Taking One For the Team
Or Six, Or Twelve
This guides sole purpose is to relay insight on using the Tanker archetype. This is not a This is teh uber build, this is the fun build. This is a general guide for tanking any powerset. If youve never played a tank, this information will get you started. If youve already played a tank, I hope you and I have had some shared experiences. This information has been imparted to me by Tanks Ive played with over the last couple years, and my own tanking experiences. If youre really concerned, Fireforged is a level 50 Fiery Aura/Stone Melee Tanker on Infinity.
** Disclaimer: I tend to make analogies. Also, I am not infallible. If something is blatantly apocryphal, please tell me. If you do not agree with something I have said, thats fine. But please provide a reason. I take my tanking seriously, and if Ive been doing something wrong for 50 levels, Id like to know :P **
** Disclaimer 2: Oh, and any wise [censored] remarks about other archetypes are from my perspective as a tank. They are however well reasoned and insightful. I have played every archetype and been good friends with every archetype, so anything smart [censored] I say isnt entirely unjustified. Not entirely.**
** Disclaimer 3: There will be no more disclaimers.**
Part 1. What Is A Tanker?
This is a fairly straightforward question which has a nearly unlimited number of answers. The Tanker has been called many things: a meat shield, an anvil, a lightning rod, etc. Everyone has their opinions. But all in all, your role as a tanker is to take damage so that your team does not. In many cases, you initiate combat on behalf of your team, and keep the enemies attention fixed on yourself, while the rest of your team lays down some justice.
Part 2. What Would Make Me Want to Be a Tanker?
You should be a tanker because you enjoy not only battle, but leadership. Any schmuck can start a fight. Many can even live through them. But it takes a leader to guide a team into a hostile area, take on the enemy, defeat them, and return intact. As any military doctrine reflects, a good leader does so by example. Since you are the sturdiest, you can lead into the fight and lead back out again, standing as a pillar of strength for your team. Now, the other part of that is to know when, where, who and how to fight.
A. When to Fight When you have a statistically good chance of bringing your team out alive.
B. Where to Fight In a spot out of line of sight (LOS) of other mobs, or any place where you choose to fight the enemy that gives you an advantage over your enemy.
C. Who to Fight Enemies that your team can handle. If you think your team might be able to pull it off, buff up and try. The worst that happens is you all die, which is part of learning
D. How to Fight Methodically, intelligently and with a keen eye toward your weaknesses and those of your team members.
Part 3. Love Your Team
In order to be an effective leader and a good tanker, you have to play well with others. Heres a brief overview of each AT and their relation to your job.
Scrappers - The scrapper is like your little brother who went to the Special Forces while you stayed home and became a bouncer. He loves to be right in there in the thick of things with you, and hes much better at kicking butt. But you have to protect him sometimes from the really nasty enemies. Just like a little brother, the scrapper will sometimes try to emulate you and be a tank. Unless hes /Regen, that usually ends badly. But hey, as long as theyre having fun, right?
Why They Will Love You: You take all the abuse while they dish all the damage.
Blasters The blaster is at once your most hated and most revered teammate. You might hate them just because they can do SO much damage when youre still using Brawl. Or you might run into the cocky ones who fire on mobs before the team is ready, and before you can effectively collect aggro. But despite that, its pretty amazing to see one run into the midst of your collected mob and level them with one mighty blast.
Why They Will Love You: You keep the aggroed mobs in close, so he can use his AOEs without being mauled.
Controller The controller is a welcome friend if he knows his job well. He can put a mob to sleep while you grab the next mob that would normally be too close to safely pull. Once youve pulled all the enemies, he can lock them in place so they cant wander or run. Theres nothing more infuriating for a tank than a runner. And now all your knockbacks are stuns or knockdowns
Why They Will Love You: You round up the bad guys. Its much more satisfying to encase people in rock if there are more of them.
