Little talk about tank.

Discussion in 'War Room (Powers, Artifacts, & Builds)' started by Cyfaill, May 23, 2019.

  1. Cyfaill Well-Known Player

    First at all, my apologise if there is a thread where i can put my little question about tank rol.

    That said...the other day I was wondering how to tank those enemies that run away all the time, should I stay in one place and wait until the enemy, eventually, come back to me? or should I play the mice and cat game (go after him wherever he goes)? For example on the raid from Earth 3 where you fight Johnny Quick, should wait on the middle of the room or should go chasing him every time?

    Thanks in advice.
  2. AV Loyal Player

    Depends entirely on the fight and how long until the enemy detaunts. Johnny is a bad example because you can pretty much always taunt him from at or near exactly where you want to fight him anyways. Murk is a better example. You pretty much want to always hold him in the top left corner of the room. When he does his charge spam, you (generally) want to stay there and keep agro on him so he returns to the same spot. However, if your taunt is close to timing out and he exceeds your taunt range (like if the off tank got too close with the adds and became a viable charge target) you have to leave position to taunt him, but should get back in position asap.

    Essentially, you dictate the terms of engagement and fight the enemy where it's best it be fought. Pick the best places, keep the boss faced the way he should be faced (away from the team) and keep control. Don't let the boss tell you where you'll fight him unless you can't really help it (eg. bosses that throw mad lethal AOE that forces repositioning). Communication in such situations is key.
    • Like x 1
  3. Cyfaill Well-Known Player

    Wow, you're the fastest man for sure! Thank you so much!
    So in the end i shouldn't go after him and i should taunt him in the spot i choose, good i can do that.
    Comunication could be a problem since i've to write while tanking and...i don't have a mic and...a lot people don't read but...i don't care, my tanking will speak for me (or almost i'll try).
    • Like x 1
  4. Lycan Nightshade Dedicated Player

    its going to be trial and error for you unless you happen to have an experienced tank you can learn from.
  5. De Hei Active Player

    Not the topic, but for me as DPS i use the tank role to get more survivalbility for losing just a bit damage. This is really helpful sometimes to survive harder fights or simply assisst weak healers. Especially the rage power makes it possible.
    But with that i often hear: "WTF, you arent a tank?!" / "Why going in tank stance, are you stupid?"...

    Yesterday was again an epic moment of that. I heared again ******** (in my opinion) like i said, but was staying in tank role. So me as CR236 in tank role against 2 DPS and a controler with CR250-265. At the end i was all over the top in all statistics.. only at the given energy i was not... but in real whats wrong with this guys, if they dont get an idea of there class?
  6. Black Prime OG Devoted Player

    There's nothing wrong with it. Most in dcuo do not like or want hybrid roles.
    • Like x 1
  7. AV Loyal Player


    Would need the context of what you were running/doing but it's very important for you to remember the most important change that happens when you go to tank role: all of your superpowers taunt. You're really not gaining much and in anything where your survivabiliity could possibly be in question to begin with, you're risking dragging the boss to the exact last place you want him to be, putting the entire team in jeopardy. If you want to have better survivability, spec into health more. Might can outperform prec and has better survivability owing to the fact it gets to dump a colossal amount of SP in health (I have over 100k health in DPS stance) without sacrificing DPS. Since prec "has" to dump into both prec and might, they have way less health.
    • Like x 2
  8. De Hei Active Player

    Sry for my question, why i should split into precision and might? I will only put points into precision and also health like you.
    My layout is doing well without spammable might skills.
    The other thing is, that i only go in tank stance if we dont have a tank or i know, that the tank is able to hold the aggro, when i am in tank stance if needed (only if we have low healer or something). I dont will risk a wipe just cause i want to stay in tank stance.

