Thread: Tank homogenization

Moreso than with the previous expansions, there seems to be an earnest effort by SE to balance the tanks, which they have chosen to accomplish by homogenizing the crap out of them.

As of now, every tank has
- the same 20% damage reduction, taunt, shirk, etc
- a 10s, 30% damage reduction on a 120s CD
- an ultimate "I can't die" button
- a gap closer
- a 2-stage AoE combo
- a functionally identical pulling tool
- some flavor of AoE party support
- some flavor of single-target party support
- a Fel Cleave expy
- and probably more I'm not thinking of off the top of my head

This is completely unnecessary IMO, because disparity is what gives a job its flavor. Differences in toolkits create niches that an individual job can excel at, and using your tools correctly to excel in those niches is what connects you to your job so much more.

Looking over to WoW and my main, the Brewmaster Monk, just off the top of my head i can rattle off 6 things my class can do that my co-tank, a Protection Paladin, cannot. And I can think of another 6 things that his class can do that mine cannot.
Is it balanced? Not exactly, but people need to accept the fact that pitch perfect balance only impacts the top 0.1% of the player base - i.e. those in the world first race. So long as every job is capable of clearing the content without holding the group back (like say, HW PLD being a pain to work with for multiple reasons), there should not be a problem.

It's perfectly valid to design a job that has glaring weaknesses as long as its strength are both equally apparent and equally impactful.

One this is not wow nor should it be. Two each tank feels vastly different in its playstyle despite a few similarities in their tool kit. This is not homogenization not even remotely close to it so please stop calling it that.

Warrior, high hp in your face dps tank. Changes will help it be even more like that

Dark Knight, the magic tank specialist having to balance mp and having the most magic reduction. With a more aggressive feel.

Paladin, our sword and board holy knight, holy magic, good mitigation, awesome tank ultimate, solid aoe, uses a hybrid of magic and physical attacks and our “block tank”

Gunbreaker: our utility tank, regen, single target mitigation on anyone in the party, good party mitigation, shield on the party, feels much faster and more dynamic to play rather than the slower pace of some of the other tanks.

Gonna agree with darkpaw about this. I rather they do the role the same then expand on their Game play options.

Dont worry about Tank homogenization, like ppl said from Media Tour, every tank feels different from each other.

idk why people think DRK has a gap closer.
its long animation lock, and horrible 15y reach is so bad, that you actually get to the mob faster, and starting your GCD sooner, by not pressing it to get back to the mob.
If the mob has a push back, most push backs are 20y, and everyone else will gap close back to the boss, while DRK is unable to. even if they time it with the animation, the game considers u too far away, despite still meleeing the boss during the push back animation, and stops u from being able to hit plunge before being pushed back.
only a few push backs are 15y, and allow the DRK to jump back. (and why would u, when it clips the GCD doing so?)

if anything, it was a slap to the face to give the other tanks better gap closers.

Originally Posted by MaraD_

idk why people think DRK has a gap closer.
its long animation lock, and horrible 15y reach is so bad, that you actually get to the mob faster, and starting your GCD sooner, by not pressing it to get back to the mob.
If the mob has a push back, most push backs are 20y, and everyone else will gap close back to the boss, while DRK is unable to. even if they time it with the animation, the game considers u too far away, despite still meleeing the boss during the push back animation, and stops u from being able to hit plunge before being pushed back.
only a few push backs are 15y, and allow the DRK to jump back. (and why would u, when it clips the GCD doing so?)

if anything, it was a slap to the face to give the other tanks better gap closers.

Only now can we really focus on this since paladin finally got their gap closer lol

I don't see it being homogenized. Some are getting similar skills to others in order to have similar basic skills (gap closers, for example), but from what I can see they still all have their own feel and style. It's important for them to have equal viability in both MT and OT roles, hence the skill changes, but they're still different. Don't be silly.

I'd like to see a tank with movement increases, similar to NINs passive, mixed with a mini sprint (not as potent as sprint, but enough to replace gap closers)
WoW sorta tried this, but I doubt they put that much thought into it, based on other factors. (it seems to mostly be used to dodge attacks now, rather than for getting to mobs before DPS, or to keep uptime on the bosses) WAR could have been a good candidate for increasing its run speed (with angry rushing animations) Heck, even the DNCs dash woulda worked. (I assume the only reasons DNC has dashes, instead of gap closers, is to not feel too samey as RDM, but its ok if the tanks fee samey lol)

I do see some similarities between the tanks, more so now, than before, but im actually ok with it, because this standard, if peopel like, can be built upon later, to add uniqueness come next expansion. (with us testing it out this base form, this expansion)
A lot of stuff couldnt have been done before, due to how tanks were designed. but the new designs actually allow for more creative freedom, so hopefully it leads in that direction. (I wont hold my breathe, we saw how BLU turned out.)

Nah the OP is right. Tanks all have essentially all the same tools now. Even though they may play a bit different but they seem to have lost their flavor until they get those level 80 skills.