Well, I can only speak from personal experience, but I for one will be playing the new class/race since I want to try something new. As a result, I will no longer be tanking next expansion. I am sure some others feel the same way as me though.
I always found tanking for randoms to be great fun. Are you referring to mythic+ pug groups? They arenât random.
I think he means random players as in strangers.
Stop treating new tank players like trash (or just stop treating anyone in a dungeon like trash) and things will get better.
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Youâre right, but actually, Jingyi is right as well.
Letâs say I main a Death Knight and I play as a DPS. There will be times when my guildies will need a tank for something I might outgear, or maybe Iâm just bored of playing the same and want to try something. Iâm one click away from trying out tanking.
I work a full time job and have some other responsabilities, so I rarely use an alt. So if I played a purely dps or dps-healer class, I would never consider the possibility of trying tanking. Having it one click away is really a big incentive.
Thereâs also the fantasy factor. Some people like going for a specific fantasy for their character. Right now the fantasies for tank are pretty limited, you have 3 specs that are based on the fantasy of a heavy armored strong guy. Sure, one is a normal warrior, the other one was light based spells and the third death based ones, but itâs still a very similar fantasy. The other 2 are a big fat bear and a drunk monk.
Having more classes accessing a tank spec would expand the fantasies and that might attract more players.
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Odd how the word ârandomâ is now applied to groups manually assembled by individual players now. I guess real randoms will be going away, since the game doesnât need them. Theyâll go away with the group finder, and only people who belong to the right clique in the right guild (or have the right friends) will be able to access content in the future.
But your not 1 click away,
Frost dk Mastery>Crit>haste>vers (talking 70% 30% 10% 6% overall)
Blood dk vers haste crit mastery (talking 25% 20% 20% then leftovers in mastery).
The huge adjustment in stat weights means its not as simple as just clicking a button unless you have specifically gathered tank gear as well as your dps stuff.
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I have always referred to randoms as random players (strangers) that I have never played with before since I can remember. Some lingo gets intertwined with one another once in awhile though.
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tanks arent underplayed, but tanks also only play with friends, rarely with randos, i give my tanking abilities to my friends and guildies who ask nicely but sitting in a queue to play with strangers? no t(h)anks
I disagree
when they added DKâs, they could tank. it did not solve the problem
when they added DHâs, they could tank. it did not solve the problem
when they added Monks, they could tank and it again did not solve the problem
if adding those classes as tanks didnât address the problem of people not wanting to tank for crappy pug groups, why do you think more classes would?
raids have no problems finding tanks
my guild has a number of people stepping up to tank keys, so I extrapolate that is similar in other such guilds.
itâs the pug environment that supposedly has a lack, and from my experience as a tank, the fault for that lies solidly on the playerbase.
but, going to my own experiences - Iâve never had a problem on one of my dps alts finding a tank for a key. so I guess I donât understand where this complaint stems from. I donât believe for a hot second the claims of people waiting in LFG for hours, because it has never happened to me. sometimes I have to wait 10 minutes.
so idk.
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Players are pricks to tanks (and healers). Player base reaps what it sows.
I will never again tank for a pug or people I donât know.
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That doesnât change the actual meaning of the word. RDF = âRandom Dungeon Finderâ, a group system-assembled with 1 tank, 1 healer, and 3 dps.
You certainly should avoid groups that have been manually assembled by a group leader that has used no criteria in choosing who to invite.
A lot of old-time players tell us they are unable to treat players from other realms as people rather than bots or AI. I consider that their problem.
So there are only enough tanks to tank for fixed groups of friends or for fellow raiders in the guild. That fits my definition of ânot enough tanksâ.
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randomly queued dungeons for anything other than leveling have been irrelevant* for a long time.
*irrelevant as far as gearing/character progression, outside of the first week or so of a new expansion. I suppose theyâre still relevant to an individual if they enjoy doing them.
I think the main thing that put me off tanking (aside from social issues) is that I have no idea how to work the whole taunt/threat thing in larger fights. I have enough trouble managing melee in a fight because of the visual intensity of things going on around me; flashing lights, explosions, other playersâ activities, the movement of target and constantly having to shift around to keep the thing targettable, as well as actually fighting it and using my spells/abilities.
Having to also know when to taunt, how to do it, where to move to, what the timing is - its one of those âits easy if you know how to do itâ situations. I doubt I could have figured it out when I was younger and I certainly couldnât now.
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I would say for most people stat weights for tanks arenât going to matter on if they timed their 15 or not compared to just being able to play their class well.
At some point it matters of course.
And prior to WoD tanks had to swap out their entire armor set not just a few slots to even function in many cases.
I want it because Iâm the main character and every one relies on me. :>
So youâd be deliriously happy with that, because it would sell more carries to players who reach max level never having set foot in any dungeon before that day? Sounds like a great way to sell tokens, a horrible way to improve the skills of the playerbase.
Doesnât in any way change the meaning of the word ârandomâ.
In my example I specifically mentioned content you outgear. One great way to start tanking for someone who hasnât tried it yet is to help some guildies in some lower difficult content. Letâs say you do +20 keys as a DPS and then you want to help someone do a +7 and they donât have a tank.
You can perfectly tank with suboptimal stats.
Also, I mentioned DK, a class I donât know much about, but I main a paladin and I can use most of my gear for both Holy and Protection. I only switch Weapons and Trinkets, and I even tanked the raid with DPS generic trinkets for a few weeks because of bad luck.
Also, in most guides for most classes Iâve played the biggest resounding advice is âilvl > optimizing statsâ.
Yes, tanking is one click away in almost all the cases if you want to start tanking something below the difficulty youâre used to play at.
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Thatâs made spicier by the fact that dps no longer know how to work it either 
theyâll go absolutely ham on different targets in a big aoe pack, one will pull one off of you, then as youâre rebuilding threat on that one, another will pull a different mob off of you.
threat management is something that has been largely long abandoned by anyone other than tanks in this game.
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Personally - I donât tank because I find it incredibly boring - tank mechanics are pretty bare bones - I think if they got more interesting tool kits and also were required to actually do more interesting things during fights, people would play them more.