I have read here and on twitch from some high lvl players (mostly legendary) but I’m sure this could apply to champion (where I’m currently playing), that tankier characters should be protecting ranged oriented characters so that they can best take out specials and such during hordes and what not. I’m perfectly fine with playing this role and just want to know exactly what this means.
My thoughts are that it means having awareness of both hordes and regular skaven/other regular enemies and dealing with them, and trying to keep them away from Sienna/Waystalker/Bounty Hunter and Huntsman. Basically sorta watching their back. I have also been told that a shield is pretty decent for this by a Sienna player, because if as Bardin I take the Drake fire gun (flamethrower) and try to kill all the horde than they can’t shotgun (beam staff) specials and elites indefinitely because they rely on crits from slave rats to keep their overheat down.
I am perfectly cool with playing this role as tank, but I wouldn’t mind some more specifics as to how to keep my damage dealers free to do their job and would not mind feedback on how best to fill this role for the good of the team.
It varies somewhat depending on who is on your team, but whenever I tank I also take charge of positioning, and tell the team where I’m taking a stand so they can get behind me. If you’re in a tunnel / hall / some kind of choke point facing the horde, get in front of your team and hold back the rush so that your ranged folks can shoot them over you. (If you’re tanking as Kruber instead of Bardin, crouch so you don’t get shot in the back!) If you’re not chasing enemies trying to get kills you can usually see everything that is going on a bit better and call things out to your team accordingly, letting them know what specials you see/hear and pushing enemies back to give them breathing room to snipe. And whenever you see a teammate getting mobbed (either by a horde, maybe a few stormvermin or chaos warriors) that’s your time to shine and go bash them around so that your teammate has a chance to land some attacks.
Shields are also awesome if you get pinned down by a horde and then a gasrat throws a globe at you before someone can take him out - tank with a shield can call out a direction to move in and bash + push through the horde that way. Otherwise everyone tries to scatter all different directions and things get nasty.
You as a tank lead that group. Don’t let that cocky elf or wizard think otherwise. If they get smashed because they got too hungry for the kills that was anyway theirs to collect, then let them die. That teaches them some lessons.
Like Flinlok said, you are the man when squishy ranged gets swamped in melee and I think it’s a bit shame that saves like that wont be mentioned by players or score board. You might not be doing that much dmg with shield push, but damn me if you just didn’t save that situation from getting even worse.
Thanx you really showed me something that I was missing, about leading. I tend to play support classes (healers etc) in other games and I’m not sure I want to be leading as such, if this is the main roll of tanky classes in this game I might look for a different roll. Only problem is that while I’m not horrible at not taking damage I’m not the best when playing a squishy class (I’m terrible with WHC).
So those Legendary Bardin IB’s if you have different experiences about leading, speak up, I would like to play this protector role I’m just not so much into leading especially when I would be the most inexperienced playing in Legendary when I chose to move up to that lvl of play. I do have no trouble standing in front or rushing to the aid of others, but as far as moving along the map I usually find the best player and stick with them, or move to a player that is alone cus you never want anyone alone in this game.
My general rule of thumb is that the best teamplayers are often noticed by going unnoticed, they’re the people that rarely go down and stab things before they get the chance to hit less perceptive people in the back.
That’s kind of what you want to do as a tank, play on perception and manipulate the battlefield to create hospitable circumstances for your team. Most of the time that doesn’t include only meleeing things with your axe while hordes approach from all sides and a pack of elites is heading to your more vulnerable teammates.
I don’t think it’s wise to cater to people that say things like ‘‘Stop killing X I want to proc my trait’’ however, unless you play with a specific person with a specific playstyle a lot and don’t mind compromising then you should expect people to play to their own strengths by either managing their resources properly or switching their (targeting) priorities around.
I’ve never once had the issue as Sienna where I felt irritated by someone killing a certain mob because ‘‘I couldn’t proc my trait’’ and I’ve run vent-on-crit on a lot of staves already.
@lillika as a tank you’re not so much the leader as someone that hovers around the outer edges of the group where necessary.
And even then there’s a difference between playing as a support and a tank, where a support will go so far as to clear off an entire chokepoint mostly on their own or with one teammate to relieve pressure from that area - A tank might be more focused on staggering elites trying to get swings off if they’ve gotten too close, or picking off stray mobs that get past a ranged teammate holding a choke so they don’t have to switch focus. From there on just play to your strengths as a support, which is to fill in the gaps left by the people you play with, find their weakness and make it your strength so they don’t have to.
Tl;dr play not just what you think you should do, not just what you feel they want, and not just what you feel your team needs, but combine these factors.
I don’t play legendary yet, but I know if I’m playing IB, Unchained, Foot Knight or even Zealot I tend to be the one getting others back up and trying to ensure the group survives and wins, so maybe this “leaderish” thing might work out for me.
I think it will, definitely experiment with it and adapt it to your own playstyle. You can fill the roll of tank very well without ever saying anything in chat too, that just means you have to be flexible and adapt to how your team is playing (like others have mentioned). Seeing a teammate get themselves into a sticky situation you can start moving toward them so that even if they go down you’ll be there instantly for the pickup.
You don’t need to be a tank to protect the special killers. You just have to buy space by pushing forwards/past the special killer. In the first place, they should be behind trying to spot specials/elites rather than joining in the melee.
as @Flinlock said, you can lead as a tank, holding down chokes or engaging heavy melee so they lock on to you.
another way to play is to babysit your ranged chars. let them run around and do whatever they want, but be there to protect them when they get caught. basically you become the party stabiliser.
That’s pretty much what I am doing with Foot Knight Kruber. Since Charge has basically no cooldown and you can cancel it early with block I just let everyone run wild and dash to where I’m needed most. Then grab a big 2h hammer and clear away the annoying enemies. I usually play with a full group of friends and we have an IB as dedicated tank. So our party is quite durable with both IB and Foot Knight. Protecting our Elf and Mage is usually no issue.
The Foot Knight “Support” works well with randoms too, because he is so mobile and gives some survivability to the rest of the party. I personally wouldn’t use a shield on him tho
Sometimes it can be nice just to say how you will play in the beginning of the map. some will make fun of you for stating the obvious but if people are aware that you wont handle specials at all they tend to maybe let you handle most of the horde whilst they keep a look out for those pesky specials.
But if you like to play someone who helps your gang out not just going for the kills I reccomend playing a sniperlike with revive speed property cause most people in public go right for the horde.
A salty bountyhunter with “Leave None Behind” talent and revivespeed trink is a fun medic sniper class you can try out.
