"they"?
who are these "they"?
States? Cryptic? The players?
My votes for the new players.. when i started my tank i had images of the Thing, Thor, Colossus, Hulk, Superman. I did NOT have the image of a boxing ball.
I resent the notion that a tank shouldnt be able to defeat his own opponents.
Players themselves have come upon these very boards complaining about not "feeling heroic" enough as tanks.. so they scrap their tank and make themselves a scrapper or blaster instead. It took me until level 35 so i could get energy transfer before i actually got the "wow" feeling, soloing or in team.
So now they switch two powers around that doesnt affect you the slightest and suddenly cryptic is making you "scranky"? If i had my way id suggest them to REMOVE taunt.. replace it with another attack. You want to hurl insults? Get Provoke..
If this makes me a Scranker im sorry..
No, damned if I am. I resent the use of the word Scranker.. its just like the word "Offender".. something that implies that "youre not playing your AT right..."
UNION
Officer Cuffz lvl 50 Inv/Nrg Tank
Badge lvl 50 dwarf/human Peacebringer
Dark Air lvl 50 Ice/Cold Corruptor
Ayre lvl 50 Storm/Elec Defender
Total Cat: @Officer Cuffz
"When I say interview, I mean engage in combat and defeat..." -Laura Brunetti, on how to deal with Warriors.
I don't think Unthing was saying it made him or other tanks more 'scranky' as it only really affects low level players, just that the move might indicate the Devs favouring damage over aggro control. At least at low levels. Personally I think it might just be that most tanks don't get taunt at that level anyway as they can't handle the aggro so it makes more sense for them to get another attack instead.
As for the term 'Scranker', it is accurate. A Tanks job is to hold aggro and not do damage. If they can do both, all the better. I'm sure, like most people on these boards, I have no problem with people playing their character however they like. They should make sure people are aware that they may not be able to perform the job the team expects them to tho.
I have been on a fair few teams recently where the tanks have been scrankers. One perma-granite tank didn't have Mud Pots, Fault, Tremor or Taunt - I was stunned. There was no way he could hold aggro. He was playing as he wanted but I and loads of other people on the team died a lot more than we needed to. I would not team with him again unless there was another tank on the team and we needed a low damage scrapper....
I do not want to delve into the discussion what the devs want us to do. About the change: this would be a nice 'buff' if war mace actually had a decent attack as fourth power which it doesn't. I have clobber that has very little use in early game PvE or PvE in general; stun yes, no damage.
It is true however that we don't need (and I don't want) taunt that early. Originally I took taunt at lvl 6 after dull pain, but in my current build taunt has been kicked back to lvl 16. Tanks are team ballast anyway until 16-22 I say.
hmm, personally i think ED and the whole thing with duncing the tanks previous stupidly over powered plough thru the whole mission without a care for the mobs has been good.
now the whole playing field has been leveled, not just on tanks but across the whole game, tanks are not just meat shields that only need teams for damage, they can play a bit more individually.
'healers' aint the be all and end all of empathy, as can be seen in the backlash against the very term.
it seems to me that the different power sets are actually appreciated for their differences now and play style can make the game more fun now than before when it was all about min/maxing your tank to be uber.
and interestingly with this diversification bad players are more obviously bad and good players are more obviously good.
@ExtraGonk
taunt by lvl 12 is a necessity for me because it can have so much positive effect on team survival in the cavern trial and positron tf.
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
Nice, if only they'd get around to fix the bugged Tanker secondaries now 
.
allow me to expand upon my earlier thoughts. Those were written in the dead of night so no wonder if they appear more aggressive that theyre supposed to be.
Now its morning and hopefully my mind has been calmed after som much needed sleep.
Anyway. In my opinion to switch around the order of which two powers are gained are a good move so as to make the AT appear more powerful earlier on. After all, it is in the first 10 levels you create your opinion of the AT. If you dont like what you see, it just becomes another never played alt on the character list as well as another heroic name noone else can use.
But it doesnt make the AT "scranky" because it dont in the least alter the final build at all.
Had they, as per my suggestion, replaced taunt with another attack then i wouldnt had argued if someone said it had become more offensive and used the word scrank.
What it does however is to make some builds "illegal" so here im wondering if tankers gonna get a free respec..
