In the new random dungeon groups, no one says anything either way. I ran a heroic dungeon, and the tank rolled Need on a weapon that dropped (item level 173 or something) and got it. I checked afterwards, and his current weapon was a level 271 item! So, he didn’t really NEED it; he was just rolling Need on anything that the game would allow him, whether he actually needed it or not. It’s annoying, especially when some people could actually use those items.
JM1
3162
Fuck me, what are you like? You don’t even remember that I was a fellow facerolling Tankadin, do you?
It does not matter how good a tank you are until you can basically AOE pull an entire instance, a large proportion of the player base will be arseholes.
I’ve given up on pug tanking, but I do like tanking. I’m still happy to heal pugs though, as I can just let complainers die.
All tanking stances/presences/forms/whatever had their threat percentage increased.
Cool story bro.
Ah…somehow i’m starting to see the problem now.
Tanking on a DK is the easiest it has ever been. You have the ease of play of old Frost with all the Blood cooldowns.
idrisz
3165
facerolling tankadin is my offspec, facerolling holydin is my main.
As someone who leveled a prot tank, I didn’t find it all that difficult. The great thing about being a tank is that you can dictate the pace you go through the instance. Everything is done at your speed. Want to mark targets? The DPS may grumble, but they won’t quit. Want to chain pull? You may drive your healer nuts, but they’ll still follow. People will put up with you being an asshole if you’re anywhere close to proficient.
With a group that understood not to engage for a measly 2 seconds in the initial combat, WOTLK tanking was pathetically simple most of the time. You couldn’t pull aggro off an even mediocre tank easily. Some tanks were better than others in certain situations (my prot had a hard time with many targets, unlike a pally or a DK), but it still wasn’t all that difficult.
Of course, it wasn’t much different back for healers in the base game. Now it’s tanks who rule the roost. I’d be tempted to rejoin WoW, just to level up another prot tank (which was tons of fun) and run instances full-time. But I’ll resist that temptation for now…
Oh, and any tank that thinks they get a hard time? Get real. I’ve played both an endgame healer and an endgame tank. I got far more flack as a healer than I ever did as a tank (and I was one of the best healers on my server, without a doubt). People will grumble about the tank, but they’ll outright bitch about the healer. It has something to do with wearing robes I think…
I was leetsauce bear-tanking Wailing Caverns over the weekend and the Shaman (named “Ilovetitys”, btw) decided to pull a boss mob while we were cleaning up the last of the trash. That was a first for me. I thought, “You go right ahead.” and let him have it. The healer healed him once and then caught on, and Ilovetitys was no more. We four-manned the rest of the instance. I’m still not quite over it.
Just because we’re talking about WoW doesn’t mean you have to stoop to its maturity level, bro.
I like how you keep pulling this card whenever someone calls you on your whining.
Rywill
3170
Wait, are we still talking about a catassy videogame?
Yeah, I’m still not sure he is being serious.
Are the majority of you in Drop Bears? I know sluggo and Athryn are, at least. I’m thinking of rolling a Rogue on Moonrunner, the revamped zones sound too good to miss.
sinnick
3172
Whoever said that your instance experience depends on who you get in your PUG was totally right.
I played an Utgarde Keep heroic yesterday, where the druid tank literally ran without stopping through the entire instance. On several occasions he left mobs behind before they were killed. Every corpse was left unlooted as the rest of us ran to keep up. I credit us not wiping on another druid who was able to go into cat form and keep up with the tank and heal him a little until I could get there. It was ridiculous.
I rarely get shit as the healer, but I got some yesterday in the Nexus. As soon as I joined, two group members said they were “nervous” because I had “only” 17k mana. I’ve never been close to running out of mana, so I told them it wasn’t an issue. On the 2nd mob of the instance, me and two DPS got feared into three pulls which killed me, causing a wipe. My fault? Maybe. I probably should have been standing somewhere else. But the tank didn’t even try to help me out when they were hammering on me, and then the party voted me out. Somehow that was my fault. Great. My next two instances were met with whispers of “great job!” “Nice group!” etc. So I didn’t take that first group too seriously.
