Yeah, it NEEDS to be. Because as it currently stands nobody even wants to tank. Tanking is already scarce normally and this week was even worse. When you apply for a dungeon and it takes 20 min it’s because you’re waiting on a tank. There’s always a shortage of tanks, that’s been an issue for far too long now.
Why are tanks always in short? Tanks are expected to fulfill the same roles as a DPS (do good damage, and avoid mechanics and stay out of stuff) but ALSO have to lead the entire group, determine paths, determine mob position, stay alive, use proper mitigation, heal yourself, watch aggro, etc.
It’s honestly just too much to expect out of anybody. The role itself is hard enough without mechanics added in dungeons and raids that wipe everyone if the tank messes up. It feels like the role was made to be as difficult as possible for no reason. It’s no wonder nobody wants to tank when you could just as well DPS and have 1/10th of expectations and stress.
To make matters worse, there’s hardly any incentives to tank. A few augment runes on the off-chance the CTA is up is pitiful. At least previous iterations of this reward system gave tanks a possibility of something cool from the bags. Not sure why that was done away with.
One of the easiest way to bring tanks back is lower expectancy and increase rewards.
Stop making mechanics that are hard for tanks to deal with. If tanks have an easier time, comparative to say a DPS, then more people will tank. It’s already a role that tends to be take the brunt of verbal abuse in groups. It’s always the tank’s fault as soon as something goes wrong. We don’t need any more things against us. Make tanking easier. Don’t ever make affixes like necrotic ever again.
If tanking is fine as it is then you wouldn’t be short tanks always.
85 Likes
You’re not the first to say so. Unfortunately.
8 Likes
I am not sure how blizzard can decrease expectations of tanks as that is more of a community issue. In terms of rewards I agree that the CTA only being applied to HERIOC DUNGEOUN LFG is not the majority of the game right now. As there is M+ pugging needing to be done and the forums are asking where are the tanks for these current affixs as if they saw the calendar and took a break now lol.
1 Like
What about healers?
I need a shoulder rub. Hurts from carrying all the time.
But yeah, effort=/=reward.
I used to tank, a lot. My Season 1 main was tank. I stopped the day I hit KSM, because it’s mad easy to blame tank for everything.
But I’d defo say, there should be some bonus roll type of thing for tanks…but at the same time, once they get gear, no reason to come back to spam/farm, except for weekly vault.
I don’ know.
5 Likes
It’s no more difficult than being a healer or DPS. Healers are expected to DPS and heal, along with dealing with mechanics, cleanses, etc. DPS are expected to output as much DPS as possible while using their interrupts, cooldowns, dealing with mechanics, etc.
8 Likes
Here’s what’s funny:
The biggest reason there aren’t more tanks is that there’s a tank glut in almost every part of the game. If you’re a tank, the Unwelcome Mat is on the doorstep for you in every way.
The ONLY exception is pugging 5-man dungeons. But the OP’s post isn’t about making tanking more fun across the board.
The OP’s post is ONLY about how to get more tanks for his 5-man dungeon pugs.
And that’s the real tragedy.
You want more tanks? Have more than 2 tanks in raids. Have more than 1 (or even 0) tank in rated battlegrounds. Allow tanks to play in arena without instantly getting nerfed by Blizzard when people run to the forums and cry about it. Let tanks do enough DPS to do quests and other content in something less than an eternity.
These are the reasons there aren’t more tanks.
But all you guys ever care about is having more tanks-on-demand to pug your 5-mans. You’re missing the big picture entirely.
55 Likes
idk the 2 tanks in our raids keep whining that they got nothing to do 
the tank job is tougher if it comes to m+ but that’s more of an early season thing isnt it? once they know the routes and stuff it should be pretty smooth.
i’d agree that tanks have a more stressful life but it should settle as a season is progressing.
1 Like
If tanking was no more difficult than being a DPS we wouldn’t have a shortage of tanks. Tanks have to do everything a DPS has to PLUS more.
DPS are expected to output as much DPS as possible while using their interrupts, cooldowns, dealing with mechanics, etc.
Yes, tanks have to do the exact same things, plus the entire other slew of things that make up the tank role.
For zero additional reward.
9 Likes
So, long time tank here. I’d have to disagree with you on a few points. Mechanics aren’t bad this tier. Just know what needs to be interupted and what mechanics hurt, and you’ll be fine.
