Will ShadowBringers make tanks feel more unique?

[DemonicNeko]

Stormblood I really feel took the wrong thing from World of Warcraft and homogenized the classes to much. With mages being the only ones that feel very unique to each other. A black mage does not feel like a summoner. Who also does not feel like the red mage.

Tanks feel like 75% the same as each other. Even worse was they got real lazy and throw the warrior beast meter on a lot of the classes. Doing some moves to fill up a 0-100 meter and then using it to unleash powerful moves.

Yes I know each class has some speciality that makes it differ but with majority of the special abilities ether being removed or put in the Role Actions. The classes for the most part have the same play style. With just different utility here and there.

With the removing of TP. I am hoping they might undo some of the changes they did in stormblood. Bring back uniqueness. Specially sense we will have 4 tanks now. Each one should have this unque feel to it.

I have had this talk with my friends and some agree with me and others disagree with me. So I understand this is going be a subject not everyone going agree on. I hope we can be civil and have a wonderful discourse about it.

[Kabooa]

I actually think the damage jobs are suitably different enough from each other.

Tanks though, pretty bad. Other than their burst phases they really don't differ much from each other and it really kills any want to play them extensively.

[Fannah]

I see the difference very well between Warrior and Paladin, they both feel unique in what they bring overall. Maybe it looks less obvious because of the DRK who looks kind of between them ?
Their 0-100 bar has nothing in common. One is too deal more dmg overall (and/or heal), the other is to be way more tanky and to protect his allies.
And believe me when you're playing with noob, you're more than happy to be able to save them, while usually, a war won't do anything about it when they take aoe from bosses.
Actually filling a bar is kinda like CD (CoolDown), it's just changing from the way you play it overall, and can't be filled when an enemy is not here.

But yes, it kinda have to be similar in a way because they said they want any team composed of Tank/Heal/2DPS (or change number for raids, trials, etc) to be technically able to clear content.
They all have to generate enimity in AoE, on mono target, they all have to survive tank buster moves from bosses, they all have to survive when taking all monsters on the way to AoE dmg after with their team, they all have to deal a bit of damage to bring something beside and not feeling boring, while helping to the dps check phases.

In a way, their base are all the same, but they have to to clear content.

What would you like to see as a different way to be a tank that would suit all content and which would also not be op (like dodging tank who is often too good or too bad).

[Duskane]

i hope so
Drk is very tunnel vision right now and to me War and Pld basically play the same

[Hierro]

In my opinion, the tanks feel pretty distinct in how they play. In single target, PLD plays like a caster while WAR has their burst, and DRK has its high APM thing going on.

[Kalise]

Don't worry, I'm sure after the MT/OT design split, the 2 tanks we'll have will be unique!

/s

On a more serious note, I hope they do more to differentiate Tanks playstyles.

Even better if they can create more interesting rotations than just 123 ad infinitum, while we have this vestigial "Enmity" combo sitting around being mostly useless...

I don't have particularly high hopes that they will, because they apparently need to keep Tanks being braindead "Accessible" to reduce "Tankxiety" for people entering the role.

[shao32]

I hope they focus more on each tank identity, it's kinda sad the difference between PLD and WAR rotation are just the casted fell cleaves.

I will love to see DRK have his HW skill celling back and GNB being equal or the second on difficulty.

[Lyth]

Tanks feel the same in Stormblood because they copied over the best abilities of the other two tanks on to WAR, either through the role action system or through active copypasting. Hopefully they've learnt that trying to market tanking on "Now, with even more Fail Cleaves" doesn't work.

[Lambdafish]

Don't worry, I'm sure after the MT/OT design split, the 2 tanks we'll have will be unique!

/s.

I'll forgive your ignorance, but if you think that PLDs toolkit doesn't make it the definition of offtank while still being truly a tank I don't know what will convince you. Paladin has cover, intervention, divine veil and clemency to allow them to support the main tank in tanking the boss. Likely this will be made even more apparent in shadowbringers.

I would love for an offtank with high enmity manipulation too

[Kalise]

I'll forgive your ignorance, but if you think that PLDs toolkit doesn't make it the definition of offtank while still being truly a tank I don't know what will convince you.

I'll forgive your ignorance.

But I'm referring to the fact that SE specifically talked about designing the 4 Tanks into a "MT" vs "OT" subrole as a way to balance because "Balancing 3 tanks is hard"

With a thread being made where gripes were made and people put forth ideas around making things "Easier to balance" wherein the likely outcomes where something like the following:

* "OT" designed jobs being less capable at MT while not providing relevant utility and thus leading to a "MT+MT" meta

* "OT" designed jobs having enough utility and/or more damage than "MT" designed jobs while still being capable enough in the MT position and thus leading to a "OT+OT" meta

* "MT" + "OT" designed jobs being balanced within their own pair in a way that makes them very samey, making the 4 Tanks end up feeling like just 2 different Tanks.

* "MT" + "OT" designed jobs, but with current imbalances within the Tank role being left unaddressed, leading to exactly the same "WAR + PLD" meta due to these jobs inherent strengths over other jobs in the role.

Since, there are many potential fatal flaws with intentionally designing Tanks to prefer MT or OT roles, including the fact that Paladin has Cover, Intervention, Divine Veil, Passage of Arms and Clemency to allow them to support the Main Tank as well as the rest of the party while Warrior only has Shake It Off and Dark Knight only has The Blackest Night and thus Paladin is by far the superior OT and is still capable of being MT (Thus, if another job also had all this utility and could match WAR as MT then why would you bring anything other than the 2 Tanks with all the utility that can still serve as MT just fine?)