Top 5 MMORPG Tanking Experiences | MMORPG.com

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Top 5 MMORPG Tanking Experiences | MMORPG.com

From FFXIV to Wildstar, tanking is a thankless job. Keeping enemies pinned often goes overlooked when heaping praise on the DPS or the healer after a battle. However, were celebrating the top 5 tanking experiences in MMOs for all those tanks out there that don't get the praise they deserve.

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Sovrath

I loved tanking in Tera. It definitely ranks as a top mmorpg experience for me and Tera's combat is some of the most fun I've ever had in an mmorpg.

Having said that, for my tastes, they have ruined the world and game experience with a lot of silliness

TwistedSister77

As a healer or DPS, that would purposely draw groups of more adds in dungeons when my tank was already tanking... and unsuspecting...

I hope I created some mission impossible memories for the tanks (yeah, I'm that guy sometimes).

Definitely created some accidental wipes and cursing over discord

Scot

I played more Off-Tank, the guy who attacked incoming mobs and was ready if the Tank went down. You could also acted as second tank in raids that needed two, but preferentially a second proper tank was available. That worked well in DAOC and even as late as Lotro, but after that class roles were diminishing, not sure how many MMOs would even need one now.

Action combat in Terra did make you think MMOs switching to action was worth while, other MMOs I have wondered why they bothered. Class flexibility in Rift was interesting, but I think it just induced more soloing, though it did make raid setup easier.

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The user and all related content has been deleted.

Phixion13

Tanked all content in Wildstar - by far the best experience I have had out of any MMO. Super engaging content at end game even with the bugs and insane difficulty. The gaming community really is missing out on something special. RIP

WhiteLantern

The only tanking I ever did was with my Fire tank in DCUO. Can't say I was very good at it, but it was a more rewarding acomplishment when it went right, Imo.

cameltosis

Whilst my preference is for support classes, they don't tend to exist in a lot of mmorpgs, so I often play a tank.


In my experience, tanking is one of the easiest roles to play. You have two things to do: hold aggro, and mitigate damage. Given that there usually aren't that many aggro skills, holding aggro is a walk in the park. Mitigating damage usually comes down to gear, not many games give you a lot of skills to help mitigate damage so it's pretty easy to decide when to use what few skills you have. Hell, even on the aggro front, every tank I've ever played has an AoE taunt that puts you right to the top of the aggro list, so even if you lose aggro to an over-zealous dpser, you can get it right back.


With that in mind....


LotRO was my favourite tanking experience, with the guardian. Whilst I mained a captain, my first alt was the guardian as other players seemed to struggle with tanking. It was a lot of fun, but way easier than playing a captain.

With no meters in game and only one taunt, tanking was much more involved and a bit more about intuition. There were plenty of skills to help with mitigation so it wasn't all about gear. Plus, I got to be a hairy dwarf!



Runner up would be WAR. Tanking in PvE absolutely sucked, over-simplified and really unsatisfying. However, tanking in PvP was far more enjoyable than any other game. My original black orc was a lot of fun to play, and my ironbreaker on RoR is a great mix between tank, buffbot and single target pressure dps. Plus, with the player collision, you can tank by actually getting in peoples way :-)

Sovrath

cameltosis said:

Whilst my preference is for support classes, they don't tend to exist in a lot of mmorpgs, so I often play a tank.


In my experience, tanking is one of the easiest roles to play. You have two things to do: hold aggro, and mitigate damage. Given that there usually aren't that many aggro skills, holding aggro is a walk in the park. Mitigating damage usually comes down to gear, not many games give you a lot of skills to help mitigate damage so it's pretty easy to decide when to use what few skills you have. Hell, even on the aggro front, every tank I've ever played has an AoE taunt that puts you right to the top of the aggro list, so even if you lose aggro to an over-zealous dpser, you can get it right back.


With that in mind....


