Not a Tank: A Call to Redefine Ashes' Frontline Role

Takauri

TL;DR
Tanks in Ashes of Creation are being driven out of relevance by a combination of design friction, punishing economic systems, low PvP/PvE value, and outdated mechanics. This post consolidates feedback from numerous tank mains who believe the class needs mechanical reworks, role sustainability, and identity clarity. We offer targeted, actionable suggestions to help make tanks viable, enjoyable, and indispensable.

Context
This feedback is compiled from months of forum posts, personal playtesting, and community discussions from tank mains across Alpha Two. Our goal is to ensure tanks are viable, valued, and fun at all stages of the game.

I've played tank main almost exclusively for 20 years across all of the major MMOs, at peak endgame in most of them for PvP (specifically RvR style) and PvE

1. Economic Death Spiral – The Tank’s Tax
Tanks die more. That’s their job. But in Ashes, that job is punished:

Lose glint and harvested materials on death

Face the highest repair bills due to plate armor

Struggle to solo farm effectively

This creates a loop:

Die → lose money → need to farm → farming is slow → die more.

This is emotionally and economically crushing. Unless running in a premade group, many tanks just don’t log in.

Suggestions:

Delay glint/repair penalties until respawn at emberspring

Add solo-friendly stance or mitigation to farming cost

Provide repair cost reductions for tanks

2. XP Debt and Repair Costs Punish the Role
XP debt is fine in theory. But for tanks?

Tanks die first, die often, and die to save others

XP debt punishes them for doing their job

Repair costs and death loops mean a tank often leaves a play session worse off than they started

Suggestions:

Reduce XP debt gain on tanks

Consider death forgiveness window if rezzed quickly

Scale repair cost with damage taken, not gear tier alone

3. Shields Are Cosmetic, Not Core
Tanks give up DPS to wear shields, but the shield:

Doesn’t affect core stats meaningfully

Can be used by non-tanks for almost equal benefit

Doesn’t scale key abilities like Reflect

Suggestions:

Make shield stats part of tank base mitigation

Scale Reflect and other shield-based abilities with actual shield quality

Give passive shield bonuses to tanks only (e.g., stamina regen, block angle, CC resist)

4. Skills Lack Flow, Synergy, and Identity
Many tank skills:

Have no synergy

Require constant micromanagement (e.g., Grit spam)

Are used defensively on the tank rather than the group

Suggestions:

Let Intercept and Absorption Field apply group shields

Rework Grapple with meaningful augments (pull to ally, root, CC)

Make Vengeance’s stun courage-based, not RNG

Add group utility to Charge, Tomahawk (upgrade to net?), and Reflect

5. PvP: Irrelevant by Design
Even after TTK improvements, tanks are:

Not threatening

Not disruptive

Not protective

Suggestions:

Let Reflect block projectiles for allies via line-of-sight

Add real CC tools: group pulls, slows, battlefield zoning

Spec walls to allow ally movement or apply enemy debuffs

6. Walls, Body Blocking, and Spatial Control
Wall is a great idea:

But mobs walk through it in PvE

It has a long cast time and cooldown

Tanks should control space. Right now, they don’t.

Suggestions:

Restore promised wall customization (solid, debuff, shield variants)

Add collision mechanics or enemy AI changes

Reward body blocking (damage resistance, courage gain)

7. Spam ≠ Skill – The Active Block Trap
Grit has gone from simple stance to mandatory micromanagement.

The 20s/10s Grit change halved the buff unless you pressed it constantly

Current Grit still requires constant attention, or you die

Active Block punishes stamina, cancels skills, prevents dodge

Suggestions:

Grit should be a stance, not a rhythm game

Active Block should grant rewards (CC, counters, courage gain)

Make timing matter: well-timed blocks reduce cost or increase effect

8. What Is the Tank’s Place in the Endgame?
Tanks are vital while leveling, but then:

PvP doesn’t need them

PvE becomes DPS-centric after gear

Solo content is miserable

Suggestions:

Introduce tank-needed open world content (e.g., elite patrols, event triggers)

Rework PvP meta to include group survival mechanics

Add roles for off-tanks in raids (wound debuffs, agro transfers)

9. "Tank" Is Not a Class Name
Every other class has a name that signals fantasy. Tank is a role.

Suggestion: Rename the class to Guardian. Build the kit around:

A defensive stance (group tanking)

An offensive stance (solo viability, moderate damage)

Other MMOs nailed this. Ashes can too.

10. Closing: Let Tanks Lead
We don’t want to be immortal. We want to be respected.

We want gameplay that rewards:

Tactical decisions

Well-timed blocks

Group synergy

Positional awareness

Right now, tanks feel like slow melee DPS with a shield and a death tax.

Please let us fulfill the fantasy of being the frontline protector. Give us:

A name

A purpose

A reason to stay logged in past level 15

DmZ

Gonna have to give this a 100% agree. Throughout i've been okay with the class name Tank, but in my mind it has always been Guardian, but this is probably the least important item of the cogent list the op laid out. Implement the list verbatim? Unlikely, but a lot of others who play this class have put forth honest takes and good ideas. Something, needs to be done. Fluffing around the edges isn't going to do it. It needs meaningful changes.

Raptin

I agree with your entire post. I've also been a tank main for the last 2 decades of palying mmo's, and while I do see the potential of the AoC tnak, it has a long way to go before it reaches its full potential.

The shield is something I really hope gets an upgrade and a more central role to the tanks toolkit. Abilities like Shield Slam/Sheild Assault and Reflect should not be able to be used if you don't have a shield equiped and a better shield, or better shield stats, should have a profound effect on the effectiveness of the skills.

