When I guard someone, a bubble is clearly visible, but how will the healer know "who" is guarding him? Usually in unranked matches, healers will simply heal the group, instead of focusing on keeping the tank alive.

With that in mind, it would be nice if every little bit of damage absorbed by my guard would pop up a "guarded by <player name>" + damage absorbed value. It would have the same animation as a healer, but rather than being green, the letters would be blue.

Example:

Guarded by CommanderOtto 356

This would greatly help with visibility of my efforts. One of my biggest problems with Tanking in PVP is that I feel it is a thankless job, especially in Unranked. I cannot do much damage because I am not DPS, and rarely will I have a Healer next to me. If I guard someone, and I don't have a healer, my HP will drop like a rock. Even if there was a healer in the vicinity, it will be hard for him to know that I am guarding him. This is even harder if there are other Vanguards nearby. The healer won't immediately know who is guarding him.

Further, at the end of the match, all the MVP votes go to the person who made most kills OR who healed the most. As a tank that rarely gets healed, it is hard to stay alive long enough and put enough damage to get MVP votes in matches.

Here are my thoughts. At the beginning of a match, when you put a guard on someone they can see it coming from you. So the healer should know that you’re the tank helping to keep them alive. Alternatively, you could just say “hey, I’m the tank, can I get some extra heals to keep people alive”, though to be honest, the healer isn’t there for you and you alone. As someone who has healed in wzs before, I can honestly say that it’s hard to keep track of everyone. You have to help whoever is closest and in the most danger a lot of the time. Sure, some people get pocket heals, but it’s usually from a guild mate or a premade team member.

Frankly, as the tank, a lot of the time it’s your job to keep yourself alive through los, dcd use, and communication. Yes, being a tank in regs is a thankless job. But if you’re good at it, you make the difference between a win and a loss.

I used to main a healer as well and I was never really fond of someone putting guard on me in spawn, except for maybe an arena. There were a couple problems when people did that...

The first is that we might not be headed to the same place. I've had tanks put guard on me at spawn but then go off running toward the other team's node instead of mid, where my healing would be most needed. I'd just ignore it and continue on to mid. That's fine if the tank realizes and shuts off guard, or knows how to guard swap, but a lot of times they don't.

The other is that a lot of times that tank just wants to number farm and is hoping you'll pocket heal. Staying at mid for example in Huttball, or even dueling in the pit, instead of putting guard on ball carriers while I heal them.

Getting back to the topic, guard could use a bit more visibility. It is easy enough to work out who is guarding who during an arena but once you get into an 8 v 8 match where the majority of both teams are piled on top of each other, with a lot of ability effect spam going on, it isn't always immediately obvious.

I suppose the counterpoint would be that skanks would get less protection points if the enemy was always able to immediately distinguish where the guard got swapped to, but that is why we have a play test server. See if it's broke before it goes life, and if broke, ditch.

This is really a non issue.

You can hover your mouse over people to see who has guard and who is applying guard.

You can also see the protection stats in the window at the end of the match.

You're really just asking for this change in the hopes that you get more popularity votes in the end.

Hey CommanderOtto,

 

I'll be moving this thread over to the Suggestion Box sub-forum. It'll be a better fit there and also you have Suggestion in your title as well.

Thanks JackieKo!

I used to main a healer as well and I was never really fond of someone putting guard on me in spawn, except for maybe an arena. There were a couple problems when people did that...

 

The first is that we might not be headed to the same place. I've had tanks put guard on me at spawn but then go off running toward the other team's node instead of mid, where my healing would be most needed. I'd just ignore it and continue on to mid. That's fine if the tank realizes and shuts off guard, or knows how to guard swap, but a lot of times they don't.

 

The other is that a lot of times that tank just wants to number farm and is hoping you'll pocket heal. Staying at mid for example in Huttball, or even dueling in the pit, instead of putting guard on ball carriers while I heal them.

 

Getting back to the topic, guard could use a bit more visibility. It is easy enough to work out who is guarding who during an arena but once you get into an 8 v 8 match where the majority of both teams are piled on top of each other, with a lot of ability effect spam going on, it isn't always immediately obvious.

 

I suppose the counterpoint would be that skanks would get less protection points if the enemy was always able to immediately distinguish where the guard got swapped to, but that is why we have a play test server. See if it's broke before it goes life, and if broke, ditch.

Exactly!! Once you get into a big group, how would anyone know that I am guarding? And I think if the visibility is there, it will also help the newer tank players remember that Guard Swapping is like healing, it has to be focused on whoever needs it the most. That is the mentality I want to build with tanking. Tanking in pvp should be similar to healing in the sense that you have to pay attention to protecting the other players.