Tank (computer gaming)
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In gaming jargon, a tank is a player or unit designated to protect weaker players or units in combat by drawing enemy attacks and absorbing damage. Compared to other units, tanks have a high damage tolerance and specialize in mêlée combat. The tongue-in-cheek term meat shield is roughly synonymous with tank, often carrying the additional connotation that the unit is relatively expendable or inconsequential and its death is preferred to the death of the units it protects.
Tanks are common features of game genres that include tactical combat. Examples include the Ultralisk from the real-time strategy game StarCraft, the Necromancer's summoned golems and the Druid's summoned Grizzlys from the action role-playing game Diablo II, and Deoxys and Blissey from the Pokemon video game series.
Tank can also be a verb: "to tank" is for a strong or resilient unit to take a lot of damage in lieu of a weaker or less-resilient one. An example is when one unit stands still and takes the bulk of the damage while other units attack. The unit taking damage is "tanking damage," or simply "tanking."
Ironically, actual tanks and other armoured vehicles (or their setting-appropriate equivalents, such as ridable dragons, war elephants or powered armour) are not always suitable for tanking. They have no trouble drawing the attention of most or all enemies (due to the great threat they pose) and have enough armour and hitpoints to put any character (and more than a few bosses) to shame, and possess massive fire power (not to mention often being able to simply run over nearby enemies) to boot. However, unlike tank characters, tanks typically have to contend with foes with weapons specifically intended to defeat them. In the absence of anti-tank weapons, tanks can tank very effectively.
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[edit] Types
Many tanks have some mechanism to force enemies to prefer attacking them instead of the tank's teammates. In many games, the ability to encourage attacks on himself is referred to as taunting or provoking, although in some games the ability is entirely absent and skilled manipulation of the game's aggro system is required to prevent enemies from attacking other targets.
[edit] Traditional
The traditional tank has high hit points and large amounts of damage resistance. The traditional tank survives incoming damage by being tougher than his companions. He is generally paired with a healer, in order to extend the time that he can continue tanking.
[edit] Dodge
The dodge tank forgoes high hit points and damage resistance for avoiding damage altogether. The style is so called because in many games, the dodge tank dodges incoming attacks. In other games, dodging is replaced by special abilities that negate the effects of enemy attacks. For example, in Final Fantasy XI, the Ninja class uses an ability that produces shadows. When a foe successfully hits a Ninja with the ability active, the shadow completely absorbs the attack and vanishes, leaving the Ninja unharmed.
[edit] Hack-and-slash games
In computer role-playing games, tanks are warrior character classes with fighting skills and high hit points. An example of a tank in action is a swordsman with archers behind him. The swordsman has heavy armour and a shield, and thus takes less damage from his foes and protects the archers behind. The characters a tank protects might include a healer who keeps the tank (and other party members) alive, damage dealing classes with a lower damage tolerance (magic-users or rogues), or a weaker character taking advantage of the opportunity to powerlevel. Tanks in many cases have abilities to focus the attention of their opponent mobs on themselves as a way of protecting the other characters.
[edit] MMORPGs
- In Anarchy Online the Enforcer profession is a natural choice for tanking, due to ease of acquiring good HP and defence, as well as the "Mongo" line of nano-programs (spells) designed to taunt all nearby foes onto the Enforcer. Additionally, high natural hit points allow Soldiers, Keepers and Engineer pets to tank, and Adventurers and Martial Artists are known to tank using their superior evasion skills, but it is risky.
- In RuneScape, tanks are usually designated as the players using high-level armour (Specifically, Barrows armour or Dragon armour). Tanks in RuneScape usually only exist in the wilderness (a PvP zone). Since parts of the game only allow one on one combat, there may be a need for more than one tank.
- In EverQuest, the most common tank class is the Warrior, as it can both wear the most protective armour and generally has the most HP. Hybrids of Spellcasting classes and Warriors can also tank, such as the Shadowknight (Necromancer/Warrior) and the Paladin (Cleric/Warrior), and often it is more useful to have a hybrid as a tank because they can also provide another ability.
