Let me put my cards on the table. I am a tanking enchanter for groups. I do raid, but I don't consider myself elite. I have 2 pieces of EOK raid level gear (one is chase loot), and the rest of my gear is a combo of EOK T2 and TBM raid (I was nowhere near full TBM raid when EOK came out). The key to my build is that I prioritize heroic agility over heroic IQ and for the most part AC over spell damage (not fully true, but close). As a result I have a couple k less of mana in my mana pool, and spell damage is probably 100 lower than if I prioritized it more. So you can say I am weakening some of my core strengths so that I can tank better. When using tribute, raid buffs, and a TDS tank powersource I can boost my mitigation to 3.7k and my evasion to 2.6k. Here are some of my exploits. MT on any EOK named for a group. MT for 3 of 4 EOK hero missions, including Lcenium, but not including Lab. I don't solo much, but I tried to solo one T1 named in Gates of Korsha to about 25%, and with better gear and technique almost positive I could solo it now. I did solo the blazing hen in Lcenium with no problem. I was soloing all TBM and TDS named (other than hero missions) even before EOK came out. As a result of my tanking exploits, I have inspired a lot of people to make enchanters. So I understand the need for a nerf (combining a tank skill set with a cc skill set is OP). As a tank, I had no discs, so I am at best a medium tank. You won't be seeing me posting swarm videos. My groups were not overpowered because I was a tank, unlike groups that had a real tank that routinely pulls 4 or more at a time. We had to play smart to beat content which is what I do. I do wish the nerf was scaled back a bit. Instead of 12 to 30 to instead 12 to 20. At least they are buffing up the tank merc so there is less need for me to be MT for a group (lack of tanks seems to be a big issue for groups. It seems most tanks box, which won't change). Unfortunately the tank merc is dumb as rocks, so that makes me worried about how well it will tank in current missions where you are doing more than camping a static spawn. I am also trying to wrap my head around the aggro side of things. I still plan to try and tank even with the nerf. However to tank you need 2 things: survivability and aggro control. My aggro control was always weaker than that of a tank. Unity rune could serve as a quick AE taunt, and mindstorm was the long term aggro control. It looks like unity rune is going to generate a lot less aggro, but it sounds like mindstorm is not changed. If I am to be MT, less aggro means more aggro on rest of group which is bad. But since they don't want me to be a MT anyway, then maybe they should reduce the aggro on mindstorm too so that enchanters aren't constantly getting aggro and being forced to tank in the first place.
Lol not true. I can still tank with these changes and kill giants with 12mil hp fairly easily. Did it today on test. Is it harder? Yeah but its not that bad. Point is enticer unity should of always shared a timer with other unity buffs. That was their fault.The Haze changes has me more pis*ed off than anything Can I tank named like I did in TBM in EoK? Who cares. Definitely could've with multiple unity's, rune aas, phantasmal opponent, illusory ally, swarm pets, etc etc etc. Just never bothered....cuz.....sk
Something that has happened before in the past. Charmed mobs were hitting harder than intended and harder than non charmed mobs. So they "fix" it. Whatever that equates to, I am not sure DPS wise. If I had to guess, they probably screw this up too.
true, and zillions of hours of trying things, learning things, trying to master things; you just take away?
Who are you enchanters, that were casting more than one unity? I never did that and won battles from a skill perspective. I hope the recast time on unity, and the double mana on spells, is revisited and/or maybe even discussed with the ench population to determine efficacy and lowering the effectiveness of an ench. A dead ench does not help a group. And no runes causes everyone to die.
It is because of insane masterful use of skills, that I practiced ages to learn. So all my study/work/practice is gone. I don't get it.
The long recast may affect you a lot. That's the biggest issue changers have with it. I only used one unity as well. Honestly never thought about using two, in level-appropriate group content for the unity spell, refresh was barely enough to keep up sometimes, and if it were, the aggro was insane.
Sorry, I was not clear. I never cast 2 unity spells at same time, so THAT nerf will not affect me. I do agree that the longer recast nerf definitely WILL affect me, and I am not thrilled by that change.
But if you have a tank, you don't need cc at all. Tanks are essentially cc through raw tanking ability. Even with the SK nerf, any real group geared tank can still easily handle 4 mobs. Unless you do something stupid, you have to try to get more than 2-3 at a time. I viewed enchanter tanking as cc. It allowed me to quickly stand up when something went wrong and save a group. With all the tweaking to mana recuperation, I didn't view rune tanking as sustainable in an efficient manor for grinding (some past iterations of Mind Storm did make it so). Using Unity to tank seemed an approved mechanic. I recall discussions of it when they added the focus to the cotf robe. And again when they tuned recast timers back in that time frame. The triple whammy of recast, mana cost and aggro all in one is their usual bulldozer approach to nerfs. They have no clue how to tune. Just how to completely destroy. The SK change is the same approach. I'd even say the underpopulated instance changes are as well.
If you are in a group and have to start tanking to save the group, that doesn't say much for your puller or tank. I don't think I have ever seen a chanter rise up and save any group I was in by tanking. That seems pretty funny to me. You're right, if you are trying to pull singles or doubles and get more than that, you are doing something wrong or you are trying to box with no real puller. You do have to be sorta stupid to get more or have someone in your group being stupid. We all make mistakes, so it can happen. I would never expect to be saved by chanter tanking though. I have been a puller since I started playing in late '99. A good puller will never get a group in trouble. Well...almost never. I only commented because of the pulling aspect. My chanter is 90 and I suck playing him.
Thanks for the honesty and showing those cards. It is refreshing to see someone not be selfish to protect their play style as "normal" and "intended".
Yes tank classes are broken too. The fact that they can tank 4 at once without using even discs breaks group mechanics. No need for puller or CC, just let the tank pull. Enchanter tanking actually required groups to play more normally, since the enc isn't going to try and tank 4 at once. Enchanters actually have to work for aggro as opposed to a tank that uses one aggro ability and then they are done. I also think that melee dps has unbalanced the game too. I group with mostly group geared berserkers and they kill things so fast, that casters have nothing to do. I have also seen high end monks doing something similar. Mobs that die in less than 30 seconds are totally killing the games for dot classes like necros. So those things are drastically changing the entire nature of the group game. Enchanter rune tanking was not. However, when you look at the solo game, I don't know of another class that could solo EOK named as well as I could (although granted it is conjecture as I just don't solo that much in EOK). Enchanter dps far exceeds a tank dps, so while a tank could barely solo a Blazing Hen, it wasn't really that hard for me. But with boxing happening everywhere, was enchanter being the best solo class really that unbalancing? I still preferred to group as mobs die a lot faster. And if you can solo effectively, then adding members made it really easy to form groups. Tank joins group, and I then turn over tanking duties over to them. I certainly was never telling a tank class that they weren't needed. I was just the stop gap that allowed a group to do current content until a better option presented itself.
Most common scenario for me is a named and a mage pet as the tank. Or using a merc healer that suddenly decides to stop healing. Also places like SW with funky pathing of the Burynai. Then there are those times that your tank gets charmed or mezed (with no real healer to cure the mez). Thing is, this won't stop molo enchanters. With the right spell lineup, it's still possible. Plus no one to steal aggro. Where it hurts more is in emergency situations where you have a more dps/cc focused spell lineup.