LotRO was my favourite tanking experience, with the guardian. Whilst I mained a captain, my first alt was the guardian as other players seemed to struggle with tanking. It was a lot of fun, but way easier than playing a captain.

With no meters in game and only one taunt, tanking was much more involved and a bit more about intuition. There were plenty of skills to help with mitigation so it wasn't all about gear. Plus, I got to be a hairy dwarf!



Runner up would be WAR. Tanking in PvE absolutely sucked, over-simplified and really unsatisfying. However, tanking in PvP was far more enjoyable than any other game. My original black orc was a lot of fun to play, and my ironbreaker on RoR is a great mix between tank, buffbot and single target pressure dps. Plus, with the player collision, you can tank by actually getting in peoples way :-)

I play a guardian in Lord of the Rings Online and it is fun. I couldn't get any of the classes but wanted to play a champion.

They were very squishy at launch and I found that I was dying more than I liked. Then one day I was trying another class when I heard a "whomp!"

It was someone playing a guardian. I saw the shield and though "that looks about right" tried it and never went back.

oooo I forgot Warhammer. I loved my Sword Master in pvp.

TwistedSister77

cameltosis said:

Runner up would be WAR. Tanking in PvE absolutely sucked, over-simplified and really unsatisfying. However, tanking in PvP was far more enjoyable than any other game. My original black orc was a lot of fun to play, and my ironbreaker on RoR is a great mix between tank, buffbot and single target pressure dps. Plus, with the player collision, you can tank by actually getting in peoples way :-)

Props for good coordinated tanks breaching castle/fort doors.  Makes all the difference 

TwistedSister77

Phixion13 said:

Tanked all content in Wildstar - by far the best experience I have had out of any MMO. Super engaging content at end game even with the bugs and insane difficulty. The gaming community really is missing out on something special. RIP

There are projects underway for private servers... but they seem a few years off (Nexus Forever is playable, but no combat).  There is hope!

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xpsync

I was going to say: "I've never tanked" but now that i've thought about it, i have a couple times.

Both times seemed to be the same as well. (fill in tank)

EQ2 i was a pally, when our main tank was off for a couple weeks i started tanking, the people i was with and as they were with me, very comfortable with each other or i would have never in a million, later i was a main "off tank" for some raids, and would fill in for when the tank could not make it which was extremely rare.

Then again in SWL, tank wanted a break sometimes so i'd step up, and again same situation as above, an extremely high level of comfort.

Outside that, i've played tanks but never tanked with them.

enesisxlr8

Wildstar was great game, once again destroyed by an poor company. Very sad honestly

Alverant

It's good to see Wildstar getting some love. It was a rare sci-fi game in a swamp of fantasy. I really wanted it to work.

My own best tanking experience was in City of Heroes where I held the line at a choke point vs the Council until I was the last member in the TF to fall.

koldmiser

I love Tanking in FFXIV with my Dark Knight. Wow was fun with my Paladin, but pretty much easy mode Tanking.

My two favorites though were Cleric Tanking in Rift, and my Trooper in SWTOR.

Hengist

Loved me some PvP Tanking in SWTOR, WAR, and even WoW. While not mentioned here since this article was all about PvE, the guard mechanic in a couple of those games was great, and soaking up damage was truly enjoyable, keeping healers up, or random DPS. Way more enjoyable for me than boss mechanics, because against another person, never knew what they would do...

Now in PvE? I like my DK in ESO, and my DK from WoW (Just the WotLK era).

Other than that...healthy respect for the people who enjoy it, but it wasn't usually a role that I enjoyed, unless it was a group of friends. Interesting to see the Top 5, makes me curious if I would have enjoyed it other games.

Viterzgir

Nothing beats epicness of FFXIV when tank have to block with his sword a MEGA MASSIVE attack of the raid boss. It looks sooo awesome, it feels epic and satisfying. FFXIV always could surprise me with dungeons and raids.
Just look at this:

cheyane

^ That was a massive sword held back by a small shield.

