Reduced Threat Concerns: By minimizing threat issues, DPS players could focus on maximizing their damage output without constantly worrying about pulling aggro. This led to a smoother, more enjoyable gameplay experience for the group.
Flexible Encounter Design: The shift away from threat management allowed for more flexible encounter design. This change enabled a wider range of group compositions to succeed, reducing the need for specific classes or roles just for threat management.
Showcasing Tank Skill: Higher DPS levels allowed tanks to better showcase their skills. Skilled tanks could balance damage output with survivability, making the gameplay more rewarding for them.
Improved Solo Performance: Increased tank DPS made it easier for tanks to handle solo content, enhancing accessibility and enjoyment for players who prefer tanking in solo scenarios.
Gear Level Disparity: With players of different gear levels participating in the same content, lower-geared tanks struggled to manage threat against mythic-geared DPS spamming low-level Mythic+ dungeons. This imbalance created frustrating scenarios where tanks couldn’t hold aggro, disrupting the gameplay experience.
I don’t play a druid; I play a bear. Why should I need to switch roles when it’s just as feasible to make tanks capable of soloing content efficiently? It’s ironic that you want tanks available for group content you can’t handle solo, but then want them to pack sand when it comes to the rest of the game.
Here’s a detailed look at tank damage output relative to DPS across expansions, based on ChatGTP’s data:
Vanilla (Classic WoW):
Single Target: Tanks dealt approximately 20-30% of the damage of DPS.
AoE: Limited AoE capabilities; significantly lower than DPS.
The Burning Crusade:
Single Target: Similar to Vanilla, around 25-35% of DPS.
AoE: Slightly improved but still considerably lower than DPS.
Wrath of the Lich King:
Single Target: Tanks’ damage increased to around 40-50% of DPS.
AoE: Improved significantly with abilities like Death and Decay and Shockwave, reaching around 50-60% of DPS in AoE situations.
Cataclysm:
Single Target: Around 50-60% of DPS.
AoE: Continued improvement with additional AoE abilities, around 60-70% of DPS.
Mists of Pandaria:
Single Target: Tanks could achieve 60-70% of DPS due to Vengeance.
AoE: Vengeance made tanks’ AoE damage competitive, often around 70-80% of DPS.
Warlords of Draenor:
Single Target: Vengeance replaced by Resolve, around 50-60% of DPS.
AoE: Tanks retained strong AoE capabilities, around 60-70% of DPS.
Legion:
Single Target: Tanks around 60-70% of DPS, thanks to artifact weapons and new abilities.
AoE: Tanks’ AoE damage remained strong, around 70-80% of DPS.
Battle for Azeroth:
Single Target: Tanks around 70-80% of DPS, especially with certain Azerite traits.
AoE: Corruptions like Twilight Devastation significantly boosted tanks’ AoE damage, sometimes matching or surpassing DPS.
Shadowlands:
Season 1: Tanks did considerably less damage, often struggling with threat and relying on kiting due to high incoming damage.
Later Seasons: Tanks’ damage increased to around 60-70% of DPS, with improved threat generation and balance changes.
Dragonflight:
Single Target: Tanks’ damage is competitive, often around 70-80% of DPS.
AoE: With enhancements in abilities and talent systems, tanks maintain high AoE damage, around 80-90% of DPS.
Although I don’t think the numbers are correct (based on my own logs) I do think that it trends the error in the same way across the expansions and can be used to show when tank dps increased as well as why. It makes it pretty clear however that tanks have been balanced around a pretty consistent dps range since around MoP. Which is why its a bit worrying to see it suddenly decrease on the beta.
maybe dump the tank/healer paradigm…
give everyone adequate heals…
couple of adaptive potentials:
i liked the dps sword and board warrior spec…
and maybe replace disc with a light-caster damage priest spec
…etc.
I’m sure you’re right, I just can’t wrap my head around choosing slightly bigger numbers over owning one’s time or peace, but not everyone is me. Thank goodness.
Seems like we’d just have multi tank groups then, up to 5, and have to restrict tank access to utility to try to even give them a reason to bring in anyone else ( no rez for joo! )
While the idea of composition and dungeon changing based on the makeup of the party IS attractive to me, as then people could truly play what they want, and the content adapts like a TTRPG can, that’s not what we have.
You sure did extrapolate a lot out of a little lmao. I don’t have fun healing, therefore I don’t heal. By the looks of the tank changes, they don’t look very fun, so it’s possible I won’t tank. My entire perspective is focused on season over season fun. If WoW in general isn’t fun, I don’t play WoW. Nothing is keeping me in tanking, or WoW in general, other than fun. These changes actively reduce the fun I’ll have with the game, therefore I will disparage them at every possible junction.
The healing position in general is in a major crisis, and is at odds with the fun that DPS and tank players can have with self survival. The holy trinity has begun to break down as MMO theory and content has advanced, and the healing position is the weak link.
We’re already seeing on beta that tanks are entering into a very severe kiting meta. We can’t opt out of a mass AoE zerg pull metagame, given the timer and how DPS classes are designed, so as tanks, we won’t have the ability to have our pull capacity throttled. We’ll just enter into a degenerate kiting meta, where you still don’t heal the tank, AND tank gameplay is legitimately atrocious. Damage is looking spiky, one-shotty, and terrible, for the pulls that are considered standard in the modern M+ meta.
I say again. I do not want to rely on healers to do basic dungeon routing. I do not want to have to kite in order to handle my HP pool when fighting standard pulls that are imposed by the gameplay format.
Healers do die if tanks and/or DPS are bad at their roles. If the tank is bad, the healer can get threat and die. If the DPS are bad, they could fail to do enough damage or perform a mechanic and wipe everyone.
Healers do mechanics, too. If a healer fails a mechanic, I can die. I thought you’d be all for this, or does the idea of relying on your DPS to do appropriate damage or you die not sound like a ton of fun?
All you did is describe how things already worked since the beginning of the game - group wipes if dps or tanks messed up, and obviously group includes the healer.
That’s not a threat or a gotcha by any stretch of the imagination.
Nah, man. I’m not talking about a wipe. Just, if DPS suck at damage, the healer drops. If I’m bad at my buttons, you should die, no? That’s how the game is supposed to be, right?
Isn’t this basically how keys/raids fail? Dungeon timers and enrage timers or soft enrages failing because dps is bad? Tank is bad and dies and mobs kill the dps and healer.
I wish I could go back in time and post on the original forums that in the future players will be outraged at the notion that a healer needs to somewhat heal the tank.
As a former healer, this is one of the reasons I quit healing and why I’m actually excited about the changes. Healing has been completely not fun for a while now, It’ll be nice to return to the old school feel.