The "Tank Problem" Solution Suggestion.

[StormyBedlam]

HI all. this is in response to the tank problem regarding the ever increasing focus on DPS for tanks and healers, which in and of itself is not bad. I and many others love doing damage even when providing other main roles. The problems are with having to choose gear based on strength. Slaying versus Fending. No other job has this choice. Being unable to roll on str items, (which is fine, but needs to be fixed so that you don't care if you can't need strength dps accessories.)

This is a fix for tanks who don't feel like tanks should feel, when you're trying to gear your right side like a dragoon. In response to the dozens and dozens of threads on the issue.

First time poster here but I read and research alot, so I'm quite aware of the current problems progression tanks face which trickles down into less intense facets of the game.

My solution is multiple simple changes (some of which have been suggested before), but must all be implemented or only half the issues are fixed.

Step one: Scale tank damage 50/50 vit/str regardless of current stance.

Step two: Vit adds magic defense and str adds physical defense. (edit: also tank stance only)
(Not an overwhelming amount, but enough to make it worth having and this allows different tank jobs to shore up their shortcomings. Combined with step one tanks dmg remains the same.

Step three: While in tanking stance, any successful parry results in an immediate and automatic riposte attack for lets say 170 potency (just a random number, devs can make this call). It happens automatically, no extra button pressing. An instant high potency auto attack if you will. Now parry can be useful. Maybe 20 or 25% chance on successful parry. I'll leave balancing to the devs .. Added edit - An internal cooldown of 5 seconds or so to keep the skill in line when fighting large crowds.

Now with riposte tanking should yield dps akin to tanking out of tank stance and stacking str gear. Which will also no longer be an issue. Outside of the itemization problems this game already suffers from of course. But that's a whole other can of worms. I believe if these steps are all implemented together it would fix alot of the problems I see here. Paladins could also get a low potency passive shield spikes in order to bring it up to speed with the other two tanks without ruining the whole 1 hand versus 2 hand weapons not making sense to output similar dmg.

So that's my thoughts. Please any other suggestions or problems with these feel free to add. Otherwise feel free to /sign and jump on board.

Another plus side of these changes is it adds zero button bloat but fixes multiple issues in one go.

[Fevelle]

Riposte is probably going to be in a Samurai trait or stance, so I don't think SQEX is going to make it a system every tank can use.

[StormyBedlam]

They can call it whatever they like. Alot of these types of skills exist in game already as active use. DRK has one based on parry already, but you have to click it and it has high cooldown. Monk and dodging etc. These already exist. Chances are SAM will be dps in the DRG armor class. But who knows.

Either way this skill would not be on your hotbar, it would be a passive built into tank stance alongside the magic and physical defense bonuses I forgot to mention were tank stance passives. It would maybe have 20-25% chance to fire from a successful parry with maybe a 5 sec internal cooldown or something so large crowds of mobs would not be decimated by it. And the paladin shield thing would be in addition to this since they are already a wee bit behind the other 2 tanks. I think this would be a great fix for paladins, I think a 1hand sword should not have equal potency, especially when the shield is bonus defense already. But a Small dmg shield called shield spikes, or razors edge or something to do with the shield would go a long way for paladin tanking.. off tanking, well i dont know there.

[StormyBedlam]

Well I have no problem tanking or with the role. I have been maxing out classes of every type healer/tank/dps etc. in mmos since 1998. General skill levels of players and party leading is not what I am referring to.

I should have mentioned it in the first post but I would have assumed it was obvious that this is in response to the tank problem regarding the ever increasing focus on DPS for tanks and healers, which in and of itself is not bad. I and many others love doing damage even when providing other main roles. The problems are with having to choose gear based on strength. Slaying versus Fending. No other job has this choice. Being unable to roll on str items, (which is fine, but needs to be fixed so that you don't care if you can't need strength dps accessories.)

This is a fix for tanks who don't feel like tanks should feel, when you're trying to gear your right side like a dragoon. In response to the dozens and dozens of threads on the issue.

[Marxam]

An issue I have with steps one and two are that it basically makes penta-melded gear bis and thus people will be ridiculed for using tome accessories.

The simple fix is if enmity generation stacked with VIT only then it would stop dps from complaining about tank dmg and make sure that fending becomes useful again.

As far as parry goes, it's a terrible stat only because it scales poorly and is calculated by SE's famous RNG machine. Parry and block are great traits but are poorly implemented and are simply reduced to icing on the cake as far as mitigation is concerned. That and coupled with the strength of such cooldowns like Bulwark and Raw Intuition, parry outside of cd's are essentially a wash and either needs to be increased or removed entirely as no tank in their right mind would take it outside a mt DRK who needs it for LB procs but even in this scenario its questionable.

[AnimaS]

have ya folks noticed the job specific gear instead of "Fending" ..... I am sure that is just the beginning and SE is again using this as an experiment.