Defender The defender is the only one on the team that is more concerned about the teams safety than you. Whether its buffs or heals, youll love your defender for the protection they provide. They can tip the scale in your favor at a crucial moment. They can drastically reduce downtime after a setback. And in the case of things like Adrenalin Boost and Mutate, they can make you into a killing machine
I think of the defender like a girlfriend: She can make your life easy and take care of you, but if you piss her off, shell be perfectly happy to stand there and watch you get your [censored] kicked until you apologize
Why They Will Love You: You keep the damage centralized. Its a hell of a lot easier to super heal one person than try and keep everyone else alive at once.
Kheldians & Nictus The Warshades and Peacebringers are such a varied and complex set of archetypes that its difficult to quantify your interaction with them on a team in any sort of general way. A couple of brief things then: Their Nova form can do insane damage. They have some horrendous knockback sometimes, so try and get them to fire from above the mob youve gathered so as not to scatter them and make you lose agro. The Dwarf form makes a good secondary tank. If there are just too many mobs swarming in, they can effectively collect aggro for a short while. But they dont usually have your resilience, and their powers are limited. In general, these characters will be doing their own things to help the team, based on their build. As long as theyre not getting anyone killed, you can pretty much let them manage themselves.
Why They Will Love You: You having aggro means they can do as they please: PBs can blow things up with light, WSs can create pets from the dead and then detonate their corpses, all without worrying about too much aggro.
Part 4. The Joys of Taunting
Now, lets discuss taunting and its redheaded step sister, aggro. Now, back in the day, a well designed Tank could taunt a whole map, and bring every single baddie back to the team for a good old fashioned destruct-a-thon. This is no longer the case. The devs in their infinite wisdom decided that was not fun. So we now sit at about a 17 baddie aggro limit. This makes us old tanks very sad. But it is a truth, and all Tanks must learn to deal.
Now, things that will cause aggro.
1. Taunt will cause aggro. Taunt is what makes you able to do your job.
2. Gauntlet will cause aggro. Any hit you land generates aggro from that baddie.
3. Your PBAOE aura will cause aggro. Anyone hit by your aura will be aggroed on you.
4. Being in sight range will cause aggro. As long as they see you first, they will be aggroed on you.
5. Straight up damage of any kind will cause aggro. This is self explanatory.
So heres the idea behind Taunt and aggro. Before you is a group of baddies. They smell. Theyre saying things about your mom. While the rest of the team stands and jeers at them, preparing for a fight, you start one. There are several ways this can go down:
Scenario 1: Shields Up: You have all your shields on, but no aura. You jump into their midst, and dont bother Taunting on the way in. Now, they see you, and they know they dont like you. They start attacking. Great, thats what you wanted. You stand there and take the damage with no real problem. Then the blaster in the back fires an AOE off that damages everyone around you. He has just done more damage than you. And now he is the target. By generating the most damage, he generated more aggro than you did simply showing up in their midst. The blaster gets swarmed and dies. This is bad.
Scenario 2: Dance, Suckas: You have all your shields on, and an aura running. Again, you jump into their midst, and dont bother Taunting on the way in. Now you have not only line of sight aggro, you are doing minor damage and minor Taunting with your aura. Now they really dislike you for melting their Reeboks. Then the blaster fires an AOE. They ignore him, because hey, youre the one that messed up their new kicks. Then he fires another. Now their threads are damaged. Now theyre pissed at him. Blaster gets swarmed, dies, badness.
Scenario 3: Bring It: One more time, you have all your shields on, and an aura running. This time you fire off Taunt at the guy in the center of the group while youre jumping in next to him. You give the leader a wet willy as you land and make some derogatory comment about the sexual orientation of the baddies in the group. Now, theyre pissed. They come at you with all manner of death dealing devices and powers, regardless of what anyone else is doing to them. The controllers encase them in ice, the scrappers hamstring them, the blasters set them on fire: they dont care. They just want to see you dead and gloat over your corpse. Your team lays waste to them, you move on to the next group.
This is why we Taunt as tanks. Throwing a rock at someone does not hold their interest if theyre being skewered with a sword shortly thereafter. But Taunting them will. This will save the squishy members of your team from a lot of debt.
