166: My Life As a Tank

[Rathy]

I understand the tanking thing myself, and why I enjoy it is about the same. I play WoW myself, and have done all the roles, but the reason tank also sticks so well is its a lot of work to pull off to do well, but it also gives the most control over anything in my experience. The people need to listen to you or they are likely to get themselves killed, follow what the tank does and improvise over a mistake and you are set. From any other perspective, damage or heals, I can do so much less though, either taking the hit from a mistake one of us made, be it myself or the tank, or frantically trying to heal to no avail. At l;east as the tank I can try to control these mistakes, and the skill there comes from fixing it all before you wipe the group.

 

[Ares Tyr]

Is that a Bear Magazine centerfold?

I read and thoroughly enjoyed the article. Very well written, and very interesting. I'm not an MMOG player but after reading your article and the one about Achilles' Phat Lewt, I feel myself becoming curious.

Age of Conan needs to hurry up and release on 360, damn it.

I'm not sure what Bear Magazine is but I'm scared. lol

I'm glad I could spike your curiosity. I'm not sure how many MMO's are on a console except for...FFXI? I would say Phantasy Star, but that will kill your wanting to ever play an MMO again. I'm also not sure what Warhammer or AoC are planning for 360 development. PC sort of trumps the MMO arena. Unless someone has more info?

On Bear Magazine. I'll just say this. Some in the gay community like them big and hairy.

Yeah, Phantasy Star never interested me and I've never really done anything with Warhammer so I don't see why I'm going to start with the MMO. Me and my friends had already decided to get AoC in order to form a bad ass mercenary group and generally raid cities and be barbarians. I was also interested in Everquest 2, but I don't really have the money or desire to pay for a monthly subscription. With X-Box Live I can just pay $50 bucks for a year and be done with it. I'm also pretty sure any expansion packs released will be on the Live Marketplace so everything will be alot easier for me.

So Age of Conan needs to hurry its ass up and get onto 360.

 

[Sentient Muffin]

Very interesting read.

I tend to die of boredom 5 minutes into an MMO but I keep trying them out. Never really Tanked before, never got far enough into them.

If only they'd make one with a FUN combat system. :S

Either way, good read and fun picture.

 

[smallharmlesskitten]

I still feel DPS pwns all.... Sorry Spinwhiz.....

Rogue for the win!!!!

 

[John Funk]

In WoW, I play as a tank. About a month ago, I tried to go dps for a change. That was a big mistake. I couldn't find a single group without a need for a tank. So I promptly changed back to tanking. I do enjoy tanking more but now, I have a new way of thinking about it. Thanks for the article, it was a good read.

Once again, gotta love being a Druid with decent sets of cat, bear, and healer gear

"You guys need a DPS?"

"Nah."

"*gear swap* what about a tank?"

 

[PhoenixFlame]

Hulk Hogan apparently has nothing on the writer. 24-inch pythons? Pah!

Good-natured ribbing aside, I read the article. The people who are tanks are inevitably the same kind of archetype as the ones playing the healers. The best of them are ones that sacrifice their level of well-being, or even enjoyment, for the benefit of others. As a dedicated support class player in nearly every class-based game I've played, I identify a lot with the "wanting to help" mentality. Granted, with support characters, it's generally much different, as they are typically frail and cannot take much abuse, but the concept of helping when help is needed is the same.

There are such things as people who play healers, and tanks, with the wrong mentality, but it's nice to see that at least one tank out there is thinking of more than just the glory of standing in front of a particularly nasty monster.

 

[wunderguy]

Cmon a tank isnt all that bad.
I suppose its up to the server/game you play.
Being a wow player and a healer/dps (shaman ftw) and having a tank alt (warrior rather poorly geared to say the least) i have experience in all 3 fields. (accept CC ofc but who needs CC)
Ive experienced the quote 'LF Tank LAST SPOT!!!!!' and the 'LF healer' but atm the server seems to lack tanks and wether thats just deathwing or not it seems a good tank is hard to find.

Being a Phsychology student atm in 6th form, can see why certain people will pick certain roles.
Generally speaking the wiser people of the gaming comunity play tanks and healers. No offence to the one button bashing hunters out there its just not skill, im sorry.



