Poll of the Day > People who play MMORPGs, I have a question

(+) Yeah! (+)

Has there ever been a magic tank? Like a character/class/job that its main focus is a tank that uses mostly, if not all mage to tank for the party?

I am saw a demo for a game that had a character do a magic shield to block attacks for their party and was wondering if that was ever done. And if so, which game?

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I think ESO has magic tanks

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Warlocks tanked one of the twin emperors in AQ40 of vanilla WoW

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hypnox posted...

Has there ever been a magic tank? Like a character/class/job that its main focus is a tank that uses mostly, if not all mage to tank for the party?

Not necessarily going to be able to answer for MMOs (because they're shit and I avoid them as much as possible), but...

Arguably, barrier mages in DA:I could be seen as magic tanks, because their main effect is to restore shields. And it would definitely be possible to build a tank magic user or even a "gish" (hybrid magic/melee class) in D&D.
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Well in FFXIV, Paladins alternate between a physical rotation and a magic rotation and they have a heal spell, and a lot of Dark Knight's abilities are technically spells, but both classes primarily fight using swords.

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Actually, there is a spellcasting class in FFXIV, Blue Mage that *does* have the ability to tank, but you can't use it in current content, but there are achievements to complete old raids with a party of all BLUs so somebody does have to tank.

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FFXI has runefencer which is the closest I can think of to what you're talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFI3HxceVdA

"Quick with a blade as well as an incantation, the Rune Fencer (RUN) is a versatile duelist that employs the power of arcane runes to sway the tide of battle both offensively and defensively. This fighter excels in magical defense and elemental resistance, allowing this stalwart defender to protect his or her allies. Unlocked by completing the Children of the Rune quest."

FFXI also has manawall, which in weird niche situations can allow black mages to tank: https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Mana_Wall ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omonBsGURKo

Both old old videos and a bit out of date, but general idea sticks

A magic tank doesn't really make sense because most magic requires intense concentration and you really can't achieve that while getting slapped in the face.

But a paladin or cleric(DnD heavy armored boi)is like the closest thing you can get.

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I made a few in Dungeons and Dragons online, they were pretty awesome.

In that game there is a race called Warforged, which is ...well ....complicated, but like living wood and machine.

Anyway, it can be healed by repair spells which wizards cast. It also has a bonus to con and a bunch of other defensive stuff (like eventually immunity to crit hits etc).

Because of this, and because there are so many really good defensive wizard spells, you could make a quite decent warforged tank/wizard (who still did serious damage so could grab and keep aggro).

There were other defensive magic using setups as well, and a big part of why it worked is because the +lvl 20 content allowed you to pick and choose what you wanted to grab, but yeah, it was a pretty freaking good tank (and fun to play).

Kinda wanna play DDO again soon actually, just in the middle of playing path of exile and a new steamworld dig type game that just came out (which is lots of fun).

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This is one of those things were you're probably asking for something really specific. Paladins use holy magic and Death Knights use death magic in wow.

Sith Assassin/Jedi Shadow in TOR.

Clerics could tank in EQ, but typically that was a very invested level of play that people still leveling/gearing up wouldn't engage in. It was also kind of a waste of a Cleric since they were, you know, Clerics. Necro and Mage pets could also tank.

In ESO pretty much anyone can become a tank, you can be a Nightblade tank, Sorc Tank, Necro tank, again all classes can do and most if not all classes can opt to use magic and every version is viable in it's own way, for PvE atleast.

Paladin archetypes in any game often use magic to heal and tank.

Actually... in most RPGs I can't think of that many classes where you have massive magic/spell/elemental defense but lack physical defense

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warlock in wow
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EvilMegas posted...

A magic tank doesn't really make sense because most magic requires intense concentration and you really can't achieve that while getting slapped in the face.

depends on the creator and how powerful the caster is
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Red_Frog posted...

Sith Assassin/Jedi Shadow in TOR.

They're more like rogues tbh

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Red_Frog posted...

Sith Assassin/Jedi Shadow in TOR.

Nah more like Stealth DPS for the most part...they have a 'Tank' like Discipline, but as 'Main' Tanks they are lousy...
And honestly they are not really that good at 'Mage/Spell/Force' casting

pionear posted...

Nah more like Stealth DPS for the most part...they have a 'Tank' like Discipline, but as 'Main' Tanks they are lousy...
And honestly they are not really that good at 'Mage/Spell/Force' casting

They worked fine as main tanks the years I played unless something has changed, depending on the patch they were sometimes considered the best tanks. There wasn't really a core difference between their tank spec and the other two tank specs.

Due to the way their shielding worked there were some patches where their damage would spike too high, but I don't think that was ever the norm or intended function.

DPS always seemed to be a bigger challenge to balance, for a long time there were "main" DPS classes and "off" DPS classes with like a 10%+ damage difference.

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EvilMegas posted...

But a paladin or cleric(DnD heavy armored boi)is like the closest thing you can get.

Do not forget Eldritch Knights. Also, only a few Clerics get Heavy Armour from their domain. If anything, I miss a true squishy healer class in 5e.

A magic tank doesn't really make sense because most magic requires intense concentration and you really can't achieve that while getting slapped in the face.

Warcaster, con save proficiency, good con. Hey, the Eldritch Knight I mentioned can do all that.

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Blighboy posted...

They worked fine as main tanks the years I played unless something has changed, depending on the patch they were sometimes considered the best tanks. There wasn't really a core difference between their tank spec and the other two tank specs.

Due to the way their shielding worked there were some patches where their damage would spike too high, but I don't think that was ever the norm or intended function.

DPS always seemed to be a bigger challenge to balance, for a long time there were "main" DPS classes and "off" DPS classes with like a 10%+ damage difference.

As far as what? I only recently started to play last year (my Main is an Infiltration (DPS) Shadow), and really, the only 'Tank' abilities they have are a couple of Taunt-like moves and a Guard move

Not sure about the 'Tank' Kinetic tho, haven't tried it

I haven't played in like five years so maybe they completely fucked then over idk. But as far as I know SWTOR hasn't had a "real" update since I stopped playing.

But they got a stance that would jack up their armour and threat generation values, at which point they're basically like any other tank.

It's possible when levelling you're missing some core abilities, but that's true for every classm

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There's a few magic classes with pets that can tank for a time; but none that I can think of that have been a true 'magic tank'.

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Technically ffxi ninja was only able to tank because of ninjutsu

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Blighboy posted...

I haven't played in like five years so maybe they completely fucked then over idk. But as far as I know SWTOR hasn't had a "real" update since I stopped playing.

But they got a stance that would jack up their armour and threat generation values, at which point they're basically like any other tank.

It's possible when levelling you're missing some core abilities, but that's true for every classm

They had plenty, about to get a new Expansion this Fall for the 10th Anniversary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQYB2SU6H1g