Not sure whether they are even true or not but I was looking at the leaked notes about the dragon themed expac and I noticed the mini classes
For those that haven’t seen it yet, there are 4 new mini classes coming, each with only one spec each. I got to thinking about the dragon knight spec, which will be a melee tank spec, and what it would be like to have no dps spec.
It feels like a good opportunity to redesign tanks in general to maybe attract more players, and perhaps make them easier to balance and participate in PVP
I was thinking maybe all tank specs could be inherently designed as dps specs, but then come with a toggle ability that would increase health, armour, potency of defensives, and threat, whilst also reducing damage
The toggle ability will be the same as changing spec, can do it in the starting area of a BG for example, or 1/2 way through a dungeon if needed, but not just something that can be flipped between in combat
This would allow people to play their tank spec of choice whilst still having a dps option, meaning they could still participate in all content on the spec of their choice. Any may even attract people to take up a tank spec
It would allow people to only worry about gearing/grinding the one spec also. And I’m sure there would be some people interested in picking up a tank if they knew they could also dps as a bear or a prot warr for example
I don’t tank very much at all so I’m prob missing something very crucial, but just seems to me to be something that could work with a lot of the potential new paradigm shifts we may be seeing soon?
People don’t play Tank because the responsibilities the role has, not because learning the rotation is daunting.
Generally speaking, DPS rotations are significantly more complex and I don’t think designing a DPS level rotation ontop of the responsibilities a Tank is expected to have would be particularly well received and “fix” the tank issue.
Yeah that’s fair, but I was more thinking along the lines of the tanks kit staying as is, just designed to do more damage, rather than made into more complex rotations
Now that may end up with some fairly simplistic damage dealing specs on those tank classes, but we have a number of dps specs that way already
And you are right, it might not do anything for those put off by the role and the responsibility it brings, but might improve the game experience for those who don’t have that concern
I am not find the idea. This falls into the line of creating something new rather than addressing issues with the existing. Mini classes seem more a diversion than solution.
Pure dps already have concerns about tanks out damaging them. Gearing and talent choices can address mitigation or more damage in tank specs.
They could do that now. All they have to do is stop making it onerous or expensive to play multiple specs or alts. That would provide more tanks.
But they don’t want that. I think they feel that playing only one character and one spec is the right way to play the game, and thus they feel the need to push people to do that.
Besides, an artificially created tank shortage will push millions of surplus dps into guilds, which will solve all their problems, right?
I expect to see more alt- and spec-unfriendliness and roadblocks in 10.0.
There is going to be a dragon theme for the next expansion. Look at how many people are saying, “Oh boy! Dragons! I’m in!” and how few are asking, “But what about gameplay?”
They could definitely make it easier, but they’ve already cut out a lot of the farming with gear that’s flexible. You really only need weps and trinkets for most. (Outside of the borrowed power stuff which is what could be fixed)
The real question is, how many people would actually be tanking pugs if it was easier to multi spec? I think that number is smaller than you expect since the other deterrents are more impactful IME.
Gotta loosen up the tinfoil there. Most of the game has a tank overage. There’s a reason pugs struggle to find one.
That’d make sense if there were exactly 2 tanks to a raid team, but most have a long line of them. Guilds have plenty of M+ tanks when they’re not raiding. Most tanks have to play a spec they don’t like to PvP.
You also have a lot of folks who, if they have to pug, will DPS instead of tanking, because it’s not worth the hassle.
I suppose that would depend on the guild. We usually have to pug DPS to get enough for all the tank to not have to swap specs. (well when I had time to run keys we did)
Almost certainly not, gear priorities would differ between DPS mode and tank mode. (Trinkets especially, but if you’re a hardcore enough minmaxer, secondary stats too. And if you’re not a hardcore enough minmaxer you can already use most of your bear gear as a cat, or the equivalent for other specs. Actual tank trinkets you might want to swap out and warriors and paladins will need offspec weapons.)
It isn’t at all onerous or expensive to play them. It’s onerous and expensive to fully optimize them. But it’s also unnecessary to fully optimize for the vast majority of content.
It really wouldn’t. The problem isn’t a lack of tanks because they’re expensive or difficult to gear/play, it’s because most people would simply rather DPS, especially when it comes to PuG groups.
I’ll point to League of Legends as an example. Support and Jungler have pretty much always been the least popular roles, so what Riot did is change the items and scaling of a bunch of super popular champs so that they could be viably be played as either Support or Jungle.
And those two roles are still the least popular, because people would just rather play the other roles. It’s a playstyle issue, unless you can somehow reduce the knowledge and leadership burden on PuG tanks then people aren’t gunna play tanks in pugs.
exactly. adding tank specs is just like the free realm transfers. the response most people have is “oh good, i hope lots of other people take advantage of that so my experience will improve!”
“but new tank classes and specs will bring more people to the role.” sure, in theory. but if you’re saying that, did you personally start tanking when monks were added? how about DHs? and if so, are you still doing so today? so forgive me if I’m skeptical about lines like “if only X had a tank spec all our problems would disappear!”
People don’t tank because tanking is high pressure and everyone is watching your every move so if you screw up it’s embarrassing. It’s not that tanks don’t do enough damage or that groups are mean to tanks. Most of the time tanks do really good damage during aoe and most of the time basically worship you as their stern faced god king.