Whats up with tanks?

Community General Discussion
113

Doing a run on my mage manor 7 I think, I picked a couple dps and a healer with decent rio scores and the only tank in que was a 390+ druid with no raider io score.

I was tentative at best to invite him, but I said sod it how bad can it be?

It was fine done key on time and tank knew what he was doing. So begs the question of why no raider io score tbh.

Took a punt it paid off…thankfully (so many times it doesn’t)

114

Oh, so many times it doesn’t :frowning:

115

I’d happily be anything as needed. If it happens to be a pain in the backside, so be it.

116

nah i just told them low dps and left. im not gonna explain mechanics to everyone everytime and explain their dps rotation to them. You join a m+ u better know what you re doing or im leaving lmao

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117

So you where the problem then ok i hope i never do a dungeon with you.

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118

What might be interesting is a class with multiple tank specs, as you mentioned, with one better at spell dmg mitigation, or threat, or dmg, or overall mitigation (raid), etc.

Just as there are classes with 3 dps specs (hunter, mage, rogue, warlock), there should be multiple tank specs.

If “kiting” has to be a thing, then tons, tons of mobility options.

Blizz needs to update the char creation tool tip for tank, “stand tall and strong like a mountain to protect your allies, and run like a girly man so you don’t get deleted because you really aren’t a mountain, but an anthill of courage.”

119

As much as I like the idea of more tank-specs, I doubt it’ll help anything. Blizzard can’t even keep the current tank-specs equally viable…let alone if you get more specs. Ending up in 1 spec per class being superior for 1 patch, the other for the next etc…

I think the question is, why is there a shortage of tanks in the LFG system?
I think the partial answer is; gambling. It is a gamble when you enter a random group. The only one you can look up is the leader… So it could end great, but it could end up with a weird composition or horrible ilvl/dps/w/e aswel. When you make a group yourself you have it all in control, and it’s not hard as a tank to find 4 players to join you.

So give more info about the group in the LFG-tool might already help a little?

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120

I like the concept of “more info,” but therein lies the crux of the problem.

With PUGs, the motivations and attention/importance at that moment, cannot be qualified. And, these are both crucial factors. With mates, guild, people will be honest, but with randoms, not so much.

121

Then the info shouldn’t be able to be randomly adjusted. But I do realise that this can end up horribly aswel.

I’m not sure how to fix it, but atm that is one of the “issues” I face when looking for a group as tank. They get to see your (max?) ilvl, class and role. All you see is the title (dungeon +X), description (often empty / “checking rio”) and name/server of the leader. But perhaps this is just me :P.

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122

There is also a mental barrier to tanking that is exacerbated by the introduction of Mythic+ mechanics like a timer ticking in your face plus various mechanics that can punish you. In pugs, you’re basically expected to know how to play the game on ‘expert mode’ before you even started the game. You’re expected to know the packs, the skips/shortcuts, the affixes, everything. And you’re watched much more closely than DPS. I personally think that this issue has a much higher impact on the number of tanks than the number of tank specs or tank gameplay.

123

Maybe they should give tanks a 30% increase in rewards :thinking:

Do you know how frustrating it is to tank with random pugs who are clueless on what to do? I would love to be able to dps more in dungeons but all the good tanks don’t want to pug with randoms since it usually ends in disaster and the only tanks left are the decent - absolutely worthless tanks who are clueless themselves on what to do (pulling 5 packs on explosive week and then blaming dps or healer for wipes cuz no dmg on the 10 explosive that spawn each second or the healer for not healing the 500k hps required to heal through everything).

Kiting just makes things easier when you reach higher keys because in a design where the difficulty only gets higher and higher, you eventually reach the point where you can’t face-tank a pack of 4 fortified/tyrannical mobs without needing cooldowns/being one-shot. I’m a Brewmaster main so I can face-tank much longer than other tanks due to Stagger being pretty broken vs physical dmg.

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124

If you’re gonna b…h at a Tank for being c…p at their job, you better have a clue what your talking about from a playing experience… or your just another waste of a character slot in the greater universe of the game.

125

I haven’t touched tank for a while. Since the start of bfa…( was a Dh, paladin and Dk)
So, which tank is variable and fun to play, again?

126

Depends on what you want to do for anything upo to and including 15s every tank is viable you just need to know how to play.

for 20 or higher you prob should not be pugging in the first place. (at laest not now of making this post)

127

Ah! Just casual tanking here… I guess, I will go for dk ( my horde toon can do something useful for once)

128

Trouble is, playing a character in a Tank spec. outside of structured, Instanced content “doesn’t matter” to way too many players… even joining Group Quests that require a role to be selected usually get ‘populated’ by 99% of players that basically play DPS and ignore their roles to get the kill as quickly as possible…

On occasions where I’ve joined groups like this mentioned above, as a Veng. DH., not that many care about Tanks losing threat… & many MDPS still choose to hit the target from the front (when it’s DPS 101 that attacks from behind the target are more effective).

So much of the basics of the game gets ignored due to the want to rush to get to max. level that Questing thinking get taken through to Dungeon & Raid level because there’s no emphasis on doing any different.

This is why I dread Tanking structured Instanced content… because too many players do NOT know how to play their roles in those environments.

129

I might be biased, but I would say the only people that understand concepts, at a high level, are primarily other tanks and followed slightly by healers.

In rare cases, dps toons are also very knowledgeable, but that is the exception. Most dmg role toons are apes, and usually fail at the most rudimentary mechanics, move out of bad, let tank pull, LoS, position, build aggro?? Hello?? Cc a ranged mob that the tank can’t nab–not all have deathgrip, so it does just tee off on your tank/group.

Not saying all tanks are great, but on average, people who bear its burdens are scarred by it for the better.

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130

Nothing wrong with tanks. Look at group finder, a lot groups with tank in queue… waiting for healer :joy:

131

For some reason whenever i see this thread i picture Jerry seinfeld saying “What’s the deaaal with tanks?” :sweat_smile:

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132

You caught me!!

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