Reasons to be or not to be a Tank in ESO?

LegendaryNinja · April 2018

The last poll i made on this specifically was in 2016. Wanted to make an updated one. So as you all know Tanking is the most difficult role in the game. Keeps getting more difficult though different nerfs every patch, finding a even decent tank can be difficult, and a lot of them have given up. The 2016 poll pointed towards the game being 100% DPS based and that tanks were only needed only for certain bosses in the game. Another thing that my 2016 post discovered was that tanks were just a DPS buffing machine, nothing more and nothing less. With all the content updates until now, has the game changed? Is there a reason to tank again? Is the player base happy with tanking currently? Lets find out.

BRCOURTN · April 2018

Tanking its perfect currently in the game

I agree with more than one option in this poll, but tanking is really fun as it is in the game. It’s also extremely necessary and a good one that buffs the group, keeps agro, and knows the tank mechanics of specific trials and dungeons are invaluable. It also seems like many guild and trial leaders are tanks because the role takes an authoritative personality in itself.

Tasear · April 2018

Tanking its perfect currently in the game

Different between good and bad tank is life or death. I seen a tank in vCOA2 hold 10 to 15 (storm annotachs) no way the weak dos could get it otherwise. Likewise seen some similar situations in other dungeons. Bad dps can't survived without great tanks taking aggro like a boss.

P.S
Some dps tests are actually tanks tests too.( Ex falkreath, bloodroot, vAA HM)

DMuehlhausen · April 2018

Other

Same reasons apply as in every other MMO.

If you're good everyone wants you
You have 0 queue times

Even if you're the best you're first blame for a wipe after the healers even when the DD are being idiots and standing in red. You have to be willing to take massive amounts of verbal abuse because of this. If you can't then you just better not even bother tanking.

DocFrost72 · April 2018

Other

Tanking in score runs is not a favorite of mine. Dunno why I wear alkosh to help the dps, you dont see dps running ebon to help my survivability. I get it, it is highly effective. Just rubs me the wrong way that I wear a medium armor damage set to tank.

Anything else though, tanking is the most fun role in the game for me.

DoonerSeraph · April 2018

Still, 100% DPS wins every day

Unfortunately, people are a bit obsessed over DPS, to the point to slave you and your healer as support drones (see Alkosh/Torugs).

I don't disagree that a supportive tank does wonders for a group but I wonder if thats the right way to go about it.

WaltherCarraway · April 2018

Other

I deal 15K DPS while tanking

Rungar · April 2018

well its a lot easier to get pug for dungeons but all the new vet dungeons have lots of one shot type mechanics in them which kind of defeats the purpose of tanks and healers.

basically you cant pug these things so I'm not sure how successful they will be with that strategy.

VaranisArano · April 2018

I main a tank. I love tanking.

My reasons to be a tank.
1. Control over the fight. I enjoy the crowd control aspect of tanking and controlling boss aggro. My battle-cry as a tank is "PAY ATTENTION TO ME!" as I taunt the boss. Unless some silly DPS or healer is using a taunt, I get to control when and where the fight happens. The the DDs might control how long the fight is, and the healer controls how hairy it gets, but I'm in charge of the boss. Its great.
2. Instant Queues. When I want to run a dungeon, I can run a dungeon. Tank entitlement, yo, if I have to wait over a minute I start wondering if the queue is broken again, LOL.
3. I don't have to deal with fake tanks like I do on my healers. Seriously, I have five tank-capable characters. If I wanted to tank, I'd queue on them. Not my healer. So if you are a DD-pretending-to-be-a-tank-and-so-my-healer-is-now-tanking-because-you-can't-be-arsed-to-slot-a-taunt, I know exactly what you are doing wrong and it pisses me off. Someone's getting carried through that run and it not my healer.

Finally, its just fun. I'm not stressing over a DPS rotation, just paying attention to everyone and everything, making sure the adds are where I want them, the boss is focused on me, throwing buffs, throwing debuffs, and making sure the team has the best chance of success.

