Return of Reckoning

Are there any plans to review defensive tank gear and tank survivability in general?

I would like to ask the dev team whether defensive tank itemisation, and more generally the reward for building a truly defensive tank, could potentially be reviewed in the future.

At the moment, going full defensive comes with a very significant trade-off: you sacrifice most of your damage in order to maximise survivability. In theory, that seems perfectly reasonable.

The problem is that with the current level of offensive power available to DPS classes, I sometimes feel that this trade-off is no longer sufficiently rewarded. Even when investing heavily into defensive stats, a tank can still be destroyed extremely quickly under pressure.

And this raises a more general question about the role of tanks in the game.

If a player accepts the constraints of playing a fully defensive tank very low damage, less solo killing potential, and a build almost entirely dedicated to protecting other players shouldn't the result be significantly greater survivability?

I am not suggesting that tanks should be immortal or survive indefinitely against several enemies. Obviously, a tank caught alone against 2, 3 or more properly played opponents should eventually die.

But in my opinion, a properly built full defensive tank should be extremely difficult for a single DPS player to kill. The same general philosophy could arguably apply to healers: these support roles should be very difficult to defeat alone, while coordinated pressure from multiple players remains the answer.

This would also reinforce the identity of these roles.

Tanks and healers are permanently needed in groups, warbands and scenarios, yet there is often a shortage of players willing to play them. If choosing a pure defensive/support build involves significant offensive sacrifices, perhaps the game should reward that choice more strongly through survivability.

So my questions are:

- Do the developers consider current full-defensive tank survivability to be where they want it?
- Is defensive tank gear/itemisation something that could be reviewed?
- And more generally, should specialising heavily into defence provide a stronger advantage against the current offensive power available to DPS builds?

I would be interested to hear the developers' philosophy on this.

You want to survive whitout a healer or whats going on here?

You literally see bunch on unkillable tanks punting people back and forth every night and day.

I would say tanks are too hard to kill and defences should be reduced.

rrrutsss wrote: Sat Sep 05, 2026 9:37 am You want to survive whitout a healer or whats going on here?

You literally see bunch on unkillable tanks punting people back and forth every night and day.

I would say tanks are too hard to kill and defences should be reduced.

Thats been going on for a while now afaik, I've been loosing % in avoidances over time so we understand that they've been nerfed a bit on their defensive capabilities.

For Swordmaster the only thing I'd ask is the fact that some sets still use Weapon Skill for their parry values (which now relies on initiative) and its almost useless in this class, changing it to some other stat would be great to start using some other sets (like warlord for example)

rrrutsss wrote: Sat Sep 05, 2026 9:37 am You literally see bunch on unkillable tanks punting people back and forth every night and day.

I would say tanks are too hard to kill and defences should be reduced.

I second this.

End gear tanks with defensive builds are really hard to kill. For my taste a bit too hard in regards of how much control they have over the fight and how strong healing, guard or defensive morals are.

They should at least at these points:

#1 revert the change of willpower contributing to disrupt and the "can't pierce more than half of the disrupt" non-sense. These two changes just had lots of negative side effects and need to be reverted.

#2 the tanks high parry rates that is being used to defend guard damage. Tanks were never meant to have such high defend rates on guard damage. It was initially on "block" chance that was used to defend guard damage, not "parry". Block is usually much lower than parry, therefore it has created an imbalance. The intention for 2h tanks was good but the side effects are again bad. Change guard damage defense to a combination of block and parry where block contributes 50% and parry 50%. A 2hand tank should be a worse guard than a shield tank. If they can pump their parry to over 70% than 50% of it is more than enough.

#3 the cheap renown abilities for parry/block/disrupt. It's one of the reasons that stealthers are such a pain. They have base parry, immunity abilities and can stack defense with these cheap renown abilities on top. It also made def tanks too defensive. Beside that there are no renown abilities to counter/pierce the defensive renown abilities.

chook06 wrote: Sat Sep 05, 2026 9:22 am Are there any plans to review defensive tank gear and tank survivability in general?

