Title: Mythic+ Tanking Experience: A Nightmare for Tanks and Why Things Need to Change
I’ve been a long-time tank in World of Warcraft, particularly in Mythic+ dungeons. Over the years, I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the downright ugly of the experience, and sadly, it feels like the ugly is becoming the norm. The toxicity amongst players is through the roof, and the lack of patience is unreal. It’s no wonder tanks are hard to come by; why would anyone want to subject themselves to this kind of environment?
Just yesterday, I ran nine Stonevault dungeons. Out of those nine, only one was genuinely fun and enjoyable. The other eight were absolute nightmares. I had DPS players screaming at one another, yelling at the healer, or demanding that I pull faster—even when the healer was visibly struggling to keep up. It’s a constant barrage of criticism and impatience, and it’s exhausting.
This is exactly why people don’t want to tank. The community makes it nearly impossible to enjoy the role, and the pressure to cater to everyone’s expectations (which are often unreasonable) just takes the fun out of the game.
I genuinely believe Blizzard needs to take a hard look at the Mythic+ format. One suggestion would be to remove extra mobs so pathing becomes easier, giving tanks and groups less stress when it comes to routing. Adjusting the design in a way that creates a more balanced, enjoyable experience for everyone—not just the DPS players who want to blast through—is crucial. It’s time for Blizzard to make changes that promote a healthier environment for all roles, especially tanks, who often shoulder the brunt of the group’s frustrations.
In the context of this discussion, Dps players largely are out to prove to themselves (because nobody else cares) that they have bigger…numbers…than other Dps. It takes a certain type of insecure person to be like this. Call it what you will…shortcomings in real life, the need for self validation or w/e. Once I frame it this way, I find their nerdraging in keys far more entertaining when I’m tanking or healing.
I’d take 1 dps that knows mechanics and understands what to do and is willing to lose dps to do it over 100 100% parsing dps gods trying to blow past mechanics.
my very first toon was a prot warrior in vanilla WoW but that’s when you could actually play with people you know. The random generator is great for finding a “quick” group but made tanking the most thankless job ever and took most of the joy out of it. Too many “i only have 20 minutes so pull everything at once” DPS deep sheets
I agree it’s not as fun as it was in DF or SL. I’m just an old dude trying to have fun and I just haven’t seen this behavior myself. Each key I’ve pugged as tank people have been friendly and seemingly just wants to have some fun. I am not a great tank by any means, just a casual doing keys at a casual pace.
I’m new to bear tanking, after just 1 day of tanking for pugs I won’t do it again. Guild only now.
Reason? Toxicity is off the charts. Other players are actually horrible.
Now it’s toxic because you don’t go fast enough through the trash.
Remove the trash.
Now it’s toxic because we killed three bosses and the healer died three times, and the top dps was yelling at the bottom dps while also telling me how wrong I’m tanking.
Make all dungeons one boss zero trash.
Now it’s toxic because it took to long to kill
Remove dungeons from the game
Now it’s toxic because people are killing mobs before I can tag.
Make all world content solo content ( meaning only 1 person can be in ringing deeps at a time.
I think this season is pretty tough for tanks and healers.
But, I did not think routing was one of the reasons. Other than Dawnbreaker, I thought all of the current season’s dungeons have relatively straightforward routes.
Did you feel Stonevault has complicated routing? If yes, which part? Just curious.
I play with my friends and I’ve been tanking. I finished a 12 hour day and joined the ‘bois’ for some key pushing. Clearly today was not my day cause I did a successful 9 but then two fail 9 too.
I agree with everything saying, others have made this argument time and time again, something definitely needs to change but it’s all just thoughts and prayers when referring to “the community”
The only saving grace I can suggest is to start running them with your friendly neighborhood guild
Dealing with other people is like having your body torn in half and the top half of your body drawn through the Salt Flats while you wish more than ever for the sweet embrace of death.
i mean i get 3 dps right hehe