Anyone feeling a loss of enthusiasm for tanking?

[Elanjar]

<p>Based on further developments in test chat is anyone else feeling like tanking has completely lost its appeal? I had hope when they delayed GU51's release. Guess it was misplaced.</p>

[Obadiah]

<p><cite>Elanjar@Nagafen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Based on further developments in test chat is anyone else feeling like tanking has completely lost its appeal? I had hope when they delayed GU51's release. Guess it was misplaced.</p></blockquote><p>Well ... not really.</p><p>I was disappointed when it was delayed TBH. From the testing that I did it didn't seem like that big of a deal, except that I will take less damage going forward and dish out less as well.</p><p>I've lost my enthusiasm for discussion about it on these boards because people [on all sides] make up their own numbers to prove their points, and people spam messages to fill up discussion threads with deliberately inflammatory material, and there's no /ignore function which IMO is the only thing that eq2flames has that's better than these forums. And it's no small feature when there are such ridiculous wankers as some that have posted in the other threads on the topic.</p><p>But no, I don't feel like it's lost it's appeal, it's just becoming more like it was in KoS and prior. I looked through the logs of every heroic instance I've run since TSO was released. Most of the instances I've done were with guildmates, and usually 4 or 5 of 6 toons at least had their Mythicals as well as a decent amount of raid gear. Roughly half of them were sans Dirge, and only a handful were with a Warden. I led the DPS parse on exactly 5 out of every 6 instances.</p><p>I look forward to the new dimensions they've given for gear to progress. Yeah, more threat isn't quite as sexy as more damage, but it will potentially be refreshing. And less bidding wars against scouts, who are all [Removed for Content]. Maximizing my own DPS is still desirable, and there are still ways to do it. I'll also wager that I can tank many PUGs in O-Stance despite the changes. Are they perfect? Are they exactly what I would want? Certainly not. No one ASKS for lower DPS. But they will help me (and others) do my actual job better, and IMO make me less reliant on Dirges which, as mentioned, I don't always get when I play.</p>

[LygerT]

<p>quite honestly yes, for raiding offtanks i don't feel like being worked even more than i already am and that is what the tank changes will be doing. keeping the stance timers as they are now on live it would be fine, you still would have to work to pull and keep aggro after swapping stances so now you will be tanking crap in no stance, yay.</p><p>tanking AE heavy heroic zones will still be ok, but not as fun. main tanking raids, you may as well betray as there will be absolutely no reason to main tank a zerker. offtanking will be more work than it was before.</p>

[Xalmat]

<p>I'm not looking forward to tanking instances, that's for sure.</p>

[JinjAB]

<p>I had been loving my zerker up until this point. The new changes make me want to mothball him for something a bit more...fun.</p><p>I certainly won't feel like I am going nuts against mobs anymore in order to hold agro, it will be sort of a weak whimper and a low growl and a sigh at missing alot with steel, but my shout being heard...</p><p>I loved getting a big DPS spike against groups and competing with the warlock. Maybe it won't be so bad, as I have only tested on my monk, but the immediate outlook for sexy & exciting tanking with any element of choice is bleak <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Hasad]

<p>Seems like there is already a lack of tanks available for PUGs during my playtimes. Even with the changes, I can't imagine it would get worse. Zerks already managed to survive though the very lean years, I think they'll be less likely to re-roll other classes than other tanks/fighters when the new changes hit.</p>

[Vulkan_NTooki]

<p>Started playing my wizard alot more now.. so I hope the change will bring in more tanks.. since now it will be alot easier to tank well for sub par tanks.. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Payneal The Great]

<p>Try finding a group as a necro then tell me you are tired of instantly starting your own groups as a zerker...</p>

[LygerT]

<p>the pigeonhole thing is what has most tanks upset about the whole scenario. we were offensive fighters, we had to work hard at dps to maintain aggro. our defensive abilities have stiff penalties, more so than most and our dps will be bland.</p><p>i just am getting tired of the ever constant change to tanks and hate and now our dps with all of our offensive abilities being even less effective. the balance in AE content is not balanced, even though there is still a need for AE tanks we have been and always seemingly will just be backups for most all raid content. "go grab those mobs for .1 second and then joust the named", i feel like ive been running in circles in this game for years already. maybe make offtanking mean something again for AE tanks instead of a mob puller and raid saver if the MT dies. gynok is about the only mob so far that i have seen balanced as far as difficulty in offtanking as it is for the MT.</p><p>next issue is there should not be such a grossly noticable gap between us and SKs.</p><p>fix zerker hit rates in '09!</p>

[Obadiah]

<p>Well that's been the larger issue, I think. You don't NEED more than one tank because the paradigm is 1 tank and 23 others. It's all about buffing the sheet out of that ONE person and keeping them up.</p><p>Making occasional adds that require an OT doesn't effectively change that. If you had to have 2-3 tanks standing at the forefront and had to make sure all 3 of them stayed at the top of the hate list and all 3 of them stayed alive or people started dying, that would MEAN something. Adds, or forced swaps like Phara Dar are just throwing us OT's a bone so we stay awake.</p>

[LygerT]

<p>they did do more for offtanks in TSO, xebnok requires at minimum 2 tanks, tythus 2, pentaclypse 2, kultak 2, stalker 2, etc but some of those fights offtanking is as boring as it ever was in the past with weak adds popping every 20-30 seconds. well ok so i guess that is a fair amount now after i think about it but a number of the fights still have weak adds so i turn on my benny hill music and go to work.</p>

[Logan]

<p>As a grouper and soloer I am looking forward to the changes. The regular groups I play with have banned the parse linking so I dont even know anymore what my parse is. I just know that we win most of the time. Its more important to me that I hold aggro and control things that way than be a dps monster trying to shame half geared scouts.</p><p>I wont even pretend to know how this plays out for raiders. Grouping looks great. Soloing will be no problem.</p><p>The only thing I wonder about is the class identity. But there are several classes you could say that about. What is the difference between guardian and berserker if we tank the same. I guess its the aoe versus single target concept. It would warm my heart to have berserkers become fully buffed dual wield tanks through class abilities or aa. Some bonuses for shielding with like a parrying blade in off hand and not a shield.</p><p> SKs and pallys are different one has damage spells and lifetaps the otehr has heals and buffs so even though they focus on hate like we do its hrough a different method. Maybe class differences on style not numbers.</p><p>I very much dislike the idea of separating tanks into single target and aoe tanks. Regardless of the single target tank that can skate by an aoe encounter the nature of gamers will be to exclude one over the other.</p><p>Rambling now my apologies. Still looking forward to changes mostly.</p>