Dev Discussion GU73: Tanks

Hello everyone I'll just say this

1- differential elimination cr, well echo.

2- Increased statistics of mods, well echo.

3-sp adjustments and 3 types of gameplay, well echo.

4- etc.

5- but difficulty content adjustment by players who expressed "content easy" (players who entered to run content with cr 201, mods oly, using the maximum all hometurf content and using the 195 sp allowed by test server) .

Ran equipped with all this from content t1 to t8 and by these players we have the current difficulty.

For which to be guided by the minimum, recommended and maximum amount of experience, in my opinion is a mockery.

Since for this as the current content would have to say also necessary minimum sp, minimal equipment mods required and minimal hometurf required.

So I do not enjoy my sp, nor does it motivate me to achieve more prowess.

Oh that those who wanted this difficulty live.

For my part I just run group t1, beginner raids t2, duos t1 and solitary t1 and t2 since it is the only thing I find satisfactory.


Good game everyone.

I just found out tanks are the only role that has a pvp restriction. I was wandering if this was a bug that needs to be fixed or something you guys forget to add to every other role?

Ice tank shields only last for 6 seconds whenever pvp flag is on regardless of whether you're in pve or pvp phase and also regardless of whether or not you're in combat or not. And the current effects description of the shield that is currently active still says "absorb damage 100% - (+12s)" in the action menu. Now while fighting against another player having this nerf can be understandable, however this nerf stays in effect even when fighting against any NPCs within the given free roam environment (like Gotham, Metropolis, Central City, etc.).

I like to play pvp phase mostly because it makes completing the open world missions more challenging since you need to compete against the villain players as well as the environment. And like I said before, nerfing shields duration against other players would be understandable but having it effect fighting NPCs makes running content in pvp phase a bit of a chore.

Also I don't know if this was intentional or not BTW...

A skilled hybrid tank will out dps an average dps, working as intended.

Judging mostly by Atomic and Fire, I think tanks could use higher Defense buff. You can get healed fast, especially if u use Hybrid spec and power has never been a problem but health bars move like music equalizers under techno mix. Also, all tanks now struggle to hold and survive vs. more than 5-6 adds no matter which tier raid.


Fortified Assault and Fortified Blocking should be combined into 1 Tactical mod or Fortified Assault should grant like 15% Defense, blocking is still superior atm.

Healing procs from Restorative Shielding’s Tactical Mod and Capsules' Leg mods should be increased. With 5-6k Resto and big amount of Dominance tanks have, it is hardly noticeable 3 digits number between 300-400.


Rage Tank :
- Decrease Severe Punishment’s cooldown back to 10 sec or decrease Redirected Rage’s cooldown to 12 sec so we can use it more reliably every rotation during the vulnerability window. Overall, if you have it available Redirected rage can carry you trough the vulnerability window but that is only every second rotation atm.
- Increase Relentless Anger‘s number of healing procs to 12.
- Make Channeled Hate a single target tank taunt.
- Make Rage Blast a spammable 100 power cost AoE.

Earth Tank:
- Make Totem respawnable every 12 secs(new cast canceling previous one) or decrease cooldown to 18 secs.
- Make a new alternative ability that can power up Brick in Tank role which is beneficial flagged and can clip other harmful superpowers.

Atomic Tank:
- needs a bit more mitigation in form of Defense or increased Health based healing so we can max Health instead of Dominance while modding.
- Add a CC effect to Neutrino Blast or Neutron Bomb. Ive been using one of the two to tag enemies at distance instead of a long range pull. Why did you have to remove the CC from both?

LMAO yea because jackhammer can hit for 2.5mil ....oh wait not it cant. the two dont even compare!!

I haven't had any problem at fire tanking at all. Want to know the truth? There are a lot of times when I don't even need to use burning determination to keep myself up. Only when the fighting gets really intense. The trick is just to keep your defense up when attacking and carrying Immolation in your loadout. That said, I can't speak for the blocking style of fire since I don't use that anymore. And since I'm specced hybrid, I don't even need a troll to tank at all. I can see how that would be different if you're blocking though.

As for rage, the problem isn't really the amount of defense, but the fact you have to get your hit counter up to 50 to see the full health buff. If you're using a slower weapon, or get interrupted a lot, you're probably only getting up to 20 or less. That makes fast weapons like dual-wield, MA, bow, etc. good for rage tanks. I wish they'd lower it a bit or make it so other weapon attacks count for multiple hits, but no word on that yet.

Good feedback though, I'm just adding my two cents.

Rage tanking is perfect!

I agree with decreasing Severe Punishment's cooldown or decreasing RR to match Severe Punishment . I'm not sure what everyone else is basing their feedback on but I've been testing multiple rotations in US-E/JFA-E and the 4 seconds vulnerability window makes me feel useless. I mean, you can't activate your main Tanking mechanic and amount of damage we're taking is huge. Healers are practically keeping you alive; even with Remorseless Recovery activated, the defence buff isn't enough when mobs of adds are smashing your head. Overall, I think Rage either needs a larger health percentage for healing back or a defence buff or a shorter cooldown period for Severe Punishment.

I do like the changes made to Rage Tanking. However, there is a major flaw with its mechanic.

Major Flaw #1
I finished JFA/US only using Severe Punishment just a handful of times, in those tight situations. I mainly used Remorseless Recovery/Shields/Ire to name a few and maximized on the healing i can get. Currently Remorseless Recovery isn't really an absolute MUST as it was pre-revamp espcially considering this is one of Rage Tankings main power.

