How tanking feels post ShB patch

[Bobzitto]

From what I understand (wasn't here, wouldn't know), tanks before had to switch between stances to build aggro and then switch to DPS when they had enough. Then switch back to "tank stance" when DPS was catching up. That's...not better design. That's busywork. They could make things more interesting and active for tanks if they changed things around, but threat/enmity/hate is deff not the way to do it.

[Reimmi]

Threat has never been the interesting thing for tanking in MMOs
i've always found mitigating properly to be more interesting, it's too bad outside of tank busters you take no damage so it really does feel like you're just a dps 80% of the time

[Phileas]

I get the sense fom your post that you feel that holding enmity is our defining trait.

This isn’t strictly true - holding enmity is a part of the role but they just got rid of the stress of the old tank stances and enmity generation. Now the main focus is enemy positioning, mitigate damage from tank busting attacks, protecting party members and the off tank in dual tank situations and finally dps so we can help kill things. Once you satisfy the first three you can just focus on maximising your rotation. Tanks have a few duties still even after the changes to enmity. I still mitigate big hits and protect party members from raid wide aoe damage.

Tank stance dancing was an annoyance more than an interesting point. I now feel more focused on mechanics rather than having to worry about whether everyone has used diversion so I can maintain dps stance like in 4.0....it is rather freeing for me

[Nyxheart]

Tanking is so much more than emity as holding is a requirement to being a tank. I think it's about control. Controling the pace, positioning correctly for everyones benifit, managing your cds effectively, etc. If you feel like your being a 'lazy' tank, push your party by running harder content or pulling bigger if possible (just remember when with lesser skilled players to pull as big as your party as a whole can handle not necessarily just you).

I'm not exactly a huge fan of some of the changes (I want my IB and SC back damn it), but I understand why they were made. It's not going to change back as it's not broken (excluding something actually out of balance) it's just a bit different. As players we need to adjust by either finding satisfaction in our classes or playing something else, like picking whm over ast as my healer of choise to play. I wish lower lvl content was more fun for me with my war, but I still love my class and enjoy how it plays endgame.

[IntrovertAnt]

I'm also glad all the tanks have a proper aoe rotations now, it actually gives me something to do in dungeons and keeping up my dps while mitigating properly, positioning mobs properly and avoiding aoes makes it more exciting and interesting. I'm happy I don't have to do Flash then bang my head on the Total Eclipse button anymore.

Oh man, dungeons used to feel like such ass on pld. Flash felt awful to use as did just doing TE. Now doing dungeons as a PLD feels great!

[IntrovertAnt]

Tank stance dancing was an annoyance more than an interesting point. I now feel more focused on mechanics rather than having to worry about whether everyone has used diversion so I can maintain dps stance like in 4.0....it is rather freeing for me

This^

Completely agree. I feel free and in control with new tank changes as well.

[Khalithar]

My co-tank from my old static argued with me that they wouldn't make it so main tanks could stay in their tank stance at all times with no penalty, that there would be a reason to toggle off tank stance while tanking to boost dps... he still needs to admit being wrong to me!

That aside, it is true that they made holding aggro completely brain dead and I don't think that's a bad thing. Aggro management has been made a non-issue and it puts the focus for tanks solely on mitigating damage via cooldowns and stuns, positioning the boss correctly, and doing mechanics with movement while maximizing your dps. I'm ok with this.

[Sqwall]

To be honest the "feel" of the jobs has changed because they took away some of the flashiest and visually hard hitting skills for all tanks.
1. Rage of Halone - althought boring after 5 years of use, it was flashy and sounded good when it hit. when I got this at 26 I loved the way how cool it was. You could always here it over all the trash pulls and dungeon nonsense that happened.
2. Butcher Block - talk about over the top! Albeit this skill was the most satisfying skill to use for my taste. I have a decent sound system and this really made the sub woofer push out some air. I was sad when they removed it, and hoping they would replace it with something equal.
3. Power Slash - This really made the DRK feel chunky, albeit it was part of the enmity opener and didn't really get much more use then that, they removed it. I hit hard and felt good when you used it.

Honestly I agree with the OP about how the tanks "feel". For me it's almost how ninjas rotation feels. Like i'm using daggers and not some large sword and shield.

If they want to change how the tanks "feel" add some low frequency tones to the sound FX and all should "feel" more weighty all around. Well that's my opinion anyway.

[Valmarus]

A thought occurs to me that, perhaps, the whole "feel like a dps" problem is something for people who have leveled and regularly switch between DPS and Tanks because they want to be able to switch between different playstyles?

In a game where a core mechanic is that you can swap between jobs for a change of pace then surely it should be a change of pace. They should feel different.

[BarretOblivion]

Tanks feel better now with the removal of stance dancing now. It always was a clunky action to stance dance with the only tank actually benefitting from it being WAR. That being said... OP clearly has no idea how tanking actually works. Yes, tanks deal damage, but we are the ones moving the boss in locations to where the DPS can actually do their jobs. We are the ones now supposed to be the brunt party wide mitigation. OTs now have to have the timing for tankbusters to assist with them now. There are plenty of mechanics requiring both tanks properly mitigating damage.

Aggro was an annoyance for everyone in ShB where tanks never ever used aggro combos and instead built just enough hate before swapping back to DPS stance where our basic kits actually worked the best. Meanwhile having to bark at DPS to use diversion on cooldown, telling the bards to tactian, and healers had to lucid at specific times while OTs had to also voke/shirk on cooldown for a few minutes into the fight. Not to mention the almost required need for Ninjas for shadewalker so tanks could have proper openers. Look, hate was just an annoyance for everyone in end game raiding, it didn't add anything to the tank role, just took away from us trying to focus on our jobs which does include DPSing. There is a reason tanks deal 22% of the total group DPS, because in end game you needed to else you just made your DPS have to work even harder.