::Edited for I7: Some of my SG mates and I have been seeing a weird randomization in aggro. It seems like the baddies will lash out randomly at squishies, then come right back to the tank. It doesnt happen all the time, but enough that we noticed it on separate occasions. Still working on this.::
Part 5. Tactics (Or, Not Dying)
Taunting. Easiest thing to do is jump into a group of baddies, taunting the guy in the center as you get closer.
Pulling. Find a nice corner. Run up to a group, taunt them, then run back to the corner, and use it to get out of sight. They will follow you. Then have a controller lock them down and the team can lay waste to them. Works equally well with crates, trees, rocks, etc.
Herding. Find your corner again. Jump into a group and Taunt. Let your PBAOE get a couple hits in to really anger them. Then jump to the next group. Taunt, PBAOE. Then jump back to the group you hit first, which should be in a rough line coming after you. Re-taunt to make sure they pay attention. Then jump to another group and do the same, keep jumping from group to group and Taunting until youve got your 17. Then pull them to your favorite corner. Wait for them to stack up and get down to business.
Attacking. Attacking is reserved for three occasions. First, if you have pulled all you can and theyve stacked at your corner, you can start attacking. Second, if an ally is getting hit and your taunt hasnt recycled, a hit will usually get their attention. Third, if youre not pulling and just jump in and beat the hell out of everybody.
Dealing with runners. Let someone with a snipe or hold deal with runners. You do not need to chase them. They WILL come back. Chasing a runner more often than not leads to the aggro of another mob that your team may not be ready for. Even if its a kill all mission, you can come back later, or more likely than not, hell run back to his post about the time youre mopping up the next mob.
Dealing with AVs. Arch Villains have a way of breaking you down into your basic Tank functions. No matter what kind of tank you usually play, your function in an AV fight is taunt-monkey meat shield. As I said before, attacks are low priority. In an AV fight thats even truer. You need to concentrate on not only staying alive, but keeping aggro. If you lose aggro on the AV, he can usually one shot everyone else. If he has nasty melee AOE, order everyone that can to get back or up. Once youre confident you can survive and that you have aggro, then you can attack.
Part 6. Debt and Death
You will die. You will fall in battle. This is a natural thing, even for a tank. Yes, it takes longer to kill you. But youre usually taking on a lot more than you can handle anyway. Debt is not the end of your career. One death in a mission can usually be wiped away by the time you get the mission end bonus. Dont take unnecessary risks, but if things go bad, dont freak out. Dont lose faith in you or your teams abilities. [censored] happens. If one tactic doesnt work, try something else. If the mission difficulty is too high, lower it to something manageable. Yes, you are a superhero. Yes, you often face overwhelming odds. Yes, you want to fight to the last man. But dont be foolish about it. Bring your team home safe.
That being said, allow me to add this: you should be angry if anyone else on your team gets hurt. That should make you furious. That should make you question your tactics and try to improve your effectiveness. If everyone else is doing their job, you should be the only one the defender has to heal. This doesnt always work, obviously, but that should be your goal.
Part 7. General Guidelines
Following is a list of general techniques and suggestions that will keep you tanking and living for a long time.
1) You are a damage TAKER, not a damage DEALER. If you want to be a melee damage dealer, go be a scrapper. Having said that, you can deal respectable damage, but not till later in your career. You first and all consuming goal should always be the protection of your team. Your job is to grab the enemy by his nose, hold him against the wall, and let your teammates pummel him into submission. To do so, you need to be able to stay standing when he repeatedly kicks you in the codpiece. And his friends hit you with lead pipes. While the guys in the back try to smash your brain inward with their minds. And their robot minions shoot you with lasers. You get the idea. So, defense first. Anything that will keep the enemy attacking you or even render him unable to attack (such as immobilize, knockdown, hold, etc) is second. Then and only then can you start to worry about damage. In a sufficiently built team, you wont even be able to swing much before all the bad guys are dead. This is a good thing. Quick death for the enemy means more experience for you, faster.
