I`d have to say City of Heroes. Tanks in that game were tough. They could take a LOT of damage and survive, although their damage output was so-so at best. But man, I feel tough playing one.
I remember doing a 25 man instance in Wow and seeing our well-geared main tank lose half his tens of thousands of hp on one hit to the final boss. I always thought that was ridiculous.
I think my favorite was WoW's Warrior, they seemed to have the most tools and abitilies as a tank and was just fun in overall charging around and intercepting.
I also tried all the other WoW tank classes, and with Cata I'd say DK comes second in engaging then Druid and Paladin, I espececially deplore Druid tank mechanics.
I did like tanking in Rift for awhile, with my riftstalker since it was a new idea to me (I didn't play any of the old-school tanking, which I would have loved to, since the idea of diversity in any role is a good thing for me), but keeping up the buffs just to tank? It's a strange mechanic, I tried the warrior tanking as well, but it seems all of them require... Too much buttons, rather than having the right amount. Also there isn't enough utility to play around with, which is dissapointing, since many of them seem to be spred throughout different souls.
Tanking in GW was an interesting concept, I liked how environment had to play in order to 'tank' and hold attention of mobs.
I think I would really love to see a tanking mechanic like in DA:O, where the heavy armored characters attract more aggro, while their 'taunting' ability is limited and overall team placement strategy is played even in smallest battles.
I really like the tank classes in WAR. Fun in pve, fun in pvp, and as a Chosen, dead sexy!
I concur! First class I picked was Chosen. Their amor is one of the most intimadating out there. Never did care for WAR's pve, but I really did like my chosen out in the lakes. S&B or 2H, they tore it up. Was not much of an orc person, and did not care for the dwarves. KOTBS turned out pretty cool as well, although their armor to me was kind of lame.
WoW's Warrior was definitely good. Pretty much had all the right tools, while remaining somewhat challenging. For a while, after pally tanks were redone, warriors took more skill or finesse to play, and they had things working pretty good for them. I liked my shadowknight in EQ2 a lot as well.
Warriors from WOW. Tried a fair amount of tanking classes in other games, but none really hit the right tempo of fun that Warriors had.
I want to enjoy Justicars and Riftstalkers in RIFT (due to being tanking Clerics and Rogues), but thus far they're a bit lacking (partly because the overall combat system isn't quite to WOW's level of polish...but what MMORPG's combat is?)
As much as I hate to admit it since I'm not a huge WoW fan, I agree. WoW has the best tanking classes. I nearly always play tanks too since my wife plays a healer. No other game has fleshed out the role nearly as well.
I love playing as a tank, it's my default primary/main build in most MMOs that have the holy trinity setup. I don't know why I like to play as a tank mostly, but I just do. It seems to require the most technical knowledge and heads up in a game, maybe on par with a really good healer in a large heal intensive group, or a crowd control class in an add-intensive situation - but those are situational, and games with a Holy Trinity setup almost always need a tank.
I do not like the assumption that the tank automatically runs the group. For instance, in TBC in WoW, groups would always make the tank mark targets and set up CC. It got very tedious and annoying, especially when the group didn't want to play along. In EQ it was often the assumed the tank's job to fill a group or find replacements. I'm just not that outgoing or ambitious about it any longer.
I didn't try a tank in LOTRO, although I'm tempted to go back. I played for many, many years as an SK in EQ1, and for a good while as a feral druid in WoW. There was some time as a Warrior in WoW. A bit in CoH, but apparently I missed the good tanking time between patches and nerfs in that game.
Honestly though, I have had the most fun with Fiona in Vindictus. That game isn't holy trinity based, and she isn't really a "tank" per-say, but it's a lot of fun actually watching your shield slam totally throw pack of monsters across the room.
I hate the game & everyone at Mythic for ruining it but man oh man was the IB a fun class! DPS was 'ok' but the CC those guys had made the class sooooooo much fun. Hold The Line was a great ability & I could probably punt people off cliffs or into lava for days on end & still giggle everytime.
Out of the classes I played a lot in WAR, IB was probably #2 or #3 in terms of playtime.
However it was a textbook example of WAR's utterly terrible sense of class/combat design. In a twenty-second span if my IB was surrounded by 6 enemies he could land 24 CC effects in 20 seconds! Completely and utterly ridiculous. Their "solution" to this was equally nonsensical (immunity timers.)
If this game had only had good class/combat design and more fluid movement (including not getting stuck on terrain every 2 mins) I probably would've stuck with it longer.
I really want to like a completely over-the-top Warhammer-inspired MMO...but WAR specifically was a tragically disappointing game.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
I was very fond of my Swordsman in Asheron's Call 1.
