Forums » Pantheon Classes

Tanks - Another tank thread with my thoughts

    • 9 posts
    July 31, 2017 8:18 AM PDT

    Hey guys,

    Sorry for another thread on this; I felt that the other threads (which are good) weren't really sort of framing my impressions and thoughts about tanks correctly.

    First to touch on the identity issue.

    I find that theme and mechanics define tanks; this ultimately results in some tanks being better then others. Here are the "types" of tanks that come to mind. Keep in mind that while tanks may have other tools; these tanks tend to have a strong leaning toward one way. For simplicities sake I did not take into account factors such as AOE/CC/DPS as tanking factors; strictly things that tend to reduce the flat out incoming damage over a flat amount of time (someone hitting you non stop for 5 mins; I realize reducing that time will reduce thatt damage; as would him being stunned for a period of time; this is assuming all parties got the same default form of damage coming in)

    Self Healing

    These are tanks that recover health as their primary method of survival; usually tied to some sort of resource and this healing may be life leech effects or straight up cooldown or casted heals.

    ex. Early WoW Paladins/Death knights, TSW Rifle users, DAOC Necromancers/Bonedancers ((lesser degree))

    Buffing

    These are tanks that survive by virtue of drastically increasing the baseline of their stats; this tends to dribble over into other classes to a lesser extent (such as raising your armor beyond what other tannks typically have raises your mitigation)

    Ex. DAOC Paladins, WoW Early Paladins, COH Fire Tanks

    Debuffing

    These tanks tend to reduce the effectiveness of threats to essentialy nerf an enemy; often affecting not only their own damage input but those of others as well.

    Ex. Vanguard Dread Knight, WAR Chosen, DAOC Reaver ((lesser extent))

    Mitigation

    These guys are just armored up and straight up reduce the damage they tank; typically through heavy armor or some for of reliable HP buffer

    Ex. WoW Death Knights, Aion Gladiators, COH Invulnerability Tanks 

    Avoidance

    These tanks tend to take damage spikes; they also tend to be better the faster the attacks come in as they play the deadly lotto but the payout is either straight up avoiding damage or having significant mitigation.

    Ex. COH Reflex Tanks, DAOC Heroes, WoW Vanilla Warriors

    Anyone else think of ways a Tank "avoids" taking damage? (that is assuming the fight always lasts the same duration and the boss cannot just be CCed)

    • 422 posts
    July 31, 2017 10:55 AM PDT

    I really hope we see a lot of the gimmicky-er tank types absent from Pantheon.

    I want tanking to be the same for all tank classes, just to differing degrees. As in, Warrior is king and has all the mitigation/avoidance skills. Paladin and Dire Lords work the same way but don't have all the bonus skills. Instead they get utility skills like CC/Debuff (Dire Lord) and Heal/Buffs (Paladin). Making the the hybrids a bit less in the tanking department where the pure class will shine.

    All three should be adaquate in most content, with each hybrid having situations in which they excel but the Warrior would be as good or better in ALL situations as a tank.

    The Paladin and Dire Lord would be more attractive in some niche situations amd/or group make-ups over a Warrior. At times when you may not need the absolute best tank, but instead need debuffs or buffs. No Cleric so the Paladin can do buffs in place of the Cleric while a Shaman heals. A Dire Lord could debuff/CC if a primary class wasn't available.

    Each of the three classes have strengths, but none of the hybrid's skills make them a "better" tank. They would just augment their utility and allow for them to help in a secondary role where a Warrior would not be able to assist.

    I don't want to see gimmicky tank types.