Stick with me a moment here....


what if tanks got....pets? And perhaps acted like SM pets but vs. magic dmg.


Nah lol, but I do think a tanks utility while deserving, is lacking where a casters utility has only gone up.

Personally I've only played a Hero. While enjoyable and dealing a good chunk of dmg even as a keen, CS and LW anytimes are good but no match for an Armsmans (specially in endo use, though respectively they need to dual spec), I think that the utility a group would lose having a heavy tank vs caster, as posts before me would note, it's not reasonable. If you can catch a caster off-guard and with no toys up, you should have no prob hitting them for 750+ a swing on any of the heavy tanks, even on a keen it's achievable.

Though I think it would be hard to find an 8v8 group, an alliance group that takes towers/keeps would appreciate a good heavy tank to take the ram. Really the only time I play my hero is when the other guy who plays his isn't on, but we usually go for towers/keeps etc instead of just running around. Doing something like this, I don't think it matters which is best imo, just pick the realm that you want to play on. The others have already stated the pros and cons of each.

 

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Do you think its time they try to do something about casters taking over this game? Well mid tank trains have made a comeback, but it's a little disappointing to me that tanks just aren't as useful anymore. Way back in the day before I had a buffbot, I solo'd a vamp to 5Lx, nowadays I usually don't even remember that I have a vampiir or that the class exists. (I'm not suggesting improving vamps!). But if tank groups were more viable, then certainly a Vamp would be a useful class to have in the frontlines.

And what do you think it is that has changed the role of tanks in groups, class balance wise? Did they have more of an advantage on classic servers would you say?

 

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charge tanks certainly did

 

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I wouldnt say charge tanks had any advantage they dont normally have

 

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Braces of zo debuff
Phsse shift
Zephyr

Get owned

 

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Oh and speedwarp

 

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Warrior for badassery. Armsman for bestness.

Hero if you feel like rolling one that day.

 

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I don't feel that casters have taken over any more today then in times past. I think I heard the phrase Dark Age of Castalot first used about 7 or 8 years ago. It's all a matter of perspective.

From an 8v8 PoV you rarely see the full tank groups or full caster groups anymore which is a good thing imo because balanced group vs balanced group leads to much better fights.

Zergs will always be mostly ranged dps just because in order to play melee you need some sort of heals and there are no guarantee's that you will have a healer when you zerg.

Smallman/solo I think has always leaned toward hybrids which is a good niche for them to have.

 

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One major thing and a few small ones.

1. Major change: the end of "out of power", in ~2007 iirc, primarily when they modified the way regens worked, and secondarily when we got new dragon gear with mana charges. Before that, we had little more than the champ weapons, and possibly Jacina. I used to have MCL1 and mana pots before that. I style have mana pots but they last like forever despite the 9 charges, and i don't even use a power mythirian on my mages: 2 or 3 mana charges respond to about need.

2. minor changes: nerf to battler /use and malice proc, double procs aplenty on dragon gear, spec AF on mid and hib. Spirit assist on mid too.

Virtually infinite power allows high power consumption classes to cast/re-cast pets, red spec heals, stats debuffs on anything they target without having to fear much for their power reserves.

Compared to that, double proccing weaponry helped, but cannot compensate.

I never thought much of that but you are right about never ending power for casters.

I've also noticed that with all the mega-utility items out there for so cheap these days, caster templates are starting to have 25% spell duration without having to sacrifice much at all, and I assume this does help to negate the effects of determination.

I also noticed less tanks at about the time when Ywain first came out. I think that perhaps a lot of casters got a decent realm rank through a mix of zerging and 8v8, and that could be part of why you see a lot of casters today. But clearly this can only be a small part of the explanation, because i'm sure there's plenty of tanks with decent RR, and its still possible to make RPs while avoiding the zerg.

 

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