I think multiple tanks should be a possibilty but not mandatory. It can be difficult to find tanks, especially when all they do is take punishment. Most players don't want to stand there and get beat on to no other affect than being a damage sponge. That's part of why you see a disproportionate amount of dps players.
I love the idea of a tank that absorbs punishment and takes the absorbed energy to affect the layout of combat. Think Black Panther taking hits and expending the absorbed energy. Your abilities would allow you to absorb/draw in or otherwise cancel out enemy effects. Such as actively drinking in a ground effect or a projectile. Absorbed power could then be utilized as either offensive or defensive. Build up via absorption then use it to activate a gravity well crowd control effect to give your allies an area to target. Absorb curse effects to empower you to release an area defensive buff like a D&D Paladin. Turning you into a terror of battlefield manipulation. Tanks should be a pain to face as, if played well, they should turn your strengths against you.
Tanking should never involve inactivity. You should be actively affecting combat at all times, moreso than just being a target. Passive threat with no effects is boring as hell. It makes Tanking mundane and focused solely on mitigation on yourself. A more active style of tanking also creates oppurtunity for risk/reward playstyle. Do you stand and block to mitigate a melee strike or spend a second absorbing an effect. Making the right choice at the right time should always be a key element in MMO play, especially in action styled combat. Mindlessness be damned.
Affecting combat this way also provides an active role for Tanking in PvP. Tanks should be the focal point that allies gather around to drive into the enemy. In large scale PvP, dmg focused classes will try to affect the most targets while attempting to ignore tanks, instead they target healers. However if those players are rallied to a tank, gaining benefits while the tank cancels out negative effects that would wreck them otherwise, they have a better chance at success. This makes tanks not only useful, but necessary like healers. I would love to hold back a siege as part of a phalanx, stopping the enemy cold 300 style.
If the idea is to have multiple tank classes, there should be multiple tank roles. Ideally, there would be 8 unique situations that require each of the unique secondary Tank classes.
As an example, Guardians would almost always have a role, but in one dungeon/raid there is a boss that always splits into multiple versions of itself which would each be handled best by a particular subclass of Tank. One version would be best tanked by a Paladin, one by a Warden, and one by a Keeper. In a later phase, the boss would reintegrate and be tanked by the Guardian again.
There should be flexibility in which classes are able to tank each boss within a certain limit, aka making one boss more magic vulnerable so they are more easily tanked by a Spellshield vs another boss more vulnerable to Paladin healing to interrupt certain incoming moves. However, these bosses could also be tanked by other secondary Tank classes, but perhaps not as effectively.
If you're saying you have 64 classes, there should be 64 situations where each classes can outperform the others, and this should definitely apply to Tanks.
I think a lot is going to depend on balance. Rather it ALL depends on balance.
Personally I love large scale fights that require threat management by several tanks, but if those tanks "Have" to be Guardians then it becomes kind of bland. If as a tank I just have to grab aggro at the start and don't have to constantly monitor and manage it during the fight then it becomes boring. Tank has to be a constantly active role.
In the end if your role is tank then you must be able to fill that role. If one class is the end all be all Tank then what is the point of the others? Now if you wish to divide tank classes into "Main Tanks" & "Off Tanks" then there has to be a viable reason to take an off tank rather than 2 mains. If secondary Archetype as tank defines an "off-tank" then why would a large scale party choose a Siren or Shadow Guardian rather than another primary tank class? If those classes that choose tank as a secondary have no standout function then they become useless, of course this applies to all roles but we're talking about tanks here.
If you choose to divide tanks based upon the way they tank, be it mitigation, avoidance, health pool, or self healing (IE: life taps, lay on hands, etc) then each way should be viable at large. Saying 70% of content will use mitigation and then adding 10% for other types or any similar breakdown is detrimental. Even breaking it down evenly based upon tank type is detrimental, if each "type" has 20-25% then your chosen tank type is relegated to that small percentage and useless in the larger scale. Any Main Tank class has to be able to function on par with each other in the majority of content, otherwise you kill those classes from start.
It's all about balance which is an ongoing and ever evolving issue in any game.
Comments
I love the idea of a tank that absorbs punishment and takes the absorbed energy to affect the layout of combat. Think Black Panther taking hits and expending the absorbed energy. Your abilities would allow you to absorb/draw in or otherwise cancel out enemy effects. Such as actively drinking in a ground effect or a projectile. Absorbed power could then be utilized as either offensive or defensive. Build up via absorption then use it to activate a gravity well crowd control effect to give your allies an area to target. Absorb curse effects to empower you to release an area defensive buff like a D&D Paladin. Turning you into a terror of battlefield manipulation. Tanks should be a pain to face as, if played well, they should turn your strengths against you.
Tanking should never involve inactivity. You should be actively affecting combat at all times, moreso than just being a target. Passive threat with no effects is boring as hell. It makes Tanking mundane and focused solely on mitigation on yourself. A more active style of tanking also creates oppurtunity for risk/reward playstyle. Do you stand and block to mitigate a melee strike or spend a second absorbing an effect. Making the right choice at the right time should always be a key element in MMO play, especially in action styled combat. Mindlessness be damned.
Affecting combat this way also provides an active role for Tanking in PvP. Tanks should be the focal point that allies gather around to drive into the enemy. In large scale PvP, dmg focused classes will try to affect the most targets while attempting to ignore tanks, instead they target healers. However if those players are rallied to a tank, gaining benefits while the tank cancels out negative effects that would wreck them otherwise, they have a better chance at success. This makes tanks not only useful, but necessary like healers. I would love to hold back a siege as part of a phalanx, stopping the enemy cold 300 style.
As an example, Guardians would almost always have a role, but in one dungeon/raid there is a boss that always splits into multiple versions of itself which would each be handled best by a particular subclass of Tank. One version would be best tanked by a Paladin, one by a Warden, and one by a Keeper. In a later phase, the boss would reintegrate and be tanked by the Guardian again.
There should be flexibility in which classes are able to tank each boss within a certain limit, aka making one boss more magic vulnerable so they are more easily tanked by a Spellshield vs another boss more vulnerable to Paladin healing to interrupt certain incoming moves. However, these bosses could also be tanked by other secondary Tank classes, but perhaps not as effectively.
If you're saying you have 64 classes, there should be 64 situations where each classes can outperform the others, and this should definitely apply to Tanks.
Personally I love large scale fights that require threat management by several tanks, but if those tanks "Have" to be Guardians then it becomes kind of bland. If as a tank I just have to grab aggro at the start and don't have to constantly monitor and manage it during the fight then it becomes boring. Tank has to be a constantly active role.
In the end if your role is tank then you must be able to fill that role. If one class is the end all be all Tank then what is the point of the others? Now if you wish to divide tank classes into "Main Tanks" & "Off Tanks" then there has to be a viable reason to take an off tank rather than 2 mains. If secondary Archetype as tank defines an "off-tank" then why would a large scale party choose a Siren or Shadow Guardian rather than another primary tank class? If those classes that choose tank as a secondary have no standout function then they become useless, of course this applies to all roles but we're talking about tanks here.
If you choose to divide tanks based upon the way they tank, be it mitigation, avoidance, health pool, or self healing (IE: life taps, lay on hands, etc) then each way should be viable at large. Saying 70% of content will use mitigation and then adding 10% for other types or any similar breakdown is detrimental. Even breaking it down evenly based upon tank type is detrimental, if each "type" has 20-25% then your chosen tank type is relegated to that small percentage and useless in the larger scale. Any Main Tank class has to be able to function on par with each other in the majority of content, otherwise you kill those classes from start.
It's all about balance which is an ongoing and ever evolving issue in any game.