There is already 6 tank specs in the game. Adding another tank spec is not going to suddenly increase availability like people think it would. People don’t want the responsibility or to make the time investment needed to learn or iterate on pulls and routes. It’s as simple as that. It’s part of the reason why I have been more casual route this patch. When you release an expansion and gut tanks like what was done in S1 that is also a good way to get people to quit tanking. It took multiple rounds of mob nerfs, 2x melee swing nerfs and flat % buffs for tanks before they almost got it right.
In my opinion bring back the vengeance system for tanks and make them more durable than they are now. Give people incentives again to want to tank. If the format of M+ is going to remain unchanged then include something similar to Mythic Dungeon tools inside the game with the ability to see and lookup popular route options in game without relying on a 3rd party developer or website.
its not toxic. Its reality. Tanks are instant write off for targets. other side will blow them off. So now they go who is focused fire, healer or the dps. as the tank with healz is just going to live forever. and not a damage threat as much as a say…sub rogue or MM hunter who can be burst masters.
2 dps, 1 healz has it more complicated. assuming all geared and skilled…there are no write offs. you need match time to see who the weakest/strongest link is.
tanks in pvp only are needed in some pvp.
CTF bgs (bear tanks are gods here) , AV (you can push a almost no towers boss kill with enough tanks and healz), and ashran. Bear tanks again…they can prowl to frag dude, kill them solo or need like 1 more rogue for dps assist.
Because Blizz neuters tanks in PvP. Get rid of the extra damage, make taunts change target mid cast, make a tank with action mitigation up a LOS blocker, etc. Let’s us be real tanks in PvP and blowing us off wouldn’t be an option.
I just want to play the new race! (And it’d be great to be able to play the way I like on my shammy too)
It’s not going to magically make tons of tanks appear, that’s true. But it definitely helps. Many of the mythic keystone tanks now are people who don’t actually want to tank, but are sick of being declined as DPS so they swap off-spec to get invites. So yeah there would obviously be more people begrudgingly tanking if more people had the option to do it
There’s plenty of reasons why tanks are “underplayed”
People that push M+ tend to want to push in the same spec they’re raiding on. Guilds only need 2-3 tanks.
Affixes that are just not fun for tanks exist. It’s not fun to play on necrotic. It’s not fun to play on fortified raging. It’s not fun to play on explosive. These things tend to make people more likely to rethink tanking.
Tanking anxiety is also a big issue. Tanks are expected to know routes and lead the group. The problem being that routes can vary depending on tank class, group comp, group experience and a route a tank comes up with for his guild’s +15s might not work on higher keys. Or vice versa. When I main tanked last season I did not enjoy pugging. I remember pugging into a +20 spires and being flamed non-stop despite having done that place on a +22 because we wiped when people missed kicks or when the monk would roll on top of me during 3rd boss and get stomped on.
And lastly, good tanks get snatched up. They form regular groups they run with. They’re less expendable than DPS or healers so for them, finding a group that suits them is much easier than other roles.
Part of it is that tank equipment basically locks you out of PvP and the rotation kind of sucks, you don’t do any real damage either which sucks. For me it’s like, I really enjoyed tanking in Classic while leveling but stopped at 70 because I was going to DPS for raids and they were just oil and water roles.
Having a tank set just isn’t worth it now with personal loot, too, you can’t just gear up as an offtank with excess loot drops.
Edit: This isn’t support for tanks in PvP, they immediately suck the fun out of matches because of how braindead they are and their survivability turns everything into a slog. Tanks would need a better tuned Glad Stance equiv for PvP balanced separately to be PvP regulars.
Ever play Everquest 2 PVP? I had the privilege of doing so rarely on a berserker tank and it was so fun. The taunts locked target to the taunter for a few seconds, and there were AOE taunts. The DPS-Tank-Healer trinity mattered in PVP.
Think of it like this way. You have chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream you been eating those same flavors for over 20 years. Now add in a mint ice cream and some people will gravitate towards the mint because it’s something new and fresh.
But people didnt gravitate to “mint” the last 4 times. what makes the 5th time different?
I would agree that it seems like it should help increase the number of tanks adding new cool specs that tank but there is a history of it not happening. Why is this any different than he last 4 times?
They might have gravitated toward “mint” but it just wasn’t a big enough effect to notice. Having/notHaving the new class have a tanking spec won’t likely make a big difference either way, but I guarantee it will make at least some difference. I’ve seen dozens of people write/like a comment that said they currently tank and are definitely going to main the new class no matter what. That is survey data showing you right there that there will at least be some current tanks that won’t be tanking next expansion if the new class doesn’t have a tank spec.
This is my main and I have two tank alts. I spend as much and sometimes more time waiting for a healer as a tank as I do waiting for a tank as a dps. We don’t need more tanks we need more support players, period
If you aren’t running the meta route or tank everything exactly perfectly, you will be yelled at or questioned. A couple of examples, spires 1st boss, obviously it’s ideal to group the 2 bosses together for cleave, but if you have ever tanked this you know it’s a serious pain in the asz because A: you can’t afford to get the melee cleaved, since it is a one shot ability, B: the dragonhawk moves like every 3 seconds. Got yelled at just recently because didn’t group them for cleave often enough (even though still well on time for the key).
Another example, it’s quite popular in Gambit to grab Wo and skip the 4 lightning guys and do murlocs at the end of dungeon, because the lightning guys can be a little annoying and maybe take a little extra time. If you decide not to do this skip and actually engage the lightning guys you will be yelled at.
There are a billion other examples, just tiny adjustments you make to a key’s routing to avoid common mistakes in pugs and you will get blasted. "Why did you do the key that way? it’s .1% faster to do it this way " Because you’re a pug and you would have died or body pulled or done some other stupid crap if we pulled it the ‘meta’ way.
because all the classes they have added had tank specs. DK, tank spec, DH tank spec, monk tank spec. This drakthyr class absolutely will reduce the overall number of tanks.
I’ve pugged hundreds of keys as a dps and healer and I don’t see the tank getting yelled at any more than any other player. I’m not saying that it doesn’t happen, but in my experience it doesn’t. From what I see, it’s actually the dps that’s more likely to be called out for suboptimal play.
