Returning Player: Tanking and the Current Game Meta

[l_pha]

Hi all, I’m returning after a long time to play the Season Server with my friends. I played as a spear tank back long ago and want to reroll another one. However I’ve been reading back up on the game and a lot of people are saying tanking is really not important anymore as the game has evolved into a DPS meta.

Is this true and how are melee classes compared to range/magic classes in terms of DPS now? Also, is picking up Peltasta on a warrior class not needed any more for a tank? Sorry if this has been covered before but I just wanted some current answers and insights.

[Fenatte]

Tanking can be performed by any swordsman now, or any other class for that matter as long as you’re able to keep aggro. You can obtain plenty of tankiness from just raw gear, and the shield/block bonuses are not strong enough to make a huge impact.
With that being said, IMC is trying to buff shield swordie by giving them damage bonuses while blocking + keeping aggro. But that just loops back around to being a DPS race.