Kabaal wrote:Simply having mitigation numbers show on the scoreboard would be enough to encourage more people to use tanks properly.
You dont read the forums much do you... This has been suggested multiple times and multiple times the DEVs have said they cant change what numbers show on the scoreboard. Also, mitigation numbers wont show anything except block/dodge/parry etc are the only stats that get tracked, and this has no impact or relevance to guarding.
Look, this entire thread is focused on the guard problem. I see it on destro and order side both. The vast majority of tanks in this game DONT want to guard any one. The only ones that do, are usually premade groups, or SNB tanks which are the minority from my experience.
People say "educate" them, this is bullshit frankly. Ive tried over and over and over. Doesnt work, people tell you to shut up, that "dps is utility and they are pressuring healers" ive heard it all.
So you have to address why people are doing what they are doing to fix the behaviour. Tanks that dont guard, dont guard because they care about 1 thing: Damage. They dont guard because they dont want to have to stay in guard range of someboday - because they want to deal damage, not follow someone around.
They dont guard because they take more damage, which is going to hurt their ability to deal damage. They dont guard because they want to see bigger numbers and dont build for tankiness via stacking higher parry/dodge/disrupt but will use renown on strength instead or crit... So they (again) dont guard because they cant take a beating... so they dont guard because they will die very quickly.
So how can we change this behavior? I agree that building in some add on into the game might help. I use Enemy and have a HUGE "blue/red" shield on my screen when I am within guard range or not of a target. Guess what though.... While this helps educate players on guard range (ive met several tanks that didnt even realize guard had a range btw) it DOESNT address the above issues....
So how can we address the issue of players not wanting to use guard. Well, the solution to me seems simple, provide a benefit to the tank himself for guarding. He already takes more damage, and we cant buff his "tankiness" as that frankly doesnt make sense... But what is something the tank cares about? Damage. So if we remove the bonus from taunt, and add back some of the bonus into "guard" so that tanks that are guarding or within range of guard get some special benefit, now you will have every 2H tank under the sun guarding everyone around him AND learning that guard has a range. Not just that too, now every 2H tank under the sun will want to max parry so that he takes less damage from guard...
Sure premades will benefit from this as well, however many premades run SNB tanks and frankly this wont help SNB all that much. Not just this, but it also greatly impacts PUG vs PUG SCs as well and I think it mainly increases the QoL for many players who might not have a large guild.
Personally, I play in NA and there are often not many NA guys in my guild or alliance on at some hours of the day. If you want to increase population, then increasing the QOL for guys who dont play in full premades would be a boost to that. Playing a MDPS class makes you realize it more and more, how not fun it is, and how frustrating it is trying to get a tank to guard you. Even when they do, they run away from you and almost see it as your job to follow and assist off them while they rush the back line - mainly because not many opponents ever FF a tank so the second you try and get close to him/them YOU (being the MDPS) are focused.
While this doesnt change PM vs PM games, and while it also wont really change PUG vs PM games, it will be a step towards balancing things out. One of the biggest impacts in this game is guarding. Even if you are a solid premade, if your tanks are not guarding you can lose to PUGs. There is virtually zero in game guard support and even if there were, there is no "incentive" for a tank to guard, unless he wants to be selfless for the benefit of the team... I really dont see any other way to significantly encouraging the behavior of guarding someone else other than providing a damage increase to the one who is guarding to encourage it.