RIP Permablock Tank 2024

RaidingTraiding

I like how zos' answer to balance problems and overtuned mechanics is to create sets to specifically counter those mechanics. They can be hit or miss but its really a lazy way to go about balance.

Other examples are plague for purge spamming, nibenay for pulls, snake in the stars for cross heal spam, sentry for stealth, shield breaker for shield stacking. Like I said these can be hit or miss on effectiveness.

Safe to say, if they make a set to counter a specific mechanic, they have no intention on actually balancing or fixing said mechanic cause they can just say use x set if you don't like it. Out of luck if the set sucks and it also really hinders your build if you specifically build to counter a broken mechanic. Even if you decide to wear these sets you're still limited to a few options, so you have to pick and choose what mechanics you hate fighting against the most. Kind of an absurd answer to balance issues if you ask me. Still it's kind of funny that by making these sets they're in a way admitting something's overtuned.

The_Meathead

"RaidingTraiding wrote: »

"Out of luck if the set sucks and it also really hinders your build if you specifically build to counter a broken mechanic. Even if you decide to wear these sets you're still limited to a few options, so you have to pick and choose what mechanics you hate fighting against the most.

I think that's a fair tradeoff in some cases, like the old Shield Breaker set prior to its nerf. Sorcs have always been a massive part of the PvP population, so running that set to counter them was feasible as a choice and got a lot of mileage until it got hit by the nerf bat.

This one? Probably not so much.

EP has a decent number of no-damage Tanks on NA GH that are pretty impactful at times even if most disparage them, but I'm hard pressed to give up a huge portion of my build to maybe be able to effectively deal with them (I'm not at all convinced this set would be enough, tbh.)

Like you say, I've always been a little dubious of ZOS' decision to balance by Set addition. Looking at Ball Groups, most of what got offered as a counter was taken up by them instead and the very rare Set that actually offered a counter was nerfed into garbage far more quickly than we usually see changes take place.

Good post!