Tank characters....do I always need one?

[Beast]

I'm pretty new to the game and experimenting with different party builds. I've always had a Crusader/Hellion/Leper on the front slot, having a 'tank' just seemed natural. Can you do the tougher fights without one of these? Is it even recommended? Is it possible to have a tank that relies on dodging? I've tried this with a Jester...with mixed success. My best heroes are only level 2, though.

[FDru]

Simple answer is no. Bounty Hunters, Highwaymen and particularly Grave Robbers can operate just fine in the front lines.

[Nomad]

Since there doesn't seem to be any threat system in place and enemies can just attack past your "tank" no, I'd say they're not necessary.

[zverozvero]

Problem with dodge tank is, he gets 'bad day' less often but when he does, healing him up feel like urgency. C/H/L can take 2 trinkets of damage and still tank with light heart. BH/HWM and others may whant 1 deffencive (evade/protection like said sun cloak) trinket to keep up.

Whell, most not-tanks are more damaging/fast than C/L (helion is unsurpassed beast so nm) and you can simply focus first-line-ravagers first so they wont take more damage, instead of killing backliners and than stalling damage against first 2 slots.

[mecheenfolie]

Having no tank can be possible for some battles, if you need to focus the enemy rear line (ranged attackers or huge damage-stress dealers). I would say that in that case you really have to focus the enemy damage dealers first, and have just one healer because two healers will slow your party damage.

[zverozvero]

Healers also can stun/pull/hit to focus on first turn, like Abbysal artilery or sacrifical stab after Unspeakable comune.

[Faust Kellhound]

highwaymen and grave robber in the first two slots with there high speed and dodge they make up for low hp, thos guy are my highest level guys and there great classes

[RollingK]

Tank aren't really needed. This games as it is now sometimes it is too random.

I've had two vestals(both were back rows, both had upgraded armors) with full health died the same way on two separate runs, both died in the first two rounds:

The torch is at 100, enemy lands 3 consecutive crits, can't kill her so in the next round they land even more stronger consecutive crits on the same character, she is dead.

The same has happened to my Lepers(tanks), no matter how many upgrades or how much light you have they can randomly die in 1-2 rounds.

Its better to have high Speed(this and ACC are the most important stats) and kill them fast.

[zverozvero]

Allmost lost my HWM that way. With no shuffle or surprise, at 3d slot he just collected all crits and got death door. And he had HWMs personal trinket of evasion. Pulled him up of it but still fancy for random encounter against pair of pigs.

[ShakespearOnIce]

I don't like using the term 'tank' in this game since there's not really any way to draw aggro or control where damage is going other than stunning and killing enemies. Beefy characters with lots of health are mostly just harder to kill in general.

[zverozvero]

Whell first 2 rows are getting harder swipes in general, and enemies hiting hard exlusively on back rows are squishi or can be neutralised with shuffles, so tanks are still there just not absolute as usuall.

[RedHookChris]

Not at all - I actually roll with a hwyman/graverobber front row, lunging, shadowfading, duelist advance, point blank shot. It's squishy, but with a bounty hunter and occultist in back, you can wreck things in the face.

[Beast]

Thanks everyone. I'll experiment with the Graverobber/Highwayman duo a bit. They're my two favorite characters but I honestly hadn't thought about using them that way before...although looking at the Graverobber's skills it makes much more sense to me.

[Kryto]

They're not nessesary per se, but they do help in most situations. I've had some sucess with a Vestal/Grave Robber/Jester/HWM team. The idea of that team is to kill everything before significant damage can be done. It works well against weaker enemies. I wouldn't put that team up against the Swine God though.

[Izu]

There is no real tank class.Some frontliners have more dodge or HP but there is no threat or abilities that lets you take blows instead of another character.Funny enough too many enemy frontliners have long range attacks and they do tend to hit the 2nd and 3rd character. I would really like to see something resembling a taunt/intervene on tanky classes (I'm looking at you leper).

[zverozvero]

At most it could be addition for protection skills of Leper and Crusader that would give minor chance to get targeted if they weren't.
System 'as is' with just slightly more damage for 1,2 slots both allows some tanking when back-row get focused while first row gets stalled against beefier tanks and some powerplay when key figures of enemy get decimated on first turn, thus allowing not-tanky heroes to be frontliners.

If Tank will be able to soak damage 'at-will', tank builds will be too consistant compared to other rng-gambled combinations.