Which abilities for a tank?

[krainert]

Hey,

I'm devising a tank hero with 5 abilities, each having 3 levels, and I'm thinking I could use some inspiration regarding which abilities are suitable for a tank. My immediate ideas concern durability and low-range AoE crowd-control. Any thoughts?

 

[ZakkWylde-]

-thunderclap
-chance on hit for damage reduction/nullification (that is, the tank takes less or no damage from that hit)
-war stomp...
-temporary armor up
-dodge (could be temporary, like 70% chance for 5 seconds, or permanent, like 15%) [I will say, dodge doesn't feel so tanky as an ability--I feel like dodge would belong to agi, but it is definitely an option]
-a "charge" custom ability would be cool -- the tank rapidly approaches a unit (within 800 range or so) and stuns it briefly...
-cleave is always nice...
-a taunt, like Berserker's call (Axe, in DotA), that forces 1 (or all in an AoE) unit to attack you for a set amount of time. In DotA, this is paired with an armor bonus for the duration.
-chance on being hit to return damage or stun or slow...
-permanent HP (or strength) up after killing a unit...
-take less damage at the cost of movespeed (Defend works like this, no?)


The world is your oyster.

 

[Smitty]

You need to consider 2 main aspects-

1. Do enemies have a reason to hit the tank rather than his allies? Maybe give him some kind of low cooldown stun (like war stomp), he could have an ability based on taunt (or like axe's berserk call if you play DotA).

2. Innate tankiness, like +armour, % damage reduction, +hp or hp reg, evasion etc.

Other ideas may include (based on some abilities in a map I'm making);

Takes a % of damage dealt to nearby allies for them
Gains stats when he takes damage (encourages the player to tank)
Damage spells based on max hp
Damage return

Usually (though it depends what kind of game you're making) things like temporary invulnerablity, or severe damage return is a poor idea on tanks, since it will encourage enemy players to simply focus down the tank's allies rather than the tank himself.

Anyways, just throwing out some ideas good luck

 

[Darthfett]

Ability Name: Rocket Propelled
Description/Effect: The tank fires its cannon several times in reverse direction, which strike out in random directions, dealing 35/70/100 explosive damage to anything in the blast radius. As a result, the Tank launches forward at a blinding speed. Rockets fire to increase tank speed by 100% for 3/5/8 seconds. Feel free to change numbers and such.

 

[ZakkWylde-]

lol darthfett--he meant a "tanky character/hero", not an actual battle tank .

@Smitty, rarely would a team focus down a tank...there IS a psychological aspect of this big beefy dude taking up space--lets kill him first...but that mentality will get you killed.
There is NO reason for a team to focus a tank--because what he does is ABSORBS damage... the tank SHOULDN'T REALLY hurt either, especially if he has lots of defense abilities.

A tank is good for initiating fights and pushing down towers... (at least in DotA--but this applies elsewhere too)

 

[polo2005]

i disagree, tell me one "tank" class in dotA that doesn't have good damage output andi would be suprised.

imo all tanks need an balance of the diffrent aspects:
* brining up buffs for the team as long as hes close and alive
* Crowd controll
* being able to substain longer than anyone else
* some damage/debuffs that makes you want to avoid him, or take him done fast enough before he becomes threat
* being good at initiate a fight without leping to ibg of a risk to brainless dying

 

[ZakkWylde-]

My point is, a tank isn't a godmode character. He has his strengths because he can take a lot of damage...but he shouldn't be FEARED as the team's damage dealer...to the point that he must be the primary target. There is "good damage output" and then there is PA/PL/Juggernaut/etc. damage output.

 

[Darthfett]

lol darthfett--he meant a "tanky character/hero", not an actual battle tank .

Whoops. I completely overlooked that. I guess I should've known better.

 

[Smitty]

There's no point having a shit load of hp if the other team will just ignore you and kill everyone else first. It makes your hero a poor pick.

 

[ZakkWylde-]

There's no point having a shit load of hp if the other team will just ignore you and kill everyone else first. It makes your hero a poor pick.

THAT IS HOW ONE SHOULD PLAY--AVOID THE TANK and kill him last. Sometimes it is not possible, especially if the tank is proactively achieving things that--if left uninhibited--result in a loss... (like pushing the f**k out of towers and rax in DotA). The tank needs to create a reason for the opposing team to kill him. Sitting around being tanky is NOT a reason.

 

[luorax]

Well, what a good tank has:
-sustainability
-CC
-mediocre damage
-good initiating ability/abilities.

A tank is that member of your team that's always in the front of the battlefield. The tank needs sustainability and must have some CC to protect his team (mostly the ranged carry). He is usually not feared and ignored in teamfights, that's why he needs that CC.
The initiating ability is needed, so the tank can get into the middle of the enemy team and use his AoE CC/CC the ranged carry suddenly and fast. Plus, if your team initiaties you have the slight advantage of the surprised enemies.

 

[Smitty]

Basically, if the tank fills no roles other than just having loads of hp, the hero is useless. Let's take an extreme and assume you made a hero unkillable, but his damage output and team functionality was nil. Enemies wouldn't be able to kill him, but then why would they? A tank needs to give the enemy some incentive to focus him down, without being too powerful.

 

[tommerbob]

A tank needs to give the enemy some incentive to focus him down, without being too powerful.

This.

 

[Smitty]

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