Radical thought...remove the off-tank?

[Miste]

How would this affect savage statics though?

If groups no longer need two tanks then people who prefer to play tank may have a hard time finding room in a group for them since the savage raid community is already a smaller percentage of the player base. The meta will also severely impact certain tanks if one tank is simply better or easier to manage in certain fights. So one tank might end up meta and then two other tanks get left out....

I mean I remember tanks being upset about Zurvan EX for example since the fight wasn't planned out well enough so that it was possible to not need two tanks so they were having trouble getting groups if I remember correctly anyway.

[Gravton]

How would this affect savage statics though?

If groups no longer need two tanks then people who prefer to play tank may have a hard time finding room in a group for them since the savage raid community is already a smaller percentage of the player base.

It would mean, play war or gtfo

[Vaer]

With all the talk of tanks and DPS and all, I had a random thought. Do we really need an off-tank? Yes, some battles require tank-swaps, and a small number of times you need to tank two things apart (Bismark), but in truth 99% of the time an OT is just locked in DPS stance, DPSing. Now, there are a shortage of tanks, and we all know how bad DPS queues are. So I was wondering, what if SE designed future 8-man content to instead require one tank, two healers and five DPS? Not only would this help even out queue times, it would avoid sticking a tank in the role of second-hand DPS. Yes, you would lose tank swaps and mechanics like Twin Bolt, but would that really be so great a loss?

Like I said, just a random thought that came to me.

Balance. Right now at least it is more likely that you bring 2 different tanks in harder content. If theres only one slot that might not be the case anymore. There might just be one meta tank and the rest are benched.

[Malzian]

It would mean, play war or gtfo

Um... What? Does not compute. Right now PLD is the preferred tank for raiding due to its mitigation and utility. WAR is fine and can be used for raiding, but I don't know a single raid group that would say this. During HW, yes, but not in SB.

[Derio]

Honestly it would put alot of pressure on new players trying to tank.

I like the off tank setup in alot of the earlier pieces of content and even at simple trials its good to always have a backup.

It would hurt the raiding community, as many people suffer to to find groups as a tank in such a small community for savage content. If you cut that number in half and add in a new dps, you are forcing those players to either create or find a new group or start maining a dps.

[Awha]

I think it would be neat to have some fights, not all, that require different setups, and not have them base around the standard setup.

Not talking class make up, more role make up. Hope it makes sense.

[Skivvy]

Which doesn't really disprove his point. 25% lower STR still makes the tank weaker, due to the fact that they'd be doing less damage.

If a tank fighting with 25% less strength is going to cause a wipe, it would seem there are far bigger issues that need to be addressed.

[kikix12]

If a tank fighting with 25% less strength is going to cause a wipe, it would seem there are far bigger issues that need to be addressed.

Honestly, didn't really pay attention to weakness no longer decreasing defensive stats, except dexterity (as far as the wiki goes, it apparently affects parry and block...neither of which are really big enough).

However, the wipe part of my comment is entirely separate from the weakness. If there was only one tank, then he would need to be resurrected (animation etc. takes a bit of time before he can act and be healed), then healed up at least some to not be one-hit instantly again (or two). And in these few seconds, brief, yes, the boss goes down the enmity list. If there is no off-tank, that will be a DPS most likely, which very much can die in one or two hits even when at full. If the luck will not be on the parties side, the attack can be a tank-buster cleave and that may very well mean that the reviving tank ironically will be the only one left...

Yes, it requires few coincidences, but on the other hand, it will be a lot more common when content is new and people are not geared well enough to "roflstomp" it (or even do it casually).

Ultimately, the suggestion doesn't really solve the problem, it is just a band-aid, that never should even be needed. However, a band-aid, that puts even MORE pressure and stress on the two classes (tanks and healers) that we want MORE of, not less. In the end, the amount of people that would stop tanking and healing or drop on the regularity of that could possibly entirely negate the gain from an extra DPS in party, at least for some content.

In comparison, leaving two tanks and two healers but adding more DPS, making it a party of 9 or 10, is devoid of such issues as it does not put any additional pressure on the tank/healer. Since this suggestion would pretty much be taken for new content anyway, they can as well start making the new content around 9-12 people altogether. Statics would need to get larger, though.

[Hikuras]

I'm in agreement with the OP.. Look if people want things to matter in this game changes do have to be made. I think getting rid of the offtank is a step in the right path. I mean what could it hurt? I only see good things in that it makes content harder which is what most want right?

[Miste]

I'm in agreement with the OP.. Look if people want things to matter in this game changes do have to be made. I think getting rid of the offtank is a step in the right path. I mean what could it hurt? I only see good things in that it makes content harder which is what most want right?

People have posted some reasons why it might "hurt"....I'm guessing you didn't read any responses.

I don't even play tank but I can see potential issues with people who prefer to play tank unable to get groups because suddenly groups only need one tank, especially when it comes to savage since the raiding community is small.

Also the raiding meta issue. Balance is already hard enough so making content only need one tank...there is obvious issues with that. Going to have 3 tanks fighting over 1 spot (and what if down the line they add more tank jobs?), sounds bad already even in theory.