World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

[idrisz]

Also removing the bubble is retarded, I love my shield bubble…

[Thomas_Wilde]

What’s funny is that this feels like only a slight exaggeration. Starfall is practically a wallhack and I watched my friend get 2-shot by a Holy Paladin using Exorcism in level 19 (non level-locked) WSG. He’s a Mage and his spells hit for double digits and crit for barely 3, while Exorcism was landing for 150~200 and critting for ~300. Both in full Heirloom. It was pretty hilarious (on my end).

And before I get my throat torn out, I am aware 19 WSG means exactly nothing, that Exorcism is not a valid DPS spell outside of the various free procs you can get for it due to its prohibitive mana cost, that Mages rawk, that he should have XYZ’d and it was his fault, that the classes are balanced for level cap, that the statement was silly exaggeration I was playing along with, etc.

No, it’s a fair cop. Starfall hits far harder than it should and seems to ignore the theoretical AoE hard-cap that every other spell like it has to obey, plus it doesn’t have to be targeted; its only downside is that it can be offensively dispelled or spell-stolen.

Holy paladins are essentially invincible once they have their entire toybox, and Exorcism/Holy Shock gives them a pretty ridiculous amount of burst on demand.

I do most of my PVP on a frost mage, so I have very little to complain about, but if there’s a holy paladin around who knows anything about what he’s doing, I simply cannot kill him before he manages to tag me hard enough to take me out. I remember one particularly aggravating WSG where I must have dumped half my damage for the round into one guy over the course of a single ten-minute grudge match in the Alliance base.

[carson0852]

Introduce some exciting game!@

[idrisz]

I do most of my PVP on a frost mage, so I have very little to complain about, but if there’s a holy paladin around who knows anything about what he’s doing, I simply cannot kill him before he manages to tag me hard enough to take me out. I remember one particularly aggravating WSG where I must have dumped half my damage for the round into one guy over the course of a single ten-minute grudge match in the Alliance base.

naa you just sheep the paladin and run circles around him…

[Thomas_Wilde]

That’s fine if I’m looking to ignore him. I am looking to kill him.

[Cerebral_Ballsy]

Playing a warrior noob, and I gotta say, queueing as a tank is hax, pretty much. I haven’t been able to count 5 seconds between clicking Join Queue and getting a party yet.

[Royal_Fool]

Playing a warrior noob, and I gotta say, queueing as a tank is hax, pretty much. I haven’t been able to count 5 seconds between clicking Join Queue and getting a party yet.

It’s crazy easy to farm badg-… err, justice points now if you have access to heroics. And during the elemental invasion I could literally keep requeueing forever for the four special bosses.

[James_Johnson]

Playing a warrior noob, and I gotta say, queueing as a tank is hax, pretty much. I haven’t been able to count 5 seconds between clicking Join Queue and getting a party yet.

After playing each role at 80 and seeing how long it takes to get groups, I’ve extrapolated the following class distribution:

DPS: 85%
Healer: 14.999%
Tanks: 0.001%

[Lorini]

So why is tanking thought to be so hard? And will it get easier or harder in Cata?

[Andy_Bates]

Tanks: 0.001%

I’m tempted to switch to my death knight and see how far I can get in the game just doing random dungeons. I’m still a little ascared that I’m going to let down the group if my tanking isn’t good enough though.

[Andy_Bates]

So why is tanking thought to be so hard? And will it get easier or harder in Cata?

Speaking from a DPS perspective (and please, someone with tanking experience, correct me if I am wrong), it’s easy as DPS to just sit back and fire pot shots while everything else is going on. You can even coast a lot of the time, if the other players are really good.

But the tank always has to be on the front lines, doing damage and maintaining aggro so that none of the mobs run off and attack anyone else. If the tank is bad, the healer gets overworked and runs out of mana, and then the tank dies. Or if the tank can’t maintain aggro, then the mobs go after the healer, and the healer dies. And if either the tank or the healer dies, then everyone dies. Basically, it’s a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of the tank, without even mentioning different phases of the fight, positioning the mobs while attacking, stuff like that.

[RobotPants]

So why is tanking thought to be so hard? And will it get easier or harder in Cata?

Tanking is hard because you’re trying to keep the party alive by keeping the bad things from hitting anyone but you, while half the players out there seem to try just as hard to make that a difficult task as possible. Tanking’s a breeze if you’re with people who actually understand what you’re trying to accomplish, though.

[Kryten]

The main problem I encounter as a tank is dumb-ass DPS pulling aggro away and diverting the healers attention from the tank (typically warriors and rogues who do this are left to their own devices, if they want to be stupid that’s their problem).

I do, however, make sure to keep my WoG and LoH ready to go in case the healer gets swamped and I can’t get to them in time. Saved several encounters like that.

[Athryn]

I’m tempted to switch to my death knight and see how far I can get in the game just doing random dungeons. I’m still a little ascared that I’m going to let down the group if my tanking isn’t good enough though.

I did this, more or less, on my Horde Shaman from 72ish to 80. It’s definitely doable, my only problem was I wasn’t getting much money, so I had to take a break around 77 to do enough quests to get flying.

[Vincent_GC]

So why is tanking thought to be so hard? And will it get easier or harder in Cata?

Personally, I think the biggest reason, is that people are glued to thier meters and nobody rolls a tank to pull out huge dps numbers. The want to be the hero that lands the killing blow, or cuts a swath through the enemy’s line, not the person designed to take a punch in the face repeatidly.

Tank mechanics themselves, while they change from class to class, are fairly simple and generally the same. Also, they are easy. Intentionally so.

And like Andy said, bieng a tank generally requires more responsibility. Tanks cannot fail in thier job, or the group will suffer heavily, most likely wiping. Having a bad rogue that outputs crappy dps will not effect you as much as a bad tank that cannot withstand a hit or, just as bad, cannot maintain aggro.

Edit: And no, it will not get easier in Cata. In fact, it will get harder.

[JM1]

Tanking requires a lot more patience with people, the ability to lead a group, and little opportunity to switch off.

[secretary]

Yeah, pretty much what Andy said. There’s an awful lot of pressure on the tank, and for me (a casual player not familiar with the dungeons or bosses) it was really, really stressful. I decided it was better to be an inexperienced, under geared DPS than an inexperienced, under geared tank and I’ve never been happier. I actually enjoy randoms now.

I dual spec’d, so I can always go back to tanking after I get some sweet new Cata gear and more experience.

[James_Johnson]

Tanking is a high risk, low reward, high stress, low respect job.

I don’t envy a tank that’s in a group with well-geared DPS. It is incredibly hard to hold aggro post-4.0 for a variety of reasons. On my well-geared (~5800 gs) Mage, Arcane Blast can crit for 12k without issue. Add in group buffs / Arcane Power + Trinket + Mirror Image T10 set bonus and I can crit for over 20k.

A 12k crit alone puts me in the 80% threat range at the very least. A 20k+ and I have 100% aggro and just pray the tank has a Taunt up.

[idrisz]

low reward? what what?

I love tanking and healing because instant - low queue time. DPS wait 10 minutes while I get a group instantly.

[JM1]

And DPS can afk their way through an instance and rarely get abused by an entire group of complete shitheads.