What would inspire more people to pick tank role?

Uryel

Maybe making tank a real tank, not just a buff monkey.

I do play a real tank. Max resists, shields, survival tools, and the ability to take aggro, of course. Well, whatever limited possibility we have to take aggro, since there isn't a single AoE taunt in this game. Well, that's a good thing I'm mostly playing in duo with my wife, because no one cares about that sort of tank, even going to the derogatory "no one needs someone who casts a taunt and then keep blocking". I'm left to assume those people never actually played a real tank.

What is called "tank" here is just a somewhat solid character that serves as a buff dispenser who will sometimes get aggro from some priority or secondarty targets. That's what most other games would call a "support" class. Back when people didn't confuse "support" with "healing", at least.

I'd gladly trade that stupid war horn thing (that I never use anyway, and that really, really shouldn't be a PvP skill if people consider it mandatory for PvE) for a mass AoE taunt.

Uryel

Kalgert wrote: »

By the way, for Warden Tanks: What would be a reliable way of self sustain? I have Arctic Winds but it feels like it doesn't heal a single worthwhile bit.

Lotus Bloom and using an ice staff. You're going to use heavy attacks to get aggro, so might as well make those attacks heal you at the same time. And the vines thingie, heals you when you get hit, since you WILL get hit

KhajiitFelix

Bashing people for low DPS.

Uryel

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

I don't play tank (or support in general) for 2 reasons:

1. I'd need to respec to DPS when doing overland questing
2. I can't carry a PUG and need to rely on my DDs being competent

Then you're doing it wrong.

1 - You don't need that, but you will indeed have it slower than a damage dealer.
2 - You're REALLY doing it wrong, mate. Just toughen up and wait them out. They'll die eventually.

My nord stamina sorcerer tank uses 1 hand and shield / 2 handed, and is basically unbreakable. With update 21, I had to remove every CP I had placed in resists and switch out of "the Lady" mundus stone to avoid being way over the cap. Now, I'm only slightly over it when fully buffed. Aggro sh*t up, deal AoE damage with the storm skill, toughen up with two-handed damage shield skill if needed, use fighter's guild circle of protection, taunt everything, use the sorcerer's bubble that both stuns adds and heals every allies inside...You can't die. Unlerss maybe against trial bosses, I don't do that so I can't tell.

And when you want to deal damage, there is always the werewolf form. Having it equipped provides a much needed boost to stamina regen, but it can also be used to increase damage when questing overland.

Archemer

Adding damage through health scaling for some tank abilities would help. From my understanding a lot of people just don't do it because of the gear switching for overworld.

r34lian

Account wide skill points so anyone can spec to tank in any toon and every mob except for bosses be ccable.

Drako_Ei

Dps checks BEFORE being able to queue for veteran dungeons... i logged in my tank today, i put lightning wall of elements crusher torugs and alkosh, 1 hour to get to the last boss of banished cells 2 veteran, group couldnt even pass the dps check, they left, then i remembered why i stopped playing as tank for randoms

BrianLovesLisa

what would inspire more people to tank? I will answer your question with a question, what would inspire people not to be such *** to people that do tank/heal, when their dps is slow low that they might as well just be afk, or they are pulling everything and crying, when the tank don't rush in to get all the aggro off.

Ysbriel

Besides the fast dungeon queue, Tanking feels like a personal encounter with the dungeon boss, and the mechanics. Most of the content is boss is going to do X thing and the Tank or off Tank needs to do x thing or else.

bearbelly

I kinda sorta want to learn how to tank, since my main is a Nord Warden, and seems far weaker at lvl50 (i.e., lower attribute numbers) than I was expecting to be the case, in terms of survivability and DPS.

But I've found that my perception of what a tank is, being mostly an aRPG junkie, does not match what a tank is in a MMO.
Or, at least, the overall concept of what a tank is, in general, has maybe changed since I first encountered it?

(a tank in my mind is supposed to be hard to kill AND able to deal pretty robust damage, whereas a MMO tank seems to be less of a hybrid, mostly concerned with absorbing damage at the cost of dealing meaningful damage. I've also never been big on playing in a group, so maybe my perception has been skewed by that.)

So, I'm having to fight against my natural affinity toward being a DD and adjust to a different play-style AND learn how to be comfortable in a group.
Not having an easy time of it.

ccfeeling

Unless ZOS provide fair tank tool kits for all classes.

