I wanted to tank this expansion. The people made me stop tanking rather than any of the content itself.
As long as we time it I am good. if you don’t do the exact route people will complain nonstop and it’s not fun.
It’s a culture problem, not a supply problem in my experience.
It’s also a culture problem ONLY for queued and pug content.
In all other areas of the game, there’s a tank glut.
Want to join a raid team? No, they don’t need tanks.
Want to join a rated battlegrounds team? No, they only need 1 tank at most (and probably not even that).
Want to do arenas? No, on the rare occasion when a tank spec is good in arena, Blizzard immediately nerfs them.
The game is structured with a big “NOT WELCOME” doormat out in front of the tank entrance.
Not to mention class design, where they’ve been robbing Peter to pay Paul in terms of tank mechanics for years. And people want to add MORE tank specs? That’s just idiotic.
Tanking is such a thankless and exasperating role if you’re not in a guild that needs one. So is healer, really.
It wouldn’t but I’d kill (in-game of course) for a tanking specialization for my mage. 
If LFR was 10 man the wait would be much longer. 1/1/5 would improve the situation I’m not sure you fix this problem completely.
Idk man that’s more stuff for Blizzard to balance. They’re having a hard time with shadowlands alone.
tanks were in a such bad state in SL …only DH could hold a candle
Some are still in need of fixes look at BDK patch notes for 9.1 buffed all
Warrior prot is in dire need of some stance that changes shield block with a skill that mitigates magic somehow , ignore pain has been nerfed over and over , and dont get me started on the rotation is one of the most frustrating , i loved warrior prot back then now is a mess
The last three new classes were melees.
DK = Dps/Tank
Monk = Healer/Dps/Tank
DH Dps/Tank
I think the game needs more range specs or range classes.
I really wanted that Shadow was its own class by being a dps and a healer too.
There are actually fewer ranged specs in the game now than when the game launched.
I think the problem is not lacking enough tank or healing spec. Its keeping players from quitting playings those roles. I enjoyed ret paladin a lot during bfa but getting asked all the time to tank or heal made me just stop enjoying that class and keep to dps only class.
Participation in general will drop for m+ when this goes into effect. Elites probably won’t notice, except this will make it much faster and easier to decline players from pugs, if they pug at all. Players who never pug will not notice any difference.
The “social problem” is a direct result of blizzard trying to make it harder for players to off spec as tanks or to learn as new tanks. I think they see this as supporting guilds, because surely the players who can’t find groups will join guilds and find all their problems solved, despite the fact that if they are forced to join guilds to play at all, they will have no choice but to join guilds full of learners like them.
Good guilds are no longer accepting nobodies. They want and need exceptional players, which we see in guild ads all the time. They have no time to train anyone, and no desire to carry someone on the learning curve who can’t reciprocate by carrying their alts.
While there may be extra tanks hanging around and helping with mythic+ in the hopes that they will be considered in case of a raid opening, in all likelihood a tank will be brought in from the outside, one that has better gear and more experience. It’ll be back to poaching as a strategy for recruitment.
Mage tank spec pls.
DK = Dps/Tank MELEE
Monk = Healer/Dps/Tank MELEE
DH Dps/Tank MELEE
ftfy
They made tanking as unappealing as possible.
Why would anyone want to tank pugs on purpose?
The social problem is because the playerbase doesn’t give a damn as to whether tanks are having fun or not.
People just look at tanks as some kind of service that is there to be used.
You want me to link a bunch of popular “nerf tanks!” threads from the past few years? I’d be happy to do so.
The problem is complex. It is exacerbated by the fact that dps are now discouraged from tanking to fill the void, which also results in a lack of understanding of what tanking is because they have never tried it.
I get bored doing DPS. I am kind of addicted to the mini-game of making many health bars go right rather than a few bars go left. Raid healing is my jam. That said, I never PUG anything other than low keys. It’s just too stressful to heal.
Here’s a great example of how much the playerbase HATES tanks.
And then wonders why there aren’t more tanks available on demand for them.
Go ahead and read that thread, and then ask yourself again why there aren’t more tanks.
Ditto healers. The healer will cover for mistakes and if she doesn’t she’s bad. Deaths are clearly the healer’s fault, not missing a mechanic.
The current corruptions of Prideful and Storming are both anti-tank, as well, although in different ways.
There was a Storming thread last week with lots of ranged DPS players gloating about how great Storming was because it’s “anti-melee”, not realizing it’s also a living hell for tanks. And then they went and posted about how hard it was finding a tank that week and how Blizzard should add more tank specs to the game. 