind of tank, honestly there's gladiator...and pug mrd lnc...you're all about the same. Pug is a blood tanker who thinks they can evade. Mrd is a DD who thinks they can tank. Lnc at least has class-only 30 second enhancers. Rotating those to keep hate, you KNOW the mob's not moving, because no one can

life surge ferocity taunt raging strike hawk's eye speed surge provoke lifesurge....

like a lancer.

Really at any piddlydink content that any pug or mrd would be allowed to tank, lancer is probably a better tank. Again, because their damage mitigation suffices and they have two extra 30 second enmity-enhancers that no other job has.

dont forget though what makes pug/mrd better equipped to tank then a Lancer is health pool. Though I do agree we do have the class specific hate generators you left out Invigorate and Comrade in Arms which both build up a decent amount of enmity.

[Shampooo]

LNC is a great tank even on NM's with all the right skills, I do agree I'd rather have a 50 GLD or PUG who are equally as loaded up with skills and traits but to say LNC is a paper tank is incorrect. You wear the exact same gear as the GLD. One of the hidden benefits of tanking on LNC is that you can also participate in meaningful BR's by using invigorate. So far tanking everything on my LNC is cake with the exception of greater buff which requires some healers who know what there doing still viable as a small man group of 5-6 without too much struggle.

This is because all of the content is cake, there is nothing out there that is a challenge. Why use a lancer tank with a low health pool instead of a GLA or THM. Also saying a lancer and gla wear the same gear..sure they do, but one has a shield. Also, a GLA can participate in a BR just as well as a lancer so not sure what kinda argument there is there. Anything in this game can "Tank" other classes just do it better. If your "tanking" as a lancer then your probably capping vit, which means your other stats suck and if/when they ever fix stats then your damage is gonna down which will turn you into a lack luster DPS and lackluster tank...of course this is assuming they ever fix stats. Also assuming they add meaningfull fights that are challenging, no ones gonna pick a lancer tank over a gla or thm tank.

[OmegaNovaios]

I'm a R50 LNC and I can honestly say LNC isn't a viable tank because of damage mitigation and HP (which shouldn't be an issue with enough damage mitigation). However, LNC does have a great advantage enmity (hate) wise due to being able to use enmity actions back to back much faster than any other class with Speed Surge II.

Haven't tried it yet, but I think evasion tank or defense/evasion tank setup would work best with LNC which might be viable at that point, but your going to need a lot of ranked classes. I'd suggest Defender/Defender II + Obsess/Obsess II (1 mob only) + Diversion + Decoy (ARC 36) + Featherfoot + Absorb DEF + Absorb ATK as main actions and maybe some more if that isn't enough.

Get Firm Conviction and Fast Cast traits from CON and THM and Cure III and/or Sacrifice III to help heal for the amount of damage you take and Stygian Spikes/Stygian Spikes II and/or Siphon MP/Siphon MP II so you can spam cures literally back to back when needed.

LNC "might" be a viable tank but it's definitely much more work than GLA, MRD, or PGL and possibly even THM might be more viable although I'm sure it can be done with enough determination and/or a tanking role via jobs if added.

[Pulseczar]

My LNC has no problem tanking. I can hold hate and take damage with ease. Of course, I borrow a lot of abilities and traits from other classes and I usually have a static party; so we know each others play styles pretty well.

[Belial]

Most classes don't have a problem tanking. Because the content we have is currently geared to all the herp-derps out there who don't even know what "battle mechanics" are. Fish around youtube for videos of random classes tanking. Apart from CON, you'll find every class is able to tank most the content made available to us (minus the rank 60+ mobs).

[Krausus]

I'm a R50 LNC and I can honestly say LNC isn't a viable tank because of damage mitigation and HP (which shouldn't be an issue with enough damage mitigation). However, LNC does have a great advantage enmity (hate) wise due to being able to use enmity actions back to back much faster than any other class with Speed Surge II.

Haven't tried it yet, but I think evasion tank or defense/evasion tank setup would work best with LNC which might be viable at that point, but your going to need a lot of ranked classes. I'd suggest Defender/Defender II + Obsess/Obsess II (1 mob only) + Diversion + Decoy (ARC 36) + Featherfoot + Absorb DEF + Absorb ATK as main actions and maybe some more if that isn't enough.

Get Firm Conviction and Fast Cast traits from CON and THM and Cure III and/or Sacrifice III to help heal for the amount of damage you take and Stygian Spikes/Stygian Spikes II and/or Siphon MP/Siphon MP II so you can spam cures literally back to back when needed.

LNC "might" be a viable tank but it's definitely much more work than GLA, MRD, or PGL and possibly even THM might be more viable although I'm sure it can be done with enough determination and/or a tanking role via jobs if added.

The Issue is in order for a LNC to tank you are putting two negative issues on your party.

1. more strain on healers

2. you not focusing on what makes a lancer strong thus neglecting your group with those abilities.

A Lancers focus should be increasing your parties TP gains, and decreasing the targets while providing the second highest physical DPS in the game. Lancers make good BR callers for this reason as well, since they are better able to determine where allies TP is at.

[Rentahamster]

1. more strain on healers

Yep. The less time the mages have to spend healing your butt, the more time they can spend on DPS stuff like DoTs, nukes, and Debuffs.

[Raze]

THM is a better tank than any meleer on every mob, and a better tank than gladiator on every NM because unlike GLA it actually does damage with that party slot.

Peregrine I usually agree with you but in this case I'd have to point out that a THM will find themselves in a tough fight when facing purely physical mobs. I have yet to see emulate work on buffalo, uraeus(even breath), or mosshorn and his clan. I don't know if you think they are still viable prospects once emulate is out of the picture but they'll be spamhealing themselves quite a bit and even with throwing out whatever damage they can while holding hate, they'll still need additional healing every once in a while (depending on NM) yada yada yada So my point is.... I think you have a solid bet getting whatever SE decides to "call" a tank, GLA,MRD,PGL.... they all work, fresh out of the box!

[Krausus]

Peregrine I usually agree with you but in this case I'd have to point out that a THM will find themselves in a tough fight when facing purely physical mobs. I have yet to see emulate work on buffalo, uraeus(even breath), or mosshorn and his clan. I don't know if you think they are still viable prospects once emulate is out of the picture but they'll be spamhealing themselves quite a bit and even with throwing out whatever damage they can while holding hate, they'll still need additional healing every once in a while (depending on NM) yada yada yada So my point is.... I think you have a solid bet getting whatever SE decides to "call" a tank, GLA,MRD,PGL.... they all work, fresh out of the box!

I have watched a THM tank Mosshorn just fine, he only did it because of a freak death of the tank but it worked out well enough, I would never go into a fight with the expectations of a THM tanking though. Though I agree with you that THM should not be on the list of "better" tank, just on the list of "able".