What’s making tanks not want to play (in my opinion) is because I’ve seen too many DPS not care about threat generation because they just want to get the dungeon done as fast as possible. And so people rip threat and it becomes a huge mess. Or, the tank dies and is rezed, and (again) getting threat back is a nightmare. Last season it was HORRIBLE with the prideful affix putting stress on us unnecessarily, and so i think that has also contributed to the lack in tanks. That and also, the M+ community is just…elitist.
For me, if they fixed threat and rewarded kindness more than being an a-hole, I’d want to tank more randoms.
12 Likes
I’d argue that tanking is easier than playing DPS and that I wouldn’t want it changed at all. Despite popular opinion tanks don’t really have to do much more than anyone else.
Threat takes care of itself in most cases. Even as one of the tanks that are on the lower end of the damage spectrum threat is very rarely something that I have to actively think about, and just comes passively while I’m rolling my 5head in the vicinity of my Thrash button.
Determining pathing I’ll give you, but realistically its a problem for the first couple weeks of a season, if not expansion, and then you’ve got your routes figured out. Sure there are minor changes you have to make based on the affixes week to week, but nine times out of ten its just pulling the same mobs you usually do just maybe not combining as many pulls, or even just combining different pulls.
And for a tank “stay alive, use proper mitigation, heal yourself” is literally just playing your class. Its the same as telling a DPS to stay alive and use their cooldowns, or telling a healer to cast heals/dispels. Every class and role is expected to have a basic idea of how their buttons work together and when to press which ones.
2 Likes
Every new dungeon or raid seems to be trying to outdo all the previous ones in complicated mechanics. The disproportionate burden to deal with these falls on the tank who is under intense pressure from the rest of the group to either be flawless, or deal with a meltdown from the back of the room.
While we don’t want to go back to the simple tank & spank mechanics, encounters should be designed to put more responsibility on DPS to do more, rather than have most of the pressure on the tank and healer.
15 Likes
I mean this goes into what I was saying, tanks should have it easier - that includes threat. And I agree with you.
Take a look at FF for example, tanks have zero issues with threat, in fact it’s almost a non-issue completely. You run in, you aoe and the mobs are glued to you (mostly). THAT’S how it should be, if we live in a world where DPS just run ahead and don’t afford a tank proper time to gain threat.
When DPS does that it just makes a tank’s life even harder. Yeah it’s no wonder nobody tanks. Disrespekt.
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OP is right.
Need more tanks. Let’s use this one.
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This pretty much.
Pick up grouping.
I donʻt Raid much so do LFR Raids wait 30 min or so for tanks to fill in?
After being chewed out a few times because of my less than stellar tanking (Too slow, Dont know the shortcuts, Poor cooldown usage etc.) I dont Pug in Prot spec. Too much hassle.
Iʻll just be the quiet DPS.
7 Likes
because playing against a prot pally is the least fun thing in the world. same with bear druid. in RBGs the team that has the slightly better DH tank wins. all three of these are near unkillable in both RBGs and arenas. before bears were nerfed, I was in a match for over 15mins trying to kill the sucker. it wasn’t fun.
this would have to change raids dramatically to accommodate this. and it would have to be every fight, unless you want a horsemen situation where there’s only one 4 tank fight and then the other two get sat and guilds die.
1 Like
the tank job is tougher if it comes to m+ but that’s more of an early season thing isnt it? once they know the routes and stuff it should be pretty smooth.
I mean this is literally the issue. If you’ve been tanking forever and know all the mechanics you’ll probably be okay (although it won’t stop you from being verbally berated for anything)
But if you’re THINKING about trying to tank, you’re just completely put off by it because you’re now expected to know everything, after all the season’s been out for X time /s
So you don’t get any new tanks. And the ones that started off tanking realized they’re tired of being treated like cr*p and just switched to another role.
Yeah it can be smooth like you said, if they know everything. But what player does? I can queue up as DPS knowing literally nothing about any encounter and still get through it. One mistake from me won’t kill the whole raid every time.
14 Likes
Blizzard already bakes in Full Employment for Healers into all their raid fights with “the raid takes X damage every 3 seconds” mechanics. They can do the same for tanks.
Would it be compelling gameplay? No, but no less so than “the raid takes X damage every 3 seconds”.
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how would this work in for tanks, though?
“need x amount of tanks or the boss kills the raid”? that would be the least fun boss fight. ever.
Put a statue in every room that has to be tanked or it does raid-wide damage.
Again, not exciting, but Blizzard already does this for healers so why not for tanks?
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i really don’t think that would encourage people to tank. who would want to stare at a statue for 3+mins doing almost nothing?
for healers its different than that.
1 Like