    Ty for explaining that change. I didnt noticed that, because i did a break for 5 years and just returned now to the game ;)
  9. AV Loyal Player


    Because, not including pets, Might builds are approximately 98-99% might-based damage. All prec builds are intrinsically hybrid builds, with a decent chunk of damage coming from clipped power and dots. It isn't anywhere near pure prec damage. Most will cap prec then dump the rest into might. As a result, when top-tier prec competes with top-tier might, it does so while having 20-30k less health. You can exclusively spec prec and health, but your DPS suffers whereas a Might-based approach will actually benefit (or, at worst, be neutral but more survivable). Rocking prec kinda just comes with the caveat that you're a squishy af glass cannon that'll die to things that a good might will shrug off easily. This is all SP dependent, of course.

    There's no "holding aggro" in DCUO; it's not like other MMOs with hate tables where healing and damage can override a tank's taunt. With a tank in the group, It's binary here. The tank has either done yellow damage to the mob or he hasn't. If he hasn't, then there are some hate table esque behaviours (eg. I "tank" alerts by virtue of doing the most damage with no tank present). With multiple tanks, the only factors that go into it are "which tank hit it with a superpower last" and "were either of those superpowers a priority taunt." Tanks should only be using priority taunt in two-tank fights where it's needed and no tank is gonna wanna slap it into their loadout because a DPS feels like going tank (except for some specific uses, they're often inferior powers to be tanking with). Without priority taunt, anytime you do any yellow damage while on tank role, there's a chance the boss will leave the real tank and jump to you.
    • Like x 1
  10. De Hei Active Player

    Does every yellow damage count or just with activating a superpower?
    This is important to know. If just yellow numbers count, i easily could play a full precise DPS tank with using front fighter gear only for tanking and also putting just enough points in heal like i actually do. So I just would need to switch between the stance and between DPS and front fighter gear to fully do both jobs :)
  11. De Hei Active Player

    BTW. i go fully in precision. I really unlike hybrid builds too, because i think they are inefficient.
    What you meaned with not including pets? I use the iconic robot sidekick and its working well :cool:
  12. AV Loyal Player

    I've never 100% tested this since I had no practical reason to do so but I do believe tank + yellow number = taunt, regardless of source. All yellow numbers intrinsically come from superpowers and every superpower from a tank is a taunt.

    Again though, while that would be a literal prec build, that's not what "prec" is when people refer to the build/ideology. "Prec" without dots and clips will dramatically underperform. Long story short, just don't DPS in tank stance unless you actually intend to be the tank (and not to enhance your survivability but to actually fulfill the role). Prec loadout should be filled with your best power that can be clipped onto your WM or combo, as many dots as you can stack/clip as quickly as possible, as many pets as you can fit, etc etc and neo-venom boost (or a competitive alternative). It's a cookie cutter build with flexibility for the options available to any given power, basically. You spam your hardest hitting combo while clipping everything you can while you do it and maintaining dots.

    I mean not factoring their damage into the percentage I quoted, because pet damage is cr-based and not stat-based.

    If you're referring to stat dump, yes that's what you should be doing. If you're saying you never use powers then that's, to be blunt, extremely bad.
  13. De Hei Active Player

    I use powers man.. but nearly all with a duration of 12 sec and they all are clippable in a row. So i often jump into the fight, activate my 3 skills (clip them in a row, because its possible without losing any time) start my weaponcombination (needs around 5,5-6sec) use my 6 sec dotskill, do another weaponcombination again the 6 sec dotskill and my clipdurationskill and so on... its a stupid and very easy to learn combination, if you know the basics of clipping.
    I dont know how competetive it will be, if i reach the actually maximum of CR and enough SP. Maybe its bad and i will going to do just PvP with this char, but until now i am doing well im comparison to all guys i met!
  14. AV Loyal Player

    Then yes, that's essentially the correct way to do prec. DPS-wise, it's better to max prec then put the remainder into might, relying on your skill, knowledge, mobility, and reaction time to avoid most damage. More on topic though: yeah, definitely don't switch to tank role while doing that. Will just get everyone killed, yourself included, since bosses' primary attacks are designed to hurt tanks where their secondary attacks, the ones you're trying to survive, are much weaker; eating primary attacks as a DPS in DPS gear spec'd as a DPS in tank role = instagib in anything that matters.
    • Like x 1
  15. L T Devoted Player

    As a tank, you don't actually need to do damage to taunt. Popping a shield will draw agro.