I must say though that for every group that’s kind of silly, I get two great groups of good people who I have fun with. So the claim that WoW is filled with idiots doesn’t really hold up, at least not for me.
Athryn
3173
Several of the people on this page are, and new people are always welcome!
Andrew
3174
Tanking isn’t that hard once you get used to it, but it does have some unique aspects that make it tough. In a 5 man situation, people expect you to know the instance and lead the group.
The tank can also be subject to abuse in a way that others usually aren’t. DPS can be covered by others, and healers are mostly invisible unless somebody dies. The other day I was doing one of the Cataclysm bosses on my paladin tank, who has successfully tanked almost everything in WotLK. I apparently pulled the first pack of trash before the healer (who I later saw hadn’t done anything past the first couple wings of ICC) had his mana back, and he just started laying into me, saying I was a bad tank, and I needed to learn how to tank, and just on and on, for the entire duration of the instance. It was pretty unpleasant. I hadn’t had to deal with that for a while, because usually my gear shuts people up. So you have to deal with that.
In a raid situation, a tank’s job is in many ways easier than DPS or healing. DPS can always be better, and have to compete in a very quantitative way with each other. Healers have to juggle 25 targets, and there can be a small margin between alive and dead. Tanks also have less competition for their gear which is nice.
On the other hand, a tank has moments of total responsibility. A DPS or a healer can fall a little behind, or even die sometimes, and somebody else can cover for them, so the raid can probably recover. As a tank, there are many situations where if you die because you stood in the fire, or fail to pick up an add, or fail to use a cooldown properly, then the raid will wipe. Your job isn’t that hard, but you have to execute it perfectly or you will spoil the boss attempt for 24 other people.
The friend I play WoW with suggested the other day that I learn to tank with my DK by running random dungeon instances in my (admittedly average ilevel 251) DPS gear. I told him hell no. This thread is certainly not changing my mind. :p
Andrew
3176
I’d say the DK is the trickiest tank, as their resources are the most complex, which means you don’t have all of your abilities available at any given moment. They’ve made that somewhat less bad in 4.0, because the resource requirements have been removed or reduced for many cooldowns. It isn’t that bad, but not the easiest way to learn how to tank.
I think the easiest way to learn how to tank is to do it in low-level dungeons. The penalty for failure is much lower there, but the fundamental skill of keeping aggro on everything is the same. Depending on the healer, you may need to watch your health and cooldowns, etc. Get a warrior or a paladin to level 15, and start tanking.
People also have much lower expectations for tanks at low levels. If you can more or less hold aggro, are using a shield and wearing plate/mail armor (if you are a warrior or paladin) then people are pretty much happy.
I think you put it pretty well AndrewM. Nobody is amused when you’re kite-tanking lootship ‘on a boat’ style and you fall off the boat. As far as the prick that laid into you, My response to that sort of thing is generally “did anyone die?” When the inevitable No response comes, I say then STFU.
Clanan
3178
If you don’t like getting beat on so your group can emerge victorious - don’t play a tank. If you prefer big pretty numbers and ZOMG 12k crits, don’t play a tank. I don’t see what the issue is. Tanking is fine and fun - for those who like it! As for the high stress mumbo jumbo… it’s just WoW. If the stress gets you that much, looks like tanking ain’t your thing.
And rofl at you saying tanking is low reward because… you don’t like the rewards. Seriously, stick to your mage, bro.
Bill
3179
I did my first tanking this summer, with a warrior that I took to level 49, mostly through dungeon finder PUGs, and it was great fun and not too difficult. It’s way more interesting than dps, which is far more passive. I would get a lot of compliments and my groups rarely wiped (and often that wasn’t my fault anyway). And only a couple of people noticed that I was Fury specced too (I wanted the extra dps for when I was soloing out in the world)!
I like tanking because I like the sense that I’m employing my player and character skill in a key role essential to the party’s (or raid’s) survival. I totally agree that it’s not for everyone.
