Tanking as an earth elemental 
Adding a new spec wont remedy people not wanting to tank especially in pugs.
If they want to fix tanking they need to make it more rewarding first
5 Likes
see? 
I don’t disagree with you. I like variety and I’d love some alternative tank specs.
Though… to be honest, I’d also like to see alternatives TO tank specs. I’d like to be able to choose to run leveling dungeons and stuff via LFG without a tank. During the leveling process tanks aren’t strictly necessary in a lot of situations.
The one “New tank spec” I’d love to see is a pet based tank spec. I’d love it if there was an alternative BM or Demo spec that could Queue as a tank and their pets could reliably tank an instance. It would only take a few additional skills here and there honestly.
If a new tank spec is created, mostly existing tanks will roll it. There won’t be as many new tanks as you think.
What they need to do is make it easier for a dps to switch to tank when queues are long. At least some people would keep that other spec ready for when queues were long if it weren’t so onerous.
We need more specs, 4th specs for all classes would be amazing xD
1 Like
Tanking is already VERY rewarding and incredibly lucrative though. If you’re a skilled tank, and you aren’t a total sub-brick neanderthal, then you are going to be swept up into a guild faster than you can blink. And from there you will be brought along to basically every raid, and every Mythic plus run. You’ll be drowning in more loot and love that you can possibly handle.
The rewards for playing tank are fine as is. My strategy is to flood the market with new tanks, to increase supply and subsequently lower demand.
Give me a spellbreaker please. Anti-magic tank.
I know Deathknights were meant to be that, but they aren’t that anymore.
This is true, I know that many tank players, like myself, usually have one of each tank spec ready to go, and like to change from time to time throughout the expansion.
personally, I would make new tanks just to try them out, see if anything can win my adoration over Brewmaster monk.
But opening the opportunities to new players is never a bad idea. There are too few tanks in the game as is.
You could add 100 more tank specs to the game and it won’t make any difference.
The problem is the community, always has been.
7 Likes
That won’t fix the problem. Everybody already has toons capable of tanking if they want to. They don’t want to because they don’t want the responsibility of carrying 3 passenger DPS, having everything they do scrutinised, and taking the blame if anything goes wrong.
The problem is the 1-1-3 design. Has been for 15 years. But that is impossible to fix at this stage.
5 Likes
Just imho, I tried leveling a tank this week. I made it to 20 and went back to my DPS classes. People rushing, pulling stuff that are not tanks… And then getting mad cause you’ve already used your aggro abilities and they are on Cooldown, so you can’t get them off the idiots who pulled another group for you… Yeah, I’m not gonna get high blood pressure dealing with retards. The final straw was a healer who kept pulling **** well ahead of the group and healing himself, but not healing me… I spent the better half of the dungeon before I left. Healing myself. watching him die repeatedly.
So, want more tanks… Stop being ****…
6 Likes
Hmmm…Ive been tanking since I started the game also and I do nothing but pug groups now. Dont like to be tied down to specific times.
1 Like
Don’t need more tanks. Tanks just need more dmg that isn’t RNG corruption passive effects. Tanks were pretty fun in WoD and Legion…
Low level tanks do not have their whole toolkit. I used to tank starting at level 15, but after level scaling I stopped tanking until level 60.
You should give it another go at a higher level.
1 Like
Adding new tank specs would be… neat. But it won’t address the problems of why people hate playing tanks, especially in PUGs, in the first place.
As someone who used to tank PUGs both in LFG and occasionally raids, the reason I stopped was that it stopped being fun. I can go to Classic and have fun tanking just fine, but retail? Screw that. PUGs are unfun enough when I’m playing DPS/Heals, let alone tank.
I put the blame for this firmly on Role Homogeneity, which is when Tank/Heal/DPS roles bleed into each other. When healers are off-DPSing and DPS have no fear of pulling because the game probably won’t punish them with a death for it, that’s Role Homogeneity. I believe Role Homogeneity started to become an issue in WoD, or at least that’s when I first started noticing it.
Role Homogeneity is the primary reason that PUG content tends to be a zergfest these days. And the end result is that I felt alienated from my role as a tank. If I go into a dungeon and tank now, I feel more like a sub-par DPS and am constantly questioning why I am there. Why is there not just a 4th DPS so that the party can zerg even harder? Sure there’s some bosses that might cause trouble there, but most of the time I don’t have an answer. I can solo current content normals as a mage these days. I don’t want to solo current content instances. I want to be punished for doing stupid stuff. But I’m not, and tanks suffer the most from this game design.
5 Likes
Problem isnt the lack of tank classes its that tanking generally means dragging three to four dipshichz through a dungeon - randos are bad sauce.
That being said if you want to convince blizzavision to give me my wings back i’ll tank for you
(IIRC at one point warlocks had essentially a ‘tank form’ complete with high threat instants and I think a taunt.)
4 Likes
This is going to seem insensitive. But you were in a Leveling dungeon. Any tank worth their salt should understand that those things don’t matter. you could lock yourself on Autorun and complete most leveling dungeons.
As things start to get higher, and more difficult players who force the tank to go faster will die prematurely. Without any of it being your fault. You job is to know the pulls, and the mechanics. Once you do that, you can set the pace of the entire dungeon. If someone doesn’t like your pace, they can get themselves killed.
This isn’t entirely foolproof however, If you have a team of well geared, competent players, asking you to go faster because they know they can handle it, you should do your best to oblige. This game is about teamwork, at the end of the day.
The nuances and understanding of these things come with time and experience, new classes would allow new players to build up that necessary experience.
It makes so much sense!
Shaman are the only class with a shield that can’t tank. Why? It’s ridiculous! We have water shaman who heal, fire shaman that DPS, and wind shaman that enhance themselves. But no earth shaman?! Unacceptable!
I want to see a giant freaking Mag’har orc beef up with earth shield, using the ground under their feet as shields and spikes, hurling boulders with the might of an entire planet. Roaring defiance in the face of every enemy. Unstoppable as a landslide, clearing the way for their party.
6 Likes
No one pug tank because of the way they are treated like trash. I use to tank and not anymore.
Now far hunter the could go the way of the beast. Have a hunter merge with Hati and become a tank. That would be wild.
1 Like
I think a big part of the problem is that the learning process for clueless players is based on the concept of “Those people won’t learn unless somebody dies.”
So clueless person makes a mistake and the tank and/or healer dies. And the clueless person is still clueless and now is blaming the tank and/or healer.