I don't really remember any way to draw aggro in AC1 other than by doing the most damage. So I guess you couldn't exactly call him a tank. And of course AC1 was a skill based MMORPG. But with Item Magic (the ability to buff/debuff both weapons and armor), Arcane Lore (the ability to wear magic jewelry that buffed just about everything else), and some really impressive skills in Melee and Magic Defense - he could just put his back into a corner and slice up endless waves of higher level mobs all say long.
PvP was a slightly different story. But that character was not exactly a slouch here either. I seem to remember having a pretty decent run skill, and a few other tricks in my bag to cope with ranged damage dealers.
You have your shield your sword and A MOTTA FUCKING DARK PANTHER hell yeah, this little fella actually gave lots of damage, besides its low def and hp. Pluss some Shield Stun, slows, drain life, ultima defences. Gold old times, today i cant stand tanks taunt/agro borefest.
now: GW2 (11 80s). Dark Souls 2. future: Mount&Blade 2 BannerLord. "Bro, do your even fractal?" Recommends: Guild Wars 2, Dark Souls, Mount&Blade: Warband, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.
Whenever it's a question about favorite class/unique class/best class I will almost always answer Warden for it's different playstyle.
Edit: Oh yeah, I like NIN/DRK tanking in FFXI too. It was challenging and if you were good at it, it showed.(much like warden)
We really need separate forums for every newly launched game. There can be the anti-<MMO> one and there can be the 'what general discussion should be' one. All the lamenting can happen together where each can find solace in like minded can't-move-on-ers leaving the rest of us to actually move forward and discuss meaningful and relevant topics.
I'll have to agree with th earlier poster who mentioned Brute from City of Villains. My brute (Super Strength/Willpower) rushes in, AoEs the whole group of mobs, deals huge amounts of damage and uses taunt to pull the next group of enemies before the current one is dead to make sure there are always fresh kills to be had. It's a really intense play style! It's also perfect for a super hero MMORPG since you feel really super powered doing it.
Thanks for the replies, they're great. And some are amusing. I never played Lineage so it's interesting to hear there was a tank class with a panther?
Hearing the enthusiasm from players who enjoy a class makes me want to try some of them. I might just have to re-install some of the older games and give them a try. Might start with Vanguard.
I do not like the assumption that the tank automatically runs the group. For instance, in TBC in WoW, groups would always make the tank mark targets and set up CC. It got very tedious and annoying, especially when the group didn't want to play along. In EQ it was often the assumed the tank's job to fill a group or find replacements. I'm just not that outgoing or ambitious about it any longer.
Comments
I`d have to say City of Heroes. Tanks in that game were tough. They could take a LOT of damage and survive, although their damage output was so-so at best. But man, I feel tough playing one.
I remember doing a 25 man instance in Wow and seeing our well-geared main tank lose half his tens of thousands of hp on one hit to the final boss. I always thought that was ridiculous.
I really like the tank classes in WAR. Fun in pve, fun in pvp, and as a Chosen, dead sexy!
Warhammer fanatic since '85.
I think my favorite was WoW's Warrior, they seemed to have the most tools and abitilies as a tank and was just fun in overall charging around and intercepting.
I also tried all the other WoW tank classes, and with Cata I'd say DK comes second in engaging then Druid and Paladin, I espececially deplore Druid tank mechanics.
I did like tanking in Rift for awhile, with my riftstalker since it was a new idea to me (I didn't play any of the old-school tanking, which I would have loved to, since the idea of diversity in any role is a good thing for me), but keeping up the buffs just to tank? It's a strange mechanic, I tried the warrior tanking as well, but it seems all of them require... Too much buttons, rather than having the right amount. Also there isn't enough utility to play around with, which is dissapointing, since many of them seem to be spred throughout different souls.
Tanking in GW was an interesting concept, I liked how environment had to play in order to 'tank' and hold attention of mobs.
I think I would really love to see a tanking mechanic like in DA:O, where the heavy armored characters attract more aggro, while their 'taunting' ability is limited and overall team placement strategy is played even in smallest battles.
Ninja FFXI.
Guild Wars 2's 50 minutes game play video:
http://n4g.com/news/592585/guild-wars-2-50-minutes-of-pure-gameplay
Everything We Know about GW2:
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/287180/page/1
I concur! First class I picked was Chosen. Their amor is one of the most intimadating out there. Never did care for WAR's pve, but I really did like my chosen out in the lakes. S&B or 2H, they tore it up. Was not much of an orc person, and did not care for the dwarves. KOTBS turned out pretty cool as well, although their armor to me was kind of lame.
