Forum Discussion

heiligenborre's avatar
heiligenborre
8 years ago

Why are they Tanks: Fives, Old Ben, Teebo,...?

A Tank is the courageous / suicidal guy that always volunteers to "take one for the team": He'll jump in the midst of the blaster shots in front of a friend in trouble and protect his life with his own body.

His idea of glory goes hand in hand with "posthumous". He's usually a very good and touching second role in movies. And then his death (shot in slow motion over 5 minutes in total silence) offers a great excuse for the (real) hero to become enraged and finish off however many regiments of enemies are still standing.

The greatest example is Royal Guard: unnamed anonymous hero, taunts when the Emperor is in trouble, takes one (... many actually) for the team, and dies allowing his master to survive and prevail. After the victory, praises will be sung over his mutilated carcass, and he'll be remembered as the hero who saved the day.

If a Tank is the last man standing in a battle, it means he failed his mission. It probably also mean you're about to lose that battle in a few seconds. And he'll die miserable and anonymous.

Other characters are totally valid Tanks: the Stormtroopers (even better when there's a Han inside the costume), Poe, Sun Fac, Nebit (well you get the idea, all those who taunt). Chewbacca is a bit of a meek one who's still afraid of danger and will make himself cozy before jumping in the water.
Scarif Pathfinder is a remorseful Tank who didn't want to die after all, and rather gets stuck in an infinite loop.
There are also Tanks who don't taunt: B2 and Anakin (honorary Tank), who just become so annoying if you keep shooting others that they somehow attract early fire on themselves. IG-100 tries the same, but not very successfully.

Now to the point of my post:
Mace Windu, Mob Enforcer, Jedi Knight Guardian are no Tanks.
Spoiler
They are a bit like cows grazing on the battle field (but we all knew that already). They'll be a minor nuisance and a bit of a pain to take down when all is said and done, but won't lift a finger to protect anyone.


Boba Fett is not a Tank.
Spoiler
He's described as a Durable Attacker, which is not far from an outright lie. Well in a way, he is durable because he's such a bad attacker.


Fives is not a Tank.
Spoiler
He is actually the opposite of a Tank. He's just a big fat selfish "bother-me-not" Hedgehog who not only won't take one for the team, but will back this up with assertive action: if by any chance damage would come his way, he'll pretty much make sure he'll return fire and make it clear you should target someone else!


Old Ben is equally not a Tank.
Spoiler
Because he'll punish you for killing him anything but last. Coward!


And last and least, Teebo!
Spoiler
Not only is he not running towards enemy fire to draw anyone's attention or fire, the little rascal is actually disappearing from the battle field!!! He pretty much makes it so that others will take one for him! Talk about camaraderie! Gilderoy Lockhart-style heroism!


So I'm starting a petition to strip them of the noble Tank role! Let's call them Cows instead, which is closer to what they really are.
  • medetec's avatar
    medetec
    8 years ago
    They are tanks because GoH doesn't have a Bruiser category. There are bruisers in the support and attacker categories as well.

    Bruisers are designed to off-tank and punish opponents for not dealing with them. They tank not by taunting or other forms of hard CC but rather by pulling aggro because the opposing players has to make a choice.

    Bruiser have been made mostly irrelevant by offense scaling far past defense and speed being king. Anakin is one of the few exceptions due to his TM and damage gain when he's ignored.
  • NicWester's avatar
    NicWester
    8 years ago
    A tank is a character with a lot of health and damage reduction who either:
    A) Must be attacked before you can attack someone else (ie: a taunt, but also through being a threat)
    Or
    B) Controls the other team so the can't do what they want to do.

    Old Ben is a tank because he has a whole lot of health, protection, and Defense; he increases the survivability of his allies through dodge as a leader, and he controls the other team with Jedi Mind Tricks.

    Fives is a tank because he's got the most defense and hp, counterattacks, and can call assists all day, so you have to take him out and suffer his counterattacks (eventually).

    Teebo is DEFINITELY a tank, one who protects his allies by giving them stealth.

    Boba Fett's a bad tank. No one's denying that. He's got the pre-requisite health and protection, and an AoE debuff, but not much else.

    Likewise, Mace Windu is a tank because he has a lot of health and such, and instead of taunting he theoretically does so much damage that your opponent wants to prioritize him. He fails on that last account, though--his damage is good, but too random (can't control who Vaapad exposes) to be a real threat.
  • heiligenborre's avatar
    heiligenborre
    8 years ago
    @Darthenstein, @Big_Boss @Jambiiiiiiiii I added Boba Fett in the list.
    @IvoB1987 Beyond the words, I think we are in agreement. You call them Beefy, I called them Cows.

    @Wundalicious My description of Fives is purely based on the toon in the game, not the character in the Clone Wars.

    @M_L Yes that's right. His leader ability fits the role. Not his Scramble Tactics special (unless you have a team of 4 Ewoks + Old Ben, and all Ewoks go stealth).

    I acknowledge that another definition for a Tank could be "lots of health - slow - little damage", but that is then a very negative definition, in the sense that it defines a character that is totally useless (a marble statue). What starts to make a particular character useful is what would come next (e.g. Taunts, Mind Tricks, debuffs, protects, counters...). It's a bit like you would define an Attacker as being "low health - quick - no utility". While this is true for most of them, it's missing the point of their aim: to deal damage.

    My view of the roles are based on what role I want them to take in a team, the same I would do when building a football/soccer squad:

  • Attacker: deals damage, kills opponents (measured by damage dealt)
  • Offensive Support: helps attackers be more effective (measured by extra damage dealt by others)
  • Defensive Support: disrupt enemy tactics (measured by enemy damage averted)
  • Tank: protect others, keep them alive (measured by increased longevity of attackers)
  • Healer: heal or revive others (measured by increased longevity of attackers)


    This role in turns has an impact on the stats (and abilities) they need. An attacker with weak offense makes no sense. A disrupting support with no potency makes no sense (or is just going to be very bad).

    Similarly, Tanks would typically require lots of health/defense to fulfil their role, although it's not necessary. Imagine Scarif Pathfinder with little health, but who can resurrect with his taunt active: that's a Tank with low health that I would definitely hire!

    With my categories, Old Ben and Teebo become support (I think Mind Tricks is one of the very best single attacks in the game), and Fives an Attacker (one that deals medium damage over a long time rather than huge damage a single time).

    I also just realized that I would put Tanks and Healers in the same category: Even if they are not a big threat (little damage), you need to deal with them early because (1) they force you to, or (2) you'll regret if you don't.

About SWGOH Strategy & Tips

Share guides, tips, and tricks for Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, discuss Arena strats, and help new players get started.22,717 PostsLatest Activity: 2 days ago