People rarely play a full tank spec in PvP. Why? Because there's almost no reason to not at least hybrid and just play from your tank stance.

 

How do we fix this?

 

Attach a passive ability to the 31-point tanking skill that permanently gives you immunity to CC while specced into it. I'd say leave out roots / slows, but that's up for debate (although doing so would break Huttball). Imagine how attractive tanking would be to people if they could completely ignore all the stuns flying around? This would also, on average, bring down TTK (which is a common complaint), since there would be less DPS and more Tanks around.

*edit*

 

Upon another read you seem quite serious.

Granted,

tanks are immune to CC, additionally trauma is now 100%, when somebody dpses you, healers will be unable to heal you for the duration of trauma.

Edited January 9, 2013 by NoTomorrow

Wait, totally immune to stuns? That's ridiculous. It would make it virtually impossible to capture objectives.

People rarely play a full tank spec in PvP. Why? Because there's almost no reason to not at least hybrid and just play from your tank stance.

 

How do we fix this?

 

Attach a passive ability to the 31-point tanking skill that permanently gives you immunity to CC while specced into it. I'd say leave out roots / slows, but that's up for debate (although doing so would break Huttball). Imagine how attractive tanking would be to people if they could completely ignore all the stuns flying around? This would also, on average, bring down TTK (which is a common complaint), since there would be less DPS and more Tanks around.

 

Jugg tanks already have this for 4 out of every 15 seconds, Unstoppable. And Sin tanks have Force Shroud. Having no stuns at all would be dumb, even for tanks. Just make shields/defense/whatever actually count towards force/tech attacks or give each tank a ~30% resistance to force/tech attacks or something. That will fix tanking in pvp.

 

Whenever I'm on my jugg/guardian tanks in pvp, I don't die from getting stunned, I die from getting smashed by 3 smash monkeys repeatedly.

*edit*

 

Upon another read you seem quite serious.

 

Why wouldn't I be? No one plays full tank specs currently in PvP. They need a boost.

How do we fix this?

.

 

1. Armor mitigate all kinds of damage (not only weapon + kinetic, but elemental and internal too)

2. Defence deflect all kinds of damage (not only weapon)

3. Shield absorb any critical hits too

 

*tanks fixed*

Why wouldn't I be? No one plays full tank specs currently in PvP. They need a boost.

 

Tanking in pvp is an interesting topic. On one hand it would be nice to see more play full tank (31 point w/tank gear) but on the other hand making shielding more relevant and you risk the chance of making a competent tank/healer comp near un-killable.

 

Giving anyone full on immunity for the duration of a warzone is just not a smart move. I would have a field day guarding nodes solo.

Just make shields/defense/whatever actually count towards force/tech attacks

^This. It wouldn't even have to be the same defence/shield chance and absorption as against ranged/melee. But making tank stats completely useless against tech/force with most specs relying heavily on those attack types is just plain retarded.

Wait, totally immune to stuns? That's ridiculous. It would make it virtually impossible to capture objectives.

 

^^^

 

 

Better ideas would be:

Give a specable talent to make shield/absorb work on Force/Tech attacks.

Give all full spec a REAL resist CD, you know, like Shadows have (but don't need to spec in to mind you).

Give them a specable long(3min) CD Cannon(like Malgus "Ultimate Power"), they are "tanks" afterall.

 

 

Not all of them just one would make full tanks more viable...

/thread I guess.

 

That idea fell flat.

1. Armor mitigate all kinds of damage (not only weapon + kinetic, but elemental and internal too)

2. Defence deflect all kinds of damage (not only weapon)

3. Shield absorb any critical hits too

 

*tanks fixed*

 

^ this.

Give a specable talent to make shield/absorb work on Force/Tech attacks.

 

^ or this

Why wouldn't I be? No one plays full tank specs currently in PvP. They need a boost.

 

Maybe it should be in the form of group buffs or addtional TTK rather than CC immunity? Which would then require tweaks elsewhere etc.

 

I don't see why this is a 'problem' anyway?

^ this.

 

Tony should probably rephrase. I mean if they did all of those, tanks would be unkillable... The whole point of tanks is to have layers of defense, but in PvP the only layer is defense against weapon damage and personal CDs (which some DPS specs have)

 

Defense is the first layer and it is fine as it is... It's a counter to accuracy(making the DEF stat viable) and most tanks can increase their ratings with CDs, procs/specs, stance. A blasters or lightsabers(in a sword box:D) counter..

