How to make tanks tank

[jauvtus]

I see much hatred against tanks in dps gear. Pls understand that we do this because tanking stats are useless and we cant do our job effectively - mitigate damage. I want to make a few suggestions so that tanking stats would be worth again and tanks would again be tanks.

Note that all of these changes can only take effect if sorcerer healers get nerfed. Our increased survivability + their OP healing would make PvP worse.

 

Defense

Current situation: No gear grants Defense, only melee/ranged Defense. Defense grants chance to dodge both white and yellow damage, while melee/ranged Defense only grants chance to dodge white damage, which is quite small portion of all incoming damage. Therefore the (melee/ranged) Defense granted from gear only works effectively against Carnage Marauders, Arsenal Mercenaries and Marksman Snipers. Tank specs have access to actual Defense: 1. Juggernaut tanks receive 5% Defense after Retaliate with Blade Barricade passive. 2. Assassin tanks receive 2% Defense from Premonition passive 3. Powertech tanks receive 35% Defense during Explosive Fuel from Coolant passive.

My suggestion: gear Defense should grant both melee/ranged and force/tech Defense. The actual percentage would be calculated differently, with 100% conversion rate to melee/ranged Defense and 50% conversion rate to force/tech Defense.

Result: Gearing with tank mods would result ~40% melee/ranged dodge chance (white damage) and ~20% force/tech dodge chance (yellow damage). I think we agree that tanks are all about mitigating damage, so they having 20% chance to dodge an AP PT's Cell Burst or a Concealment op's Volatile Substance wouldnt be unjustified.

 

Shield

Current situation: http://www.swtor.com/community/showpost.php?p=8846609&postcount=37 12% mitigation at average, which is really low considering tanks are supposed to mitigate damage. This value could be increased if critical hits could be also shielded.

My suggestion: Introduce Critical Shielding. Shielding regular attacks would remain unchanged. But if an incoming attack is a critical hit, a new system takes effect. The tank's Critical rating (~20%) would define if the tank can critically shield. If the tank CAN'T critically shield, the attack lands the damage as normal. If the tank CAN critically shield (he has 20% chance), his shield still need to activate with his Shield Chance (~60%), meaning he only has (0,2*0,6=0,15) 15% chance to shield a critical hit. Absorb rating would stay the same (~50%).

Result: Using shield mods would make tanks mitigate more damage, while not making them too powerful, having 60% chance to shield regular attacks and 15% chance to shield critical attacks. This would also make tanks design their gear more carefully, if they want to increase their Critical Shield Chance.

 

I believe these changes could increase all tanks' survivability in a balanced way and would decrease the vast amount of skank tanks. It's your turn to add constructive criticism.

 

*The numbers used is calculation are just rough averages to help understand the suggestions.

[yellow_]

As long as you can use guard and still be plenty bulky far more often than not while doing substantially more damage using DPS gear in tank spec I will continue to gear this way. Literally nothing they do to tank stats will change this for myself and many other players. It's at least as much about how good DPS gear is as it is how bad tank stats are.

 

Honestly I hope they don't nerf skank tanks. Sorc heals are broken and rampant -- the last thing we need is for it to get even harder to secure kills. Skank tanking is far more fun, contributes to making team fights less prone to protracted stalemates, and adds more opportunities for good tanks to distance themselves from the pack.

[foxmob]

I understand and agree that shield/absorb and defense are very weak stats. however, the reason that they are so bad is a good one: if they worked in pvp the way they do in pve, you'd literally never die. there's just too much mitigation.

 

that said, I'm not opposed to including elemental and internal dmg into the equation. I know it's dumbing things down, but I do not care for all the various conditions on dmg. I would rather it just be force vs. weapon dmg or kinetic vs. internal/elemental, etc. and be done with it. then you can have abilities that work against one and abilities that work against the other.

 

another option would just to put a hard cap on shield/absorb and defense. then say have at it. have a 25 or 30% DR that's more or less constant (and is more than most DCDs! lol).

 

I don't think your ideas are terrible. but on the other hand, there is a very good reason that tank stats more or less suck and that they make high endurance options.

[DiavoIa]

Put a trauma on tank stance, go into tank stance and power is halved from mastery and power stat (whilst in pvp only)

 

Improve their stats as above