Sure, if the tank is doing massive AoE pulls. But in that case you shouldn’t even have a warrior tank, just replace the tank with any other number of other classes and the group can do massive AoE faster.
Most smaller pulls and dungeon bosses healer can 5 second rule and never run risk of oom as long as healer/tank are playing properly.
A 2h tank warrior can even duo SM arms with a healer and no dps at lvl ~38-40 without healer going oom.
All I know is from my experience every time I see a 2h tank I can guarantee they are awful. Never once has one impressed me in a dungeon. The best tanks have always been people who switch to a shield.
If the tank thinks it’s OK to tank without a shield, I guess it’ll be OK if the healer heals through Vampiric Embrace.
That they’re all ranged? Then hunters are the tanks?
Not really a big deal. If you don’t like 2H tanking, you can just find another tank with a shield. If the quantity of those is too low, then you’ll be paying the price in time to find one, rather than time to drink.
At low levels, the shield helps with mitigation, but mitigation isn’t really all that important. Even a rogue can tank an elite for a little bit and not die. For bigger pulls, yeah, you can throw on a shield. But 2H tanking is fine a lot of the time, and the increased clear speed is noticeable.
Plus, the more time the healer has to spend healing, the less chance they have to use mind blast for some extra “free” damage that coincidentally rips aggro on anything but the primary target.
Ran tons of UBRS with 2h arms tanks. They consistently top dps meters on trash pulls and typically it is me and other dps who are the only ones stopping to drink while the warriors, rogue, and healers continue to pull. The burst that arms warriors puts out outweighs the minor damage increase they take. Not sure how it is pre 40 since i solo quested the whole way to 60, but from my experience 2h arms past 40 is insanely strong for dungeons.
I’ve also healed warrior tanks without a shield, and can confidently say we did fine everytime. Personally, I think if your healers ok with it, then it is fine. If your healers can’t keep up, then maybe they should out a shield on.
But they don’t go in defensive stance, they sit in berzerk/combat hoping they hold aggro from mages with dps which doesn’t happen.
Did WC and BFD where the tank could hardly hold aggro, did no dps and the mobs that were hitting the dps also did zero damage. For low level dungeons just straight up go 2h, I spent most of my sub 30 dungeon runs face tanking mobs as a spriest without taking any meaningful damage.
If you are not at risk of dying to mobs even when you do pull aggro, what possible reason could there be to wait? Do you just enjoy padding out dungeon time and half afking each pull?
I’ve tanked and healed bosses this way with VE+DP, so yea it’s fine in certain circumstances?
Do people just have this narrow view that what they did 15 years ago was the only way to play the game? Like the game isn’t hard, you don’t need a shield tank for like any dungeon period. Hell I ran RFD with no tank and we did fine.
Posted from the wrong priest.
Like how many other old ‘‘Vanilla facts’’ need to be busted? Next the OP is gonna say you need 200+ fire resist to dps in MC.
Look either you have to be in combat/berserk to try to hold aggro which kills you, or your in defensive and not holding threat for damn. 2h isn’t viable when you have good dps.
I actually had a lengthy discussion about this later on. The gist of it is that there was a “way” to play that was pushed over and over again from all the “Vanilla was harder” and “You have to do X/Y/Z” crowd on forums and various media over the years. How you couldn’t chain pull or AOE mobs; how DPS needed to “know their role” or they’d get oneshot; how you needed CC for pulls to avoid wiping, etc.
Now that Classic is out it turns out that there is a totally different “meta” that has come up within the past month or so (2H tanking, AOE cleave dungeon groups, etc.) that didn’t exist before (or, if it did, was never really discussed. There was almost zero talk about these things even on private server forums over the years) and was largely unknown until very, very recently when it exploded onto the scene for some reason (streamers? Not exactly sure) and has popped up into everyday play.
I guess the end result is that a lot of people, myself included, want to keep things the old tried-and-true way, while there’s an undercurrent of this new “Whatever works” style that is simultaneously being pushed, and the style clash of the two is causing issues. Neither is “wrong”, but for all the bluster about how things were “different” in vanilla coupled with all the media before the release of Classic only showing one particular way (the old way) of doing things, you can see why there’s some hostility about the “new” way.
Then you’ll be fine tanking with a 2h weapon while the healer is healing using Vampiric Embrace.
I generally don’t mind them using a 2H, depending on the tank, group, and content.
I’d still generally prefer they had a shield, however. Saves on ‘oh crap’ moments, and the more mobs there are, the faster those happen when they don’t have a shield.
Inb4 someone argues against the reality of pugging with some pearl of wisdom like ‘they should pull better’ or ‘people should cc’. Thanks, I’ll just let everyone know those things and it will all work out for the best.
They can tank 2h if they can hold threat, but i don’t see it. When people respec at 60 to raid talents they will be lol2h tank. I can’t see a 2h tank ever holding threat off of a 7/21/23 lock or a 31/0/20 mage in a million years.
Not sure why it even has to be a “tank does X” or “tanks does Y” Why not be flexible and go with how the group is running?
Is heals spamming DPS spells cause your taking no damage? Is the healer spending more time healing DPS then you? switch to 2h. Are you noticing your health bouncing up and down allot? switch to shield. Dying more often then necessary? switch to shield.
Cmon folks, we have all these tools in our kit. might as well be flexible. IMO the tank that won’t adapt is a bad tank. That being said, my default is shield unless the group proves to me that I can cruise without one.
Oooohhh so now you’re changing your story. You do take more damage when not in D stance, yes. But no, we are not “dying”. Furthermore, threat generation is increased in D stance, so your second point is nil.
Yeah…in retail. Which honestly, a drunk monkey can tank retail.
the fad that really needs to go is the new dungeon comp of
1 tank
3 mages maybe a sprinkling of warlock
1 healer
or 4 arms ww spec warriors and 1 healer.
if you want REAL TANKS
HOW ABOUT YOU ALL run dungeons like they were intended to be run
Dungeons were intended to be run to kill bosses and collect their loot. This argument is so childish. How dare other people not play the game the way you want them to play it