The MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) lets you play tanks, healers, or damage dealers. Unfortunately, you often encounter fake tanks, which can be quite annoying. Author Larissa Then from MeinMMO feels the same way.
Most players are currently excited about the new chapter add-on Greymoor in The Elder Scrolls Online. While I belong to that group, I am still frustrated by an old issue – fake tanks.
What is a fake tank? As the name suggests, this refers to false tanks. They register as a rock in the ocean in the group finder, even though they are actually DPS players. This saves them time in group searching and gets them into the dungeon faster. Many players encounter fake tanks in one out of four dungeons.
This annoys me. And not just me; in the community, on reddit or in the forum, fake tanks are a recurring topic. It has come to the point where I avoid the group finder. I prefer to ask in my guild if a dungeon group is forming; otherwise, I skip it.
I’m not annoyed by the players who might not be that advanced yet. The ones still in the leveling phase or simply lack experience. Some may just mean well. I am bothered by the fake tanks who do this out of convenience.
A Recurring Problem
What about the roles in ESO? In MMOs with the “Holy Trinity”, meaning the three roles of tank, damage dealer, and healer, there is often the same issue: too many DPS. Perhaps players do not want to take on the responsibility of the whole group, or they simply enjoy dealing damage.
In ESO, there is an oversupply of damage dealers, but often a shortage of tanks. This leads to long waiting times for DPS to join a dungeon.
In other games like World of Warcraft, signing up for a role is limited by your build. However, in ESO, all classes can assume any role. If you want to optimize your character’s class, we at MeinMMO have outlined the best class for each playstyle in our guide.
What is the problem with fake tanks? Because in ESO, almost every combination is playable, DPS players can also register as tanks and squeeze into a group quickly. However, they lack the skills, stats, or gear of real tanks.
Then you have a damage dealer signing up as a tank. And this keeps happening. The character, of course, cannot hold aggro because they cannot taunt or withstand the enemies. Then the monsters run around in the group and happily kill all the other players.
The healer, usually me, doesn’t have an easy life because they have to take care of everyone at once. In the worst case, your group dies, and everyone is annoyed. Especially with the bosses, this can be problematic. This way, you cannot complete the dungeon, and the fake tank also gets nothing from their short queue.
Many dungeons, especially those from the base game, do not necessarily need a tank. But signing up for this role out of convenience is unfair to honest players and just plain annoying.
What are the tank’s tasks? I referred to tanks earlier as the rock in the tide, and that is exactly their job. A tank stands at the front lines and is there to soak up damage.
You should keep the enemies relatively close to the same position so that your DPS can deal maximum damage. To do this, you need to bind them to you with a taunt and also maintain their attention.
Furthermore, you should be able to take hits so that you make it easier for your healer. You also make the healer’s job easier when you never lose aggro from the enemies, so other group members are not attacked.
However, if you neither have the gear nor the skills to tank, all of this will not work, and group play will fall apart. No one benefits from that.
No solution in sight?
What could be done about it? Over the years, the community has discussed several ways to solve this problem:
- Consider the skills: Which has your character further developed? Does he go into the tank role? The simple way to redistribute your skill points in ESO makes this difficult.
- Restrict sign-ups as a tank based on health: For example, your character would need to have 30,000 health points; otherwise, you cannot take on the tank role. However, this would punish players who are good tanks even with low health.
- The ignore list: There is at least one solution for yourself. Put players on the ignore list before you kick them from the group. This reduces the number of fake tanks for your personal gaming enjoyment.
Fixing the problem of fake tanks is a difficult undertaking, especially in ESO. In a game that offers so many different possibilities for skill builds, not much can be done.
If you are completely frustrated and have no desire to play with other players, try going solo on a dungeon. I will continue to hope for reasonable groups with my healer.
Have you had experiences with fake tanks? Do you still find the problem so severe in 2020?