Secondly im really not offended by the word scrank. Because i actually consider myself blessed by the fact that whenever i recieve a invite, be it blind or otherwise, I KNOW why i got it. My task is defined and my purpose clear. Simply because there are not many alternate ways to do it-
I go in and start weaving and hope i will remain alive long enough for the rest to either a) heal me, b) lock down or debuff opponents c) remove aggro from me in chunks they can handle themselves or d) kill them off fast as they possibly can.
Unlike a defender i dont have to worry about "R U H34lorzz" syndrome as there are so many different variations in powersets for that AT. Nor do i have to excuse myself as ive seen blappers do about their constant faceplanting.
Actually whats making me so annoyed is from when i played a warrior in WoW.
I liked to play my warrior with two swords and later on with a twohanded sword.. and there was no end to the "you should go defensive and use shield" so i could Main Tank proper..
Now i wasnt a bad warrior, I did have a pretty good shield i could use when facing hard mobs.
Nobody gave me all these advice because they thought i was a bad tank. No, they did it because they knew everything and wanted to help me become better..
Why thanks, when i want your advice ill ask for it.
Im doing pretty ok here.
If you want to play with two swords have you considered playing a Rogue?
Yes, dont like it, i want to play a warrior.
But youre playing it wrong...
Shut up.
Now, im aware there is a long way between the Tank in CoH and the Warrior of WoW, and yet still the same.
This makes me always stand on the scrankers side in the debate every time its brought up, and im not even a Scranker.. I have every power in my primary pool as high as the ED lets me without slotting waste.
UNION
Officer Cuffz lvl 50 Inv/Nrg Tank
Badge lvl 50 dwarf/human Peacebringer
Dark Air lvl 50 Ice/Cold Corruptor
Ayre lvl 50 Storm/Elec Defender
Total Cat: @Officer Cuffz
"When I say interview, I mean engage in combat and defeat..." -Laura Brunetti, on how to deal with Warriors.
totally with you here, i converted my front line tank to a secondary scranker and its great fun, you can mess about much more, as last night showed if you have a good team with you a specific 2nd string tank can do the job of the primary with enough support.
ps, i ran 2hand paladin in doac and continuously got told to go shield sword to 'tank' properly too 
@ExtraGonk
Good spot.
I think its a good idea. Taunt that early in most peoples build is a waste and a third attack would be of great benefit.
On the "issue" of the word "Scranker" its obviously typical forum handbags but I would suggest deleting the word and replacing it with "Brutish".
i.e. "These changes make the tank more brutish "
Which I think is the way the AT is going since ED.
Glad to also see that they're improving game stability again. All the previous improvements have been of great benefit.
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hmm, personally i think ED and the whole thing with duncing the tanks previous stupidly over powered plough thru the whole mission without a care for the mobs has been good.
now the whole playing field has been leveled, not just on tanks but across the whole game, tanks are not just meat shields that only need teams for damage, they can play a bit more individually.
[/ QUOTE ]
I know I still need team for damage regardless of my lvl and you can bet that I've tried to slot myself for attack power. Last morning it took me about 40 mins to solo thru my own heroic mission with my lvl 50 tank. Part of that was of course me stopping to occasionally yawn in boredom though. I can't turn anymore scranker than I already am and I suspect my friends still see me as a tank, do they?
I havent teamed with you for a long time, Gonk, I hope we can sometimes try it..
As a /Energy tank I feel like I am a scanker without trying...Energy transfer, total focus and bone smasher are just crazy. Combine these with my choices of ice block, build up and whirling hands and I just mince mobs. These days I hardly ever use taunt anyway, as chilling embrace is so effective.
After testing this out I've found that this is DEFINITELY a buff for tanker. It does however make the second attack somewhat redundant though.
Lower levels are much easier.
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
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* Resorted order of availability for Tanker melee powers. Swapped 3rd and 4th power so Tankers can get a 3rd melee power by level 4.
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From here.
So rather than being able to get taunt at 4, you can get the generally useful and usually quite good 3rd attack ( Combustion, Haymaker, Heavy Mallet etc ). At first I thought this was bad until I realised that I usually would get this attack at 10 anyway, ( I get taunt at 4 in most of my builds ) but swapping them round would just make low levels easier and less boring.
So I think this seems like a buff.
However it does imply that they want tankers to be more scranky.
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.