The line, for me, is drawn when the class is both internally and externally balanced. Tank internal balance is flawed in the sense that even DPS tanks prefer to play S&B because there's no benefit to speccing two handed. Tank external balance... well, let me say that I would be very surprised if we removed Marauder from the equation and ended up with a meta that included DPS Blackguards in the melee DPS slots.Ok, lets take the black guard for example then
A black guard can equip a twohander, run a tactic to give them a nearly permanent 50% outgoing healing debuff, and not be detauntable while being able to keep a target locked into combat, removing their armor and debuffing various other stats.
At what level of damage dealing potential does a DPS BG become the more valid choice for a group to run over another form of DPS due to your utility from CC and various buffs and debuffs.
Where do you draw the line?
This is the basic argument we have with the marauder right now, every destro team basically must run a marauder. You are a fool not to at this point, it has the best abilities in the game at this level in terms of utility and the damage is respectable, it's not as heavy as a WL, but the debuffs boost your other team mates damage output into the next tier of awesome.
If we dialed those debuffs back then you'd be better off just running said DPS black guard because his utility would outshine the Marauders now.
Sure, if it were me designing this, tanks with a 2h out would be sacrificing some utility and defense for more damage, as they should - leaving them somewhere viable between MDPS and defensive tanks. Tanks with S&B would never have been allowed to be valid DPS options.
I do read a lot when DPS tanks are discussed that "oh, your damage will be good for a tank but it won't compare to an MDPS" or about the difference between sustained damage and burst damage in the context of tank vs MDPS. As long as this remains the case I don't see the problem.
No, we don't. Equally, if any changes were made which DID bring about such a meta, that would be the point of doing serious testing.Do we really need another "hey, lets just cross guard tank train and never die" meta to come around again?
One thing to remember with less professional projects such as this one is that we do have the liberty to screw something up and revert it within a short timeframe. If, at any point in the future, tanks were to be changed such that they became a total joke, AND that happened to make it past focused testing, we could revert the changes immediately rather than make people wait weeks or months for a patch to do it.
