Do tanks need a dps buff to keep up with the current state of dps?

[BuriDogshin]

I'm writing here to help the AVERAGE tank. The guy/gal that has never once visited the forums, or dulfy, or reddit. The tank that is just happy to give a HM FP a few runs to get their weekly done ... And all they know is that they are told they are a fail tank, or WTB Guard, or learn 2 taunt.

(emphasis added)

In other words, you are trying to help people who don't know how to tank but who are trying to do HM FPs.

 

Why are they doing HM FP anyway? Ultimate com gear isn't going to make them a better tank, a lot of it isn't any better than the Elite com gear -- and they don't even know that, having never read anything, so they wind up a HP-heavy tank with little mitigation (but some accuracy and alacrity.) Grinding HM FPs to get the wrong gear, because they "never once" read anything on how to tank, is just a waste of their time and likely to eventually kill their enjoyment of tanking. "I have 180 gear, why do these awful SWTOR people call me a bad tank?" they will think. Very sad -- and you want to encourage them to follow that course?

 

The best help you can give them is to refer them to a guide to their class or tell them to stick to SM and tactical FPs. One read of a good guide will transform their tanking and help them enjoy it more. Just buffing their threat gen will not.

[lpope]

Clearly, you personally understand the threat mechanics better than AVERAGE. You are probably using parsec, and have your target of target enabled in your UI. All of those things are not AVERAGE. They are significantly above average. What you take for granted as a cost of doing business as a tank, the AVERAGE tank really has no comprehension for.

 

I'm writing here to help the AVERAGE tank. The guy/gal that has never once visited the forums, or dulfy, or reddit. The tank that is just happy to give a HM FP a few runs to get their weekly done, and is considering doing SM Ops. They know how to avoid standing in fire and such, but most boss fights result in them losing aggro constantly. And all they know is that they are told they are a fail tank, or WTB Guard, or learn 2 taunt.

 

Then the solution isn't an across the board boost to threat gen. The solution is three-fold.

 

1) a "Trial" tutorial that is required before one can do HM FPs and OPS similar to what WoW is doing. To pass, It would require a certain amount of mitigation / sec and a threat / sec. Obviously, this would require a new type of combat dummy specific to tanks which they should have anyways as well as a training module that has a bullet point list that goes over which abilities are high threat and how taunt / threat mechanics work. It needs not be more than 15 bullet points.

 

2) For tanks, replace dps ability text with tps so that new tanks can see right off the bat that Hilt Strike does a crap ton more tps than say smash. It will also allow tanks to easily say "I just got a 10k threat!" which they can't see now.

 

3) A modest threat bolster in HM FPs and SM OPs that boost threat gen for tanks. It can be removed for HM / NiM OPs. This would give new / average tank the chance to succeed in a relatively safe environment.

 

We should be looking at solutions that boosts the competency of the AVERAGE tank, not make it so mind-numbingly easy that we lose those that actually want the challenge of over-coming the threat of high dps.

[Lord_of_Mu]

Then the solution isn't an across the board boost to threat gen. The solution is three-fold.

 

1) a "Trial" tutorial that is required before one can do HM FPs and OPS similar to what WoW is doing. To pass, It would require a certain amount of mitigation / sec and a threat / sec. Obviously, this would require a new type of combat dummy specific to tanks which they should have anyways as well as a training module that has a bullet point list that goes over which abilities are high threat and how taunt / threat mechanics work. It needs not be more than 15 bullet points.

 

2) For tanks, replace dps ability text with tps so that new tanks can see right off the bat that Hilt Strike does a crap ton more tps than say smash. It will also allow tanks to easily say "I just got a 10k threat!" which they can't see now.

 

3) A modest threat bolster in HM FPs and SM OPs that boost threat gen for tanks. It can be removed for HM / NiM OPs. This would give new / average tank the chance to succeed in a relatively safe environment.

 

We should be looking at solutions that boosts the competency of the AVERAGE tank, not make it so mind-numbingly easy that we lose those that actually want the challenge of over-coming the threat of high dps.

 

Yes to the first and second. No to the third. A bolster effect would become a crutch that your "average" tank would demand in more challenging content.

 

If you really wanted to improve the quality of the average tank out there. Run community workshops. Either the average tank will attend the class and learn something or he/she will continue to be average by their own choice. And while you're at it, make sure you fact check everyone doing the teaching. Last thing I want to hear about is the tanking workshop that told everyone to guard the healer.

 

Honestly, I think It's a better use of energy than calling out for major changes to a role on a website that the target audience doesn't even visit.