I know that having an assassin as a tank seems kind of like an oxymoron, but the assassin is easily my favorite class. I tend to prefer DPS but I have been trying to experiment with some other options. How practical is the tank option and if so, is it enjoyable? I guess I'm wondering if it is worth the trouble or if I should stick with a more traditional tank.

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Assassins make excellent tanks, and yes, it is very enjoyable, you have a pull, knockback, teleporting and of course stealth and shroud. Whatever level you play you're going to have a lot of tricks up your sleeve and many ways to amuse yourself. And I say this as someone who vastly prefers dpsing.

sidebar: where do people get this idea assassins/shadows are somehow not viable as tanks anyway? Did they suck at launch and then that reputation stuck with them for years to come?

Assassins make excellent tanks, and yes, it is very enjoyable, you have a pull, knockback, teleporting and of course stealth and shroud. Whatever level you play you're going to have a lot of tricks up your sleeve and many ways to amuse yourself. And I say this as someone who vastly prefers dpsing.

 

 

sidebar: where do people get this idea assassins/shadows are somehow not viable as tanks anyway? Did they suck at launch and then that reputation stuck with them for years to come?

It's probably people judging them for having light armour as a tank .

teleporting

I wouldn't advertise that actually. Last time i used phantom stride on Firebrand and Stormcaller i was teleported on the moon. And if you talk about Phase Walk...

I wouldn't advertise that actually. Last time i used phantom stride on Firebrand and Stormcaller i was teleported on the moon. And if you talk about Phase Walk...

well there's still one month to enjoy it before the Grand Theft Phasewalk goes into effect

well there's still one month to enjoy it before the Grand Theft Phasewalk goes into effect

You have a point. Anyway darkness is getting even stronger so it's easier to endure that daylight robbery.

sidebar: where do people get this idea assassins/shadows are somehow not viable as tanks anyway? Did they suck at launch and then that reputation stuck with them for years to come?

If memory serves me right, at launch they hadn't their +150% armor on the stance like now. And they were squishy af back then.

If memory serves me right, at launch they hadn't their +150% armor on the stance like now. And they were squishy af back then.

I think they nerfed it from 150% to 115% somewhere around 1.3 but i might be wrong.

Shadow tanks have the worst mitigation tree thru shield/abosrb for PvP. Works perfect in PvE, but pretty useless for PvP. Thats why tanks use DPS gear with max edurance mods/ench. Mb new utulities in 5.0 will change this.

TBH it's mostly "perception problem" . Having ~40% defense certainly helps against arsenal mercs and mm snipers. shield/absorb is bad in pvp, but it's still usable. Shanks work because most of the time in regs tankes are rarely tunneled. Not playing ranked but i'll risk a guess that no sane team will bring shank tank in team ranked.

Assassins make excellent tanks, and yes, it is very enjoyable, you have a pull, knockback, teleporting and of course stealth and shroud. Whatever level you play you're going to have a lot of tricks up your sleeve and many ways to amuse yourself. And I say this as someone who vastly prefers dpsing.

 

 

sidebar: where do people get this idea assassins/shadows are somehow not viable as tanks anyway? Did they suck at launch and then that reputation stuck with them for years to come?

Thank you, this is encouraging and very helpful. Now I know what I'm doing next!

TBH it's mostly "perception problem" . Having ~40% defense certainly helps against arsenal mercs and mm snipers. shield/absorb is bad in pvp, but it's still usable. Shanks work because most of the time in regs tankes are rarely tunneled. Not playing ranked but i'll risk a guess that no sane team will bring shank tank in team ranked.

Everything works in regs coz they full of inexperienced/bad/undergeared/bakcpedalers/clickers players for whom 2K dps is a dream. I remember the times when u can take 15-15-11 for example build and be on the TOP dps score. I'm tunnelede not rare as a tank in DPS gear.

TBH it's mostly "perception problem" . Having ~40% defense certainly helps against arsenal mercs and mm snipers. shield/absorb is bad in pvp, but it's still usable. Shanks work because most of the time in regs tankes are rarely tunneled. Not playing ranked but i'll risk a guess that no sane team will bring shank tank in team ranked.

From my experience, many teams will bring tanks in DPS gear with heavy endurance. The extra DPS can really help the team and with your DCD's you're still a hard target to bring down.

From my experience, many teams will bring tanks in DPS gear with heavy endurance. The extra DPS can really help the team and with your DCD's you're still a hard target to bring down.

Not dcd-s mostly, but healing. Tanks still are fat enough to save team without proper tank gear, coz this stats usless in PvP. Crits can't be shielded and nowdays AOE elemental/internal derp can't be mitigated by tanks stats.

From my experience, many teams will bring tanks in DPS gear with heavy endurance. The extra DPS can really help the team and with your DCD's you're still a hard target to bring down.

Maybe. As i said i don't play ranked so i wouldn't know. High endurance sure is needed. I was talking about tanks that remove every tanks stats besides endurance and put power/critical instead.

Assassins make excellent tanks, and yes, it is very enjoyable, you have a pull, knockback, teleporting and of course stealth and shroud. Whatever level you play you're going to have a lot of tricks up your sleeve and many ways to amuse yourself. And I say this as someone who vastly prefers dpsing.

 

 

sidebar: where do people get this idea assassins/shadows are somehow not viable as tanks anyway? Did they suck at launch and then that reputation stuck with them for years to come?

they were actually demi-gods at launch with Self healing more armor than what they have now, and good dps. They made playing any other tank pointless. Then they were nerfed hard.

they were actually demi-gods at launch with Self healing more armor than what they have now, and good dps. They made playing any other tank pointless. Then they were nerfed hard.

And as PTS is looking now...

sidebar: where do people get this idea assassins/shadows are somehow not viable as tanks anyway? Did they suck at launch and then that reputation stuck with them for years to come?

Back in the day, madness sins were nerfed into the ground (2 years of being non-viable), and deception wasn't as great, So people either played as hybrid madness/darkness or full darkness or I think there was also darkness/deception too.

Bioware didn't want sins to upset their bubblestun/smash combo so they decided to nerf darkness sins as well so that they no longer received self heals (this was before jugg tanks became healers), so all 3 specs were not viable for a time, in pvp. PvE sin tanks rejoiced though, as their survivability in nim content went up.