It is not a secret that tanks are the least played role, by far. And everyone who has attempted to run any PvE content will struggle to wait for a tank. Doing a high key may take an hour, or even more find a capable tank, while DPS and healer spots are filled with a certain ease.
Blizard already fixed the disparity between horde and alliance, giving alliance players more rewards, and now introducing cross-faction.
I feel they should maybe give more chance of finding gear when playing in a tank spec, maybe 10% more or something, making it slightly easier to gear as a tank. Also, they can make it possible to play tanks with DPS gear. For example, a ret paladin or DPS warrior that wants to tank will be forced to farm both a one-hand weapon and a shield, just to play a tank. This difficult people who simply want to test the role. As they did with monks, being able to play with 2 one-hand weapons or 1 two-hand weapon. A sword and a shield should always come on top, but a two-handed weapon should be at least viable while finding better gear.
9 Likes
i mean, i wouldn’t turn the bonus gear down, but it’s not going to fix the problem.
11 Likes
This is not a problem Blizzard can fix.
It is a problem that comes from the community, especially the M+ community.
You can’t force players to tank, only incentivise.
50 Likes
They have tried a lot of things to get more players to tank.
Adding more viable tank specs (bear/paladin in BC, DK in wrath, Monk in MoP, DH in legion)
They added incentives to queue for LFD/LFR for tanks when theres a shortage (gold/rune bag).
they buffed threat from vanilla to present (rip legion threat tho)
6 Likes
I agree, I don’t think it will fix the problem. Bonus incentives like extra loot will only entice so many players.
The problem with tanks, or the lack of tanks, isn’t that it is difficult to gear them. It’s that it’s a PITA to be a tank in a group environment, especially when pugging. And that’s because of other players.
36 Likes
@OP why are you directing this at Blizzard? It isn’t their fault people don’t want to play tank. How about direct it to the community where I have seen plenty of posts of people saying they are done tanking for how people are in their groups. Especially those who feel like pulling instead of the tank.
I have also read plenty of people who said they were new to tanking and wanted to learn but treated very poorly in their groups because they didn’t know how to tank like a champ yet instead of being patient with them and maybe offering suggestions so they can learn.
So yeah. change your title to “the Community” instead of Blizzard.
25 Likes
There are only two ways Blizzard can fix this.
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Dynamically adjusting the dungeons to suit all sorts of groups; kind of like they did with scenarios originally. Don’t require a tank, healer, or DPS.
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Require more tanks in raids, and allow a second tank in dungeons. Right now, we’re limited to 2 tanks for ALL raids, so most people will gravitate towards DPS. Since only two tanks per raid, a lot of people never play a tank spec, because they won’t have the opportunity to play one in end-game content. Either that or they tried once and was soured on the experience. Healers are in a bit better spot than tanks, since 25 man raids use between 4 and 6 healers depending on encounter.
The lack of tanks is built-in to the game.
5 Likes
Do you want Blizzard to force us to play tank specs? I’m a little confused what you want them to do when it’s a player created problem?
2 Likes
that would only cause even less Tanks.
2 Likes
As I browsed mythic + groups lastnight I noticed about 75% were full groups minus a healer, didn’t look like a lack of tanks to me. Historically I know tanks and healers have been the hardest to come by which is why I have several healers and a tank alt. Maybe it’s timing for you more than lack of players.
Dracthyr were right there.
Evoker was right there.
Which wouldn’t be an issue then, because they wouldn’t be required. Even then, you might have more people try tanking if the role wasn’t so imperative to a dungeon or raid. Less stress put on one person in favor of the group as a whole.
2 Likes
They should at least give it a chance to be able to tank, using DPS gear. As I said with warriors and paladins. If they want to try and tank, they need to farm weapons, change their loot spec into the tank, and potentially lose some drops for their DPS spec.
1 Like
player-made problem. stop being jerks to your tanks.
29 Likes
I hate to be this way, but Hell No to tanking and if I changed my mind, it would sadly Only be for a Guild.
The amount of verbal abuse/text is so bad it really is a put-off for old players and for fresh players to have to deal with.
7 Likes
The only thing Blizzard could possibly do to fill the tank spec is to add a mercenary system where you rent a tank NPC for dungeon runs. Just like Blizzard cannot balance the factions they can’t make people want to tank.
1 Like
The biggest problem causing lack of tanks in small form PvE content is the number and gravity of responsibilities tanks have there. They’re expected to know all the routes and strats for the dungeon and to keep crap off the DPS at all times, even when DPS is a bunch of hyperactive overcaffeinated monkeys pulling everything in sight. If anything ever goes wrong, it’s the fault of the tank and heals - DPS can do no wrong. It’s like babysitting except those being babysat can curse you out and rage-whisper you.
Simplify tanking in M+ and there will be no lack of tanks.
16 Likes
I could be persuaded to tank for some llama mounts to keep my alpaca mounts company.
Maybe a way to use them all at the same time too. I would love to roll around with a gaggle of fluffy cheerful friends.
It’s beyond frustrating, not to mention the amount of stuff a tank has to work through for a quick and easy run, couple that with the abuse one gets if god forbid they mess up and that’s the biggest put-off for anyone to have to deal with.
5 Likes
Literally, any multiplayer game is like that.
In wow you can get kicked for anything. You can get verbal abuse for even being of certain servers, regardless of your class or role