P.s first post /flex

 

[Spinwhiz]

Thanks for all your awesome support and feedback guys!

 

[Conqueror Kenny]

hahahaha I'll take that as a compliment but I'm pretty sure my pic won't make it off this website. Now if it makes it onto heroine-sheik, who knows where this will spiral off to! lol

edit: and scared! haha

Who knows, you might just be able to kick this job you got and be a male model. ;P
Though I never really liked tank like playing. I would much rather go with some sort of ranged attacks, hiding behind the tank thing while he takes the hits.

 

[Archaeology Hat]

I play healers? Does this mean I like to stand at the back and do very little but you'd feel it if I was gone?

I also play the more evil dps classes (stealth-melee/ generic evil caster) does this mean I'm evil?

On the subject of letting dps die, yes, as a healer (such as my WoW Paladin or GW monk) I will let a squishy die if the tank is in danger. Normally this earns me at least one cry of noob in a Pick-Up group... although most tanks seem pretty thankful for the heal and the loss of the wannabe.

I did briefly spec my WoW-Paladin protection and try to tank... but I didn't really enjoy it; too much stress. I prefer being the rogue, warlock, necromancer who makes their presance felt quietly and subtley or the healer who stands at the back and keeps everyone alive.

 

[Nazulu]

I think every MMO has had they same type of strategy's with tanks and healers. I would like to see an MMO with a new formula, party's that don't depend on tanks and healers.

I always got blamed when I was the tank, even when nobody died! And tanks were always the worst at PvP.

 

[aegis7]

I was the tank for my current guild for a year and a half or so. I've tanked in previous games and previous guilds, too. Although it is part of my personality, I gotta say that the reason I tanked so much is because I was willing to do it and tended to be slow on the dibs. In my case, taking tanking to the realworld is still instinctual but a little foolhardy, which hasn't stopped me. I'm about half the size of the author (or you, the man in the picture who is never living that down).

In my guild, blame usually gets passed to the person who's "fault it was" near as I can figure. When a tank dies, it's healing... when healing or dps dies it's a little murkier. When the tank bungles the pull or positioning, it's his/her fault. When dps pull threat or are unable to competitively put up big enough numbers, it's their fault.

Actually, the picture conversation makes me think of a fairly random question: Where do the pictures for The Escapist come from? The visual style of the magazine is what originally grabbed my attention, back before the layout change.

 

[McDayman]

Yeah, I completely understand wanting to be needed in groups....I grew up as a rogue in WoW. Needless to say, finding pick-ups through any instance was rather depressing. Even in my guild which was made of great people and good players rarely had use for me (I think there were 3 other rogues at the same leveling pace as mine).

What really annoyed me in groups though, was how many warriors considered themselves "dps only". I've even ran into a dozen or so that don't carry shields. So when I got Fitz to 60 and felt content with my endgame experience, the only choice for a new character was a warrior. It took a little time to learn the tanking technique, but once I got it down it was easy. You just have to actually PAY ATTENTION to what's going on....especially to your healers.

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

Tank ftw! Seriously good article.

 

[Dogeman5]

Not an MMOG gamer myself but I found the article good and enjoyable
I don't see what the big deal about DPS are it usually works out

 

[Melaisis]

Thanks for all your awesome support and feedback guys!

It was a great article anyway, and tapped into something that no one really seems to talk about in an accessible way.

Also, I tried that Apple Pie Shots recipe last night. I think I didn't let it cool enough, though.

Ahem.

 

[ZerOmega]

I registered just to make this comment:

Well done



That is all.

 

[Spinwhiz]

Thank you for your kind words and support guys! I'm it struck a note for you.

 

[Gahrer]

Really nice article. Me like.

 

[LAte]

You said being a "tank" is boring. Maybe you have only tried too simple games. Sounds like you are only fighting against npcs, so its bound to be boring at some point. Try playing EVE-online, where fighting other players actually gives rewards. Also there is no concept of a player being a tank in pvp since your enemies can choose what they target. So you need to be more clever than them, not just better in one stat.