Can Tanks ever be useful in PVP?

xaraan · March 2017

In a group, sure. You feel especially effective in a smaller group IMO. But alone, I feel useless lol. I can annoy someone, but I am not set up to kill at all in my current build. An enemy can either ignore me and I can't do much about it or use me for target skeleton if they wish. But as I prefer to play small scale team pvp with 4-6 people my build usually suits me well and since I usually tank in PvE, i'm satisfied with it.

BUT, IMO, you should be useful to the group, not just super tanky yourself. There are better builds for example I could be running that would make me more survivable, but the goal is the help the team and I'm tanky enough as is (by the time I go down, everyone else is usually dead anyway and it's just a matter of time for me if players that know what they are doing are piling up on me) so better to make sure you are helping out with debuffs, CC's, etc. and not just making a guy that takes a lot of damage. You also have to get used to trying to "pull aggro" in other ways besides using a taunt, like putting yourself in a position to make players think they are going to take you down b/c you are away from your friends a little or something similar because the hope is more players than not decide to target you initially when you clash and not the squishier players.

This also applies to someone trying to escape. As I'm already slow and usually staying in the back when we hit and move so I get targeted, I don't escape. So if we have a bad clash and most of the group is down, one of the quicker players will try and get away and I'll try to be super annoying and as tanky as I can for as long as possible to get everyone to pile up on me and give the other guys a better chance to escape or deal with the one or two guys chasing him and then set up a camp or come back for a rez.

In the end, it all depends on how you work with your group and what good you are to them. Alone being tanky and not having good damage isn't very useful. Sure, it was amusing last week to have a group of players following me, bashing on me endlessly with wrecking blows and other attacks as I walked away from a zerged down keep, through friendly resources to aggro NPCs and then all the way across the country with players continually wailing on me until I got to the next keep - but I don't earn any AP from that, and if we weren't calling in a day at that point, it would have wasted a lot of time away from running with my friends if they had to wait for me to do that. So amusing to me/annoying to them and tanky in that instance (though I think the players piling on me were not as skilled as some, as I've had three guys that knew what they were doing take me down pretty well in the past), but in the end, not very useful once I had no-one with me.

DannyLV702 · March 2017

Everyone saying tanks are just annoying....sounds like they're doing their part well LOL

Lexxypwns · March 2017

Reefo wrote: »

Enslaved wrote: »

Tylos001 wrote: »

I want to know if there are any pros that make a tank viable in PVP??

Tanks are what gives other alliance the time to regroup and destroy enemies, while being almost unkillable. Tanks are best scouts lol.

This, and also if you tank and put guard on a pocket healer in a small group with the rest being damage dealers, you have a nice little battalion going for yourself.

The only issue is everyone is addicted to killing stuff in PVP and the people who are willing to play tank and healer are few.

hmu, reefzy, I'll pocket heal you

kylerjalen · March 2017

Yes.
There are a couple of insane tank builds I've seen on Trueflame that I've come across and they are total hemorrhoids to go up against. They're the last left in a group and while you and ten other people spend time whaling on them while they lead you away from where you killed his/her buddies, someone else from their alliance/group rezzes them (or they just outright rez at a nearby keep) and while you're spending your time/resources concentrating on that one tank, their newly alive buddies gank n spank you from behind.

I gotta admire that.

Reefo · March 2017

Lexxypwns wrote: »

Reefo wrote: »

Enslaved wrote: »

Tylos001 wrote: »

I want to know if there are any pros that make a tank viable in PVP??

Tanks are what gives other alliance the time to regroup and destroy enemies, while being almost unkillable. Tanks are best scouts lol.

This, and also if you tank and put guard on a pocket healer in a small group with the rest being damage dealers, you have a nice little battalion going for yourself.

The only issue is everyone is addicted to killing stuff in PVP and the people who are willing to play tank and healer are few.

hmu, reefzy, I'll pocket heal you

Lol! PS4 EU ☹️

SaRuZ · March 2017

I remember a few months ago, seven of us circled a tank throwing everything we had at him as he strutted along. I dropped ultimate after ultimate and it barely phased him, he just held block, walking through valley after valley. Next thing I know, all the other people attacking had given up and it was just the tank and I. We stood there, looking at eachother. I waved, saluted and walked away.

Cronopoly · March 2017

I laugh at the people that try to take down the unkillable Troll Tanks out there. They cause chaos to what I call Zombie players.

That's right I said it. Zombies that throw themselves over and over repeatedly at said Tanks for an untold amount of time, debuffing the Zombies for defending Siege, as well as taking sometimes 1/3rd of an opposing force out of the fight to their ultimate demise.

There are good counters but typically the Zombies don't use them.

Magdalina · March 2017

Well it's pretty much been answered already but still - short version is yes they can, but you gotta understand the tradeoff you're making. You can be insanely useful to a group(do look into Guard, it's hilarious when used on healer), you can survive a while on your own, you won't be getting ganked much and you'll be getting frustratingly zerged down less as well, but your own damage/healing is going to be nigh nonexistent(if you go full tank at least) and there's going to be that awkward moment when you run into a really potato lone player 1v1 and realize there's nothing you can do to kill it simply because you aren't made for damage.

