Tanking, a Thread

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
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Wizened old Tanks, do we still have the mojo?
Lets be real, it’s a Hard Knock life, pun intended. Growing a thick skin required, not coming off as a raging squeaker is mandatory.
Do you know how to Lead, is it by command or by example? Are you the cold calm voice cutting through the panicked chatter on Vent when it appears it’s all going to H.I.A.Handbasket?

I just want a little Post, here on the Classic Forums, where a few of us can knock back cold brews and pass around old stories.
I have often stated, in game and sometimes in the Forums, Tanking isn’t a Spec Tree within a Class, it’s a Frame of Mind, a Zen Like quality.
We wont be in the nasty ol’ LFD or LFR groups amymore, we will be renowned members of our Realms.

Like the redneck from the Simpsons movie said, “my time ter shine”. We will be loved, we will be loathed, we will be rocks upon which the waves of adversity will pound, yet we will hold strong.

I love Tanking, it feeds me in ways Healing never could, and i hope many of you do too. Let’s see if we can nurture a love for it. Not so people can “get fast queues, gogogogogo” but so the new bloods can stack their shields next to ours in Org, or SW, and always know we are not only required to smash buttons and down bosses, but required to Lead by example.

I’m hopimg to get a lot of convos in here, heck this thread could possibly be buried in a few days. But man i miss the old Tanking Forums, and i would just like to see a few random thoughts from some old Shield-Siblings.

hijacking this Thread wont be possible, as long as topics are in some way shape or form based upon Tanking in the WoW’verse.

Thanks

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So many good stories, most fun I’ve had in a game.

For now I’ll just leave this little gem for future tanks.

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I remember I came back to WoW some time after quitting on BC and did some tanking. I didn’t realize I was being on of those slow awful tanks that marks everything and sunders instead of just grabbing 5 groups and spamming AOE. Tanking feels like a real job in vanilla, although I never liked having any more responsibility than being an off tank in raids.

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One of the old chestnuts from the old Tanking Forum was “Pull Faster”. Which, under the circumstances for Mop->Legion was very true. But i learned what and how about Tanking in TBC, where if said approach was attempted then yeah squish splat wipe retry for sure.

But with Classic, it’s not really going to be the GoGoGo mentality anymore, Tank and Healer will need a certain synergy, and DPS will be able to actively be good Dungeon Mates with proper performance measures, i.e. good crowd control, proper use of cooldowns, spatial awareness, and kill order.

Also, i see a return to down right good group communocation and satisfaction for everyone knowing they aren’t just going to be replaced because"noob get good /Votekick" when they are given a chance to really shine. I.e. Hunter makes good pulls to the Tank etc.

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I actually love both healing and tanking, for their completely different perspectives on every pull and every fight. I didn’t tank much during vanilla, though I had a couple of warriors, but I loved the responsibility. I mained healer through TBC raiding, but went into Wrath as a progression guild’s main tank.

Tanking meant learning every pull, every patrol, every boss ability. It meant having an awareness of where others in my group were, what they were doing (or not doing), possibly coaching if I could tell someone was newer and unaware, determining whether I had a good healer at my back or needed to be more cautious.

It was so much more engaging than damage-dealing for me, because my goal was successful pulls with minimum deaths rather than high damage output numbers.

I still love healing too, because there’s a certain ability to be far back from the action and see all the abilities in use, to spot the timing for things long before we all had dungeon/raid addons telling us everything. But tanking is much more in the thick of things, actively arranging where and how the mobs or boss are located.

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In vanilla kicking and replacing bad group members took a lot more effort. As tanks/group leaders where’s the line drawn regarding how much poor play from other group members you’ll put up with before replacing them?

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There I was in my T-34 with my driver, Pavel. We had left the rodina and were moving steadily into occupied Poland. Those Kraut bastards fled in fear of the Red Tide as it marched on!

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Kicking was easier (if you were group leader, you kicked - done deal), though replacing could take more effort. As a good tank, you usually had a friend list of players you knew you could call on - and it was just a matter of whether they were online and available and willing.

My personal line had to do with willingness to work to improve. Back in vanilla, lots of people legitimately didn’t know better. I was also rather relaxed when it came to things like a parent needing to check on a child, a smoker needing a break. What it took for me to boot someone was their actions and words making it absolutely clear they didn’t care about anyone else’s experience in the dungeon and had no intention of changing problem behaviors.

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The way i was raised, it’s not what you say but how you say it. So for kicking, it would be along the lines of toxicity. I’m sure to run into quite a few people who may get on my nerves in a dungeon run or Raid, but i tend to give everyone a chance to improve their performance. Plus, how i interact with a group of people will definitely be more subtle and courteous, i still have a reputation to maintain on my Realm, it goes both ways after all and i’ll never want to be considered a Prima Dona Tank on a tightnit Realm

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Tanking isn’t just a role, it’s a mindset. You have it or you don’t.

You like leading those 4 other idiots into BRD?
Enjoy legit getting married to a priest bae, who’s going to nag you about this? Don’t mind being stubborn as hell sometimes it’s good.

It’s a tough road but it’s rewarding in it’s own way. One thing just love about tanking is the bonds you form with people you may never meet again. I always know within a few pulls how my DPS will act, if they’ll chase a mob. CC this or that, before i pull or on the pull. How i can teach them to do what i want, and work togeather.

