Tanks in Arena

[Deleted]

It's Arena week for the weekly event.......so as a mainly PvE player and part time PvP dabbler, I thought I'd give a few random skirmishes a shot. By no means am I a ranked pvp player, I just have a bit of fun and try my best in pvp.

I main Prot pala, and have 876 ilvl, so not the best, just kinda average. Naturally I queue as Tank, and dang, the hostility I experienced from my teammates in various matches was incredible. It's not like I was going RBG's or Rated Arena, it was just skirmishes to complete the weekly quest.

Sure my dps was poor, but I was easily locking down healers and other squishies and wearing them down with attrition. I guess it's not too fun to play against a tank, but the hostility was from my own team, especially if we lost! I can play as Ret as the gear is similar and my weapon has 35 traits, but I'm not too good with that spec so I lost even more when playing as Ret. I have 31 traits in Holy so could heal instead, but same as above, I have no healing skill in pvp.

TL;DR - is it a big no no to play tank in Arena skirmishes?

[Soisoisoi]

You do nothing useful as Tank and are just an annoyance at best, so, yeah... Just don't. You'd be better off playing Ret or preferably Holy, just learning that over time would be a much better scenario for everyone.

[Woop Woop]

Players are more toxic when things don't go their way (losing). It just shows better in pvp.

[Deleted]

You do nothing useful as Tank and are just an annoyance at best, so, yeah... Just don't. You'd be better off playing Ret or preferably Holy, just learning that over time would be a much better scenario for everyone.

Fair point, I generally just do the pvp towers and WQ's and just avoid instanced pvp as I'm a complete pvp noob. As I'm so rarely in arena/bg's I don't know what the current pvp "etiquette" is (if there is such a thing :P).

Playing holy is a bit of a pain as I need different gear and enchants, however if that's what I need to do to be of more use then I guess that's the best way forward!

[Tyrean]

Prot Paladins and Blood DKs are actually two tanks that can work in arena. You just have to play differently. A Prot Paladin is there to harass, peel and support. That means keeping your other dps mobile, healing when needed, stunning to peel, etc. If all you are trying to do is dps, then yeah you are a waste. Prot paladin can actually be play at fairly high level as a half dps/half healer.

[Mopar]

Playing holy is a bit of a pain as I need different gear and enchants, however if that's what I need to do to be of more use then I guess that's the best way forward!

Gear and enchants don't work in instanced pvp. Simply wearing your highest item level gear regardless of stats or spec will give the best results.

[Troma]

It's Arena week for the weekly event.......so as a mainly PvE player and part time PvP dabbler, I thought I'd give a few random skirmishes a shot. By no means am I a ranked pvp player, I just have a bit of fun and try my best in pvp.

I main Prot pala, and have 876 ilvl, so not the best, just kinda average. Naturally I queue as Tank, and dang, the hostility I experienced from my teammates in various matches was incredible.


TL;DR - is it a big no no to play tank in Arena skirmishes?

Don't listen to them. With honor talents and PvP templates, tanks has a role now. They are just ignorant. Next time they open their mouths, just link them prot pal Gladiators like Chanimalf or Dya (just google them)

[Deleted]

Protection Paladin is ok, better than Holly (the most useless healer in PvP) for sure. Just don't expect you will have more survivability then Retribution as you receive 25% more dmg taken as most other tanks do. The best tank in PvP at the moment is prot Warrior (15% more dmg taken). Second would be Guardian Druid probably (10% more dmg taken), while BrM Monk and Blood DK are on the bottom. I have never seen Brm or BDK in PvP since Legion Launch, maybe two or three times only. BrM monk has zero survivability and is by far the worst 1 vs 1 spec in the game (instanced PvP only), Blood DK has ok survivability but zero dmg

[Alyajna]

it's been mentioned but the only thing that matters in PvP is your iLvl and your artifact traits - and then, only up to 35 traits(those 10% power end points don't count in instanced pvp). Enchants on your gear doesn't matter, you also can't use 'on use' trinkets anymore. Everyone has a stat template that you can't customize. So, as for PvP, you can literally play whatever class you want and the only limiting factor is going to be having 35 traits in your weapon, which is relatively easy with current AK levels, and your honor talents, which unlock between all specs. On my Monk for instance, I have a set a gear set 'pvp' saved, and it's got the highest itemlevel pieces I have putting me at 875. If I were to wear my pve spec with correct stats, I'd only be 870, Also, she is a healer, and the two trinkets are agility ones that I got from WQ and they titanforged.

[Deleted]

Tank pvp died in WoD, man, just don't, it's really crap.