Wizardry

The Ninja class is the most unique Tank i have ever seen but FFXI had other options that were also unique in the rpg world.

Ninja relies on shadows/illusions but once they are down the Ninja is like a paper weight taking loads of dmg.The healer might panic and try and go full heals on that Ninja then the healer is now gathering too much hate.

Pretty much every other Tank is either a fake tank or same old different name.Fake tanks are those that the devs gave TOO MUCH versatility,making that Tank not really a tank but just a jack of all trades.

FFXI has/had that as well in the Redmage,sure it could tank as good as any Tank in the game depending on foe but you wouldn't use the RDM as a go to tank.

Same goes for ffxi Monk,sure it can tank because of massive hit points but i wouldn't call it a true Tank.
That is what i loved about FFXI's overall design,everything had pros and cons and was nicely balanced and well thought out.Of course as the game progressed beyond level 75 then it all started to fall apart.

Gorwe

What, no mention of Conan DT nonsense? While that class did suck for the first 45ish levels, later on you could literally solo group instances and what not.

Kajidourden

Viterzgir said:

Nothing beats epicness of FFXIV when tank have to block with his sword a MEGA MASSIVE attack of the raid boss. It looks sooo awesome, it feels epic and satisfying. FFXIV always could surprise me with dungeons and raids.

Just look at this:

Looks pretty lame to me. Not doing anything.

Theocritus

I don't remember tanking in any of the group based games......Why? Because they (or  the healer) always got the blame if things went south.

DeadSpock

Only tanked in FFXIV ARR but honestly I don't like tanks in 14 just play them for instant queue. Tanks in 14 lose HP very fast compared to FFXI seen friends with PLD take single digit number of damage or nothing at all when combining minus damage taken gear and minus physical damage taken and minus magic damage taken.
FFXI had so many factors to play with vs FFXIV ARR where no one has anything unique or stats to stack up and get close to god mode. All you do is get highest iLevel and next patch start over grindign next iLevel.

TwistedSister77

Scot said:

I played more Off-Tank, the guy who attacked incoming mobs and was ready if the Tank went down. You could also acted as second tank in raids that needed two, but preferentially a second proper tank was available. That worked well in DAOC and even as late as Lotro, but after that class roles were diminishing, not sure how many MMOs would even need one now.

Action combat in Terra did make you think MMOs switching to action was worth while, other MMOs I have wondered why they bothered. Class flexibility in Rift was interesting, but I think it just induced more soloing, though it did make raid setup easier.

Yeah, I know a ton of older games needed off tanks for raids (collecting boss adds/spawns, or rotating in on the boss).  I'm struggling to think of newer ones...

Age of Conan had good tank mechanics (played a conqueror).  

I mean, what do we even consider "new" anymore... given the draught of successful MMORPGs... ESO and BDO seem "new".

DeadSpock

TwistedSister77 said:

Scot said:

I played more Off-Tank, the guy who attacked incoming mobs and was ready if the Tank went down. You could also acted as second tank in raids that needed two, but preferentially a second proper tank was available. That worked well in DAOC and even as late as Lotro, but after that class roles were diminishing, not sure how many MMOs would even need one now.

Action combat in Terra did make you think MMOs switching to action was worth while, other MMOs I have wondered why they bothered. Class flexibility in Rift was interesting, but I think it just induced more soloing, though it did make raid setup easier.

Yeah, I know a ton of older games needed off tanks for raids (collecting boss adds/spawns, or rotating in on the boss).  I'm struggling to think of newer ones...

Age of Conan had good tank mechanics (played a conqueror).  

I mean, what do we even consider "new" anymore... given the draught of successful MMORPGs... ESO and BDO seem "new".

FFXIV ARR has many raid bosses with that mechanic of main tank/off tank just to bring up one trial of moogle king hard/xtreme or ultima weapon hard/extreme.