One thing about tanking is you’re the De-facto leader 85% of the time, and it’s such an underappreciated job. Everyone will sweet talk a healer, but as a tank you’ll only really shine in raids, and it’s cutt throat. You have to learn so much as a tank, about the mobs. Dungi lay-out. Pat’s how things run, and so on.

You really do control your group in one way shape or form, and the more you run with people the more you can shape them to be in your crew. Everything you do as a tank has a huge pay-out or consequence as well, don’t beserk rage in time?

Didn’t tab target sunder as your priest lets out a greater heal? Don’t shield bash this mob, then go into zerk stance to interpt the other casting mob because it’s about to firebolt some one? A million things race into your head at once, and every mistake you make you can learn from so much. Everything a tank does he can take another thing or two from it.

Having a known group is just the best thing in the world. Never never hearing your healer say OOM while, you sit down she drinks and you pull mid drink, and knowing and trust each other that you can be kept alive long enough for her to get a few heals off NP like it’s just routine is the best, dungi’s are so fast once you get small stuff like that down on a casual level.

Can’t tell you how many times i did a pull where the healer just said “Brb” and since i knew these mobs well enough, we where able to just keep going and trucking through since it wasn’t a big deal, stun this mob. disarm it. CC this one, control fear it. Packs dead, eat. Healers still afk? we can do another pack till we get to this part.

It’s even better when you meet a few dps who don’t mind when IRL happens and they’ll throw a heal on you for a few pulls while your healers on there smoke beak or whatever.

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Yet vanilla just wouldn’t be vanilla without a plethora of prima donna warriors who occasionally deign to tank for the little folk.

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Aren’t you happy that your God-king overlords like myself, allow you to bask in our presences? I mean just look at these ab’s, ugh why am i so pretty…?

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I boot them and figure I’m doing my good deed for the day helping encourage them to quit.

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One thing you’ll learn as a tank is you will constantly adapt through the duration of Vanilla.

I tanked everything in Vanilla minus 9 bosses in Naxxramas, and have tanked the rest of those on three separate private servers since. All on a Warrior. I’ve seen Druids tank in Naxxramas, Paladins in AQ40 on Twin Emps (funny enough, caster boy isn’t immune to holy damage) and Shamans in 5 mans (shout out to Chunkles, you Ironfoe-wielding animal of a Shaman tank).

Being a Warrior, I always went full prot into raids. It wasn’t until the private server scene that I started being forced to spec into fury and then prot, forsaking shield slam for additional threat. And then further forsaking my shield to dual wield my Thunderfury with a Hungering Cold.

DPS on private servers are good. I’m sure there will be much worse players and I’ll be using a shield for awhile, but I’ve gotten to see many avenues in which to tank every boss.

One thing never changes though. The unrelenting tax it takes on you. From the moment your Discord light is green or you log on, if you are a capable tank, there will never be a shortage of people needing help with something. It’s exacerbated if you are not only good, but great, and are a nice guy.

The magnifying lens is always on you, and the burden to make a group succeed always falls on you. People will argue that it takes a group to succeed, but it really comes down to your tank first.

It’s sort of how an NFL team operates. If you were starting from scratch, who would you rather take in their prime? Tom Brady? Emmitt Smith? Jerry Rice? How about a defensive player? Someone more electrifying? NFL teams start with a quarterback. And then they protect him. That’s how groups work. And that’s how raids work.

Your tank empowers your group, where your group enables him. Once you have a great tank in place, and you realize he is phenomenal, he is virtually indispensable.

Sometimes this leads to a primadonna mindset. Or elitism. Or tons of vexing qualities that are the downfall of many friendships and potential wonderful guilds. But that is the truly the great tank’s world. Resisting the evils of the loot and the greener pastures, mastering his domain, and benefitting his comrades.

It is a thankless role, despite the obvious perks. Defaulted tier. Dibs on Thunderfury. First call for Accuria or enchants or whatever that tank may need.

But companionship. And thankfulness. Those are the perks hidden amidst the other treasures that a tank truly needs. So be thankful. Vocalize it, honor your tanks, and keep them grounded. Make them laugh and give them a break now and then. Play your heart out when you find one who plays that way for you. Together, as a group, Vanilla will crumble.

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Hey buddy! My abs are down here! (going female gnome warrior myself)

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Have fun staring at Boss Junk lol

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Tanking is extremely exhausting and there never seemed to be any down time. Logging into wow I always had a plan for what I wanted to do that day but I always 100% of the time instantly received a group invite before my loading bar was complete as everyone is always waiting on you to do a run. Then Id usually recieve a whisper something like, “Can you tank scholo for us?” and it would already be too late because Im in a group. Of course they would think you were lying because you’d only just logged in 5 seconds ago! I love to tank, I dislike that I cant help everyone who needs it all the time and its sad when you can only play an alt that nobody knows about so as not to appear selfish. But hey if you love attention you will definately get it and plenty of it.

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Having a work/life/wow balance is going to be a challenge.

I think it can be done, just have to do things differently.

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Something else i kind of wanted to add here. With dungeons no longer going to be a GoGoGo mentality, the whole “you pull it, you tank it” mindset has to be thrown out the door. Wiping is far more dreadful in Classic, we all need to work together to reestablish good dungeon etiquite. So, if someone goofs and pulls, be a Hero, not a Zero and Tank :stuck_out_tongue:

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So, when the game launch’s who here wants to do a Drinking game of “Take a shot every time a dps pulls off you.”

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