Further tank homogenization is pushing me away from tanking

[kiritolove27]

Some background info to who I am and when I came into the game for better understanding; I started playing this game as soon as Stormblood began, and what got me to play the game was watching the trailers of Heavensward, the reviews of how awesome DRK was back then. In the Risk versus reward class, I went through Stormblood's savage content as a tank main and did the same now in SHB. Ever since Stormblood, the developers have been moving towards giving every other tank what they had that they didn't, now everyone has a gap closer, and their cooldowns are all the same.

Playing each tank feels too similar, specially DRK and WAR, with delirium being a bad inner release.

During the live letter, the devs said the tanks would be getting some CD in which if you use it at the right time, you get benefits......this sounds precisely like TBN; why is every tank now getting a TBN equivalent? Why does every tank need a gap closer? Why does every tank need an inner release? They don't.

People are always quick to point out that DPS queues always take long, well let me tell you that not having interesting tanks that feel unique from each other will only push the tank mains that have stuck with the role to different roles.

I know they said they don't want to go back to the complexity of the 3.x series. I wasn't there, so I can't say if it were better or not. I am only advocating for more individualism from each.

I know this thread is probably a year late since the changes we've seen are potentially being finalized, and any further changes will take months, if not years, to happen. I feel defeated to know that tanking has only gotten less and less fun with each expansion, and the trend continues.

Goodbye, tanking, my old friend.

[aveyond-dreams]

Gap closers are fun and help me when I'm pulling multiple packs so I can stay ahead of the party. I don't particularly mind Delirium and TBN is one of my favourite mitigation tools for tankbusters because it then lets me deal free damage. I wish PLD had something similar instead of a useless ability like cover. If anything tanking has improved by being simplified for each expansion because I do not miss the days of tank stance dancing and running out of tp/mana during aoe pulls, or worse the infamous "Flash" ability PLD used to have. There isn't anything wrong with tanks being individualized, but if one has a good ability then I don't see why the others can't have something similar.

[kiritolove27]

Having similar abilities take away from the class that was originally the sole owner of said ability, on your profile, it says you're a BLM. If SMM and RDM got leylines equivalent or even better than the original it would take away from the BLM's identity.

[Sazuzaki]

but if one has a good ability then I don't see why the others can't have something similar.

Then I guess we should give BLM teleport or Fire 4 to all the casters now then. I kid, but it's improved it from a balance perspective. From a gameplay perspective, it really sucks knowing that everything you do, another tank can do as well. Each tank should have it's own strengths and weaknesses that should go further than just "drk has tbn so it cant self heal much".

[Unator]

Then I guess we should give BLM teleport or Fire 4 to all the casters now then. I kid, but it's improved it from a balance perspective. From a gameplay perspective, it really sucks knowing that everything you do, another tank can do as well. Each tank should have it's own strengths and weaknesses that should go further than just "drk has tbn so it cant self heal much".

But BLM already has a teleport in Aetherial Manipulation. No other caster would use Fire IV either because RDM already has higher Potencies with everything but Jolt II + they would just burn themselves out of mana and Summoner would be the same, ignoring the fact that the 2.8 sec cast would fuck 'em over.

[MilkieTea]

Having similar abilities take away from the class that was originally the sole owner of said ability, on your profile, it says you're a BLM. If SMM and RDM got leylines equivalent or even better than the original it would take away from the BLM's identity.

Gap closers are not leylines, though. Gap closers are simple things.

What would actually be equivalent would be if all casters got a mana regen tool- oh wait. They do. And that doesn’t take away from their individual gameplay loop. Maybe something else? Maybe if all physical ranged got a damage debuff- oh wait. That happens too. And it STILL doesn’t take away from their individual core gameplay loops.

[kiritolove27]

All tanks have the same 60, 90, 120 secs cooldowns that all do the same thing. How are gap closers simple things that don't add identity? Why can't we have a single mobile tank with gap closers, another with a ranged rotation like PLD? Why do they all need a gap closer? Why can't their CDs have more identity? Tanks don't even need to worry about aggro management anymore, at least give us something more interesting to play around with. IF TANKS ARE TO BE BLUE MEELE DPS THAT TANK DMG then either make their rotations more complex like the melee or put more emphasis on tanking again.

[Duskane]

I think tanking is fine to an extent while Delirium and Inner release are similar and they should change them to be a little more unique , we can doom and gloom all we want and simply what we say to "we both 1 2 3" but thats not the case ,
yes circle of scorn and bow shock are the similar but Paladin and Gun breaker still play very differently
putting all four into the homogenization bucket is just not true,
everyone brings up how tanking is uninteresting due to there offensive kit but tanking really gets uninteresting due to encounter design and that we just invuln everything but when ever people suggest to remove them people just whip out the identity card and defend them then wonder why tanking is uninteresting.

[Reginald_Cain]

I think giving all the tanks gap closer was a good choice because it feels good for the role. However the the physical ranged getting a damage debuff that came at a cost to bard specifically because troubador used to be a really cool mechanic that made you think about which song to use it under. I feel like they could have just made the new damage reduction versions of tactician, troubador and shield samba a roll action. it'd make a lot more sense for abilities like these and free a slot for something that better fleshes out their kit. It seems the endwalker changes to bard may give us a similar mechanic to old troubador so there is some hope. I think the direction they took with all the roles and simplifying them is a good step towards making more interesting ways to make each job special other than restricting fun mechanics to one job for the sake of uniquness. I.e. combat mobility. everyone likes combat mobility to some degree. I would personally like to see warrior and dark knight feel as different as paladin and gunbreaker. forget inner release vs delirium for a second and look at their 1 2 3 combo. paladin's has 2 finishers and a spam ability after one of them, gun breaker gets a FULL gauge stack per 123. warrior and dark knight both do the same slow boring 123 combo way more than the other tanks. really I hated stance dancing and enimity combos too but I liked having more combos to swap from. its why i like melee. Warrior's self healing and berserker playstyle i think should be focused on more while dark knights im not sure what direction would be best. I like how it has a lot to weave in compared to other tanks so maybe just give it the dragoon treatment and transform it's 123 combo whenever you fulfill some parameter. idk maybe if tbn doesn't break then your 123 combo transfrorms to have new animations and gain a potency bonus equal to the free edge of shadow you'd have got from it shattering . that way it does something different if you break it vs not break it. that way people would stop complaining about tbn not popping.

[Derio]

It is getting pretty bad. But Sage and Reaper are looking really good. I want to see how the queues will be come Nov 19. Its very rare to see adventurer in need be tank for all roulettes for several hours.