If I get a new team, that's the best. Seeing a bunch of learning players figure out the mechanics while making sure they survive to learn from it? Awesome.
If I get a bad team, well, that's the sort of team that needs a good tank more than they know.
If I get a good team, well, smooth run for everyone!

Kelces · April 2018

Newer vet dungeons and trials mechanics makes it so that full tanking is needed

DMuehlhausen wrote: »

Same reasons apply as in every other MMO.

If you're good everyone wants you
You have 0 queue times

Even if you're the best you're first blame for a wipe after the healers even when the DD are being idiots and standing in red. You have to be willing to take massive amounts of verbal abuse because of this. If you can't then you just better not even bother tanking.

This would be nice to have as option here...

So true. Mentality never changes, they always bring it with them, everywhere...

Sparr0w · April 2018

Usually see group leaders taking the tank role as they know what mechanics to look for & can call out.

I personally don't main or really use a tank as I play solo/small groups a lot, but tanking is neccessary for end game content, always nice to have one in your arsenal.

EDIT: Tanking also buffs group DPS and efficiency as the DD can focus on DD rather than trying to self heal and kite the boss with everyone else chasing it (seen this more than once).

LegendaryNinja · April 2018

DocFrost72 wrote: »

Tanking in score runs is not a favorite of mine. Dunno why I wear alkosh to help the dps, you dont see dps running ebon to help my survivability. I get it, it is highly effective. Just rubs me the wrong way that I wear a medium armor damage set to tank.

Anything else though, tanking is the most fun role in the game for me.

Wow, great argument there. The skill needed to tank in medium must be crazy. I also agree that if the tank can survive and has all the damage mitigation it needs then running a buff set as a bonus its great for the team. On the other hand, as of the tanking meta right know a DK and maybe Warden are still King, those classes have the most flexibility in supporting a buff set. As of tanking in other classes it can become harmful for the tank and therefore unwanted by groups doing high end content. Also for newer player tanks its extremely difficult because of CP and itimization issues(besides Normals and Level one Base game Vets).

VaranisArano · April 2018

DocFrost72 wrote: »

Tanking in score runs is not a favorite of mine. Dunno why I wear alkosh to help the dps, you dont see dps running ebon to help my survivability. I get it, it is highly effective. Just rubs me the wrong way that I wear a medium armor damage set to tank.

Anything else though, tanking is the most fun role in the game for me.

If you wear it on jewelry and weapons, isn't Alkosh essentially not a medium armor set anymore in terms of detriment? Or, I suppose you could wear Torugs in whatever weight you want.

Doctordarkspawn · April 2018

Theres no way to Tank, the damage mitigation options are so low

Generally speaking you tank one, single way, and the developers have been trying to limit that and your ability to support group since imperial city.

It's not fun, to sit there and hold block and occasionally throw out a heavy but it's what we're mechanically forced to do. it's not fun to have basicly no variety in tanking having no way to healtank or shieldtank or anything like that as the few builds that can die in the line of fire of nerfs (AKA, Saptanking died when Morrowind launched), and yet, we have no other options.

ESO wants to railroad us into playing a certain way if we wanna tank, and cant figure out that if it wants to make tanks necessary, it's gotta make 'em fun too. And the current people on the team cant do that because they dont enjoy tanks to begin with.

Dont tank in ESO. It isn't fleshed out enough, and the devs wont take the steps needed to flesh it out.

Tasear · April 2018

Tanking its perfect currently in the game

DocFrost72 wrote: »

Tanking in score runs is not a favorite of mine. Dunno why I wear alkosh to help the dps, you dont see dps running ebon to help my survivability. I get it, it is highly effective. Just rubs me the wrong way that I wear a medium armor damage set to tank.

Anything else though, tanking is the most fun role in the game for me.

Would like see a tank alkoash or yeah less dps races.

Carbonised · April 2018

I play a tank, why can't I select "all of the above"?