I would like to ask the dev team whether defensive tank itemisation, and more generally the reward for building a truly defensive tank, could potentially be reviewed in the future.

At the moment, going full defensive comes with a very significant trade-off: you sacrifice most of your damage in order to maximise survivability. In theory, that seems perfectly reasonable.

The problem is that with the current level of offensive power available to DPS classes, I sometimes feel that this trade-off is no longer sufficiently rewarded. Even when investing heavily into defensive stats, a tank can still be destroyed extremely quickly under pressure.

And this raises a more general question about the role of tanks in the game.

If a player accepts the constraints of playing a fully defensive tank very low damage, less solo killing potential, and a build almost entirely dedicated to protecting other players shouldn't the result be significantly greater survivability?

I am not suggesting that tanks should be immortal or survive indefinitely against several enemies. Obviously, a tank caught alone against 2, 3 or more properly played opponents should eventually die.

But in my opinion, a properly built full defensive tank should be extremely difficult for a single DPS player to kill. The same general philosophy could arguably apply to healers: these support roles should be very difficult to defeat alone, while coordinated pressure from multiple players remains the answer.

This would also reinforce the identity of these roles.

Tanks and healers are permanently needed in groups, warbands and scenarios, yet there is often a shortage of players willing to play them. If choosing a pure defensive/support build involves significant offensive sacrifices, perhaps the game should reward that choice more strongly through survivability.

So my questions are:

- Do the developers consider current full-defensive tank survivability to be where they want it?
- Is defensive tank gear/itemisation something that could be reviewed?
- And more generally, should specialising heavily into defence provide a stronger advantage against the current offensive power available to DPS builds?

I would be interested to hear the developers' philosophy on this.

can you post your stats, gear, renown pls ?

pretty sure it's knowledge and build issues.

I think my point is being misunderstood a little.

I'm not talking about a tank supported by healers, Guard interactions, defensive morales, etc. And I'm not saying that a tank should be immortal when several players focus it.

I'm simply talking about the basic trade-off when you choose to play FULL defensive.

If I build my tank almost entirely around defence, sacrificing most of my offensive potential to do so, then I think that choice should have a very clear consequence: a single DPS should not realistically be able to kill that tank in a 1v1.

That doesn't mean the tank should necessarily be able to kill the DPS either. A stalemate seems perfectly reasonable to me. The tank chose survivability over damage.

The same logic applies to a full healer. In a pure 1v1 situation, I don't think a DPS should normally be able to kill a properly built and properly played healer either. As soon as a second player gets involved, with coordinated pressure, interrupts, CC, heal debuffs, etc., the situation obviously changes completely.

That's the distinction I'm making:

1 DPS vs full defensive tank → the tank should survive.
1 DPS vs full healer → the healer should survive.
2 or more players focusing them → completely different situation.

Otherwise, what is the actual reward for sacrificing almost all your damage in order to maximise your defence?

And I also want to make it clear that I'm not only looking at this from the perspective of a tank player. I mainly play DPS, with several characters above RR80 and fully geared, and the difference feels very noticeable to me.

For some time now, I have had the feeling that it has become much easier, as a well-geared DPS, to bring some tanks down very quickly. In the past, attacking a defensive tank really felt like hitting a wall and required much more effort. That feeling seems far less present today.

I'm not presenting this as an absolute truth, but as my experience from both sides. And that's exactly what makes me wonder whether the overall increase in offensive power has gradually reduced the value and reward of playing a purely defensive tank.

I also think this raises a question about how attractive the role is. You only have to look at the different group-finding channels: tanks and healers are very regularly being looked for.

I'm not saying survivability is necessarily the only reason for this shortage. But I think the question is worth asking: when someone decides to play a tank, they primarily do it to support and protect their team, but they also reasonably expect that investing heavily into defence means they won't be destroyed extremely quickly.

If that feeling of being genuinely durable gradually disappears while the offensive sacrifices remain the same, then the role inevitably becomes less rewarding.