WoW's Warrior was definitely good. Pretty much had all the right tools, while remaining somewhat challenging. For a while, after pally tanks were redone, warriors took more skill or finesse to play, and they had things working pretty good for them. I liked my shadowknight in EQ2 a lot as well.
As much as I hate to admit it since I'm not a huge WoW fan, I agree. WoW has the best tanking classes. I nearly always play tanks too since my wife plays a healer. No other game has fleshed out the role nearly as well.
I love playing as a tank, it's my default primary/main build in most MMOs that have the holy trinity setup. I don't know why I like to play as a tank mostly, but I just do. It seems to require the most technical knowledge and heads up in a game, maybe on par with a really good healer in a large heal intensive group, or a crowd control class in an add-intensive situation - but those are situational, and games with a Holy Trinity setup almost always need a tank.
I do not like the assumption that the tank automatically runs the group. For instance, in TBC in WoW, groups would always make the tank mark targets and set up CC. It got very tedious and annoying, especially when the group didn't want to play along. In EQ it was often the assumed the tank's job to fill a group or find replacements. I'm just not that outgoing or ambitious about it any longer.
I didn't try a tank in LOTRO, although I'm tempted to go back. I played for many, many years as an SK in EQ1, and for a good while as a feral druid in WoW. There was some time as a Warrior in WoW. A bit in CoH, but apparently I missed the good tanking time between patches and nerfs in that game.
Honestly though, I have had the most fun with Fiona in Vindictus. That game isn't holy trinity based, and she isn't really a "tank" per-say, but it's a lot of fun actually watching your shield slam totally throw pack of monsters across the room.
For me was the Reaver on Alb side in DAOC.
Gotta love the flex weapon. And the slam/levi combo rocked.
Out of the classes I played a lot in WAR, IB was probably #2 or #3 in terms of playtime.
However it was a textbook example of WAR's utterly terrible sense of class/combat design. In a twenty-second span if my IB was surrounded by 6 enemies he could land 24 CC effects in 20 seconds! Completely and utterly ridiculous. Their "solution" to this was equally nonsensical (immunity timers.)
If this game had only had good class/combat design and more fluid movement (including not getting stuck on terrain every 2 mins) I probably would've stuck with it longer.
I really want to like a completely over-the-top Warhammer-inspired MMO...but WAR specifically was a tragically disappointing game.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
I was very fond of my Swordsman in Asheron's Call 1.
I don't really remember any way to draw aggro in AC1 other than by doing the most damage. So I guess you couldn't exactly call him a tank. And of course AC1 was a skill based MMORPG. But with Item Magic (the ability to buff/debuff both weapons and armor), Arcane Lore (the ability to wear magic jewelry that buffed just about everything else), and some really impressive skills in Melee and Magic Defense - he could just put his back into a corner and slice up endless waves of higher level mobs all say long.
PvP was a slightly different story. But that character was not exactly a slouch here either. I seem to remember having a pretty decent run skill, and a few other tricks in my bag to cope with ranged damage dealers.
Lineage 2 - Dark Avenger
You have your shield your sword and A MOTTA FUCKING DARK PANTHER hell yeah, this little fella actually gave lots of damage, besides its low def and hp. Pluss some Shield Stun, slows, drain life, ultima defences. Gold old times, today i cant stand tanks taunt/agro borefest.
now: GW2 (11 80s).
Dark Souls 2.
future: Mount&Blade 2 BannerLord.
"Bro, do your even fractal?"
Recommends: Guild Wars 2, Dark Souls, Mount&Blade: Warband, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.
LotRO Warden.
Whenever it's a question about favorite class/unique class/best class I will almost always answer Warden for it's different playstyle.
Edit: Oh yeah, I like NIN/DRK tanking in FFXI too. It was challenging and if you were good at it, it showed.(much like warden)
We really need separate forums for every newly launched game. There can be the anti-<MMO> one and there can be the 'what general discussion should be' one. All the lamenting can happen together where each can find solace in like minded can't-move-on-ers leaving the rest of us to actually move forward and discuss meaningful and relevant topics.
Heavy Tank VIB Tiger II (world of tanks)
I'll have to agree with th earlier poster who mentioned Brute from City of Villains. My brute (Super Strength/Willpower) rushes in, AoEs the whole group of mobs, deals huge amounts of damage and uses taunt to pull the next group of enemies before the current one is dead to make sure there are always fresh kills to be had. It's a really intense play style! It's also perfect for a super hero MMORPG since you feel really super powered doing it.
Hearing the enthusiasm from players who enjoy a class makes me want to try some of them. I might just have to re-install some of the older games and give them a try. Might start with Vanguard.
... Make the healer do it.