I can tell you what I prefer 100% of the time as the group healer. I can tell you which of the two always has worse gear, plays worse, has a smaller HP pool, dies in 2-3 seconds, and can’t hold aggro. And I can tell you who is always entirely comfortable with giving up the extra damage mitigation (which doesn’t just evaporate, it just transfers work to the healer). I can tell you which group moves through dungeons faster (it’s not the one where there is 5x more drinking involved).
Unfortunately, there are people playing all classes and specs in all roles who are simply not good at the game.
You might consider rolling a warrior, and learning a bit about tanking, so that you can offer some advice, if it’s something you care about.
Typically, a warrior will have a macro for swapping between sword/shield and a 2hander, and be able to use whichever is better for the given situation.
As you’re posting on a level 10 warlock, we cannot make any assumptions as to the level of instances you are running, but I’d be curious as to where/when you are encountering this, who has put the groups together, and if you are regularly removed from groups as a healer.
How is Warlock healer, by the way? I’ve not tried it yet.
Because two-handers hit harder, generate more rage and consequently more threat, and the mitigation offered by a shield is not necessary when tanking dungeons.
Sounds like you’re just playing with terrible tanks, then. The entire reason behind 2H / DW tanking is to generate a ton more threat/DPS, in exchange for about 10% physical DR that would have come from using a shield.
Because not all healers suck. Theres also this thing called ooc ( out of combat ) drinking. This doesn’t mean you wait until combat breaks, then finish spamming heals, to open yourbag and find a water to click and drink.
You should be sitting the very moment combat breaks, all others should be doing the same ( or eating in the case of melee ), when the tank then pulls, you should be ready to stand but waiting until you need to.
If you need to sit for the entire duration of your drink, you need to look at what YOU are doing wrong. It could be a lack of spirit, it might be the water you’re using, it could be the expectation you place on others for them to wait while you get your stuff together.
I do groups with multiple warriors, quite often without a shield in sight. My guilds healers love it because mobs die faster, threat generation is superior and people have FUN, which is whole point to playing a game.
If you are having trouble with this in 5 man groups, you’re in for some harsh realities when you go on a 40 man raid.
If your tanks are dying in 2-3 seconds, there’s more going wrong than 2H tanking.
Call me weird, but I don’t check tanks specs and whether they are 2H or sword and board before starting an instance. As long as the mobs are dying and I can heal through the damage with some buffer in case of things going pear shaped, it’s all good by me.
Rage-based tanks need incoming damage, and if they are well geared than sometimes they need to cut back on mitigation so they can generate enough threat to raise the dps ceiling. That’s the way it is. Shouldn’t be a problem unless the tank is poorly geared and is just being reckless.
I find that if you have a predefined notion in your head, you are going to find evidence to support that notion. You sound like someone who has decided that a tank should always wear a shield, so every time you run without one you are looking for those reasons and ignoring everything else.
People use 2handers, especially while leveling, because it has better threat gen and mobs die a LOT faster. Faster clears, more runs, more loot, more xp. Yes, they take more damage… but it’s not a lot.
P.S. I assume your ‘2-3 seconds’ is exaggeration, but in case your healer is a priest at least, may I suggest the following so you are not spending so much time drinking.
Stack spirit. While you are levelling, this is your primary stat.
Invest in meditation.
Heal in bursts as much as possible so you can maximise your time outside the 5-second rule.
If you do need to take a drink, don’t feel you must top up to 100%, but by the same token, you should feel free if you want to let the tank pull while you are still drinking and only interrupt when you need to cast your first heal. You should be holding your first heal off for a couple of seconds to let the tank establish aggro first, right?
Well its kinda sad that so many people got offended by the anti 2h tank post that they have to act so defensive in ways of mocking the op.
I mean i don’t see how his experience is hitting a nerve with some of you.
But what ever the case is if your tank is taking so much damage that one renewal isn’t enough to keep him up then hes probably not pulling right or tanking right. Healer drinking a lot is usually a sign of either not good mana management or bad tank/dps threat management.
That’s literally just the first 5 I saw searching for “2H tank”
Then again, I literally haven’t been in a group that understood that you have to wait at least 0.5 seconds before nuking, or that you have to focus dps, or a million other things. So I can only guess that either 1) a lot of people are new, 2) retail plays different and is causing confusion with classic or 3) people haven’t somehow gotten worse over time. No idea really.
Edit: actually what I think is happening is that no one actually wants to tank, and that they only do it begrudgingly because they need to for groups. Like mages with water. So they do it, but only on their terms, which often translates into doing it poorly.
I have to confess, I am in this boat, but not quite the way you think.
I was a Tank throughout my entire play history prior to Classic, from early '05 through to Cataclysm, after which i abandoned the game completely. In Classic I was also a tank from day 1, I lasted 2 months before i threw the towel in.
Between the craptastic healers, mages who begrudge giving water to healers and the general subtle hate directed towards Tanks over tank privilege, i gave in and went full fury DPS.
I get to roll on whatever I want, I enjoy my dungeon time like never before, and i don’t get accused of exerting the power I have as a tank to form groups aka tank privilege.
As a sword and board tank, there was a place for healers who sucked, as they could get by thanks to my damage mitigation. As a fury dual wield I don’t have room in groups for bad healers, such is life.
Don’t hate the player, hate the game. Seems no matter what we tanks do, there is always someone ready to cuss us out. If im going to be abused for tanking, im not tanking, simple.
The player base has done this to itself.
p.s. - I’d be careful highlighting other duplicate posts in your own duplicate post, as it’s against the forum CoC.
I can believe all of these gripes, including garbage healers. Sort of the converse of the situation I find myself in.
If you’re working twice as hard to make up for the shortfall in a group caused by a healer, it’s hard not to resent all the people who are skipping about blissfully ignorant who then blame you when things go wrong.
There’s no priest equivalent to fury/DW. I guess you can spec shadow and dps but I like healing (marginally competent groups).
No thanks.
If you say so. I can tell you’ve never been a healer who’s had multiple mobs peel off after heal #1, even after waiting a respectful amount of time after the pull.
Incorrect. For max efficiency (and fun really) everyone should be using as much of their capability as possible. Why would you go through an entire instance gimping your warriors dps AND ignoring 90% of your healers kit/stats? Doesnt make any sense at all. If you gain 200 dps without sacrifing anything, youd be a fool not to.
2h/fury does massively more threat than prot, especially if they’re spec’d for it. Prot has very few talents that increase threat in vanilla and the only one that really matters is at tier 2.
Exactly. Charge, sweeping strikes, zerker stance, rage, whirlwind. Infinitely more instant aoe threat than any prot tank can put out short of TF.
Shields are primarily for blocking crushing blows… Thats really it… Also keep in mind a lot of mobs do magic damage in which case your shield does exactly nothing.