Regarding my gear and stats: yes, I can share them. But my question is broader than whether one particular build could gain another few percent of parry or block. What I'm asking is what the intended design philosophy is for a player who invests almost entirely into defence.

And regarding the “unkillable tanks” we sometimes see in RvR: the fact that a tank can be extremely difficult to kill while receiving heals and playing within a group does not necessarily mean that the tank itself is too durable. That's exactly what group support is supposed to achieve.

So my question is mainly about the individual survivability you get in return for the offensive sacrifice required to achieve it, and how that balance has evolved over time.

Lescargo wrote: Sat Sep 05, 2026 4:20 pm

chook06 wrote: Sat Sep 05, 2026 9:22 am Are there any plans to review defensive tank gear and tank survivability in general?

I would like to ask the dev team whether defensive tank itemisation, and more generally the reward for building a truly defensive tank, could potentially be reviewed in the future.

At the moment, going full defensive comes with a very significant trade-off: you sacrifice most of your damage in order to maximise survivability. In theory, that seems perfectly reasonable.

The problem is that with the current level of offensive power available to DPS classes, I sometimes feel that this trade-off is no longer sufficiently rewarded. Even when investing heavily into defensive stats, a tank can still be destroyed extremely quickly under pressure.

And this raises a more general question about the role of tanks in the game.

If a player accepts the constraints of playing a fully defensive tank very low damage, less solo killing potential, and a build almost entirely dedicated to protecting other players shouldn't the result be significantly greater survivability?

I am not suggesting that tanks should be immortal or survive indefinitely against several enemies. Obviously, a tank caught alone against 2, 3 or more properly played opponents should eventually die.

But in my opinion, a properly built full defensive tank should be extremely difficult for a single DPS player to kill. The same general philosophy could arguably apply to healers: these support roles should be very difficult to defeat alone, while coordinated pressure from multiple players remains the answer.

This would also reinforce the identity of these roles.

Tanks and healers are permanently needed in groups, warbands and scenarios, yet there is often a shortage of players willing to play them. If choosing a pure defensive/support build involves significant offensive sacrifices, perhaps the game should reward that choice more strongly through survivability.

So my questions are:

- Do the developers consider current full-defensive tank survivability to be where they want it?
- Is defensive tank gear/itemisation something that could be reviewed?
- And more generally, should specialising heavily into defence provide a stronger advantage against the current offensive power available to DPS builds?

I would be interested to hear the developers' philosophy on this.

can you post your stats, gear, renown pls ?

pretty sure it's knowledge and build issues.

^^ This.

Take a Super defensive tank, purely built for defenses. Now Cross guard that with another purely defensive tank. You just cut incoming damage to that heavily defensive tank in half. Super defensive tanks don't just have to guard squishy character's. They can guard each other and create a Hold the Line group for when RvR is very heavy.

The Heavy tank spec's can be used to Cross guard each other, further increasing the defensibility.

I believe the Mythic Developer's thought player's would form spec specific tank groups and cross-guard each other to plug holes in area's of interest in open RvR.
In addition Cross-guarded tank groups can hold the line in open field and be the spearhead of a warband.

These tank groups also have their own defensive morale cycle's and have ways to constantly hold the line.

Not all RvR group comps need to maintain the 2/2/2 formation. The only thing that seems to be required in a group for RvR is 2 healer's.

These HTL tank groups are useful in keep sieges and offenses typically and useful in BO holding.

If you build and play your tank correctly there is literally no way to die vs a '' single DPS player ''. Have to be afk for that or a newbie player.

Reconsider build, buffs, positioning, potions etc. Without a healer BIS def SnB should be able to hold vs 2-3 equally geared DPS player for a while, with a good chance to escape them with correct CC and using the terrain.

When tanks die to DPS classes in that context its because they spec poorly, spec offensively or are outplayed. Then it is a learning issue, def BIS tanks are hard to kill when controlled correctly, balance is fine here.

Oh look another solo post disguised as something else.