DPS wins the day. Only specific content like hard vet DLc dungs and vet trials actually requires a tank
I play mainly as a DD, the tank is my secondary setup. That makes me gimped for content like DPS vet dungs and trials, where you get punished for not going full tank spec in skills, stats and CP.
That ties in to the second one, DLC dungs these days are all about one shot circus mechanics, less about tanking. Even as a tank I have to jump through these hoops or not get one shot. Damage mitigation isn't important any more.
The most efficient tanks are glorified DPS buffs with a taunt slotted. Only existing to buff up someone else's numbers is uninteresting for many, including me. I think many healers can agree with this point as well.

Feanor · April 2018

Other

When I do tank it's always fun for me

DocFrost72 · April 2018

Other

VaranisArano wrote: »

DocFrost72 wrote: »

Tanking in score runs is not a favorite of mine. Dunno why I wear alkosh to help the dps, you dont see dps running ebon to help my survivability. I get it, it is highly effective. Just rubs me the wrong way that I wear a medium armor damage set to tank.

Anything else though, tanking is the most fun role in the game for me.

If you wear it on jewelry and weapons, isn't Alkosh essentially not a medium armor set anymore in terms of detriment? Or, I suppose you could wear Torugs in whatever weight you want.

vDSA tanking is 5 alkosh, 5 PA. Best case you have 5 medium, one light, one heavy with monster set.

And it being medium is one thing, it giving damage, %damage to monsters, and crit isn't my idea of a tank setup. It exists solely to buff the group. It contributes next to nothing to the tank, typically.

Raraaku · April 2018

Newer vet dungeons and trials mechanics makes it so that full tanking is needed

I love to tank, outside of speedruns/leaderboards, I think they are very much needed for manipulation (positioning/occupying/CC/etc.) and to protect the squishy ones from having to run/dodge for their lives and to do their thing unimpeded. Usually those that do speedruns/leaderboards know the dungeon/trial and their mechanics so well that they may not need a tank; but otherwise I think tanks are very much still needed for the typical group.

If the tank can do it's central role and buff DPS, even better, but if I had to choose between CC and buffing DPS... I'm choosing the CC.

Tasear · April 2018

Tanking its perfect currently in the game

LegendaryNinja wrote: »

DocFrost72 wrote: »

Tanking in score runs is not a favorite of mine. Dunno why I wear alkosh to help the dps, you dont see dps running ebon to help my survivability. I get it, it is highly effective. Just rubs me the wrong way that I wear a medium armor damage set to tank.

Anything else though, tanking is the most fun role in the game for me.

Wow, great argument there. The skill needed to tank in medium must be crazy. I also agree that if the tank can survive and has all the damage mitigation it needs then running a buff set as a bonus its great for the team. On the other hand, as of the tanking meta right know a DK and maybe Warden are still King, those classes have the most flexibility in supporting a buff set. As of tanking in other classes it can become harmful for the tank and therefore unwanted by groups doing high end content. Also for newer player tanks its extremely difficult because of CP and itimization issues(besides Normals and Level one Base game Vets).

Nah I seen all classes tank effectively. Personally from what I seen theydo it their own way. Though mind you many are health tanks but seen some rare individuals tank, heal, and dps at same time or variety of assortment. I think bigger issue is no effective guides for them.

LegendaryNinja · April 2018

Doctordarkspawn wrote: »

Generally speaking you tank one, single way, and the developers have been trying to limit that and your ability to support group since imperial city.

It's not fun, to sit there and hold block and occasionally throw out a heavy but it's what we're mechanically forced to do. it's not fun to have basicly no variety in tanking having no way to healtank or shieldtank or anything like that as the few builds that can die in the line of fire of nerfs (AKA, Saptanking died when Morrowind launched), and yet, we have no other options.

ESO wants to railroad us into playing a certain way if we wanna tank, and cant figure out that if it wants to make tanks necessary, it's gotta make 'em fun too. And the current people on the team cant do that because they dont enjoy tanks to begin with.

Dont tank in ESO. It isn't fleshed out enough, and the devs wont take the steps needed to flesh it out.