 

Armor is the second layer. Heavy armor already get plenty of protection from the rating from kinetic/weapon attacks, whether Force or Tech. There are a lot of Force/Tech Attacks, but most are kinetic/energy anyway. Those are fully mitigated by Armor Rating (which is probably why Shad/Sins have a resist talent, to compensate for light armor, but that also makes them a minimum soft counter to every DPS spec, with few exceptions). Maybe a slight buff would help, but overall I think the gap between light armor and heavy armor is about right.

 

 

The third layer is Shield/Absorb and is really the only issue. You can't change let shield/absorb Crit Force/Tech attacks because you essentially nullify CRIT as a rating and a ton of crit talents. Again, that would make tanks immortal, to a point, because the point of CRIT is to get spike damage. To keep tanks/counters balanced, Force/Tech attacks need to be subjected to Shield Chance, but still be no shield/absorb, if it lose the roll against an opponents crit chance. Then if it needs tweaking, move the absorb percentages up or down on no-crit Force/Tech attacks if need be.

 

Sorry for the length, and I don't know if this type of change is possible, but really ^^^^/tanksfixed

Edited January 9, 2013 by L-RANDLE

Nerf assassin tank/dps hybrids!

Nerf assassin tank/dps hybrids!

...

1. Armor mitigate all kinds of damage (not only weapon + kinetic, but elemental and internal too)

2. Defence deflect all kinds of damage (not only weapon)

3. Shield absorb any critical hits too

 

*tanks fixed*

 

No, that's going too far. These mechanics were specifically designed this way for balance. A better solution (and more labor intensive) would be to consider changing certain DPS class attacks so that they do white damage instead of yellow or energy/kinetic instead of elemental/internal.

 

Well-geared/specced tanks are actually pretty tough to kill.

 

But the tanking trees definitely need a rework. Especially Guardian. That tree is a mess. High level skills that are categorically worse than mid-level skills in the neighboring tree. A tank stance that gimps your resources, resulting in a tank tree that's devoted largely to recovering the loss. Etc.

 

Other annoyances I have with tanking have to do with the range on guard, how damage is mitigated by the tank when the guarded target is hit (if it's mitigated at all), and how taunts work (the uselessness of taunting a target that is attacking you, or of taunting a healer, and how annoying it is to switch targets to taunt while being attacked).

Nerf assassin tank/dps hybrids!

 

Meh.... There would be less of them if you had stronger, high tier tank talents (which could be said for all specs really)... That's why making a specable shield talent that could absorb force/tech would make going higher, "better".

 

Do you want to be tankie?

Do you want to be DPSie?

Do you want to be in the middle?

 

 

Option one is not viable atm...

The way to fix the tanking specs are :-

 

1)Put a talent way up in the tree out of reach of hybrids that makes all tech and force attacks shieldable ( not defendable)

 

2) lock the ability to taunt to tank forms

I partially agree with Randle. Having a talent high up in the tree that makes force and tech attacks shieldable might draw me into a tank spec rather than a hybrid. I might even slap on some shield and absorb gear!

 

But I do think all attacks should be shieldable, even crits. If defence can nullify accuracy why can't shield nullify crit? It may invalidate crit talents, but it validates shield talents which are currently a joke.

 

So tanks live longer, help their allies live longer, and increase time to kill. Downside? No node ever gets swapped.

Edited January 9, 2013 by NurseDonut

No node ever gets swapped.

 

^^^ That's bad

 

and also why crits/crit talents matter... Crits should be the only "key" to penetrating a tank's defense. A proverbial Bazooka...

^^^ That's bad

 

and also why crits/crit talents matter... Crits should be the only "key" to penetrating a tank's defense. A proverbial Bazooka...

 

Fair enough.

Total immunity to cc is obviously way to OP imo. A lot of other ideas are good thoughts and focused in the right direction (making shield viable in pvp), however they would wreck the pve balance so they won't be accepted. You have to fix shield in a way that applys to pvp. Perhaps, sheild could absorb (based on its absorb rating) against all player based attacks? (Which is basically what people are saying about adding force/tech, but without screwing up pve.) I believe they have the mechanic for this because expertise can differentiate between player/nonplayer damage.

Total immunity to cc is obviously way to OP imo. A lot of other ideas are good thoughts and focused in the right direction (making shield viable in pvp), however they would wreck the pve balance so they won't be accepted. You have to fix shield in a way that applys to pvp. Perhaps, sheild could absorb (based on its absorb rating) against all player based attacks? (Which is basically what people are saying about adding force/tech, but without screwing up pve.) I believe they have the mechanic for this because expertise can differentiate between player/nonplayer damage.

 

Or you can always make PvE NPC's operate with crit chance/tune them to account for the change. It's an easier fix in PvE, and might make PvE actually challenging and somewhat unpredictable...