So what you’re saying is that, when people say they want a ranged tank, they want a tank that can pull from 40 yards away and then does the entire fight in melee?
In that case, I’ve got very good news for you about every other tank in the game.
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I’m absolutely enthralled with warlock tank in sod, its everything I’ve ever wanted.
Now, thats not to say its perfect and without a need for changes, but its a darn great spot to start. Caster tank is a huge blast, absolutely needs to come to retail.
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also how will that workout with 4 mobs lol
well, it should have been a Tank and not a dps.
as a DPS, it becomes a requirement because its like getting a 3 4 1 deal.
I think Warlock tanking in retail would be amazing. But I wonder if Warlocks mobility issues would ruin that sort of thing.
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Another point to consider is that Blizz wouldn’t have to necessarily redesign an existing spec to turn it into a tank. Druids already have four specs. Who’s to say any other class couldn’t get an entirely new spec that focuses on tanking?
We’re predisposed to staying in the existing boxes and arguing about why things couldn’t work, but when it comes to adding to the game, that generally involves creating entirely new boxes as well.
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If DKs can be effective tanks, mobility ain’t an issue
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I started playing SoD with the expectation that I’d be be able to tank on my warlock right away.
Then I realized that in order to do this, I have go hit the max level for this season first (skipping RFC, WC and SFK) and then try to find people to help me with the overly complex chain that is getting my ability to tank rune.
That made me mad, so I quit.
I"m glad people are having fun with this but making it that much of a giant PITA out the gate was a huge fail on their part. Being able to tank right away would have made finding groups to do the dungones and get stuff done quickly but just playing as a regular old dps? Yah not cool
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All a caster tank would be in retail is effectively a melee who does casting animations for attacks. There is no way to fundamentally make a “range tank” and a true caster, with caster limitations like spell pushback, spell canceling by movement, and having 0 avoidance while casting, can be mechanically viable.
I don’t even want to fathom the truest hardest difficulty content in the game…mythic+…and how a caster tank would work. Sure maybe in raids a caster tank could get away with it (albeit as a total mana sponge) because raid tanking is stupid bonkers easy/boring to begin with but mythic+…woo boy they would have to be effectively melee and have full casting while moving, avoidance, etc given how much mythic+ throws at you moment to moment.
I’d love a battle mage who is in melee and weaves spells in.
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well, in terms of “letting the cat out of the bag” they already opened “pandora’s box” with Aug as a support spec even if its still classified as a dps.
and changing it now would just get the same back lash for survival hunters. which are now in a position of loose loose. because reverting a change leaves a group of players that already like the spec in favor of other players who liked it before it changed but dont like the melee thing.
changing specs into other specs is a lot of needless friction, but in terms of releasing a new spec, there are things that should have been something else before pulling the trigger because there is no “putting the toothpaste back into the tube”
and ya got to deal with the mess that is already created.
adding new stuff is of course the better option vs changing something but you have to commit to the choice, otherwise you end up deleting a viable spec that other players enjoyed, like having a sword and shield warrior as a dps option.
I guess that’s fair, but they do have abilities which pull targets over great distances, which Warlocks do not have. Meaning a Warlock would have to run to each individual target or tab tap them and then LoS group them up.
I’m still convinced SoD is a testing ground trying to see what sticks and what doesn’t.
Come on babyyy, Feral Windfury Totems and Tank Warlocks for War Within.
lmao.
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seems lock tanking and even shaman tanking could have just been done by pets–which would have been the easiest thing to do and I’m not sure why they didnt just do that?
THe caster has a seperate bar from the pet (using taunt, having the rotation be “auto” but manually having to control the defensives). This way the caster can still stand at distance and do SOME dmg too.
Build in spell pushback resistance (or play a void elf and just have no spell pushback), spell canceling by movement is a skill issue, 0 avoidance while casting isn’t that big of a deal.
Plus, theres no end of ‘casting while moving’ potential solutions, even just bringing back kiljaeden’s cunning solves that problem. And being a caster also means channeling abilities, no reason to not have one or your spells be a channeled aoe damage that lets you move around while its active.
Caster tank doesn’t mean “plant your feet and tank from one spot and never ever move” it means “a tank themed around magical abilities, casting larger abilities rather then swinging a weapon”.
If your argument is just “all it is is casting instead of attacks” then….yeah, thats the same difference between feral and balance. Its a video game, its all about flavour differences, why even try to argue that?
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every range tank hypothesis assumes there wouldn’t be a change in abilities or game play. we assume they would remain as squishy as a dps.
Casts could simply gain the ability to be immune to push back, in a similar way tanks dont get dazed 
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lol, that would be kind of funny if Blizzard didn’t fix that sort of thing. Could you imagine trying to cast a spell with 7 mobs hitting you?
No.
All SoD proved is that Classic got a whole lot better and recieved way more praise … when it implemented quality of life mechanics and abilities from Retail.
It is but, mostly in the way I mentioned above. They have been able to experiment with abilities for about a decade at this point in retail, but not so much in Classic. What they can learn from things like SoD is to see how much push and give different communities have for different mechanics, and to see how much homogenization exists between these communities.
Less tangible than just saying “we wanted to see if ‘X’ would work” (which it wouldn’t; caster-tanks have been tried as recently as Nighthold and no waves of happiness came from the re-introduction of a TBC boss mechanic into retail). What they can learn from these things is something that folks playing on Retail has known for a while now:
Folks really do like recycled content as long as it is done with a new spin on it. So nothing groundbreaking for retail but for communities who primarily play Classic … that is a pretty big revelation, that not a lot of 'em are going to like being told in straightforward words.
Then that has universally proven that Warlock tanks are out, but things like M+ is in for Classic. Not quite what ya’ meant to say but… when breaking it down and if one says that SoD is a success … that is a whole lot closer to the truth than what you implied with Warlocks and tanking.
See my above response if you want more details (and also why I just edited this response as opposed to made a new one for ya’).
I mean, kinda, you don’t have to tab target necessarily but also thats what all the other tanks have to do anyways. Even then, give the tank spec some ranged aoe burst damage, so instead of running towards them you make them come to you.
And we’re only 25 imagine all the tank runes and unique spells we’re getting all the way to 60
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