The ability to taunt isn't the end-all-be-all to tanking. I have off tanked plenty of times; aggro is based on base damage and damage bonus which monks have buckets of. If they get the drop on a mob (which if you planned on a monk off tanking, you would), only a tank would rip aggro. If the healer is good and the mob you're tanking isn't a main mob, you'll be able to tank for a while.
I actually play a monk. I'd have to explain what off tanking is to you. Example CS Othimirs tanks down. Two othimir in camp. Off tank them. You can't. Off tanking isn't not dieing for a minute and 45 seconds.
I see this topic come up a lot. Its surely is not Ideal for Monks to tank stuff, we aren't directly linked to a MTO or responsible for the role in group nor raid. but that doesn't mean that we can't suffice especially with gear and good support. Earthforce + Blood Drinkers Coating + armor of experience (optional) -> Glyph of Dragonscales (option step if you got AA to burn, but everyone should have AA to burn if they are in this position amiright) -> Shaded + Burns -> Earthforce -> counterstrike -> Earthforce => repeat sprinkle in mend, Epic 2.0, Rescind Death, Unified Phoenix Feather, Diplomatic papers, BDC on refresh as far as aggro goes, just be aggressive, especially as a dps typically puts you at the top of the hate list, just general burning will keep you high on aggro, and yes Five Point Palm and BP click generate a good bit too If you lose aggro in group content or in your group, you can simply -> Imitate Death + Echo of X (mem blur) and hit FPP + attacky buttons (be quick about it) and take it back from whom ever stole it from you. swiper no swiping. source - I tank current group content (missions, grind sessions etc) and i pick up Raid add's / Trash mobs / sometimes even the raid boss under various scenarios.
taking 1.5 minutes to kill an othmir sounds like a fundamental problem with your group's damage but yes, Lisard is correct
You don't understand the role of off tanking. Monks can't off tank. I will add this. It's because of B guys like you spout that there will be a flood of monk want to be's. They'll find out after they've looted a ton of stuff that should've been a main monks" like myselfs stuff. Instead they'll get it and park their monk for two years after they find out you're spouting B. Monks are in a terrible class position but saying so just gets fan boys denying it. You guys need the 12 year old boy Nedrum back representing.
It can be done if you pour a ton of resources into them pretty much The main reason it died was around the time the Devs gave the Tank classes MASSIVE defensive passive buffs then boosted all future content to compensate for this buff, so the gap widened to the Extreme values that are present in the Modern game, before this it was viable to Ranger or Monk tank most content reasonably fine without having to worry about blowing your Defensive stuff 24/7 or having downtime waiting on refreshes
Shaman are literally better off tanks than monks. I don't care what anyone says. Monks are swirling down to useless and apparently everyone is ok with that.
I understand your frustration and I don't disagree with it ( i don't think anyone here disagrees ). There is also no need for name calling friend. we are all monks, we all want improvements, we all share our experiences (good and bad) of how to overcome obstacles such as this current topic of tanking. Simply trash talking and saying we can't do something isn't going to solve anything. Monks are trending in the neglected department indeed, that much we can agree on. Aristo/Ganzito don't play the game and don't understand the class and I push every beta the past 4 expansions for improvements in areas that are needed (IDK if you read beta forums) and yet they still copy paste in Defunct abilities we don't use and call it a day.
define "anyone here" Partisan advocacy is fine, whatever, but there's a whole lot of hyperbolic nonsense being thrown about.
I do not play anymore, however any trash mob taking 1.5 minutes to die it's eh. As recently as the Plane of Smoke/Plane of Wind (idr what it's called) missions I was tanking/off tanking in missions. Sometimes it's necessary if you join a PUG with an undergeared/just bad tank or the tank doesn't make it up to one of the platforms. Hell, I've swarmed Howling Stone with a pocket SK because of how good Lich Sting is. Yes, it was in raid gear but as mentioned before, raid gear and intelligently cycling through the defensive clickies that Lisard mentioned are necessary for non-tanks outside of big defensives discs. And again, any class can tank with the tank glyph.
Could the guys doing QA (beta/test/dev) please alt tab from your SK main to your Monk and watch your monk melee dps for an hour please? Read the screen, see what happens when you activate skills and AAs? Please?!?
The Monk class is still in the game lol? I'm trying to remember the last time I saw a monk in game, probably was with the last Wizard I saw. I remember the good ole days of many monks, dreaming of fungi tunics, pulling impossible singles to the group.
It's the reason why I finally quit and switched to Shadowknight, a class that it seems pretty clear the devs want everyone to main eventually.
A good merc tank is way better at it than even a raid-geared monk with max AA, unless you want to hold pulls until Earthforce is up again, and even it would be easy for other players to take your aggro. Back in the days of PoP, I would grab a healer, and then four other folks of any other classes. Instant exp grind group. I'd pull, tank, and hold aggro by simply out DPSing everyone else. OP but I liked it, heh.