Personally I

my Blazing shield templar, have at least some damage with the shield(and some, but less so, with other stuff), some heals(she's got about 26K magicka and godmode recovery), Repentance, Guard(that procs my shield top). It's fun.

...that ended up being the long version anyway, didn't it...

DannyLV702 · March 2017

Tank and are definitely not useless. Just have one put guard on a heavy armor healer and good luck wiping that group (if they know what they're doing)

kendellking_chaosb14_ESO · March 2017

Tank are useless vs players that know the wet noodle damage can deal. Just root or chain CC them nearly all PvP builds need you to hit them to keep them going they can't kill and just don't have the regen to to break hard CCs back to back.

Watched a guy solo five max level dudes I just walked in and feared him back to back as soon as the immunity was down like all tanks he had no regen and once the super cheap blocking was down he melted.

Most times you can just walk pass tanks they are just not able to kill you and can only slow you down they have no power unless you fight them then you're playing their game.

Mayrael · March 2017

In general to understand how important tanks are you have to play one. When enemies are rushing at you and you see one guy standing there and surviving, its huge morale boost. Good DDs will use that to kill someone that is focused on killing the tank. Tank is all about tactic. You cannot literaly taunt other players but geting frag is so tempting that even without it its easy to pull others.
1. Very dangerous tactic against pugs is tank working as a bait. Group of enemies tries to kill him while, friends of the tank are killing them with negate + eots combo. Wont work against TSd groups.
2. While defending keeps its also quite good tactic to pool your enemies under a gate so they usualy die in oils.
3. Spliting groups/dragging attention. Most players sees an easy target in loneley player so they chase him mindlesly, you can use it to drag them of the main battlefield (like you see that your ally is seconds from taking the keep but enemy zerg is otw to defend it. Engage them and try to survive as long as you can. Even 30s in this situation can decide will you take the keep or not.)
4. Debuffing while using Fasallas set

There is plenty of sets that will help you to became better tank. Like Swarm mother, Pirate skeleton, Troll king, Fasallas, Plague doctor, Green pact, Bloodspawn (sets with ulti generation are very useful especialy for dks) etc. etc.

bloodthirstyvampire · March 2017

Nermy wrote: »

Tylos001 wrote: »

I want to know if there are any pros that make a tank viable in PVP??

If we come across tanks we can't kill nor kill us. We just leave them. Cba battering on a brick wall forever. Viable for raids but not really for solo. They may think they're awesome as they're unkillable, we just think they're a waste of time!

Well then i guess you can't even kill time

TX12001rwb17_ESO · March 2017

Lord_Dexter wrote: »

TX12001rwb17_ESO wrote: »

Tanks are extremely hard to kill 1 on 1, some players can't even kill a fully speced tank at all as I have seen some Tanks take on 4 to 5 players at once.

And they can not kill someone easily!

Actually if they use reflect on one of their bars they are very quite capable of it and can cause the opponents to kill themselves, this greatly effects ranged builds most of all.

paulsimonps · March 2017

I don't PvP that often but I'm a tank at heart and I've wanted since day one to tank in PvP too and be useful. I always have been. Now I can't kill anyone on my own, unless they are really really bad, but in groups I can cause a lot of harm.

Chaining someone into or out of breaches in Keeps and Outposts, making them easy to focus down and putting them in a position where they can't be resurrected does a lot, pull enough people like that and you force them to respawn further away, diminish enemy numbers. This works well in big Zerg pushes too making it impossible for them to escape taking damage. Now obviously some people survive by roll dodging a crap ton or bolt escape away but not all can do that and picking them off and seeing my team or the zerg burn them down after I chain them is incredibly satisfying. I use both the DK's Chains and the Swarm Mother set for extra chains.

Another thing that helps a lot is to do some small HoT with vigor as well as reflecting the crap out of things. Stand out a bit in the front of the line and people will focus you even if you are super tanky, for some reason people see someone sticking out and then all fire on that person. That's when I pop spell wall and just sit there as they hurt themselves, that or spam Reflective scales. I've actually killed a lot of people by having them reflect themselves to death. I'm also wearing fasalas guile so sticking out a bit like that an intentionally taking damage and debuffing the enemy helps a lot when you want to try and push the other side.

When we then push I use Choking Talons, Pierce Armor and Reverberating Bash to debuff them even more. And I use Black Rose to make me stay up with resources so I can take damage and dish out more debuffs. So my job in PvP is to disrupt and debuff and it works really well in the teams I've run with and in larger zergs.

Brutusmax1mus · March 2017

Tanks are outstanding and tons of fun. I'm that guy standing at the breach with my teams oils pouring on me, ballista's firing around me, and teammates standing on flags 1 shoting the few that get through the talons, eruption and Caltrops.