Werewolf needs a taunt morph

Swerto

Werewolf tanking has long been an inefficient path to tanking. The worst offender being its lack of an inherent taunt - forcing players to use the Tormentor set to give one of the existing abilities (Leap) a taunt.

It is clear from the design of morphs such as pack leader that werewolf is meant to have a more tanky option at its disposal. I think one change that could go a long way toward making the werewolf ultimate worth using as a tank is giving it a taunt morph for one of its abilities.

I have a few suggestions:


* Howl of Despair is rarely taken by DPS, as its benefit comes from groups being able to use the synergy (and thus do more DPS themselves). Making howl of despair taunt would be an easy fix to allow werewolves to have a built in taunt (thus allowing them to use monster sets such as tremorscale in WW form).

* Feral Pounce is a rarely taken ability period as its alternative that increases weapon damage is far more attractive. The second hit on this ability could be turned from an extension of werewolf duration to instead cause a taunt.

Will this change fix everything wrong with werewolf tanking? No, it still lacks external healing, the ability to burn ultimate to buff allies damage with trial sets, and many other things that will keep it from showing up as 'meta' in hard mode trials, but having an internal taunt will make it far more usable in veteran dungeons as well as normal trials.

El_Borracho

I love werewolves. Think they are great DDs. I slot that ultimate on my stam necro, just for the sustain boost, on the front bar with the colossus on the back. But I can say without hesitation that I can not stand werewolf tanks. In almost every encounter I've had with them, they are a PVP DD that thinks the resistances make him a viable PVE tank. Wrong. Aside from the issues with poison making them ineligible to run content like Scalecaller, I've seen enough of them fall apart when fighting any boss that throws out massive amounts of lightning, like the Stone Behemoth in Stone Garden.

In no way am I discouraging players who know how to werewolf tank from continuing their efforts. But I don't want to make it easier by giving a taunt to werewolf. I feel like it would be like the old ice staff heavy attack taunt days.

Swerto

El_Borracho wrote: »

I love werewolves. Think they are great DDs. I slot that ultimate on my stam necro, just for the sustain boost, on the front bar with the colossus on the back. But I can say without hesitation that I can not stand werewolf tanks. In almost every encounter I've had with them, they are a PVP DD that thinks the resistances make him a viable PVE tank. Wrong. Aside from the issues with poison making them ineligible to run content like Scalecaller, I've seen enough of them fall apart when fighting any boss that throws out massive amounts of lightning, like the Stone Behemoth in Stone Garden.

In no way am I discouraging players who know how to werewolf tank from continuing their efforts. But I don't want to make it easier by giving a taunt to werewolf. I feel like it would be like the old ice staff heavy attack taunt days.

One of the main things that limits werewolf viability in tanking is the lack of a baseline taunt.

The frost staff comparison does not work because frost staff /does/ have a taunt morph and is one of the most common options for tanking in ESO (though a lot of tanks will opt for sword and board with a more damage oriented backbar such as lightning staff for concussed debuff with wall of elements)

The lack of an inherent taunt forces Werewolves to run tormentor if they want to taunt at all, and tormentor will not play with monster sets that proc from taunts (such as the aforementioned tremorscale). To top it off, actual taunt abilities will override the taunt from tormentor and tormentor cannot taunt off regular taunted enemies.

This forces werewolves to sacrifice one of their two sets /just to have a taunt/. While Werewolf would already be in a situation they wouldn't use the meta lorkhaj+saxleel combo that most tanks run, there are other sets that would work fantastic for werewolf if they could be combined but tormentor's necessity stops that from being an option.

You talk about certain fights not being smart for werewolf, well there's the beauty of werewolf! Assuming the tank werewolf isn't just a DPS who turns on the form (AKA not a tank) they have 2 action bars and weapons hopefully full of tank abilities they can use for encounters were poison damage is too severe, and if they aren't being forced to use tormentor they very likely are just as good at tanking out of form as they are in-form.

A taunt morph would only increase the viability of werewolf tanks. Players playing poorly will happen no matter what, the form itself is 100% viable for tanking assuming you are building /as a tank/ and have tank gear and stat allocation. The inherent tankiness of the form is actually very strong, as well as its ability to self heal and sustain.

El_Borracho

@Swerto I am all for broadening the use of werewolves. I think they are fun to play, and I agree that their strengths/weaknesses make the content more interesting. But I don't think adding a taunt will fix the issues with bad werewolf tanks. Most of the time they can't even stay alive long enough to make it through the boss fight because they don't know how to use the resources they have with the self-heal. Or, DON'T TRANFORM INTO A WEREWOLF WHEN THERE IS POISON OR TONS OF LIGHTNING.

In a vacuum, I agree that a taunt on a werewolf would be awesome for those players who know how to tank. But the downside are the players that think high resistance + taunt = tank. Or worse, high damage output = taunt = tank.

I don't know what the solution is to this. I, like you, would love a viable werewolf tank with an Inner Rage like taunt. But every time they make werewolf more fun to play, it gets crushed in the end, like what happened with the Crimson + Alessian Order builds. I would hate for a taunt to be introduced only for the solution to be lowering resistances. Like when they made vampires viable in PVE for a second with Blood For Blood, only to slam it back down to earth

Swerto

@El_Borracho Bad players will literally exist no matter what you do.

Change the game to be better, don't make something awful just to dissuade bad people from using it.