Which class will be the best MT for raids?

[Lifecatcher]

Man-I do hope they balance them out. It saddens me when you see a class that shines above the rest..

I think the best should really be determined by the players skill, or at the very least, the situation.

But either way just pick whatever class suits you best. Because in reality the best class for you is the one you will have fun playing.

[Charlemagne_the_Conqueror]

"Situational" best tanks would be great, and if that's what Vanguard plans to do, I hope they can implement them good

[Kstone498]

I believe Sigil intends to make all subclasses somewhat equal in their main roles, whether this will happen im not so sure of. We really dont know and cant tell which class will be better for tanking raids, we probably woulnt know until open beta and or until after release. I imagine some classes to be better at tanking different situations.

[geckokhan]

I believe high end tanking will be considerable to that of everquest. Warrior were the primary high end tank. While paladins and shadowknights could subsitute in certain situations, and most of the time cut it in groups, warrior would always tank because they had the most hps/ac, and could hold aggro the best most of the time.

[Zer033x]

In EQ it was always warriors were the raid tank, and SK/Pal was always best for grouping. This was because warriors could take the hits a lot better than SK/Pal, but didn't offer anything else really. Group mobs didn't hit as hard so SK/Pal was fine, and their lifetap/healing abilities were a lot more useful. Also SK/Pal was better at gaining agro on a whim where as a warrior at least for a long while there had to rely on generating it over time. I think each of the defensive tanks should have their own uses and if one of the uses for one of them is best utilized on raid mobs then so be it. I think the other ones will still have enough strengths to make them best for certain situations.

Just guessing here is how I think it will be. Warriors will probably end up being the raid MT, Dread Knights will end up being good for when crowd control is needed, Paladins will be best for if fighting undead and also good for single groups because of retaliationt type stuff, Inquisitor I'm not really certain, but might be good for fighting caster type enemies.

The Dread Knight (which is what I plan to be) I think is going to be focused on fear and its effects on the enemy. So fear can cause such things as debuffs, stunning, damage over time, and agro.

Paladin will be focused on helping others. So helping others can cause healing, buffing, and damage bursts as retaliation for group members.

Warriors will be focused on pure fighting. I think things that will happen because of pure fighting are warriors will probably do the best DPS of the defensive fighters, and possibly even tank slightly better through use of parrys and dodges and such.

Inquisitor I'm not too sure about, but their focus as I understand it will be arcane damage and maybe coutner spelling. So the inquisitor might actually end up being the highest damage defensive tank because arcane damagers are usually up high on the DPS charts. They might also good at stopping casting of caster type targets they're fighting.

So going by what I think it seems the Dread Knight will be desired if crowd control is needed. This could be good for filling in a spot when you can't get a psionicist. Paladins will be desired when fighting undead and just all around most groups will probably not tell a paladin to go away because of their ability to sustain life of the group. Warriors will end up doing the second most damage of defensive tanks (inquisitor might be the DPS defensive tank), but will also tank 1 on 1 best. I think warriors will have a large array of weapon skills depending on the type of weapon they're using. For instance slasher weapons might give the warrior the ability to slash tendons and such slowing movement or attacking speed, and blunt type weapons might have armor breaking abilities. Inquisitors I think are going to be the highest DPS defensive tank because of their nuke capabilities so might be desired if the group is pretty set on crowd control and healing and would benefit more from some good DPS.

[Ezrael]

Heh I think lots of people really need to go read the info that's out there on defensive fighters and dev comments before you post in things like this.

Pretty clear that lots of people are pointlessly holding onto the naive EQ views.

[ellestil]

I wouldn't say people here are just EQ biased and naive Ezrael. EQ is a popular example used, but there have been many MMORPG's where one tank class becomes the standard. It has been a repeated trend throughout online gaming so therefore it isn't naive to assume the same will happen in Vanguard.

For example, in FFXI a paladin was the best mitigation tank in game. Ninja/Warrs could avoid and in some cases were preferred but paladins dominated that market even though the game had Warriors who could tank as well. Eq2 has Gaurdians that are the preferred tank (and that is despite the many assurances from SOE that all tanks would be able to equally tank).

Now when it comes to group content, sure, most tanks can do fine and you may acheive a balance there. It's when raiding comes in to play that one class will usually have an advantage and become preferred. From that there is a trickle down effect where they become preferred for grouping as well (especially as new content gets more difficult in expansions). This is true in EQ, EQ2, FFXI, WoW, AC, etc.

So, even though I HOPE Vanguard finally is able to acheive valid raid tanking from all tank classes, past experience from many games and different companies have taught otherwise time and time again. That's why you will continue to see posts like this one until Vanguard is released and either dispells this notion, or confirms it once again.

Ellestil

[Sotaklasgr]

I think Paladin is the number 1# mt i have a paladin in eq 2 and he is very good

[ThallidZek]

Best MT might not be Warrior, simply because you are losing out on DPS for the raid. Since Warriors have been labled the offensive tank, they might find themselves being more useful as an OT and DPS. I'd kinda like that task if i was a War

[Cuddlepanda]

Without certain special abilities that other protective fighters are recieving, it definately stands to reason that the Warrior will be the best choice, even after what Sigil has said about equalization. Paladins can heal, Dreadknights can fear and debuff...Warriors should be tanking.

That's what I think anyway