Tanking mechanic suggestion

[Jora.5471]

I would like to see tanking come into this game and the tanking mechanic doesn't have to be very complex.

• Just equip a specific trait with the "Aggression buff", and mobs in combat will prioritize the player(s) equipped with that specific buff. Be warned, if you are the only one with the Aggression buff, you could have 100 mobs insta-gib you.
• Each profession with the Aggression Buff could have their own bonus along with that trait. Scrapper gain a barrier when hit(Merge with Adaptive Armor). Warriors gain lesser endure pain at 25% hp(Merge with Defy Pain), Ele cannot be critically hit(Merge with Stone Heart) etc.
• For PvP and static bosses or anything that doesn't follow the aggro management rules: players with Aggression Buff will provide a passive debuff called "Denial Debuff" to make anyone affected by it will do less damage to anyone that do not have Aggression Buff.

[Raarsi.6798]

Last time I checked, Toughness was the main stat for aggro generation along with damage reduction.

I could be wrong though....

[steki.1478]

Why though? If you're alone, they'll aggro on you anyway. If you're not alone, they'll be dead within half a second, whether it's 2 mobs or 100 mobs (specimen chamber is a perfect example of hordes of mobs). There are already tanking mechanisms in group pve and it doesn't even have a place in other parts of the game since it would have no usage - most bosses rarely have single target damage so even if a tanking mechanic existed, it wouldn't do anything.

[Sobx.1758]

I don't see the point, read up on current aggro system in gw2 wiki.

[Mungo Zen.9364]

@"runeblade.7514" said:I would like to see tanking come into this game and the tanking mechanic doesn't have to be very complex.

• Just equip a specific trait with the "Aggression buff", and mobs in combat will prioritize the player(s) equipped with that specific buff. Be warned, if you are the only one with the Aggression buff, you could have 100 mobs insta-gib you.
• Each profession with the Aggression Buff could have their own bonus along with that trait. Scrapper gain a barrier when hit(Merge with Adaptive Armor). Warriors gain lesser endure pain at 25% hp(Merge with Defy Pain), Ele cannot be critically hit(Merge with Stone Heart) etc.
• For PvP and static bosses or anything that doesn't follow the aggro management rules: players with Aggression Buff will provide a passive debuff called "Denial Debuff" to make anyone affected by it will do less damage to anyone that do not have Aggression Buff.

Tanking is in this game, but only tied to specific mobs/encounters where the player with the highest toughness is focused by the enemy. There are also Taunts (I think most profs have access to at least one) that offer a few seconds of directed agro.

I really don't see a need to change this, but OP, why do you want to see tanking in this game?

As well, your suggestions....So a PvE player will always have this "Agro Buff" applied since they will want to attract mobs to them to improve speed of farming and clearing. Another reason to always have it on is you suggest having Agro Buff trigger defensive skills for you, and having free triggers defensive is always welcome. But since we could expect most players to have it on, this doesn't really change anything in most environments.

The PvP suggestion would not work, and rather, this would not be applied in PvP as it would be another layer of balancing for the dev team to work with.

The easiest way to to do agro is probably the WoW method, highest DPS = highest threat

[Fueki.4753]

We already have toughness as an "tank stat" and well as the Taunt CC condition.If they do anything at all in regards to tanking, Arenanet should spread Taunt to more abilities.

But that in turn could also be abused to troll people and resetting open world encounters by tank-pulling them out of their aggro range.

[The Boz.2038]

@Mungo Zen.9364 said:Tanking is in this game, but only tied to specific mobs/encounters where the player with the highest toughness is focused by the enemy. There are also Taunts (I think most profs have access to at least one) that offer a few seconds of directed agro.There are three classes in the entire game with a self-directed Taunt: Warrior (Spellbreaker), Guardian (Firebrand), and Revenant. Also, Mesmer has Taunt on a summon. That's four whole skills. Additionally, Ranger can add a pet-directed taunt through a trait.

[Sobx.1758]

@The Boz.2038 said:

@Mungo Zen.9364 said:Tanking is in this game, but only tied to specific mobs/encounters where the player with the highest toughness is focused by the enemy. There are also Taunts (I think most profs have access to at least one) that offer a few seconds of directed agro.There are three classes in the entire game with a self-directed Taunt: Warrior (Spellbreaker), Guardian (Firebrand), and Revenant. Also, Mesmer has Taunt on a summon. That's four whole skills. Additionally, Ranger can add a pet-directed taunt through a trait.

Yes and let it stay this way, because outside of certain modes and situations, there's no need to spam taunt in this game other than straight up making it possible to troll people like it was mentioned above.

[The Boz.2038]

Am not looking to expand it at all, just wanted to correct a misstatement of fact.

[Sobx.1758]

@"The Boz.2038" said:Am not looking to expand it at all, just wanted to correct a misstatement of fact.

Ok. Then not sure what was that misstatement? There's no need to seperate taunts into "self directed and not" and currently 5 classes out of 9 have access to taunt, which is in line with saying "most" have access to it. :D

[Nephalem.8921]

Taunt is just reverse fear and does not work on bosses because all of them have defiance bars.This game has an active combat system and doesnt really need a tank. The only places where it matters are some raidbosses and they have their own mechanic.

[Dawdler.8521]

The game literally have the simplest tanking mechanic in existance already. Have toughness, mobs dont like you specifically.

[Brandon Uzumaki.1524]

Yeah, i remember when i first geared for Fractals, i got Knights gear on my Guardian, i tought the Toughness would help me survive better, and the Power and Precision would give me the damage necessary.Well, mobs would always focus me, every time, specially those friggin harpies in Uncategorized, but i was not surviving for a long time, i woud always go down in those parts, but the moment i swapped all my gear to Berserker my overall survavibility in Fractals increased by 100%, i was not the focus anymore, and it helped a lot.

So yeah, you want to atract mobs to you, have high Toughness, but you will not tank, at all, i use Minstrel gear on my healer Firebrand and even with that you can't survive under too much pressure or if you're careless, like in those pressure plates in Facility, or anything in Battlegrounds for example.

[Black Storm.6974]

@Brandon Uzumaki.1524 said:Yeah, i remember when i first geared for Fractals, i got Knights gear on my Guardian, i tought the Toughness would help me survive better, and the Power and Precision would give me the damage necessary.Well, mobs would always focus me, every time, specially those friggin harpies in Uncategorized, but i was not surviving for a long time, i woud always go down in those parts, but the moment i swapped all my gear to Berserker my overall survavibility in Fractals increased by 100%, i was not the focus anymore, and it helped a lot.

So yeah, you want to atract mobs to you, have high Toughness, but you will not tank, at all, i use Minstrel gear on my healer Firebrand and even with that you can't survive under too much pressure or if you're careless, like in those pressure plates in Facility, or anything in Battlegrounds for example.

I think Fractals aggro system is more complicated than that, the core game had a far more complicated aggro system which was not the same for all enemies. The aggro based on Toughness was introduced with Raids in the first expansion.

[Fueki.4753]

@Black Storm.6974 said:I think Fractals aggro system is more complicated than that, the core game had a far more complicated aggro system which was not the same for all enemies. The aggro based on Toughness was introduced with Raids in the first expansion.

Core bosses, like Lupi in Arah, tended to focus people with higher Toughness when the game released.Back then, I regularly kept the berserkers in my group semi-safe on my Full Soldier Warrior by taking the aggro.