I will take up tanking once more! PT.2 How to get more tanks?

Prior forum post

Yeah so tanking is pretty much the same as it once was. People pulling trash, taunting off you, standing in stuff, then blaming you, etc. It’s still been a good time. Tried out my classes and landed on Guardian druid. I like the super big health pool gimmick. Going back to blood DK isn’t off the table yet though.

With that said I don’t have a clue what to do to get more tanks. You have to know your class, the fights, and have a thick skin to player flaming/ trolling/ miss playing/ blaming you. Any ideas?

Hot take here: there’s nothing you can do to make more tanks. Encouraging those with an interest is about it.

Tanking is very fun. You set the pace, there’s many levels of skill expression, it’s pretty much the only role you get to make gearing decisions on.

That said, any mistakes you do make are very noticeable and it isn’t the most relaxing or brain dead role. No one is there to pick up the slack in 5 man’s. This discourages players from trying, but you can’t keep it fun while also adding back up.

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You’ll get more tanks (or rather ex-tanks would start tanking again) if/when dps put in as much effort as tanks do to learn everything.

idk why dps players think they’re exempt from learning how to play their class thoroughly and what each and every mob does, and how to help the tank and healer minimize damage taken. It’s a team effort, not a tank effort.

Amusingly, people learning how to play the game that they spend large amounts of time playing would also reduce toxicity as groups would be more successful more frequently and there would be more understanding of what went wrong when it does.

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This I agree with 100%

I’ve played prot paladin nearly all expansion then split my time between fury warrior and prot pal later in season 2/3 and now I split my time between fury and surv hunter and I can’t really explain how good it feels to be on the dps end now and making the plays that I wish my pug dps did while I was pug tanking.

Granted as prot paladin it’s easier to make up for others’ mistakes but man oh man it makes me feel good when I go kick the one mob our ranged dps doesn’t want to kick because it’s one mob outside of the 6 on the tank. So I go kick and make it a 7 mob pull even though I lose dps, it’s the right play.

Kind of ranting now but even as a dps player making those plays the other dps players are usually clueless as to what’s happening outside of the dps meters and they’ll be quick to notice a lower dps instead of noticing the key timing plays the lower dps is doing

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Mvp status. To leave the tank position to kick that mob is dangerous for the tank and I sit there staring at it the whole pull.

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yeah… the other dps won’t notice but if i’m the tank i assure you i notice it and appreciate it!

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Honestly, I’d suggest healers practice getting decent at arena to cope. Healing keys in BFA used to stress me out until I got into PVP in SL, now watching DPS stand in everything because they’re busy clicking their abilities is half funny.

But you’re not wrong. Watching people disregard game mechanics, and do 5-7k DPS at 270ish ilvl (even when they have relatively decent IO) is kind of just selfish gameplay.

Probably the single most noticeable thing top groups do that sets them ahead.

DPS in top keys know exactly what will kill their tank, and they proactively work to protect their tank. Something most dps have probably never even thought about.

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Tbh this is just community in general. When I first started playing I was really interested in tanking, and ended up rolling a Druid back in Wrath to do just that (along with playing Feral :drooling_face: kitty) but was flamed into absolute oblivion by every group I tried to join. If you said “I’m here to learn” they’d boot you, which made the gear requirement a lot harder.

I only started really tanking in WoD, and even to that end BFA was the first expansion where I’ve really made a point of learning how to do it correctly.

The thick skin part is definitely in play, you have people (like some people on the forums here that I will not name) who will absolutely destroy you for having an opinion and will be the first to flex their IO score to prove a point. If you roll that into the current M+ scene, you’ll get a pretty good slice of the playerbase. Sometimes they’ll flame you, sometimes they’ll just leave because the route you chose wasn’t exactly the same one their favorite streamer used or what was done at the MDI therefor it’s bad.

It really is a high risk medium reward role that not a lot of people appreciate. A good tank will make or break your key faster than a healer or DPS will, yet people will still flame every tank they come across that isn’t God tier, and then complain about tank queues being super long when waiting in group finder.

Respect your tank, everyone starts somewhere.

Lmao trust me, I knew the feeling all too well. When I dabble on prot war every now and again I feel even more helpless not being able to range kick

For paladin it’s a very short wait if it isn’t 40yds away, but I’ve been pushing on monk and I really don’t want to blow RoP to bring it in.

Lol prot paladin has it really nice, and thus pugs who tank with a prot paladin have it really nice too

I was bear main at the start of SL.
I hated season 1 affix tbh. It killed my vibe complete. There was quite a bit of toxicity around this affix.

Season 2 was pretty good.
Season 3 is good too imho.

I swapped to BrM in Season 2 and I love it. Just a fun spec/class to play.
I am never going back to bear tanking.

Agreed. I would hate to see the incentive to tank get so big that players without interest start tanking.

It’s why I suggest alternatives like increasing dungeon group size to get more dps per tank.

I made this tank specifically so I could become a better dps. I feel like if everyone tanked for a good bit people would understand mechanics a lot better. I’m gearing up a feral Druid currently. If(if I ever lol) get invited to key I’ll be S tier on interrupts/mechanics