Where oh Where are all the Tanks Gone?

[Tatman]

I've been watching all these threads pop up like mushrooms in Arena recently. I think people love to exaggerate.

1. My best T3 times at the moment, both lix and pure, are with a party setup of warrior, mage, 2 rogues. And by "lix time" I mean using ankhs plus the occasional free lix from Klaas/Shaz, not running on combo lixes, because I can't afford it and neither can most of my friends. Those times are 8 and 10 minutes respectively. I consider them very good times. Additionally, I have a few runs that were between 9 and 10 minutes and featured 2 (two) warriors in the party. I've also run with warrior, 2 mages, rogue parties.

2. One of the best tanks, I've ever run with, is full pink. Or at least he was when I first ran with him. Dragonscale and stuff, I think you'll recognize the guy. There is another one like him in my guild and he's a beast at tanking too. Sure, they'll probably never be on a timed lb, but that's not the point.

3. The "but but even average rogues can easily find parties" mantra is totally exaggerated. They can find parties, but those parties almost always include a warrior, and in most cases a mage too. Because, unlike their maxed out counterparts with tank-like hp/armor and level 70-like damage, average rogues lack the gear and pets to form all-rogue parties that are faster and smoother than a balanced one with a tank and a mage. I'll highlight the word "smoother", because that's what most average, casual players in this game value the most while running places like Planar Tombs: runs with fewer ankhs.

4. Average rogues rarely get invited to maxed out parties, just like most warriors and mages. The rare occasions when I get invited to a party with two or more maxed out rogues, I feel like we play different games. Running on combo lixes, nonstop piercing at one-hitting bosses, not caring about deaths etc. I just can't keep up with this style. Most people, including me, can't afford it.

5. Problem with most maxed out warriors, and mages for that matter, is not that they can't find parties. They most certainly can. Problem is they want to run with maxed out rogues. And why would maxed out rogues want to run with a warrior given that those rogues can both kill super fast and tank? I mean, look at those stats.. ~5k hp, 1700-1800 armor, 750-800 damage, 50% crit. Those are roughly the stats of a lvl 40 warrior + monstrous damage, especially on aimed crits (which happen like 60-70% of the time with 50% crit plus stacking). This brings us to the larger topic abot the gear gap, but I guess we'll get the usual replies here - there should be more and more op gear so that people "have something to play for". Wrong. This is the main reason why maxed out rogues became so overpowered, compared to both other classes and non-maxed rogues. Because all that unnecessarily op stuff benefited them much more than warriors and mages. And because it opened an enormous gap between them and the other rogues in this game. Even between them and the next best group of rogues in terms of gear and stats. All those arcane rings, para gems, SnS, Nekros, pendants, even eyes (huge lol at those "oh eye are so useless" posts, especially coming from rogues who now use only paras and eyes on their gear). I wish most of them were never released the way they were actually released - without any even remotely close alternative in terms of stats and usefulness. At the very least, there would still be some semblance of balance in this game.

I can add more, but I think that's enough for now. Thank you.