I would take a good tank (or tank it myself) over a third dps any day of the week. A good tank also takes into account things like mob range and LOS while tanking as well as properly grouping mobs for good AOE and interrupting attacks.

You know how melee dps always say something like, "hang on I need to switch to ranged dps at a huge loss," at the end of vet fungal grotto? I then reply, "don't change a damn thing, watch this" and the boss sprints out of her highly damaging ground effects and parks herself right next to the dps and waits patiently while they beat the crap out of her.

Keeping the boss STATIONARY is also extremely helpful for the 2 remaining dps. If the boss isn't running around chasing after kiting dps, then the boss is standing through the entire duration of LL, WoE, AV, and any other ground dot used to increase dps.

Having said that, depending on the boss, I switch from tank to pure dps because the boss can't be taunted or controlled (i.e. vet darkshade)

Over half my account consists of tanks. Why? Cause then I don't have to sit in group finder queue for an hour as DPS.

Having said that, you can DPS most vet dungeons as a tank anyway. As long as you have enough resistances and health, either of the taunts, and a self heal just in case, you'll be fine.

One of my tanks uses Bahraha's Curse (yes, that's right, Bahraha's Curse) + a set of heavy Hunding's + Nerieneth's. The damage from these is an ok boost to damage.

Many of the dungeons just require you to taunt, then you can switch to dual wield/2-hander, and just block heavy, interrupt, and move out of red if you need to. It's not that bad.

I just wish werewolf had a way to taunt so I could use it more. Would be a great DPS-tank.

actosh wrote: »

Humatiel wrote: »

Create an AoE taunt and far more will want to tank.

Cuz they want a spamable easymodebutton ^^.

Aoe taunts r ok for games with aggrometer, but wouldnt fit in eso.

Hi 2014 is calling to say it never made the jump to 2016. This entire game is now easymode, trying to use that as a reason to not input something is insanity.

Trashkan wrote: »

I think the issue is that if you have a tank build you like you are only gonna have 1 toon tank and like my tank has all his undaunted and all dungeon achievements. So I don't run pledges But all other toons are more likely to be dps and maybe a healer thrown in there. So that leaves everyone looking for a tank all the time.

Well, yes, it's easier to do pledges on support characters.

But none of my tanks are pure tanks (not even my trials tank). They're all spec'ed fully into DPS, and all it takes is a change of gear, food, and mundus stone to turn them into a tank.

For example, here is my mag DK (screenshot was taken with a 501 CP cap).

Her attribute points are all in magicka. With the exception of a few green points (13 in Shadow Ward, 1 in Warlord), her CP points are that of a magicka DK DPS. All it takes for me to switch to DPS is to put on my DPS gear, change out of the Atronach mundus, and switch from purple food to blue food. And this is the build that I use when I tank vet trials.

All of my characters can gear-swap into a support role for pledges. You don't need good gear for that... for example, one of my stam DPS, swaps into pledge tanking using the dropped junk gear that I had lying around: 5p Imperium, 4p Permafrost (jewelry plus Maelstrom shield... I like it because I had Arcane rings and the set bonuses make up for my lack of magicka), Maelstrom 1H sword (lol, it's trash, but it has a health bonus and I was too cheap to spend Rubedite), and 2p Engine. I didn't spend a single crafting mat on this setup, but it's good enough for pledges, and it's why I was able to hit Undaunted 9 in just 10 days.

Balticthunder wrote: »

Silver_Strider wrote: »

There are a few reasons no one plays tanks, outside of trials.

.
1. They aren't necessary. Outside of Trials, most players nowadays don't really feel the need for tanks in Dungeons when 4 DPS, or 3 DPS + Healer can complete most other content without much hassle.

You "high and mighty super awesome players" with posts about how you breeze through vWGT, you, people, assume that everyone is maxed CP in this game, but guess what - there is still many low level players, who straggle in dungeons because no good tank around! I still see and witness myself how groups split up and cannot continue because of bad tanks, dps as tanks, dps with low damage, bad healers, dps healers etc. I mean - outside your awesome guild, there are many other people playing this game in their own pace and skill, so we need good tanks!

