How can we get rid of tank specs without destroying a tank role

Community General Discussion
1

To make this game more balanced and less time consuming (no more “waiting for a tank”), Blizzard should think about (for the next expac) how to remove tank specs from the game and instead replace them with a “tank role” option. So no more Guardian druids, Protection warriors, Vengeance DHs etc. No more crying about how Tanks are OP, how to fix them in PvP etc.

Tank role should be an option available for ALL melee specs. You can activate it by selecting a tank role instead of dps role when queueing for a pve isntance. It would be available for PVE INSTANCES ONLY: for raids and dungeons. Not for PvP nor for open world.

And what do i mean with a tank role option?

Well, when you chose a tank role as a melee, you will get some mandatory, mostly passive, tank abilities.

Lets say you are an Assassination Rogue (a great spec for tanking, right:P) and you want to queue as a tank. You simply select a tank option instead of dps option. After you get teleported into dungeon or raid, you will passively get 150% more health, 300% more armor, 20% Leech or Versatility, more Dodge and/or Parry and almost 100% aggro uptime but all of your damaging spells/abilities will do roughly 30% - 40% less damage. Three or four of your CD abilities will be replaced by “tanking kind of abilities” For Example: Vanish could give you 50% dmg reduction for 10 seconds instead of Stealth, Sprint could be replaced by strong self heal, Poisoned knife could be replaced by Taunt on a short CD etc.

Warning: again, that would only work in instanced pve, if you chose a tank role as melee spec. As soon as you leave an pve instance group, you will be “transformed” back to your normal role.

If you wanna tank as Arms Warrior or Frost DK you will get slightly less bonus Armor, Leech and Stamina than Rogue i guess …

Does that mean that some classes would lose one of their specs? Yes and no. Less specs means more balance. Druid doesn’t need four specs at all.

Warrior Paladin, Monk and DK don’t need three specs, but i don’t mind replacing their tank spec with another dps spec if there is a will.

Demon Hunter is another story, because we can’t left it with one spec only, so in that case Blizzard should replace Vengeance tank with Vengeance dps (maybe more ranged oriented dps spec than Havoc?).

Some classes and specs are naturally better at tanking than others. For example: a Feral Bear or Frost DK are way better than Subtlety Rogue or WW monk. More squishy specs would simply be provided by more Armor, Health, Dodge/Parry and Leech than tougher specs, maybe some stronger defensive CDs should be added to them as well.

Edit: in Guild Wars 2 there are no tank specs, but you can keep aggro from a boss by simply equipping a gear with more armor and toughness. More armor you get more likely you will get focused by a boss.

Sorry for English …

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I have never in my life read something so idiotic. And don’t worry, it’s not your English that’s the problem, it’s your arguments. Why do people constantly demand LESS content, LESS viability, LESS diversity, LESS buttons and MORE homogenization ? I don’t understand this train of thought.

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Delete them from Arena.
Keep them for PvE, don’t fix what isn’t broken.

Problem solved,
Next please!

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How about no

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5

The easiest way to get rid of tanks is make the game not need them, which is what I thought your idea was going to be.

If people still have to choose to be a tank, they’ll still choose not to. Plus people who are currently Tanks and don’t have a super degree in World of Warcraft from a RWF educational institute might struggle with DPS rotations.

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Your idea takes us from 6 tank specs to like 13. Happy balancing.

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I guess you play melee DPS yourself, because your suggestion – allow any melee DPS be tank – wouldn’t solve the problem for ranged-only classes.

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IF we’re going to remove tanks, just make the things tanks are needed to tank hit way less hard. I can be one shot by any boss’ auto attack in almost any dungeon despite having relatively good gear, so I need a tank. Making it so people can survive the bosses damage without a tank, would be much easier than this mess.

In terms of what this would to do tank specs, well they can be alternative forms of dps, without the damage reduction.

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You mean a hybrid class that has a tank spec. You want ALL classes to be hybrid and have a tank spec.

What you described :

… is a tank spec.

Such classes already exist: Paladin, Warrior, Druid, Monk, DK, DH.

In addition:

This already happens with the hybrid classes. Try it.

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It doesn’t solve the fundamental problem. Specs are mostly fine.

The problem is the role the tank needs to take on. And the abuse a tank has to take.