Major Flaw #2
Putting skill points into Dominance is quite useless (Aside from Dominance Requirement for each content). Mathematically, if you run through the numbers, maxing Dominance and then getting your hit counter to 50x is pointless and not rewarding enough. The Health bonus you gain is quite small and not even worth the added skill points into dominance, I have been doing fairly better speccing heavily into health alone and modding health rather then dominance. The health bonus we get from Dominance is so insignificant its not worth the work to maintain your hit counter as those little bit of health gets burned through fast!.

I've seen a few people start to bring this up as more people are catching on but i'd like to stress it again in hopes the developers will look into this.

Sorry, but i don't think the 50x hit counter is an issue. I have done all the late game content with a variety of weapons slow/fast and i am constantly finding myself above 100x tbh. They give you enough time to continue your hit counter after using a superpower or even if you get interrupted. (I tend to not stay on the floor when being knocked down fairly quick to get back up.) I have had no issue with reaching 50x. But the problem as i explained above still persists. There is no point in speccing full dom as full health will give you more of an inpact so worrying about your hit counter isn't so much of an issue. The health bonus we get from dom is so insignificant its hardly worth the work to maintain as a few boss or certain add hits will chew through that additional health like its butter

i LOVE that the developers changed Rage Tanks health stack to hit counter based rather then per superpower used but we need more of a health bonus as i feel its too low.

Right now there is still A lot of testing with loadouts needed. I run as Earth on one toon, using DF clip SC into jackhammer with 15300 might an have seen Nature and quantum stay right there with me and nature actually out perform me in raids.
Right now I can't say there is any OP power.
To stay on topic..... I have also ran US as Atomic Tank with a Earth tank as well and both of us out damaged all the Dps's but yet I know my Earth Dps can do 40% more damage then Atomic Tank.
So do we call Earth and Atomic OP or do we see what is really happening.......others haven't figured out how to run there powers to it's full potential, after revamp.
The stats revamp is amazing and was well worth the wait of testing.

Which weapon do you use? Are you telling me you can keep your hit counter at 50 between groups of adds, or just when tanking a boss?

I also love the way Rage is playing right now. Have to say good job devs on that. It feels great. We're not immortal, still need a healer, but at the same time there's a lot you can do now to keep yourself alive in a grind. Love the variety. Just tanked JFA as rage with CR 188, lol. Couldn't have done it without the healer of course, but 0 deaths. I was worried since we lost 1 of our immunity powers, but actually felt pretty natural with the cooldown on the one breakout we have and my trusty breakout trinket. Great job.

@TankisLove
I totally agree that the health bonus from dominance needs to increase to make it worth speccing into dominance, especially since we automatically have the minimum dom for CC just from gear, and there's no point anymore in going beyond that (unless you run a shield, but even then it's a lot of sp for little reward).

If this is already been answered please forgive me but there are 7 pages...

I was talking to one of my tank friends hes still earth ..i used to be earth...he is saying earth feels weaker then before and that he feels like he gets pushed around more often... im atomic and thus far ive had zero issues with any content i dont feel like i get pushed around too much or anything i mean nothing un usual....

This is what we kind of found out about the difference between our power sets... my shield density grants me a 10% reduction on control effects ...Gem stone shield does not.... and ive noticed only atomics shield does this... i do not let me repeat DO NOT.. want this removed from atomic..but would instead like to see this added to the other tank powers...

Also we were discussing break outs and we've noticed the immunities dont seem to last as long...why was this changed?....

As far as earth tanking goes and him being weaker he feels... he definitely doesn't think that stone skin is any where near as good as absorption was... why was absorption taken out in place of stone skin why coulnt they have both?

Earth Jack Hammer needs to be nerfed. Too much damage for such an easy rotation.

There are plenty of highly skilled dps who have been putting in hours of testing since revamp went live and there are many really good dps loadouts already being used. Earth tanking should not be out dpsing dps's. All things considered equal, DPS should have the highest damage by a significant margin.

I have an Atomic Tank and use it "Superpowered" and have no issues really. I'm using the same loadout in the same way as before the revamp and I'm fine. Can't comment on the other tank powers yet. Haven't been them and haven't noticed or heard anything significant.

I keep my hit counter above 50x very easily and consistently not to mention i get interrupted ALLOT because of my playstyle. With adds and boss it doesn't matter to me. In fact i sometimes like to see how far i can go tbh lol. I have used Dual Pistol, Brawling (with and without WM), hand blast, MA, 1H, 2H. Yes even 2handed.

You have to remember, its not the weapon you choose. As long as you are quick to overcome the interruption. Aside from 1 shot mechanics which may take more time away from building your hit counter, you have enough time to get up and continue again. You just need to watch for interruptions from adds/bosses/control effects etc..

Honestly i normally spam breakout, i don't even use immunity's either cause i have gotten pretty quick to breakout, as soon as you see your down spam that breakout button, as long as you have power you should get up just fine and be able to continue your hit counter, if you are slow to get up, no matter how fast your weapon you use, you'll have problems keeping a high hit count.

tell your earth friend to watch my video in my signature i solo tanked JFAe(to include temporal commander) with earth and my health never dipped below 80%. earth is on par with ice tanks i know this because me and a league mate were 2 tanking in USe for the hell of it and we were seeing who could stay at full health longer while tanking grundy

Nice vid.... unfortunately he only likes to jack hammer tank.. he doesnt like using brick... is brick the best way to tank now?

brick tanking is superior to aftershock tanking now sadly. ive always hated pet tanking but after using brick post revamp it is simply the superior way to tank with earth. This is due to damage absorbtion be gone now imo.

Ill let him know..but he probably wont stay earth if that is for sure the case he hates brick ... he will probably move to fire or atomic