How to make a better tanker, no expensive IOs needed ;)

[FirstRingOfSaturn]

I host a lot of PI missions, and many tankers cause me stomach ache.

 

They run ahead, which is fine, but after the initial minions are cleared, they leave the tougher enemies behind.

 

Fortunata Mistress, Mu Guardians, Spider Queens. All left for the team to deal with while the tanker moves on to the next mob. By the time the team catches up, the tanker is already tanking somewhere new, often far ahead and out of reach.

 

This creates issues, especially for Kinetics. Instead of being able to use Fulcrum Shift on a large mob, they are left facing a handful of bosses, and the team cannot unfold its full potential.

 

I also often invite low- and mid-level players because I know how hard it can be to find a team. But many enemies in PI missions, especially the Council, revive or transform before dying. These are a much greater threat to lower levels. And when the tanker is off soloing far away, they are not around to peel enemies off their teammates. That is literally the point of the role.

 

This kind of play is rare among scrappers or brutes. Some tankers behave in missions as if they are farming, pulling groups beyond cap.

The best tankers I have seen are the ones who stay close and know who is in trouble. 

If you want to be the tanker that is remembered, be the one who is there when it counts.

So please do not run off and solo in someone else's game just because the game has gifted you toughness and you can.

[ZemX]

Few things:

 

1. It can take a Tanker a few rounds to get some kind of taunt effect going on all the aggro in a spawn if it's not exactly already packed together.   It only takes a Controller one press of a button if they get there first.  It is therefore a good idea to get there a few seconds, at least, ahead of the team.  This means leaving slightly (but not a lot) before literally every enemy is dead.  It does not mean playing several spawns ahead of the team like your story, but be sure you're not confusing the two.  One is good team tanking.  The other is soloing... on a team.

 

2. Rezzers: Nowhere is it chiseled in stone that if a freak tank decides to stand up three seconds after the tanker has left that you MUST stand and fight it there.  Bring it to the next spawn and drag it past the explosions.  It will peel off on somebody else if you don't want its attention.  This is far more efficient than everybody wasting time standing around staring at dead freak and wondering if it might stand up.

 

3. Pulling in adds: Provided you never go over aggro cap, pulling in nearby enemies is potentially a good idea too.  If they're that close, they might aggro on someone else in the team eventually.  Better it's a tanker or other sturdy character who doesn't mind the attention.   I do this sometimes in rooms with multiple spawns so that instead of aggroing two at once, I start pulling in the next group before the first is finished, so that we don't end up with groups two and three at the same time if the team is not particularly strong enough to handle that.  Double pulls as x8 will go over the aggro cap.  Doesn't matter if the tanker can survive that.  Others might not.

 

-- 

 

Circling back to point 1 there: Remember also if this is a PuG, it can take the Tanker a little bit getting used to how the team is rolling.   Might leave one fight too early and adjust later.  Point being: Don't be too quick to judge.  Someone is not necessarily running off to solo just because they moved a little too quickly.  Some teams move fast and you have to move fast to stay slightly ahead of them.  It's a balancing act.    Also... shit happens.   Was on a team recently when the lead got bent a little out of shape saying the team had split when in fact someone had clicked a glowie and caused an ambush from behind.  Half the team turned to fight it.  Half the team didn't even see it until people started dying.   That was the "split".  That can happen.  Roll with it.  

[Erratic1]

2 hours ago, FirstRingOfSaturn said:

They run ahead, which is fine, but after the initial minions are cleared, they leave the tougher enemies behind.

 

Fortunata Mistress, Mu Guardians, Spider Queens. All left for the team to deal with while the tanker moves on to the next mob. By the time the team catches up, the tanker is already tanking somewhere new, often far ahead and out of reach.

 

This creates issues, especially for Kinetics. Instead of being able to use Fulcrum Shift on a large mob, they are left facing a handful of bosses, and the team cannot unfold its full potential.

 

This doesn't make any sense.

 

• Why isn't Fulcrum Shift being used on the initial pull as opposed to after the weakest foes have been dealt with?
• Fulcrum Shift lasts 45s, ample time to finish off a spawn while damage boosted and get to the next
• How is a Tanker leaving behind hard-fought spawns for a group to encounter? If there is no group engaged with the spawn the remnants would follow the Tanker.

[Warboss]

Sounds like the Tank is running through the mob to aggro more. You can do that, but it's usually better to have either another melee AT or Tank, to bring multiple mobs together. OR... have a 'troller or the like lock down or stall the mobs and start the debuffing. After the first pass most should be down, and as @Erratic1 has mentioned the rest should fall fast. Leftovers and rezzers can be picked up by a single taunt (unless damage is applied by another AT, then things get weird, especially now). It tends to take a bit of time for some players to get the hang of Tanking for various teams. But the damage output of most teams is usually enough to level the whole mob after the Tanker jumps in/through (Tanktics would be a whole other thread).

[SeraphimKensai]

The cheapest way to make a tank better is for the Squishies on the team to let enemies clump around the tank before firing off things like AOE imobs. Having enemies clumped up on the tank allows them to get agro easier and protect the team easier.