I spoke on this briefly in another thread, but it resulted in both sides talking past one another. To understand why one would defend this decision would take a more thoroughly articulated post. I would ask any reader to first attempt to understand my thoughts, and only then attempt to respond to them. I mean, that's what you are always suppose to do, right?
I am not saying I wanted the developers to do this. Whether this was a waist of their time and effort is another question. Some say they have way more important things they should have been working on. That may well be true. I'm just saying that having spent the time to address it, they made the right call. So here goes...
Why my opinion ought to be heard...
I'm not saying anybody ought to agree with me, but this is why it would be worth your time to hear me out. I've been tanking in ESO from the first moment I started making an actual role other than just wandering through overland putting stuff on. Most of those years have been dragon knight. Tanking has been the sole thing that has made me unable to leave ESO despite brief departures. Dang Cyberpunk 2077 got good! I tank, and I love to tank vet DLC dungeons using the dungeon finder. I get excited when it gives me a vet DLC I haven't tanked that day. But for the last two years I have specifically lived and breathed tanking on a templar using tormentors. This is not something I've just dabbled in. This is my thing, seeing just what can be accomplished on a Templar with this specific set. And I'm not using it as a crutch because I'm a bad tank and need the help. Just the other day I used random group finder to succeed at a speedrun, HM of Depths of Malatar with a bunch of strangers using my dragon knight who obviously has no AOE taunt. No Tormentor. So I know how to tank without it. And I know what can be done with it.
The ESO environment that is horribly complicating this question...
Over a decade we have developed a very warped culture regarding META. There is a minority of players in this game for which all content whatsoever is completely trivial. I don't simply mean overland content but almost everything. The hard truth is this...probably about 98% of the game is not designed with you in mind. The developers throw in a little bit of content specifically for you somewhat regularly while designing the vast majority of the game to players that are not on that level. However, it is far more common for streamers and other influencers to be part of that group that is competing in things like score pushing vet trials and arenas, having pre-made groups that will tackle vet DLC dungeon trifectas within a week of release. This creates a peculiar public square when it comes to ESO. Rather than speaking in terms of the average player's experience. Everything, and everyone, is being evaluated for its worth solely in terms of that tiny slice of content that is made for the most elite ESO players. As a result, the concept of something being overpowered is also evaluated entirely on how it performs in those environments. Perhaps this culture in the "ESO public square" is inevitable. But here is the point. It is not how the developers are thinking. And as long as we evaluate everything in this way, the developers are going to appear to us like a mysterious bunch of bullies who seem to be asking, "Who's day can we ruin this patch?"
How do we evaluate something being overpowered?
There are a few good answers to this. For example if something is so good it begins to destroy diversity then it is probably over power and needs a nerf. But I want to put forward an additional way something is qualified as overpowered. And this is what will let us see why the Tormentor nerf was the right call.
Something is overpowered if it trivializes something the developers meant to be challenging.
If something is designed by the developers to be engaging, and an item or power is inserted which unintentionally trivializes that content, then that thing is overpowered by definition. Or that is my assertion. So how does this apply to the Tormentor set? Very directly. The developers are constantly hand crafting dungeons, trying to make them dynamic and engaging for every role of the group. Say they succeed or suck, I don't care. That is what they are aiming at constantly. After nearly a decade of dungeon tanking we could talk about specifics for a long time. But let me put out one familiar scenario to dungeon tanks. How many times do the developers set up a dungeon with 6-8 creatures in front of you...and lo and behold just as you get that crew under control here comes reinforcements. Sometimes its two adds coming around the corner, other times that second group that was on the other side of the room is programed to rush in just at the right time, or when you kill a couple, etc. That's not random chance at work. That is the developers at work. They are striving to design content with a particular effect to make the act of tanking exciting and engaging and difficult. Now all of a sudden I have to contend with possibly six new mobs rushing down on my group. Perhaps two of them are lethal threats. But guess what? At this point I'm surrounded by maybe five of the last group that is still alive, some of them snaring me, rooting me. And somehow I have to get free, establish line of sight, and get taunts on at least the big ones and then do the best I can on the rest. All the while not loosing one of the surviving threats in the first group, and all making sure I notice that heavy attack winding up.
Now some of you are thinking...."OMG you are talking about trash packs." Well first, some boss fights have reinforcements as well, but unashamedly YES I AM!. And you will never understand the view point of the developers until you get this. THEY are thinking about trash packs. And they are designing them to be dynamic and engaging because they aren't thinking about the 2% of you that are skilled enough that everything but vet trials are trivial or meaningless. That slice of stuff you consider meaningless is the VAST majority of the game. The developers are designing that VAST game in ESO with the goal of making it engaging.
Enter the Tormentor Set...
Now I have practiced a lot. I can handle the situation I just described on my DK. I can tank it solidly, and often impress my group. But I can do nothing in comparison to my templar. On my Dragon Knight, I need to react immediately first of all. I must quickly maneuver to where I have line of sight first. Then if there are six mobs simply by virtue of global cool downs I'm going to need six seconds to grab them all. What's more I need to prioritize what I grab, mentally assessing threat order in a mater of seconds. And during all of that I need to make sure I don't loose any current threats still standing. I must not fail to notice the heavy attacks and I have to do it all without running out of resources. In other words, that handcrafted scenario by the developers may not be difficult for a good tank, but it is ENGAGING.
But now I have my templar tormentor. How do I respond? Well I have two excellent options which no other tank in all of ESO has.
Option 1: I don't respond. Yep. I just ignore. The second wave comes running in and I just keep doing my thing. Well to be fair, I guess any class could ignore them. But my tormentor templar can safely ignore them. Because when they get to us, I press one single button and its all mine. That's it. All the scenario that they meant to be engaging is reduced to one button press. It was trivialized.
Option 2: And this one is even better when you start to realize a tormentor play style. You just erase the whole scenario with two button presses! Just tormentor the first group and then tormentor over to the second group! Now its just a straight burn in a big stack thanks to two buttons!
And the scenarios in tanking that tormentor erases are EVERYWHERE. In my dungeon groups I will put up with a great deal of tomfoolery and incompetence. But one thing I will not put up with is one of my team mates trying to train the dungeon and pile up 40 mobs for a burn. Why will I not tolerate that? It can be pretty effective if the group is ready for it. But I will not tolerate it because I love tanking and I am there to tank. And no tank can control a 40 mob fight. They of course do not expect the tank to do so. They expect the healer to keep the DD's alive while they burn the pile....all while the tank sits there with his thumb up his butt. I won't tolerate it because they are writing me out of the group until the end when they need somebody to block a heavy attack. No tank can actually do the job of tanking in that scenario....oh wait....tormentor templars can. They can take every last bit of it with a couple button presses.
And the scenarios are endless. We could talk about situation after situation after situation. And all of them are not helped by tormentor, they are trivialized by tormentor. Content which the developers meant to be engaging and challenging to at least the average tank, is trivialized by a single set. That is by definition overpowered. Perhaps not in content that you care about. But in content that many care about. And in content the developers care about.
I'm not saying this NEEDED to be done. As many have mentioned, so few were taking advantage of this that it could have well been ignored. The game would have gone on fine apart from this nerf. I'm only saying that if the developers were going to evaluate it...then yeah. They made the right call.