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Are Tanks Obsolete?

With the advent of Monster tokens, new strategies will need to be used to address player controlled MOBs.

A smart player ran monster is going to ignore the Tank, and head directly to the damage dealer.

Has this rendered the tank obsolete?

Comments

  • 1: A Tank should have more utility than just taunts.

    2: Monster tokens are primarily just for events. The majority of the time we'll be fighting mobs. Occasionally we'll be fighting players.

    3: A Tank doesn't have the name tank because tanks taunt. The name comes from being heavily armored with high hit points and the ability to do massive damage quickly.

    4: So, it's not that Tanks are obsolete. Rather it's that the focus on taunts won't be as effective as in old school MMORPGs.
  • Plus this game has collision detection (if I'm not wrong). You could utilize that as well somehow. For example shield wall or something like that. It could be really fun. :D
  • [quote quote=17222]Plus this game has collision detection (if I’m not wrong). You could utilize that as well somehow. For example shield wall or something like that. It could be really fun. <img alt="????" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/2.2.1/svg/1f600.svg" />

    [/quote]

    If they have player collision too, you can imagine a wall of tanks standing side by side! That would be hilarious but i don't know if creep block will be a mechanic in this game.
  • I think AoC could stand to take a page out of Smite's playbook. In Smite, there are tanky characters which fall into two groups, "Warriors" and "Guardians." Guardians are magical defensive heroes, while Warriors are physical brawlers. Both are employed as tanks, adapted for the purely PvP environment of a MOBA. While AoC is not a pure PvP environment, I still think there's a lot to be learned from looking at how MOBAs cover the tank role.

    Guardians are the most defensive, and also have the most crowd control abilities of any hero type. They can push, pull, root, snare, silence, and otherwise interfere with their enemies on the battlefield. Some also have ally buffs, but mainly they are focused on controlling enemies, rather than buffing allies.

    Warriors are also defensive, but take on more of a "brawler" role. They generally boast more impressive damage output than Guardians (especially because physical attacks can crit, while magic cannot) but also generally have less group support/CC than Guardians. Warriors help their team through their well-rounded nature. Their attacks are just strong enough that they can't simply be ignored, and their defenses are just strong enough that they can provide a front-line presence without easily being killed.

    Both categories make effective tanks in a setting where "threat generation" through taunts is a non-factor. Guardians hinder enemies from the front line, while Warriors are effective front-line damage dealers. this leaves Mages and Archers to be back-line damage dealers, and Assassins to be opportunistic flankers.

    It all comes together to give each category of hero a distinct role (even Mages and Archers are distinct, despite both being back-line DPSers) without relying on the "holy trinity" of traditional MMOs.
  • My impression of the "Tank Role" is that any class-type could be a Tank so as long as they have chosen the abilities for it ?
  • A tank only becomes obsolete when damage dealers and healers can avoid bosses or mitigate/out-heal the damage dealt.
    In general the damage dealers and healers will work more efficiently if they dont have to focus too much on avoiding the boss.

    There will be character collision so a tank could protect players even without pure taunt skills.
  • I thought that SWTOR did a good job of making tanks useful in PvP (although I haven't tried SWTOR PvP recently), a tank taunting a player caused them to do less damage if the tank isn't the players target, SWTOR could also place shields on a group member, diverting a portion of the damage that group member took back to the tank.
  • I think it'd be interesting if taunting a player actually forced that player to attack the tank as well, whether it be being unable to target anyone other than the tank or face in any other direction than the tank.
  • [quote quote=22592]I think it’d be interesting if taunting a player actually forced that player to attack the tank as well, whether it be being unable to target anyone other than the tank or face in any other direction than the tank.

    [/quote]

    If I remember rightly a few skills in Warhammer online did this. And that was years ago. Coupled with body blocking and guard abilities I think there is still plenty of life in the tanking class.
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