Just a thought. i main a rogue, so it is impossible for me to swap to tank or healer if i wanna advance this one specific class. when i play my druid, DK, shaman…etc i always have a geared tank/healer spec alongside my dps just to get some dungeons done
Now I’m bias because i main a rogue but what if we give more classes options to go dps or heals? it wouldn’t solve the issues in M+ entirely but with more tank options on classes people enjoy. Rogue tanking is a thing in SoD, other games like Rift have specs for their “Rogue” archetype to tank and heal. for rogues it could be a variation of outlaw and or sub where they use parries and shadow magic to shield and reduce their damage. an assassination variant using their knowledge of alchemy and poisons to heal instead of deal damage
again we have warlock tanks in SoD as well, mage healers…etc., i know we’ve been asking for true shaman tanks since vanilla. have a 4th shaman spec where their “main” element is “earth” just like how Enh is wind, resto water, ele fire
any thoughts? rather than adding an entirely new class that could multi-spec like a druid give some new spec options to existing classes
Not universally true… Some people like maining pure dps classes because they don’t even want the thought of being ‘asked’ to be other roles. People willing to heal or tank already have a nice array of options to pick with (not that more isn’t better tho!).
I don’t mind it, I would love if every class could be a hybrid, but I honestly don’t see any hints of that happening.
I suppose, I’ve personally never judged or expecting multi role classes to play multiple but people who actively want to tank will in fact pick a class. for me if I’m actively looking to tank i play blood DK. but adding a few more specs to some(not all) classes like rogue, give me the option to swap to tank or healer not because i want to tank, but because i don’t mind tanking and i want to play rogue. it would help since many people who would be doing it to farm crests or items would have opportunities to help the community by joining the tank/healer pool on the classes they want
Adding more tanks doesn’t fix anything because the issues are with the community and how it treats tanks.
Someone who got burnt out on tanking because they were treated like garbage isn’t going to suddenly want to be treated like garbage again because they can be a rogue this time.
They added 3 classes with tank specs back to back, and also fleshed out guardian druid as a proper tank spec separate from feral. The issue wasn’t the lack of tank specs available its the lack of players placing those specs.
The issue is not there aren’t enough tank/heal classes. The issue is the toxicity that is always directed at the tank/heals when things go wrong, as if it is all their fault. Do I tank perfectly whenever I tank a key? No. Should I be blamed for every key that goes wrong? No. Am I? Usually.
Until toxicity is fixed, people aren’t going to want to tank or heal pugs. Period.
I agree with your reasoning.
It’s true that most people who roll rogue/hunter/mage/warlock are probably not that interested in healing or tanking, or they likely would have rolled a different class. However, there are a lot of people who, after looking around for a group for a bit, sigh and just say “ok I’ll tank it myself.” The guy who ends up tanking most of my M+ dungeons likes to DPS when he can, but because he has a tank spec and knows what he’s doing, he’s at least willing to tank when he has to (most of the time) in order to get his vault done and earn crests to upgrade his gear on that character.
Someone who mains a rogue for DPS probably doesn’t want to tank, but they DO want to gear up their main character, and might be willing to tank on that character if they had the option to, because loot/vault/crests they earn on that character will still contribute to their main/preferred role of DPS in other content.
Without a tank spec on that character, all they can do is tank on an alt of a different class, and doing that does NOT reward loot/vault/crests to their DPS main, so why would they ever do it?
One alternative might be to allow crests (and vault slots?) to be Warband-bound in some way, so you could tank on an alt and still earn crests/progress on your main, but this also comes with a ton of unknowns and huge changes would have to be made. I think every class should have at least a tank or healing spec.
This. Never underestimate the idea of people looking at how we treat each other in this game and thinking “yo, I want ZERO responsibility for party survival,” and we have to respect that.
Believe it or not the fix for the tank/healer shortage, the only one the game can provide, is content that is less interdependent (Delves, Follower dungeons), and they have provided that.
You can’t make the unwilling tank or heal.
If your lane of the game requires a role you are not willing to do, change lanes. There are options now.
I mean, if I can shoot folks to heal them I’d give it a go. Be like Brann but, well, more reliable.
I dunno, though: The idea of a Rouge tanking for an extended period of time with nothing but two swords or, worse, daggers seems silly, although a Rogue alchemist themed healer spec could be interesting.
Alchemist was a great support hero in WC3, and is a fun class fantasy to play out, in my opinion.
I don’t think that would solve much of anything. Most of the m+ dungeons this season I did as a healer, some tank. Recently I tried to try playing DPS and I really liked it. I don’t think I intend to go back to being a healer or tank for 2 reasons:
First is that I found playing as a DPS to be much easier and more fun.
Second is that some players are extremely rude and toxic when the healer or tank makes a mistake, which I’ve never seen happen with a DPS.
*I also forgot to mention: when some DPS make a mistake they may try to blame the tank or the healer (this isn’t even very infrequent)
there in lies a HUGE issue, I’ve gone into keys and had shamans who would refuse to use capacitor totem and thunder shock (i think? whatever that knock-up is called) DPS absolutely have a HUGE impact on the parties survival. the beginning half of CoT is the worst, so many groups refuse to interrupt there and that’s where the most time is lost
everyone must contribute and its fine if you don’t wanna tank or heal but to think “I’m gonna play dps so i don’t have to worry” is quite possibly the worst mentality to have if you’re looking to succeed
Believe me, I agree with you! I love DPS utility, but I don’t touch M+. “Just wanna pewpew” is ingrained in the culture and the only way to fix it is to play M+ the way it’s now clearly intended: With a socially accountable group of friends in comms.
I think that given the ease of rolling and leveling a new character, anybody who wasn’t healing or tanking but wanted to has probably already done it. Meanwhile, introducing new tank specs has had the effect of existing tanks switching classes.
Also the issue with tanks and healers is that “everyone” disregards non-meta tanks and healers as not an option.
This expac, I just dislike blood dks in keys. They tend to die because they messed up at some point. At least, if other tanks die, it might’ve been something I could’ve prevented.
The tactician soul, was one of my favorites!! same with rift stalker as tank, Think sub rogue but your “rotation” was centered around shadow step and every time you used Shadow step you got a huge shield, it was SO much fun. id die if wow adopted a similar thing for rogues
I speak for experience. Back in Legion I was gaslit by a guild leader to go Disc for our normal and heroic raids, even though I hated healing because - while I think I did fine - it was very stressful for me.
In the end the guild fell apart for other raid-related drama reasons, but I was relieved. Ever since I learned to just say no, even though today I main a class with both healing and tank specs.
We just gotta be careful to not let this mindset be of those DPSers who refuse to use their CC tools when available, because a simple Shadowfury cast can be a game changer in a run.