All tanking classes have a DPS and/or a healing spec.
So your solution is not going to solve a single thing about the lack of tanks.
And quite frankly, it is one of the worst ideas i’ve heard so far. Only beaten by the peeps wanting tanks completely removed.

1 Like
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This is not gona happen and that is the reason why tanks are scarce. Its because people dont want to tank. Your solution will not solve the problem

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How would that even work with the agro? The boss and mobs will just agro switch randomly on different targets depending on the threat they put out. It would be chaos. Or maybe their solution is to give one of the dps specs a taunt, which defeats the purpose, thus turning him into a pseudo tank.
Some people can’t see the forest because of the trees.

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I feel like most players I see complaining are actually playing hybrids. They are the players that could be the solution… And yet I have to deal with hybrid DPS who are pulling left and right in NHCs and HCs and I’m always thinking: if you want to go ahead why don’t you play tank?
Why do I have to wait with my DPS classes because we are missing tanks if any toddler with tank spec could faceroll through the dungeon?

It’s not about the classes but the masses of players that annoy tanks to a point where they either stop going with randoms or quit tanking.
And then people complain about the mess that they helped creating.

2 Likes
14

yes exactly.

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In Guild wars 2 there is something similar as my suggestion: there are no tanks, neither real healers (at least not single target healers, just kind of aoe support/healing roles). All classes in GW2 can take more agrro by simply equipping a gear with more Armor/Toughness. So more Armor you have more aggro you get. No real tank specs are needed there. I would like to see something similar in WoW as well.

That’s why i say every melee (or maybe even every range) should be able to play a tank role by simply getting some passive (and few active ones) buffs that provides different kind of toughness.

But some of you are so angry about my idea. It’s just a suggestion. If you don’t like it, fine, np :slight_smile:

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I think a better way of doing this would be a new dungeon format (in addition to existing ones) called Free-For-All. No tanks or healers required. Just player random players. Damage would come from mostly “Stand in the Bad” or interuptable hits. So it is the individual players responsibility to either not stand in the bad or to interupt hits aimed at them. Other damage should be mitigated or self healed with what means they have.

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Yes, and there is a good reason why a lot of players play WoW or games with a strict holy trinity and not GW2 and it’s kind.
As DPS player you might enjoy playing tanky DPS or DPS with some healing/support. But at their core they are still DPS and don’t appeal to quite a lot of players.

I did play such games in the past and I quit them fast. You might like it, but you never asked if tanks and healers would be happy to become just some lesser DPS classes/specs.

Also: the main problem will not disappear. People don’t want to tank. It’s not about the classes or specs, they as a human don’t want to. Tanking in Tera was fun, it felt great. And the game still had a major lack of tanks. Not because the fights were boring…

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The problem with your suggestion is right here in you first sentence.

The shortage of tanks is not caused by people not wanting to play tank specs - most tank specs are awesome for open world content, especially in areas with many elite mobs or such high mob density that dps specs can become quickly overwhelmed. (If the class I’m playing has a tank spec, I always switch for difficult open world content.)

The problem is that people don’t want the pressure, and potential abuse from other players, that comes with playing the tank role. Enabling more classes to take on the tank role won’t make people suddenly want to play it, and it won’t mean there are more tanks. This change would achieve nothing.

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Than Blizzard should make tanking the simplest thing in WoW instead of being by far the hardest role in the game. At least in raids and mythic +. It’s super easy being a tank in open world though. I am sure they can either buff or reward tanks with something special. I don’t want to tank just because it’s too hard: one mistake and you can wipe all raid. You really have to know every single boss mechanic and boss phase etc. You can’t afford many mistakes. As a healer i have easier job, as melee dps even easier and as a range dps super easy.

That’s why Blizzard has to do something with tanking: either make it way easier, less punishing, less pressure, or give extra rewards for tanking.

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Making it easy won’t make it fun. A lot of tank players complain about ‘boring’ tanks.

I’m sure other players could ‘reward’ tanks by showing them respect, by being patient when they’re learning, by not hurling insults the first time they make a mistake, by saying something like ‘great tanking’ after a good run rather than just leaving without a word.

Blizz can’t fix players’ behaviour. No amount of rewards or changes to spec or dungeons would make me put up with abuse from players.

(The healer shortage exists for the exact same reason, by the way.)

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