I had a mini panic attack when I agreed to tank for a sfk group last night. I popped into the group to see 3 mages and a priest. Only one casualty a d that was the end boss squishing the priest. However the mages were aoeing every opportunity while virtually standing right next to me. I had no idea who had what aggro at any given time.
Mages, buddies, you are a ranged class, act like it. Blowing your mana load on aoes and then drinking after every 3 pack is dumb. If your tank cannot get aggro before you go carpet bombing, they cannot gain rage, if the cannot gain rage they cannot get more aggro. If they cannot get more aggro they cannot… See where I am going with this?
Probably because having to manage multiple mobs while your rage painfully ticks up can require a lot of focus, and knowing which ability to use next. Your only AOE taunt is on a 10 min CD so that isn’t always an option. Its definitely taken me a few dungeons and half a bar of macros to get back in the groove where I’m pulling quickly, responsibly, and efficiently. I think it takes a bit more finesse than the two-button tanking we’ve seen since WOTLK. Maybe people are lazy, or they just want to do big dps. I tank because I don’t trust other people to tank.
Having done all this content, I as a warrior have a specific goal this time around, which doesn’t include tanking. I feel I’ve earned my way enough to say I can play what I want to play. Fury dps is very unique and euphoric when the gear is right, so it has a lot of appeal.
Further, warrior tanking is probably 500% more stressful than any other class in Classic. It’s hard to do. It’s hard to perfect. It’s time-intensive to gear and prepare. It’s rarely appreciated, and often just plain abused.
Actually warriors are one of the only classes that can be viable with any of the three specs they choose to use end game. While dps warriors aren’t huge in mc they are definitely sought after in BWL & Naxx. Either way most people are still leveling. Just like shamans, priests, drood, etc… no one wants to level as a tank or a healer. It really slows down questing. I imagine many of these warriors will respec to tank at max level.
Not a warrior but I’ve only ever tanked for my friend group. I’ve DPS’d a few pug groups where I sincerely felt bad for our tank. DPS pulling, DPS doing single target rotation on different mobs despite the tank marking a skull, etc… Tanking for pugs seems unnecessarily stressful.
Tanking is frustrating and has a high learning curve. Lots of pugs are also terrible. Like idk where these people come from, even at higher levels you get real mouthbreathers and its like “how did you even make it this far?”
However tanking is the most rewarding role RIGHT NOW because of the demand. People whispering me p much nonstop.
Its also way easier to just tank the preraid dungeons and get both a prot set and a dps set imo, cause in the time it takes a dps warrior to find a group ive gotten to UBRS, killed Rend, and reset twice already lmao. I run with 2 mages, a priest, and a rogue, so I get the rogue his DPS gear first and then its mine. Plus all the tank gear that goes to me by default. Win/win in my book, but I’d be much less likely to dungeon spam this way if I had to pug every single time cause yiiiiiiikes
At lower levels the only excuses are “i dont want to” or “i dont know how”, because a warrior of any spec can tank leveling content EASILY. Lots of warriors gearing up and leveling the hard way cause they refuse to tank, but hey, more groups for me
The lack of tanks is 100% due to the community. Randoms treat each other like crap, so lots of tanks just don’t pub.
I pub, but half the time dps classes either have no concept of aggro control or they AoE on the pull before you have a chance to establish aggro.
I did a RfD run with an enhance shaman who used earthshock for their dps rotation and stopped using windfury totem when they realised it was helping me keep aggro(i made a comment about how it was nice that it stacked with sword spec, and he immediately stopped using it).
Warrior population seems high because many people roll them and then get frustrated with the slog that is leveling a warrior in classic. IMO, it seems like these types of people (the ones who give up on their warriors) didn’t roll warriors to tank…or they realized at some point that it takes too much focus and time invested.
To be fair the instant that dps warrior puts on a shield, he suddenly has to lead, babysit, herd cats, and then get harassed if he dare roll on a m/s dps weapon upgrade, and so on.
It’s easier to just tank for guildies/friends, and go as dps when those folks aren’t available.
The main reason is people complaining and blaming the tank when they cant give 2 wacks to get rage. Im probably one of the few who is actually spec’d prot pre 60. I only tank for friends because its simply alot more enjoyable. Fighting people for threat when the standard is skull X square. Yet they still cant follow. No thanks.
classic has just begun. soon people will learn that its easier to get stuff done if you go tank. for crying out loud the honor system isnt even in yet.
Warrior is one of the very classes that actually could fill more than one role in vanilla. Tank and DPS. The major draw for most vanilla players is pvp ( hence the ratio of pvp to normal realms ) Warriors at 60 properly geared ( with exception of mages ) are pvp gods. IMO this is why most people have chosen to play a warrior. Personally I enjoy the threat , LoS focused tanking that early wow had in 5 mans. Which is why I am a tanking warrior. The lack of finding tanks ( spamming trade chat LFG )is the first reason for “you think you do but you don’t” by J Allen in his infamous kurfuffle. This is vanilla