For a more active and rewarding Tank role in raids: a suggestion for the S&B line.

hrothbern

Many tanks feel pushed aside in the developments of the last year and are looking for a more active and meaningfull role than just being the taunting damage sponge.

There are many posts and discussions on this, also regarding the Stamina recovery nerf, the "weak" HA features, the difficulty and difficulty scaling of raids after reaching endgame with high CP, the waiting for interesting tank armor sets, etc.
There are also some posts how you can do a more interesting support role with certain Armor sets and Ultimates like Warhorn.
To consider as well is that the Tank role should be interesting for newbies as well. Newbies, that have little to no CP's, do suffer more from the issues just mentioned. The quality of the Armor sets needed, and therefore the costs, are also higher than for DPS.
Conclusion: the hurdle for an enthusiastic Tank role player to function properly is for a Tank much higher than for a DPS build.

In this thread I would like to focus on positive and constructive thoughts how the S&B line could be improved to get a more active and meaningfull role for a raid Tank.
No whining please: what's done is done and is all water on the bridge !

One of the issues many Tank players have or feel to have is that lowering block, to do heavy attacks, to regain Stamina, is such a high risk because they will not always survive the big blow from a boss, if they do not block in time.
There is for sure a learning curve there, but the risk appetite of Tanks to get killed is and should be low, in their responsible role for their group. So learning by doing and getting wiped in the process is frustrating for everybody.

To bear in mind is that improvements should not lead to OP effects in PVP.

To the point, my own S&B improvement suggestion:
Add to the Deadly Bash passive: "a Shield Bash will grant Major Maim during 3 seconds"
This opens a 3 seconds window where the Tank can Heavy Attack for Stamina regain, with a reduced risk of getting killed because of the 30% reduced damage from the target.
The 30% damage reduction is ofc lower than the 60%+ damage reduction from blocking. But you come halfway and that should be enough to encourage you to get out from beneath your turtle shell every time you can. Because this feature is not coming from CP or an Armor set, newbie Tanks can directly benefit from it.
By this you can protect your Group in an active way, chasing the Boss, by keeping up the Major Maim as much as possible.

Cost/benefits of Stamina.
If you have two enchants on your Jewelry to reduce the costs of blocking and bashing, and you turtle all the time with now and then a shield bash/heavy attack combo, the costs of the bash are roughly equal to the Stamina regain of the Heavy Attack.
But if you dare or learn to keep the combo up, for longer periods of time, learning to block at the big blows, you get your normal Stamina recovery back as net benefit.

I think that this chasing of the Boss, and actually battling with the Boss, is a nice active role option for a Tank to use during certain raids, will help enthusiast newbie Tanks, and does not lead to OP effects.

Thoughts, comments and other suggestions are welcome

Ahzek

This will only result in people building around that to keep the boss debuffed for the whole fight, meaning ZOS' balance team will need to basically buff all boss damage by 30% to keep boss attacks relevant. This will punish inexperienced players even more, since they will have to get the gear and experience required to bash the boss continuosly. If they dont, they will get yelled at by their squishy DPS' dieing to oneshots.

hrothbern

Ahzek wrote: »

This will only result in people building around that to keep the boss debuffed for the whole fight, meaning ZOS' balance team will need to basically buff all boss damage by 30% to keep boss attacks relevant. This will punish inexperienced players even more, since they will have to get the gear and experience required to bash the boss continuosly. If they dont, they will get yelled at by their squishy DPS' dieing to oneshots.

Thanks @Ahzek , I had not thought on that side effect.

Assuming that ZOS will buff the damage of the boss with the same 30%.....
That is not the case with the current pledges and old trials.
That old content is where the newbie and lower level Tanks will start to find their joy and challenge.

And if it is the case with new pledges, it will prevent that 3xDPS + a Healer/DPS can do the job, leaving Tanks less needed after the boss mechanics are fully known !!!

I also think that the higher difficulty level of the last trials made and the future trials is coming from much more than just plain Boss damage output increasing.

And even if for the new challenging trials the damage output is increased (not with 30% but perhaps 15%)....
It still gives the Tank an active and more needed role if he is also chasing the Boss to get Major Maim up.

One of the main issues high performing end game Tanks have, is that they have not enough options to be more meaningfull in the Group, also because much raid content is too easy and converted all too fast in speed runs

So all in all:

1. Newbie Tanks in old raid content can be more than a damage sponge and learn to play without perma-block.
2. Endgame Tanks in new content, including Bosses with higher Damage output, are back in business again because of their more needed Boss Damage debuff.

@Ahzek, wouldn't you agree on those last two points ?