What is the Role of a Tanker

The reality of Tankers at present reminds me of a scene from Iron Man 2.

Remember that part where Black Widow and Happy Hogan go after Vanko and end up fighting Hammer's security guards? Happy shows off his boxing 'moves' and barely manages to defeat one guard while Widow cuts down about a dozen in the same time span, and by the time she returns he's exhausted and spent?

That's Tankers.

As a former boxer and body guard, Happy Hogan may be better at hand to hand than the average Joe, but his ability is nothing to trumpet and pales before a real fighter. In the end, he's comic relief. A joke.

Tankers too are body guards. They're put into much the same situation as Happy, and they do about as poorly, IMO. Thing is, I don't find it all that funny. YMMV.



.

No game patch can fix self-loathing.

Im thinking that there is nothing wrong with tanks.. just that there is something wrong with Johhny Butane's tanks...

LOL !!!!

Alright, I just did a comparison from my Dark/MA tank to my Claws/Dark brute. I figure that it's a pretty valid comparison since they are both slotted in much the same way.

Unless I'm completely inept at attack chain math, here's what the single target DPS numbers work out to:
Tank -120.19 DPS
Brute - 146.53 DPS

That's only a 20% difference, and I know the tank can survive well more than 20% better. The tank number is factoring in bruising, but the brute is taking into account Hasten, which is only up about three quarters of the time.

I guess I'm just not seeing tanks as weak as Johnny is.

I don't believe that direct comparison between Tanks and Brutes is fair because they're NOT designed to do the same thing. Brutes are Redside Scrappers with a different damage mechanic is all. Redside characters don't NEED a Tank as much because the ATs were designed to be more independant than Blueside. However now that either side can play where they want we have this conflict between Brutes and Tanks.

I'd like to see hard numbers on how much negative impact a Tank will have on a Brute in the same team. Run a Brute and a Scrapper with the Shield Secondary together and record the result through one mission full of mobs. Then rerun the same mission with the Brute and a Tank. Is having someone else with a Taunt aura around REALLY going to reduce the Brute's Fury that much?

As Arcana mentioned above there are other reasons for a Brute to have his Fury reduced. If a Controller locks down the mob first then he gets hit less. If a Blaster flattens them before they get off more than one attack he gets hit less too. Yet I've never seen a Brute player on my team say 'Let me get all the aggro and get whupped on for a few seconds before attacking.' If he did there would be LOLs all around.

Inventions is part of the problem here I think. With Kinetic Combat and other sets a Scrapper or Brute can approach Tanker levels of Defense while a Tank can't use the same idea to do the same with his damage output. Back when everything was capped at SOs the lines were more distinct. Now Inventions, and therefore the time and Inf the player is willing to sink into a character, seems to be more important. A Tank with SOs or generic IOs will be overshadowed by a Brute or Scrapper with 15 billion Inf in his build.

I'd also be willing to bet that most of the Tanker players grousing about losing aggro to a Brute (or vice versa) are the uber-leet types who worry when their DPS goes down 5% and they want to know why. If I'm Tanking I'm in melee. If a Brute or Scrapper strips aggro from a mob I'm fighting then he's probably in the fight right next to me. The mob hasn't gone anywhere...all the same conditions apply.

I still believe that the Aggro rules should be altered slightly so Tanks once again reign supreme at holding aggro but that's because it's what they do. If you take that away from them then they're just really tough low-damage Brutes and Scrappers.

I don't see enough leapfrogging with two tanks in team.

Usually, Tank A herds fast, Tank B gets to that herd, shares aura space, spawn dwindles to safe amount, Tank A preps next group.

Spawn dwindles to safe amount without Tank B, Tank B could of prepped next grp.

But Tank B, would need to feel safe, would team catch up and support in time? Tank A has left spawn early for a mop up, the time for the mop up would be equal to that time it takes Tank A to herd next grp, constant flow.

Tank B should of just leap frogged, and if needed find themselves rescued by Tank A.

You should find if done well when one or the other Tanks has sustained too much damage to begin next group, the one with the least health to regain to full will.

This alternation would of sped up when I Firetanked the entire Atta mish with no support (if there was a another tank) but even then there is a way I like to see things get done because what can happen is poor herding decisions.

So then do we not only live in the hope of a good frog, but a good herder too who has an idea on safe herdpoints offering range for all to attack outside of enemy perception + range for rangers to attack from from (two flagpoint fighting).

But most people only make 1 Tanker and even by 50 there is still tonnes to actually learn. I swear some people have more to learn post 50.

Sharing a team with another Tanker is usually never optimal, not because of what Tanks are but of what the player knows.

I wholeheartedly agree with the leapfrogging. The example of the outdoor Lambda Trial should make it clear to everyone. I absolutely will not Judgement a "stale" spawn. I want a fresh group to slam with my nuke lol. I cannot imagine anyone not realizing that or wanting a fresh spawn themselves.


Okay, I retract that. I can imagine one guy saying "Look, there is a minion. You gotta stay with it bro, i do not care if the team has leapfrogged 7 spawns by now, you gotta stay with that one minion"

Shaking his head sadly, he looked at it. It was a dreaded minion. It stood there, by itself, at the front of the map. The Tanker knew what he had to do. He would engage that minion, and defeat it.

The Tanker was sad, but stoic. The Tanker knew that it's heavy armor and large health pool could be much better used by the team further in the map, soaking up the enemies attacks and mezzes. But there stood that minion, alone, and this situation just could not be tolerated.

So, throwing strategy, tactics, caution, good sense, and sobriety to the winds the Tanker engaged that minion. With punch and brawl alone (Honor dictated not using anything more powerful tan a tier 1 attack against a lowly minion) the Tanker slowly beat the minion down and arrested him. Sigh.

The team was long gone now. The Tanker thought how useful he would have been if the team had waited for him, how he could have helped. But, as he stood over the arrested minion, he knew that he had done this job and done it well.