Tanking in wow has gone through a couple of iterations. The most notable was allowing area of effect abilities (TBC paladins and the normalisation of tanks in wotlk) and negating the effects of threat, (they tried vengeance in cata) before settling on just a massive threat modifier.
Active mitigation is also a decent iteration that aims to not let tanks “afk” its a good concept, especially when applied to things that do extra damage or have an extra affect if they are not up… personally I would like active mitigation do nothing (or less) outside of these windows (similar to how interrupts work).
For example, Picture an unavoidable slam attack (the cone telegraph follows you when you move out of it), it has am interuptable wind up cast bar… its only during these times a warrior would use shield block… outside of this shield block should have no effect… thus much like how interupts get used in reaction to spell casts, activie mitigation should be used in response to these “big hits”. Otherwise you just use them rotationally anyway and its like meh.
I’m…not 100% certain on your point? You want to have activated damage reduction not do anything outside of burst windows?
…Why? I will admit I’m not the most knowledgeable in tanking, I’ve dabbled in it, but what you seem to be proposing is ‘have tanks just take more damage for no real reason’.
What you’re proposing sounds good for raid bosses, but it would make tanking M+ absolutely worse.
Now, I think there’s room for more mechanics that require some active mitigation to be properly timed, and for the different tank specs to have more similar access to the active mitigations that would be relevant to such mechanics.
I think the game also needs to have some visual clues built-in for when such a mechanic would happen, so you’re less reliant on DBM to time them.
Unless you’re gonna incorporate threat meters into the base UI this is a non-starter. Plus, boss health pools would have to come way down to compensate for DPS having to play hot-and-cold with their damage.
True, same here. I think the entirety of the mechanics can use an overhaul not only Tanking. Telegraphed areas will be more engaging and allow for more immersive gameplay. As a tank, I would like to be able to completely avoid something by moving out of a telegraphed space instead of accidentally realizing that I can walk back out of the swipe on Gargoyles in HoA. A simple telegraph would go a long way.
For the new tank or player that got one shot by one of those mechanics, this would be avoided by having this telegraphed area on the floor. I guess I saw some of the telegraphed spells from Evoker along with playing FFXIV so I just wanted to point out how I think some things can change. If Evoker can telegraph spell area of effects, let these NPC’s do some of that too.
For tanks specifically, I really enjoyed tanking with vengeance back in the day (I think it was called vengeance) but that is because I felt so OP; especially as a BrM Monk with Guard that made it, so I didn’t even need a healer. Tanks have a lot more responsibility to control the pace, positioning and flow of a dungeon so not everyone is up to the task.
Having played classic, this entire concept is a non-starter for retail side. It flat out won’t work, and the playerbase will balk at it. No matter how much you want it, it’s never going back to that. People like to burn as hard as they possibly can… it will never go back to wait for 3 stacks of sunder before you even attack.
Legion tanking was by far the best, 20 million HPs, insane self sustain via self healing and really good DPS, I’ve never seen as many people enjoy tanking before or since.
This would be boring, being able to contribute to making a healers life easier is engaging gameplay. It’s what helps make good dps/tanks outshine bad ones.
Again very boring. It takes a lot of skill to pull this way in really high keys.
I’d argue all your points take away from needing more skill in every role.
Evinced by the number of tanks in TW this week who think they can prance ahead through an entire dungeon’s worth of mobs and hold aggro by sheer force of personality.