Welcome to this Can You Tank? Neverwinter article where we take a look if it’s possible to play as a Tank in this action combat MMORPG game.
We are looking at the simple question of whether you can Tank or not in Neverwinter. And we’ll start by just saying – YES you can.
Can You Tank? Neverwinter
Neverwinter beholds a fairly typically MMORPG experience where you look in your chat window, you see a “Looking for group” section, and most people are looking for a Tank for their PvE group. This is always a great sign but fairly predictable regardless of what game you choose to play.
Neverwinter is a fairly basic game when it comes to the base level of Tanking. You only have 3 abilities that you can use so in that regards it’s not very complicated at all.
This game has a range of content such as Dungeons and Raids, and then you have Advanced Dungeons and then (Master) versions of both Dungeons and Raids. Within dungeons you often need a decent Tank to keep aggro of enemies and in Raids there are two Tanks within a group of 10 people.
The main reason for the shortage of Tanks in Neverwinter comes down to the grind. You can easily get into 80% of the PvE content and Tank it within a week or two of playing Neverwinter. The big downside is that, if you plan on doing the Master content then you need 80,000+ Item Level. Even if you have the best in slot gear you can’t get into this content purely because you need to have 10 max level mounts, 10 max level companion and multiple artefacts just to bloat your item level even though they are offering you virtually no character benefit.
Not only that but you’ll need max level insignias and collars for your 5 active mounts which basically unlock extra passives and benefits to your character, then you need to also upgrade all of your gems and your companions gear too along with upgrading your 4 slotted artefacts. Doing this either requires a lot of luck, a lot of farming a lot of materials or a lot of real life cash to max out all of these things.
When it comes to Tanking, you generally focus on threat and defence in Neverwinter. The threat system is not as difficult as in other games but you can easily lose aggro of enemies if you’re not keeping active in fights, and this means regular skill casts and not just permanently blocking but weaving block with basic attacks too.
During add pulls you’ll need an AoE skill that puts you high on the threat metre and then you try to stack enemies together, pointing them away from your group.
For bosses, a similar thing is needed but you single target the boss, turn it away and the focus on mechanics which are often AoEs, Heavy Attacks, hiding behind objects, adds spawning, or needing to turn away to prevent being feared.
When you start getting into the harder content you’ll have to put big focus into damage reduction because you can easily die even with a million health so it becomes essential to maintain damage reduction, while a lot of your group utility and benefits are provided passively through mounts, companions and artefacts which all run on long cooldowns so you attempt to use them at the best possible opportunities.
This game has a really fast levelling system and if you create a separate loadout for solo situations and one for Tanking you can actually output good solo damage which will help you as you progress through the rest of the game.
Overall the Tanking in Neverwinter is very fast paced and rather basic, but it is fun. You can get into the early aspects of group content and Tanking with a minimal effort and if you like a story driven game with a large chunk of solo gameplay then you’ll enjoy this. If you are looking for challenging endgame content as a Tank, be prepared to sacrifice a lot of time to get there, or a lot of money to speed up your progress.
See More: The Tank Club – Neverwinter Review 2023
