Hi Fellow ESO players. Legendary Ninja here today to talk about Different Issues and concerns when it comes to Tanking, Damage mitigation, Solo Play, PVP, and Heavy Armor. Of course it would be interesting to see some acknowledgement by the ESO devs.

Goal:

My goal in this post is to open the eyes of the readers to different game mechanics which while not bad are not the optimal solution in order to understand the complete state of a life as a tank in ESO today.

Tanking:

I started playing ESO as a DPS on PC during Beta, I remember my first character being a Breton DragonKnight. Still remember the days where I knew nothing about ESO and game mechanics. I sticked to being a DPS during my PC game experience. When the game got released on the PS4 I stopped playing on PC and forgot to do my character transfer (I had 95 champion points at the time). Knowing the mechanics of the game on consoles made me more effective in leveling my character. Eventually I was introduced to the wonders of tanking, it was a wonderful discovery, i was so amazed of the satisfaction it brought. I finally found my place in ESO, I knew from there on out it was what I would be focusing on.

In my quest to try to prove everyone wrong, I was able to build a dark elf magic vampire templar tank and a redguard stamina dk tank. Even with the nerf to blocking It was still possible to tank in ESO.

Current Issues in Tanking:

1. Block Cost and No stamina Regen for Blocking, the reason why it was nerfed and possible solutions:

Cause: This nerf was implemented because it was possible for characters with very high stamina regen to block forever and not die in PVP(or be incredibly hard to kill). Generally this would be done even with characters that had medium armor. So it was possible to have a lot of damage output and high damage mitigation at the same time.
Issue: Even if still possible to block effectively while tanking via block cost reduction strategies, the sacrifices that that takes on an already barebones heavy armor passives and tanking overall makes tanks weaker and also discourages players from becoming tanks, hence the super long group finder queues for DPS characters.
Solution: My proposal is the following; to increase the cost of blocking first Medium armor, then a little bit less for Light Armor, this would be calculated per piece of armor. Additionally to revert the change in stam regen while blocking.
Heavy: Same cost
Medium: around 8 percent additional block cost per piece of Medium armor equipped
Light: around 4 percent additional block cost per piece of Light Armor equipped.
This way there is a balance of stam regen with increased cost with Light and Medium armor vs Reduced cost and stam regen with Heavy armor.

2. Damage mitigation: Current Cap is 50% (not to be confused with Armor Cap)

Damage mitigation is currently set at 50% of the raw damage, this includes ultimates, passives, and armor; everything together. This is a problem.
While we don't want to have characters that are invulnerable to damage because of the current meta in ESO it's impossible to have meaningful tanks in PVP and Maelstrom for example. Damage mitigation Cap while wearing 5 pieces of Heavy armor ONLY should be raised to 70%.

Reasoning:
In PVP everyone is running crit builds specially due to the nerf to damage, this allows those builds to output about as much non crit damage as before the nerf currently. Also Maelstrom for example is a solo trial designed specifically for DPS builds (Do the devs think everyone is a dps?) Even at 50% damage mitigation a crit Wrecking Blow even while blocking can do around 8-9k damage and while almost at armor cap ((33000 at VR 14, maybe 35000 at VR 16)(The VR 16 Armor Cap has not been confirmed yet)). Heavy Armor is supposed to be that, Tanky, tougher to kill; at the cost of reduced damage output because you are focusing on defenses.
Solution: Remove the current Armor Value and replace them with a raw damage reduction percentages, Spell Damage reduction and Physical Damage reduction. Replace Spell and Armor Resistance Penetration with raw values as well. This would help streamline damage reduction overall and then it will become easier to implement. It's simpler that it sounds. Then Buff Heavy Armor to provide a higher percentage of Damage mitigation. While also improving most of the Heavy armor passives.

3. Taunts and collision detection in PVP

Currently you cannot tount a player in PVP, if this is allowed it would make tactical fights, where Tanks in PVP would be needed, also it would help control the Zerging in PVP, therefore reduced lag. With collision detection in Cyrodiil ONLY it would make defending keeps more engaging and structured, this would also help diversify Cyrodiil in branching players into proper DPS, healers, and Tanks. The way is supposed to be.

Taunt Implementation:
A player that would be taunted only for a few seconds(maybe half of the PvE duration) would see the player that taunted them automatically lock on, so that the player would know. The player being taunted would also appropriately be granted CC immunity, that way a tank would not be able to taunt and CC the same time. A tank would need to choose appropriately. Also in PVP when taunting an enemy player then can't taunt another player in 4 seconds. This means even the tank can be taunted, so it would be really interesting to see in PVP. This way not everyone in Cyrodiil is a DPS or Healer.

Collision Detection in Cyrodiil ONLY:
Cyrodiil would be better this way making players have to go through tanky characters first in order to take a keep. Similar how to other games implement this.

4. A way for tanks to obtain Maelstrom Master weapons
Pretty much other people have touched on this subject, that Maelstrom Arena is a DPS race. This should be true for DPS characters, since they should have less damage mitigation. ESO should be a game in which solo content should be played as a healer, tank, or dps; however the player desires without being forced into selecting a certain kind of playstyle, this is an insult to players who love to and dedicate their entire builds to play as Tanks or Healers. Right now Maelstrom Arena is being completed by self healing high end DPS characters BECAUSE IS THE ONLY WAY.

This is a bad thing, because the mobs in this "SOLO" instance are more powerful that VETERAN DUNGEON BOSSES. It's impossible to mitigate that damage so a Tank stands absolutely no chance of completing it. That's all that needs to be said.

And this is my never ending Tank Nightmare. Would ESO incentivize players to Tank?, can Tanks be useful in PVP?, I'm I one of the few remaining Tanks in ESO? Please share your thoughts and comments below. There will be another post with a Poll shortly. Until next time.