Is tanking actually fun?

[Jinshushei]

After having played this game for awhile, it seems like literally anyone can do anything at any time. I've seen the dumbest looking "tanks" ever and just faceroll content. Is playing your typical sword and board tank actually fun in this game to do? No, I don't want to be some weird shapeshifting tank, no dual wield or 2 hander nonsense.

[Therin Skarn]

I have a high-elf sorcerer that also dual-wields and she is what I would call a mag/stam dps tank

[Fin]

Facetanking is for normal Dungeons. If you go vet. Dungeons or Trials you need Tanks with equip for tankin (sword / shield and heavy armor etc.). If you do fun stuff you can facetank everything.

[Jinshushei]

Originally posted by Reaper:

I have a high-elf sorcerer that also dual-wields and she is what I would call a mag/stam dps tank

yea, that sounds horrifying

[Therin Skarn]

actually she is my main at cp 584

[MMOGamer71]

Q. Is tanking actually fun?
A. Yes.

[Turtleswatter]

Yes, tanking is a lot of fun. And at early stages it is basic. The general idea is that you learn in RNDs, but these days that's a bust because of the high level speedruns for transmutes.

However later on, still fun, but there's a lot to it. You have to learn the dungeon mechanics (vital if you don't want to wipe the team), also make a build that will keep you alive and buff & protect the team.

The issue with this is that a lot of veteran players have little patience for "learning" tanks and vet is the only place you're likely to learn once you get past the basics.

My advice is, as always, stay away from randoms and join a social guild. They will welcome you with open arms because there's a real shortage of tanks (I wonder why).

Personally, I love playing tank, but as a tank usually guides the others round a dungeon and is first in the fight, I'm hampered by a negative sense of direction and short term memory problems that mean it takes me ages to learn mechanics.

[Just about elbow deep]

Really the only thing that's missing to give tanking that tank "feeling" is aoe threat generation and generally doesn't feel as rewarding as playing a healer or pure dps.

[Halcyform]

If you like studying the game in more depth; like leading, organizing and being responsible for groups of people, then you'll have fun being a tank.

In MMOs, tanks are supposed to be the leaders. Tanks have to know each player's mechanics as well as game mechanics. Tanks take that knowledge and leverage it to lead people in tackling content.

[Just about elbow deep]

Originally posted by Halcyform:

If you like studying the game in more depth; like leading, organizing and being responsible for groups of people, then you'll have fun being a tank.

In MMOs, tanks are supposed to be the leaders. Tanks have to know each player's mechanics as well as game mechanics. Tanks take that knowledge and leverage it to lead people in tackling content.

This is generally something that looks good on paper but doesn't really work in practice. Whoever knows the most about the content is usually the leader of the group and not dictated by the role they selected. Which leads to the other problem of most of the roles feeling kinda "samey", so that attributes a lack of distinction between roles, since everyone can do everything. Roles are typically defined by their respective responsibilities and out of the three present in the game, tanks have the least amount of class identity.

[Turtleswatter]

Originally posted by Just about elbow deep:

Originally posted by Halcyform:

If you like studying the game in more depth; like leading, organizing and being responsible for groups of people, then you'll have fun being a tank.

In MMOs, tanks are supposed to be the leaders. Tanks have to know each player's mechanics as well as game mechanics. Tanks take that knowledge and leverage it to lead people in tackling content.

This is generally something that looks good on paper but doesn't really work in practice. Whoever knows the most about the content is usually the leader of the group and not dictated by the role they selected. Which leads to the other problem of most of the roles feeling kinda "samey", so that attributes a lack of distinction between roles, since everyone can do everything. Roles are typically defined by their respective responsibilities and out of the three present in the game, tanks have the least amount of class identity.

I think that's probably true in a normal dungeon, but you try fake tanking or fake healing in a vet hard mode. The further on in the game you go, and the more challenging the content, the more there is a distinction between the roles.

[Just about elbow deep]

Originally posted by Turtleswatter:

Originally posted by Just about elbow deep:

This is generally something that looks good on paper but doesn't really work in practice. Whoever knows the most about the content is usually the leader of the group and not dictated by the role they selected. Which leads to the other problem of most of the roles feeling kinda "samey", so that attributes a lack of distinction between roles, since everyone can do everything. Roles are typically defined by their respective responsibilities and out of the three present in the game, tanks have the least amount of class identity.

I think that's probably true in a normal dungeon, but you try fake tanking or fake healing in a vet hard mode. The further on in the game you go, and the more challenging the content, the more there is a distinction between the roles.

Well at the most basic level, a persons interest in a class or "role" is how it feels and how fun it is, that will later dictate how much time they will invest in it. If the barrier of entry for feeling like a tank doesn't start until you start doing veteran content, then their isn't much incentive on the table to fill that role outside of just getting faster queue times.

[Alaskan Glitch]

I'm currently running an Imperial Sword & Board Tank. That is all the character does. It has no ranged weapons, or dual weapon capabilities.

What makes playing that character at least as fun as my DPS characters is its ability to taunt and endure brutal punishment that my DPS characters could never withstand.

All my other characters can do more DPS, but none of them has the endurance/sustainability or can take the kind of pounding that my tank can take and still be alive.

The nice thing about soloing a tank is that you will win every combat - eventually. Combats may take a little longer than with a DPS character, but you never lose.

[Just about elbow deep]

That's misattributing tanking with just being tanky. Taunting and threat generation doesn't matter outside of group content. I'm not saying you can't tank, you clearly can, i'm not even suggesting it isn't fun. I'm simply saying when compared to the other roles, outside of taunting a boss, it doesn't have many "tanky feeling" attributes. You can use a defensive cooldown, everyone can do that, you can snare mobs, everyone can do that, you can use an emergency heal, everyone can do that, you can taunt the boss, everyone can do that (at their own risk). It's almost deserving of its own talent tree, not that i know what it would contain, i'm just giving my opinion.