What exactly is "tanking?"

Unknown

I understand the traditional term tank in that usually it would mean a high hp character with defensive powers. However, there seems to be some discussion about tanking in the sense of creating "seed teams" and losing repeatedly? What is the point of that? And why does bagman come in to discussion so often when talking about "tanking?"

Unknown

Tanking is setting up an easy team in a pvp tournament so that people will attack it and lower your mmr (matchmaking rating) - a lower mmr means easier opponents. The seed teams are computer controlled teams that are put in there so that the first people to enter a tournament have someone to fight. Examples include kicksthatkick,pyromantic, wannabskrull, etc.

It's easier to beat a seed team with your tank team, because your tank team is, by design, lousy. And to have your tank team come up as your defensive team, you need to win a match with it.

If you're relatively new to the game you shouldn't need to worry about this.

Unknown

Your matchups are determined by your MMR (match making ranking).

That ranking is effected by how many times you lose.

When you tank, you purposely put out a team that can lose a lot (and lower your ranking).

Currently, you need to win a battle (with the worst team possible) to create a 'tank team'. Quite often Bagman is included on that team, because he is one of the worst characters. Plus it's a white flag indicator to other players that you won't strike back. Making your team even more enticing to hit.

grael23

I'm still unclear as to why you would lose on purpose..?

Is the on-purpose losing done earlier in the tourney to make sure that by the end you're not fighting as tough opponents?

Does this still influence your match ups even when your score is in the top 10 or top 20?

Unknown

grael23 wrote:

I'm still unclear as to why you would lose on purpose..?

Is the on-purpose losing done earlier in the tourney to make sure that by the end you're not fighting as tough opponents?

Does this still influence your match ups even when your score is in the top 10 or top 20?

If you're going to enter a tournament, you are going to be attacked. So, if you don't care about winning the top prizes (or it's early in the tournament) you present a very weak team as your defense team to invite even more attacks.

This keeps your MMR down, so when you are in a tournament you care about doing well in, you will see easier opponents (and be able to rack up points faster than you normally would).


That's why people use Lightning Rounds as 'tanking tournaments'. They are shorter and quite often you don't have a realistic shot at top prizes (or the time to compete for them). So, you use it as an opportunity to lower your MMR instead.

Unknown

I think I may be at the point where it would be quite helpful because I seem to have hit a bit of a wall. My 2* team is about 3/4 the way there and I am facing quite a few full 85** teams and some with decked out spiderman or hulk. Maybe it is worth getting bagman again (I sold all of them).

Unknown

You don't have to have bagman. Any low-leveled character(s) will work.

grael23

Wait... are you saying your rating is global rather than tournament specific?! Woah... Ok... I get it now. Thanks for the explanation.

Unknown

Yes. Your rating (MMR or match making rating) is global across all tournaments and it determines how strong the teams you see are. Notice that that is not particularly related to how many points you get from beating them (a mostly independent calculation) so intentionally lowering your MMR all the time will give you much better results in the next tournament or two or three.

grael23

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer. This is incredible.

Unknown

CeeEssGee wrote:

I think I may be at the point where it would be quite helpful because I seem to have hit a bit of a wall. My 2* team is about 3/4 the way there and I am facing quite a few full 85** teams and some with decked out spiderman or hulk. Maybe it is worth getting bagman again (I sold all of them).

You don't need to waste a roster spot for bag man - just put your lowest level character in there and win a match. Any low level character will get the message across. i like to keep a seed team (like pyromatic, b@con m@gic, etc) on one of my nodes specifically for when I am going to tank. It sucks to try to put up a tank team and realizing you can only find matches against level 110 Spideys and punishers.

Unknown

Will starting fights and intentionally losing (either by quitting out, or being killed off) have the same effects on your MMR?

Unknown

Milambus wrote:

Will starting fights and intentionally losing (either by quitting out, or being killed off) have the same effects on your MMR?

Yes, it's just slower, and to do it enough you probably need to wipe out your whole roster a few times.

Unknown

The easiest way to tank is actually to go into shield training (in the prologue screen) and take your worst guys and retreat them to death a lot. If you do this with 3 sets of **** guys before you take a break (12 retreats total, 9 dead guys, about 5 minutes of work) you'll pretty much only be fighting 1*'s or low 2*'s forever, even if you're the top of the leaderboard in your bracket.

Unknown

*Bump*

..to a useful guide I linked to 3 times now on the forums.

Super useful.

*Bump*

danae

Is it relatively useless to tank in a Lightning Round if I'm actively playing in an on-going tournament? I mean if I get Top 5 in a 2-day PVP event, when that ends, does that just disregard the tanking I did in the LR?

Unknown

I'm a bit confused...are we supposed to lose with the tank team or win with it? Because it seems like people have said both.

Thanks.

poomermon

Duffman85 wrote:

I'm a bit confused...are we supposed to lose with the tank team or win with it? Because it seems like people have said both.

Thanks.

When you try to put up a traditional tank team you must win one match with it so it will show up for other people. If do not win with it the game will show the last team you were victorious with in that tournament.

Other way to tank or lower your mmr is to repeatedly attack other teams and immediately retreat after the match begins. This damages your team and you can only do it so many times until they are all downed. You can use any characters for this but obviously it is best to use your weakest heroes so you can leave your A-team unharmed. I have not used this method so I can't guarantee how well it works.

Unknown

So is the goal of tanking to prevent attacks (by winning with a weak team) or to lower your MMR for future matches/events (by losing repeatedly/retreating)? Or both?

poomermon

Duffman85 wrote:

So is the goal of tanking to prevent attacks (by winning with a weak team) or to lower your MMR for future matches/events (by losing repeatedly/retreating)? Or both?

Well both kinda. You want to put up a weak team so people will see it as juicy easy target and attack you. This will lower your mmr and lose your points in that tournament. In short you will do very badly in that tournament but in the next event your mmr will be lower and you will face easier opponents and have a better chance to qualify for top prices. Then again if you do well on one tournament your mmr will again rise and you will have to tank it at some point to keep it in check.

Unknown

random thought on tanking
if you win your last match with your tank team and then shield so that you maintain your rank but you get attacked a bunch b/c your tank team is in, does that in essence work, or b/c you're shielded the losses dont count?