Moonsorrow

What would inspire?

Not having to everyday read more and more "pls nerf X skill" and "something needs to be done to X.." type of nerf demand threads from crybabies who die to something or cannot kill someone at pvp.. what leads to eventually pve tanks take nerfs to efficiency, fun & build choices.

FrancisCrawford

One biggie, and I apologize if I've said this already -- cut attribute point respec costs to zero!!! It is both true that:

1. Tank characters inherently need a lot of skill points.
2. Gathering skill points around Tamriel takes much longer for tank characters than others.

Unless something changes, it will be much more of a hassle to dabble in tanking than it is to dabble in DPS or healing. And while #1 can't really change (tanking uses different skills and indeed skill lines from DPS), #2 is largely fixable.

Alucardo

Maybe if it wasn't boring. In previous games I've played, tanks really had to help themselves stay alive. They couldn't just stand there holding block while the healer farted magic dust over them. Tanking was a very active play style.
In ESO it's the exact opposite - you're a turtle. It's the most boring role in the entire game, NAY, in any game. Thing is, it is possible to do some regular dungeons as a specialized tank, like say a sap tank or something. But the way the others are designed it's impossible, because without that block mitigation, you'll still get obliterated in one hit. So you're destined to stand there doing nothing but holding block, and taunting.
To sum it up, there is very little wriggle room in terms of unique tank builds, which is kind of weird considering this is a game people label as "play as you want".

StormChaser3000

Drako_Ei wrote: »

Dps checks BEFORE being able to queue for veteran dungeons... i logged in my tank today, i put lightning wall of elements crusher torugs and alkosh, 1 hour to get to the last boss of banished cells 2 veteran, group couldnt even pass the dps check, they left, then i remembered why i stopped playing as tank for randoms

This. Tanking is really fun when you have good dps. But it can be a nightmare when you get 2 potatoes that pull 15k total damage in the vet dungeons, or normal dlc dungeons. What do people even think about when they queue for such dungeons with such bad dps numbers...?

Maybe if they start getting content access rejection from the game they start finally putting some efforts into improving themselves.

Slunksters

Every game has less tank and healers than DD, to make tank and healer more appealing, you don't need to change anything in any game, you need to change people's mentality and this will never happen =]

JediCody

1. People want to see big flashy numbers.

2. Peope are intimated by having to hold a boss.

One I feel is inherently true. Two is because a DPS bae of mine expressed this very sentiment after years of DPS bit quickly got past it. He was definitely stressed during his first Dungeon, and I think that is ok and normal. Now he's a boss Tank.

Malprave

As somebody who has played a tank since launch I have to say tanking is more enjoyable now than it’s ever been. New vet dlc requires a good tank. Unfortunately, increasing the difficulty to the point where a tank is required results in a lot of complaining.

Huyen

Decent monsterhelm sets would be a good start. 6% procchance on being hit is not exactly worthwhile to use compared to the extra dps a dps set gives in a dungeon.

Oliviander

I always play Tank (Argonian Stamplar) and I don't understand the question.
For me no problem exists.
Just switch gear when soloing (nothin beats coward & fiords if you wanna d it fast<g>)

srfrogg23

Tasear wrote: »

What makes tanks happy in their role? Why do they enjoy it?

I started tanking a couple of months ago and I love it. If I do have any criticism of tanking builds it is the lack of damage that a true tanking build does - which is ok for group content.

It doesn't do well for solo content though. Questing or any other solo activity takes much longer with a tank build than it does with a dps build. I think that is part of the reason for why people don't play tanks as often as dps.

Don't get me wrong, though. I'm ok with this dynamic. I like my insta-queues as a tank. I'm just pointing out the reason for the lack of tanks, not arguing for a change

Mojmir

Id like to see better options for sets, a better synergy system that allows priority as well as the length. Id also like to see more options for weps (not a staff).

Kulvar

max_only wrote: »

when I lift my shield there needs to be a cone of protection immediately behind me.

THIS !

max_only

Mojmir wrote: »

Id like to see better options for sets, a better synergy system that allows priority as well as the length. Id also like to see more options for weps (not a staff).

Agree, staff is not acceptable.

