We’ll I’ve been playing my Dwarf Iron Breaker (tank) for about 2 months now and have reached level 28, I don’t game everyday so don’t kill me that I’m not lev 40 yet.  From early on I found my character very well balance but as I’ve been playing more and more I feel my tank is getting the short end of the stick, mainly in RvR and PQs.

The main problem is that tanks have low DPS, because of this when doing a public quests or a Keep siege, I always finish in the bottom of the list when it comes to participation.  My tank is meant to take massive damage, which it does, but when the roll comes for loot bags, I almost never get one, which is complete bs.  Healers get participation points for the amount of points they heal, but tanks don’t get any for the amount of damage they take.

In the upcoming 1.05 patch, there are 2 significant changes for Ironbreakers which will make us even weaker.  We have a Grudge meter where every time we get hit it builds and the higher it builds the more effective our attacks or buffs become.  So optimumly we’d want this to be 100% at all times.   Currently Grudge builds 5 points every time we’re hit, then after 30 seconds of not being hit decays at 5 per second.  The change in 1.05 is huge, instead of 30 seconds it will be 10 seconds and instead of 5/sec, it will decay at 10/sec.  This basically means if we stop to loot or need some time to heal, were going to start at zero for just about every fight.  The only time my Iron Breaker does any sort of decent damage is when I’m at 100 Grudge, so this will not only make my character much weaker, but it will also mean I’m going to be getting even less participation points in keep sieges and PQs.  How are tanks supposed to win loot if we can’t get any points in participation because our attacks are so weak?

Binding Grudge & Heavy Blow are the two attacks I use the most with my Iron Breaker, mainly because they do the best damage.  However damage depends how much Grudge you have built up and both are length of time attacks.  For instance Binding Grudge at 100 Grudge might do 700 dmg over 15 seconds. The problem here is when doing PQs or Keep Seiges, most enemies don’t last 15 seconds unless it’s a champ or hero.  So while people that do high DPS get a ton of participation points, I don’t because the enemy dies in 5 seconds so the damage dealt was only 230 and I get much less points.

The second big change is with our Oath Friend.  As a Iron Breaker you can select one ally and deem them your Oath Friend which will grant them and yourself bonus buffs.  One of the big pluses is that every time your Oath Friend gets hit, you gain 10 Grudge points, making this is a great way to build and maintain your Grudge points.  Not so in 1.05.  Not only is this reduced from 10 points to 5, but it’s further reduced the more Grudge you have built up.

0 - 30 Grudge you gain 5 points
31 - 60 Grudge you gain 3 points
60 - 100 Grudge you gain 1 points

So not only are we going to lose our points much much faster, it will be harder to build it up.  In essence their turning us into tanks with BB guns.  I would have no problem with these changes if they also made changes to participation points.  It’s going to be much harder for Iron Breakers to win loot once these changes hit the public servers.