- In Guild Wars, a tank is a Warrior-class fighter with highly defensive armour and shield, whose attributes and selected skills specialize in damage absorbing, evading, and/or healing. In PvE, tanks are crucial in capturing monsters' aggro and allowing other team members to attack without taking damage. In PvP, the role of tanks is less important, as smart human opponents will usually try to get around the tank and attack more vulnerable targets.
- In City of Heroes, an entire character type is set aside for this brand of play. It is aptly named the Tanker archetype. Not only does every Tanker powerset include a "Taunt" power, their inherent power, Gauntlet, ensures they draw more aggro than the other archetypes, in a process the player community refers to as punchvoking. Additionally, Scrappers can perform the task of tank, but the archetype is intentionally designed not to be as good at this task as Tankers.
- In City of Villains, there is a lack of a distinct Tanker archetype, and the tankers tend to either be Brutes, due to their survivability (similar to Tankers but noticeably weaker), or the somewhat expendable pets summoned by a Mastermind.
- In World of Warcraft, Warrior, Druid, and Paladin are characters who are designed to be tanks. Druids transform into the form of a bear, and Warriors utilize stances to increase the threat generated by their attacks, as well as providing access to abilities, which are normally required for tanks. One of the Warrior's abilities is Taunt, which draws attention of an enemy making it attack the warrior. Druids have a similar move called Growl. Those skills allow warriors and druids to become a group's main tank. Paladins, on the other hand, have buffs that allow them to generate more threat than their teammates. However, because they lacked immediate attention-drawing ability (e.g. taunt) and their mana is finite, paladins were not considered as reliable as warriors and druids. These two paladin shortcomings are addressed in World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade expansion pack. One of the new paladin abilities in the expansion pack is Righteous Defense, which works like an area of effect taunt. The other one is called Spiritual Attunement and gives mana back to the paladin every time he is healed. These two new abilities allows the Paladin to be as effective as Warriors and Druids in terms of tanking. Shamans, Hunters, Hunter's Pets and Warlock's Voidwalker and Felguard can also tank in certain situations thanks to their relatively high armour and certain high threat abilities, but their threat generating potential and damage mitigation are inferior to those of Warrior, Druid, and Paladin.
- In Final Fantasy XI, there are several classes that function well as tanks. Virtually every non-caster class has access to armour well suited to tanking, as well as sufficient hit points. Most tanks will select Paladin or Ninja as one of their active classes, and Warrior as their Sub-Job, as they have a provoke ability. Ninjas have an ability to summon shadows, making them an ideal choice for "Blink", or Dodge Tanking, whereas Paladins can take many hits with their high Vitality, and can cure themselves or others.
- In EVE Online, there is a larger than usual emphasis on Dodge-style tanking. Often, it is more effective to tank with a very light ship that takes and holds aggro while avoiding damage due to its speed and small size, than to use a slower, heavier ship fitted solely for the purpose of soaking as much damage as possible. This is due to the fact that in many PvE situations, the total damage potential is so high that only the very heaviest ships in the game could withstand it directly for any substantial length of time
- In Ragnarok Online Knights and Crusaders are often traditional tanks with their large amount of hit points, DEF, heavy armour, and their provoke ability which causes a monster to target them. Other classes that can act as tanks include Assassins (with high AGI to dodge enemy attacks) and Hunters (again, with high AGI)
- In MapleStory, various Warrior classes are often used as tanks, especially in Party Quests. This is chiefly due to their vast amounts of HP and strong weapon attacks. In addition, most Warriors have access to much stronger armour than other classes and can therefore clear a path without taking too much damage.
[edit] First-person shooters
In team-based first-person shooters, meat shields are players who play point, thereby either drawing fire to themselves or doing initial damage to the enemy team, enabling their teammates to clean up the distracted or weakened enemy players.
