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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.
Comments
Having said that, for my tastes, they have ruined the world and game experience with a lot of silliness
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
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
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.
거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
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 :-)
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.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다
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.
My two favorites though were Cleric Tanking in Rift, and my Trooper in SWTOR.
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.
Just look at this:
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.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Looks pretty lame to me. Not doing anything.
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.
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".