SoulScream

I dabble in tanking and have an alt for it though not super setup into tank gear. I think it's fun and something that would help more people tank I think is knowing where to go. I don't have a problem tanking and such things but I get lost easy!

Bam_Bam

I made a tank (thanks to @Liofa and @Woeler for the builds/ideas they have published).

However, the toxicity in PvE ESPECIALLY towards noob tanks has totally put me off playing it.

I haven't done many delves/dungeons, although about 18 months ago I ran some vet trials as a healer, I've since totally forgotten the mechanics of all of them. And there are plenty of threads on here that totally annihilate tanks for putting a foot wrong.

Well, skrew that. At my age, I don't need telling off by some child for messing up in a computer game

Taleof2Cities

rabidrufus64 wrote: »

laziness

This might actually be part of the issue.

Players don’t want to spend the time learning boss mechanics. The just want their rewards yesterday ... so the fastest way to do that is DPS or heal.

Kidgangster101

A huge problem I have seen with this game is tanks are really more of a support role from the community for end game content. Tanks run warhorn to boost DPS, tanks run elemental staff (which turns people away on that fact alone) for debuffs uptime through enchantments, and tanks always feel under appreciated by pugs too.

I have tried bringing my tank into vet dungeons with pugs and I can't tell you how many (bad DPS) tried to blame me or my wife (the healer) when they die from stupid stuff they don't move out of. So if they get mad at me over them dying I can only imagine how a pug tank feels when that happens to them and they don't know better. So for that reason alone I only tank for my guild now if there is any pugs I just dps.

Things that can be done to make tank more engaging?

1) make more mechanics where you need the 2 tanks in trials or the dungeons. Like constantly separate the group or have fights with multiple bosses that hit hard. Cloudrest is a good example or hrc just follow those instances that way people want to lose their dps for a tank (I know I can solo tank vhrc if I'm with my guild because they can kill upstairs without tank but try to be like how it was designed to be and how a lot of pug groups need to run it.)

2) got to get rid of a lot of the 1 shot mechanics in dungeons because it is crazy you can run vet dungeons with a tank and 3 DPS. (It makes some tanks not want to go to that content)

3) need more options than a destro staff back bar. When people hear tank you think of a big heavy armor wearing guy with a sword and shield or a huge weapon. In this game best thing for a tank is a stick....... Lol. (It seriously turns people away because they refuse to do it and the community refuses to run trials with them) if they fixed up some of the moves and allowed enchants to proc differently you might see more people tank. (And don't remove destro staff some people do like it the way it is)

4) lastly since tanks are always needed you could also fix up the random question to show what role is needed and give a player a bonus reward for playing that role. (Ff14 does this and it gets people to que for stuff as tank or healer since they get bonus reward the rest of group doesn't get)

Bealeb319

Diversity. There is no reason for there to only be two taunts in the game. The only viable taunt forces tanks into sword and board and encourages them in most content to just spam the same skill over and over. There should be both single target and aoe taunts that do not tie you down to one weapon line. The short of it is that tanking in most content is a bore

Jeremy

Bealeb319 wrote: »

Diversity. There is no reason for there to only be two taunts in the game. The only viable taunt forces tanks into sword and board and encourages them in most content to just spam the same skill over and over. There should be both single target and aoe taunts that do not tie you down to one weapon line. The short of it is that tanking in most content is a bore

For me, tanking is the most fun. The other two roles get boring fast (especially healing, which they have butchered). So it all comes down to personal preference I suppose.

But my point would be players who do not enjoy defensive play styles are never going to enjoy tanking. So to try and morph them into some kind of DPS or support class with a shield (I know you weren't saying that but others have) isn't going to work. It would be better to concentrate on improving the defensive elements of the class and making it more enjoyable for players who actually do enjoy tanking. Bringing back the old Unstoppable would be a good start. So would returning stamina regen while blocking. Both these changes crippled tanking significantly. The PvP element in this game has been a curse for tanks. There were too many DPS in PvP upset they couldn't kill tanks and this lead to some very god awful nerfs for them.

As far as taunting goes - forced taunts are probably a mistake in games. I believe it works more strategically when there is an enmity threshold. That way damage dealers can't just unleash as much damage as possible without drawing the bosses attention - and tanks have to work more on keeping the attention of enemies instead of just spamming the same move.