[Resentless]

It's Arena week for the weekly event.......so as a mainly PvE player and part time PvP dabbler, I thought I'd give a few random skirmishes a shot. By no means am I a ranked pvp player, I just have a bit of fun and try my best in pvp.

I main Prot pala, and have 876 ilvl, so not the best, just kinda average. Naturally I queue as Tank, and dang, the hostility I experienced from my teammates in various matches was incredible. It's not like I was going RBG's or Rated Arena, it was just skirmishes to complete the weekly quest.

Sure my dps was poor, but I was easily locking down healers and other squishies and wearing them down with attrition. I guess it's not too fun to play against a tank, but the hostility was from my own team, especially if we lost! I can play as Ret as the gear is similar and my weapon has 35 traits, but I'm not too good with that spec so I lost even more when playing as Ret. I have 31 traits in Holy so could heal instead, but same as above, I have no healing skill in pvp.

TL;DR - is it a big no no to play tank in Arena skirmishes?

It's not a big no if you know what youre doing. I lost several 2v2's vs prot pala+dh at 2.3k mmr cause of some insane self/off healing and cc. Not exactly low damage either especially with avenging wrath. It's awkward in skirmishes I guess cause your teammates arent gonna be sure how to respond to you (though you'll meet many ignorant failures who wont even give it a chance, but they're usually sucky anyway), but really its gonna be fine if you trust yourself and your knowledge of the spec. Prot pala is basically the only good tank in pvp, maybe guardian druid/veng DH for rated bgs but thats it, so youre lucky there.

[Snegovik]

I run DH as an alt and combined with prot pally it's very op for skirmishes. But prot must know their classes well in PvP, most pvers don't hence the rage. If I grp with a.random tank I ask them to afk in the back and let me 1v2. Bear tank is also pretty OP In 2s skirmishes

[Nuba]

in SWTOR tanks have ways of stopping damage in their allies and more disruption than DPS toons, so people usually want them in arenas (in SWTOR arenas are 4v4, and every match is a best-of-3, teams are always either 2 heals 2 dps, or 1 heals 1 tank 2 dps)

[Cannibalus]

I only play bear in PvP these days. In RBG i'm almost 2.2 rating, in 2.2 i capped (10 wins) at almost 2k mmr with a Demon Hunter friend and in 3v3 we went to 1.8 CR with a disc (or holy don't remember) and we were all drunk and laughing at the fact that we were beating fotm comps.

Tanks are just fine, you just need to know how to play and that takes some practice. A week ago a friend was playing DK tank in RBG at 2k mmr, mass-grip is OP still, Demon Hunter was stunning whole team etc.

[Snegovik]

Tanks are viable at low cr or lower middle but at high end they are not viable, even prot pallies got nerfed towards end of S1 so ppl who still refer to that comp don't PvP much , referring to arena, in RBGs for some comps 1 tank can work well though

[iamthedevil]

There is nothing wrong with running a tank in skimishes. Prot warrior for example has some very good CC honor talents.

[SirreASDF]

It kind of differs what the "hostile" players play as well, and the general skill level of the tank in PvP. I'd never be hostile to anyone, but I do let out a sigh when getting into a skirmish with a tank.

Tanks works fine in Skirmish, but most people playing a tank spec in skirmish are usually not that good at PvPing (Which is sad, since most of them have a nice toolkit, that is seldom used for good purposes.)

Myself being a caster who, in a double dps situation, only has a chance of winning by getting some good burst going from both me and my teammate before dying myself, getting in with a tank usually means a loss, unless the tank can solo the two remaining players (Which happens! But it's not all that fun..).

Now, in the rare cases I get in with a tank specced player that actually peels for me, it can be pretty fun, but that is very rare. Not saying tank players are bad, there's a ton of bad dpsers as well obviously, but a DPS straight up tunneling another player for an entire game is easier to win for me as a bursty caster, then a tank player trying to tunnel someone until they fall over..

I'd like to see tank specs as some kind of utility, where as they're not really "tanks" but more of a supporting role, with lots of disruption and some meaningful cooldown burst..

[Sencha]

What's the problem with tanks in arena?

[glowzone]

I play prot warrior all the time, last time I've been raged at for being prot (by my allies atleast) was like..TBC?
Just stick to it and get better at it. What the others think really doesn't matter.

[Deleted]

What's the problem with tanks in arena?

Problem is that in MMOs, tanks aren't armored juggernaughts who do tremendous damage and are mandatory for any battlefield. In MMOs tanks have a lot of survivability, sometimes a lot of tools, but horrid damage, so they mostly end up being annoying gnats who cc but can't kill shit because they don't have the damage. In Legion, they don't have survivability either, so they can't survive, they can't kill, but they are slightly annoying with cc.