I feel your pain. Loved my sap tank, i mean, you still had to block when it counted, but the support to the group it provided was great. Shield tanking could have been great if shields had mitigation(Mitigation based of your Armor, so it would not buff non-heavy builds), that would make magic tanking viable. Now, the magic negation skill in Wardens has mitigation, but technically is not a shield. Having a global skill similar to that would be great(without the ulti generation).

tinythinker · April 2018

I would consider tanking of they let us save three specs (i.e. three snapshots of gear, attributes, morphs, CP) to make role-switching fast and easy. I don't have an interest in taking loads of time to respect/re-gear to tank, then to switch back for other content or have to always swap to an alt. I've heard lots of good and bad about where tanking is in ESO, but I only tried it a couple of times in late summer 2014

Pink_Violinz · April 2018

Tanking its perfect currently in the game

Maybe in dungeons or pvp tanks aren't necessary, but some harder content like a few dlc dungeons and trials tanks are required.

Yeah, most of their job is just buffing the group. Same as a healer. But even some of the most perfect, flawless dps players still make mistakes or get whacked by a loose ad and need a support to help them.

White wabbit · April 2018

Tanking its perfect currently in the game

Just got into tanking on a warden and I'm.loving it , never enjoyed healing or dps in a dungeon I now have 3 wardens that I've tanked on that's how much I loved it

Tasear · April 2018

Tanking its perfect currently in the game

This thread reminds of mine own. " When is the tank or healer no longer needed.". Would like to see some dungeon desigin highlighting great support instead of dps race.

AverageJo3Gam3r · April 2018

Other

Reasons to be a tank: you'll ALWAYS have a group. Some of the new dungeons are fun to do with 3dps/1tank. There are a few very fun solo-tanking fights like ozara adds, manticoras, and the last fight of vdsa (my favorite encounter in the game).

Reasons to NOT be a tank: it's boring. There are very few mechanically interesting fights for the tank (twins in vmol, first boss and triplets in hof). Otherwise, the "mechanics" of other fights are centered around one-shot attacks. The safest way to tank is permablock, or drop block to heavy attack and pray your connection holds up. Either way, in content where you have a dedicated healer, you're a blockbot who plays a resource mini-game. I personally find this boring.

LegendaryNinja · April 2018

VaranisArano wrote: »

I main a tank. I love tanking.

My reasons to be a tank.
1. Control over the fight. I enjoy the crowd control aspect of tanking and controlling boss aggro. My battle-cry as a tank is "PAY ATTENTION TO ME!" as I taunt the boss. Unless some silly DPS or healer is using a taunt, I get to control when and where the fight happens. The the DDs might control how long the fight is, and the healer controls how hairy it gets, but I'm in charge of the boss. Its great.
2. Instant Queues. When I want to run a dungeon, I can run a dungeon. Tank entitlement, yo, if I have to wait over a minute I start wondering if the queue is broken again, LOL.
3. I don't have to deal with fake tanks like I do on my healers. Seriously, I have five tank-capable characters. If I wanted to tank, I'd queue on them. Not my healer. So if you are a DD-pretending-to-be-a-tank-and-so-my-healer-is-now-tanking-because-you-can't-be-arsed-to-slot-a-taunt, I know exactly what you are doing wrong and it pisses me off. Someone's getting carried through that run and it not my healer.

Finally, its just fun. I'm not stressing over a DPS rotation, just paying attention to everyone and everything, making sure the adds are where I want them, the boss is focused on me, throwing buffs, throwing debuffs, and making sure the team has the best chance of success.

If I get a new team, that's the best. Seeing a bunch of learning players figure out the mechanics while making sure they survive to learn from it? Awesome.
If I get a bad team, well, that's the sort of team that needs a good tank more than they know.
If I get a good team, well, smooth run for everyone!

I appreciate the commitment to tanking. I myself have 3 tanks; a DK, Templar, and Warden. I said goodbye to my NB Tank.

LegendaryNinja · April 2018

I wonder why they moved this post to Combat and Character mechanics. This is a discussion, we are not discussing individual skills or builds. Its possible this in attempt to limit this posts visibility? There will be other post related to this in the future.

The Elder Scrolls Online

Reasons to be or not to be a Tank in ESO?

Reasons to be or not to be a Tank in ESO? 48 votes