2) TAKE TAUNT. Did you get that? Every Tanker powerset has a Taunt power. Take it. Immediately. As soon as it is available. There is nothing more ridiculous than a tank without Taunt. That is your secondary function. To so enrage the enemy that they attack only you. Now, some people make builds that rely on pbaoe damage and effects to taunt mobs they encounter. IMHO, this is a lazy, sloppy technique. While these effects do indeed have taunt modifiers, they are inferior in several ways. First, they do not auto hit like Taunt. Every pbaoe is based on an accuracy check, and therefore, so is the taunt. Your taunt will always hit. Secondly, these are personal range, so you must be in the mob to taunt it. This tactic denies you some taunt pulling options. I know from my own personal experience that Tankers without Taunt are immediately kicked from pickup groups my SG organizes. Take taunt.
3) There is no shame in retreat. If your wounds are too great, everyone has suddenly dropped into the orange, and you see another 10 hits stacked up on your hit bar that are about take their toll, order a retreat. RUN! is the easiest, since its hot-keyed. They wont. Theyre heroes after all. Theyll fight bravely to the last man. And theyll end up with stacks of debt. But you gave them fair warning, so your conscience should be clear. Now, this is the case in two instances: You are playing with a cocky group of young players who know nothing of their own mortality, or just how much damage youve been keeping from hitting them. Or you are playing with a cocky group of high level players who know very distinctly of their own mortality, but think if they can just land that last hit
Meanwhile, your defender will have retreated to a safe distance to teleport bodies and resurrect the fallen. Most good defenders know when to retreat and reorganize.
4) Even if youre not the team leader, you are in effect in charge. Now, the guy with the star is indeed the leader, but that doesnt make him the boss. You are the first one in and the last one out, so you should set the pace. Im not saying that as soon as you see youre the main tank, yell out ALRITE ALL U LISTEN IM IN CHARGE FOR I AM TEH R0XX0R. Bad idea. Use a bit more tact. Small things can set you up as the leader without outright mutiny and trash talking.
a. Stand in front of the group. Not twenty feet out, just ahead of the rest. You are a tank, and they know it. This is where they expect you to be.
b. Speak. While the team is gathering, joke around with the others. [censored] about the latest nerf. Whatever. Get them used to the way you talk. Once youre on the mission, keep it up. But now its time to get serious. Tell them where youre going to be pulling to. Or which group is the first target. Or where the biggest threats are and in what order the team should approach them. If you dont know, give them options. What do you guys think, clear left or skirt right and take the mob in the center? This will focus their attention where you want it focused.
c. Listen. Keep an eye out for what theyre saying, even when youre in the thick of it. Often there might be a member or two who has higher level characters. They will be able to provide invaluable information in the form of Well last time I ran this one
A good leader knows that one of his greatest resources is the independent brains of a group. You cant know everything. But within your group, you know a lot.
d. If the leader doesnt like where youre headed and says so, dont be offended. And dont tell him to go to hell. Take his advice and give your own. Work out the best plan with the team.
e. When its time for a break, announce it. This means you have to pay attention to everyones status bars in the team window (though you should have been doing this anyway
). If you yourself are healthy and full of energy, but the rest of your team is battered and worn out, call for a rest. Go behind cover and let them rest. Now, in this case I dont allow any stealth runners or people who say Im fine, I just want to look. Too often that can end in an accidental mob aggro, and the person comes running to the safety of the group, only to get them all one-shotted while they are in the rest cycle. Not good for morale.
Now you should have a lot of tools you can use to be a good tank. This all takes practice of course, and youll never get it right every time. But keep trying new things, see what builds work for you. I enjoyed the hell out of my tanking experience, which is why I wrote this. I wanted to help all the new tankers out there who werent around for tankings glory days. Those days may be past, but there are still lessons we learned then that work, and work well.
If anyone can think of anything I missed, please let me know by PM. If you ever have any questions, Im @Fireforged in game. Always glad to lend a hand. Enjoy your career as a tank!!
And take taunt, please