And yes, "Tank" is not a class name. Rename it to "Guardian" as soon as possible!

Bribzy

I don't agree with every point on this list, but I sure as heck agree with the vast majority. +1

The main points I don't necessarily agree with are related to 3/4/5.

Regarding shields, I'm in agreement that they're in a bad spot and feel rather useless. What I don't agree with is incorporating them directly into the tanks skills or mitigations. Surely I'd like to see improvements, and for the class to enjoy benefits from wielding a shield, but the second it becomes a mandatory part of every tank's kit I think we went too far. Choice in weapon and gearing should always be priority imo, otherwise you're creating a role and not a class.

As for skill synergy, I don't agree that it's nonexistent. There is quite a bit of built in flow to the way tank plays, and I frankly really enjoy it. Especially related to Punish, as many skill flows like Grapple->Tomahawk/Forceful Tremors -> Pulverize feel absolutely fantastic. Having the option of playing a Tank as a sort of crit-power-focused juggernaut instead of just being a front-line was a marvelous experience. However, I do understand the sentiment as there is a lot of room for improvement. I frankly would like to see shields (the hp kind and not the equipment) become a bigger part of the kit. Both in a team-support way as was previously mentioned, or in a sacrifice-shields-for-damage kind of way. I wouldn't want the stuff that is good, or otherwise feels good currently, to go by the wayside but rather cleaning up the stuff that isn't all that great at the moment.

And finally, I have had a pretty different experience in PvP post TTK. Especially with decent gear, playing a tank in PvP can feel fantastic both with a Defensive oriented build (mitigations/hp stacking), as well as with a power oriented build (power rating + crit pow). Ive tried both, felt great both ways. You're a force to be reckoned with, assuming you can convince your opponents to care about you.

However, I do think your points are valid about tanks being relatively easily ignored in PvP. Its a little too easy to just walk away from tanks, and there's really no valid reason to ever damage one if you can help it. Plus, with the only hard ccs in a tank's kit being trips and a very tiny stun, its pretty hard to lock anybody down. Doubly so if any other members of your party also have trips.

If I had to give my own personal suggestions, trying to blend the great suggestions of the post with my own preferences, I would attempt the following:
- Give an explicit benefit for wearing a shield as a tank. This can be baked into passive skills.
- This bonus shouldn't require having a shield, but reward tanks that do.
- More cc on tanks for pvp. Pushes/pulls and Incaps especially. Give tanks a direct way of controlling fights.
- Alternatively, let tanks be really efficient at shielding allies. Give enemies a reason to want to kill them before anybody else.

Bribzy

And as a follow-up, one more point I'd like to throw out is that Tanks in their current form are the only class that for the majority of the game you only want 1 in your party. With the exception of off-tanking, which can be done decently well by existing classes and apparently summoner can too, the idea of having a second tank in your party is entirely sub-optimal. This means that against all odds, there are many times that finding a party can be difficult, even as a necessary role within a party.

Personally, I think there's a place for tanks as a secondary protector sort of role. Not necessarily just off-tanking, but as a shielding-focused and damage-leeching class. Skills like intercept, absorption field, Aegis, and protect already fill this role, but not to the degree that a specialized build is worth playing. I'd personally love to see this expanded out further.

And, weirdly related, a name like Guardian makes a lot more sense when your job isn't exclusively sitting at the front of your party.

Volgaris

Lots of good points on here.

Some stance changing for being able to dps more is a bit risky. You don't want to turn the Tank class into a DPS class. I loved "stance dancing" in classic wow. Being able to have access to different skills and being able to time their usage properly was fun and challenging. But Tanks there had the same issues really. Die more, repair more, slow farming ect ect.

Maybe there's something they can do to make their farming a little better. Not sure if this changed, but back in Dec. I was able to quickly farm early mobs with a Tank, granted I passed that character some equipment. I was constantly killing 5 mobs at a time of the same level. This tappered off as I leveled and the gear had less effect. But the tank had at that time many skills that would attack multiple targets in front of it.

I tend to be more pve focused in mmos like this, but the skills need to have use in combat, solo, party, raid, ect. Making those skills useful in Pvp is hard, I'm mean how does taunt work in pvp?

Making a tank viable in PvP and PvE is hard, especially if you can't respec easily. Or the skills need to be multi use so you don't need to respec, which would be best since the game can throw PvP at you at anytime really.

ghostxx

I'm very late to this party but I'm pretty disappointed with both tank and warrior. The existing archetype that many MMO's have of these two classes do not work in Ashes. My stance is and will forever be that tanks need to be battlefield controllers that focus on debuffs like blinds, disarms, stuns, etc, movement penalties, etc rather than the basic tank and spank approach. When tanks are NOT actively tanking, they should feel more like warriors where they cleave slow and hard.

I know this essentially removes one class from the table but I think this is the approach to at least test out.

Nval1d

I'm a bit late myself but this is a great post. I have played all of the classes in Ashes and Warrior and Tank are my most played classes.

So the warrior isn't horrible, I'm sure they will scale better in the secondary class selection whenever we get it. There are many classes that need "work," but the tank is up there. I agree with most points on this topic, as the tank is the lest played class on the game. I also stand by the point that tank does not have a place in PVP, so to speak. They pose low significance in PVP oriented events, thus they get ignored. I also worry about the endgame. Brizby said, "can be done decently well by existing classes and apparently summoner can too." This poses issues down the pipeline as we would be forming party compositions based on content. For example: in PVP, why opt for a tank, when a off-tank has better utility and damage output as well as decent sustain. I like this topic, hope it gets the attention needed.