And as other people have said, tankless runs are often harder. I've done tankless vWGT once, with good people who can all faceroll vWGT. And I assure you, it's a lot harder without a tank, and it was something that I did not want to ever do again. I suspect that people who claim that 4 DPS is easier really mean, "It's easier to just wing it than to try to find a tank." If finding a tank isn't a problem, then you should go with a tank.

Honestly, I would tank if we had double roles. Right now I have built my blood mage (MagNB) as a DPS/utility. I would love to make a tanking spec for the occasional Vet dungeon but we cannot and I have not leveled tank oriented skills because of the lack of double spec.

I could easily create a blood magic/spider theme. Using all these spider web sets plus the trapping webs skill. I love themed but functional characters. My own blood mage is getting geared for high end trials.

Maybe my next stam NB will be a tank of that theme if we cannot have double specs.

Kammakazi wrote: »

We've seen it all. Magicka tanks. Health tanks. Stamina tanks. Sturdy tanks. Ultimate generation tanks. Ultimate reduction tanks. Sorc Tanks. Nightblade Sap Tanks. Templar House Tanks.

The thing is... tanks are so rare nowadays outside of trials!

Tanks are cool because they literally have TONS of different setups and CP allocations. There is no "best" tank setup, unlike damage dealers where you have to use this skill or this gear because it provides maximum damage output.

So sign up today folks, create a tank and you'll actually see how fun it is! :')

*Reads topic*

*Shakes head*

*Goes back to forum overview*

I played Tank since launch right up untill few weeks ago. I loved the role but trust me it is really very difficult. I will admit i was never great at it but i certainly wasnt the worst,so Tanks out there have my respect. Dam those axes in AA

the problem is the 90% of the rest of the game when your running solo, everything is much more easy as a DPS then a tank.

I mean just go farm resources as a tank compared to a dps when ever little bear and spider just slows you down so much as a tank and you feel like your doing no damage to it (because comparatively your not)

tanks are rare because they are the hardest to just "play" the game as. healers not so much because the same stats the make heals better and more efficient ALSO make magicka damage stronger (aside from straight +healing done/recived)

and obviously dps have no trouble.

TL;DR: tanks are slow.

Everyone praises DPS for how high their numbers are, but maybe the community should also praise tanks for their ability, like how long can you last solo against a boss or something.

Kammakazi wrote: »

We've seen it all. Magicka tanks. Health tanks. Stamina tanks. Sturdy tanks. Ultimate generation tanks. Ultimate reduction tanks. Sorc Tanks. Nightblade Sap Tanks. Templar House Tanks.

The thing is... tanks are so rare nowadays outside of trials!

Tanks are cool because they literally have TONS of different setups and CP allocations. There is no "best" tank setup, unlike damage dealers where you have to use this skill or this gear because it provides maximum damage output.

So sign up today folks, create a tank and you'll actually see how fun it is! :')

You want to fully fund my cp 160 gear set for my Stam DK tank I'll go through any dungeon you want anytime I'm on.

Balticthunder wrote: »

Silver_Strider wrote: »

There are a few reasons no one plays tanks, outside of trials.

.
1. They aren't necessary. Outside of Trials, most players nowadays don't really feel the need for tanks in Dungeons when 4 DPS, or 3 DPS + Healer can complete most other content without much hassle.

You "high and mighty super awesome players" with posts about how you breeze through vWGT, you, people, assume that everyone is maxed CP in this game, but guess what - there is still many low level players, who straggle in dungeons because no good tank around! I still see and witness myself how groups split up and cannot continue because of bad tanks, dps as tanks, dps with low damage, bad healers, dps healers etc. I mean - outside your awesome guild, there are many other people playing this game in their own pace and skill, so we need good tanks!

This isn't so much an elitist post as it is just a post about how ESO is. Most mechanics are just DPS races or healer checks, with very few mechanics where tanks are required or needed at all. Why aren't there mechanics that 1 shot players if they get behind the tank to absorb the blow? Why are there bosses that you cannot aggro at all, outright negating the role of the tank almost entirely? Why does my tank need to swap gear in the middle of a dungeon because there is a DPS mechanic that I might need to fulfill?

It's because of this that I feel that tanks aren't outright required. Sure, they might make life easier but when the entire game is 90% DPS races 9% heal checks and 1% Tank Mechanic, it feels like a very lackluster, unfulfilling and overall unnecessary role.