If a survey went out which asked why non tankers prefer not to tank, what do you think the major reason would be?
After being a dps ever since I started wow, I decided to make a monk and begin tanking low level dungeons.
For me personally, it came down to the responsibility. Leading the way, keeping threat as best as possible. Ensuring pulls aren’t too big or too small and moving at a reasonable pace. All that added to the anxiety, even though I have a good idea of what’s expected in pugs.
So yeah, would you agree that the responsibility is the largest factor contributing to the tank shortage?
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Because a lot of us got tired of the hassle. One thinks we go too fast, another thinks we go too slow, and a third one running ahead and pulling for us.
Sod it. Enjoy your queues.
90 Likes
Tanks aren’t scarce. DPS are just massively overpopulated.
The #1 reason for people not tanking is because they’ve never actually tried it, they’ve just played DPS their entire WoW life because the game treats it as the default role and makes no attempt to encourage players to play anything but DPS.
30 Likes
My friend group has no tank problems. I tank for them and I don’t bother with tanking for randoms because humans are terrible to each other when there is no immediate negative reaction to terrible behavior.
With that said tanks need some kind of paradigm shift to make them more fun for the dps so they can roll them more. I would recommend giving them some more damage.
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I guess because I’m afraid of messing up and having others bash me for it. I feel a lot less stressed playing dps. Healing is a bit higher stress but still fine…
I wanted to tank with my fel werebear but I’ve not seen much on guardian to want to main it in DF,. Also can only be two tanks in a guild so usually those are always already taken positions.
I was main tank on my Brewmaster back during SoO and loved it. Was fun!
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I just feel bad for new players. When I joined a few Freehold runs the healer sent an automatic message telling the group they were new and to please be patient. I kept a sharp eye on them and pulled accordingly for them to not get overwhelmed.
Then there was a group where a dps got angry when we wiped on some adds from a pull that was a little too big, with them telling us to just go to the last boss.
And finally there was a healer mentioning they needed a mana break but a mage kept moving ahead and pulling packs.
For someone with no experience in wow, let alone mmos, tanking would be extremely difficult. I feel a lot of newcomers try but stop shortly after due to the above scenarios. I haven’t even mentioned the possibility of people saying certain remarks on top of that.
29 Likes
Don’t know my way around dungeons enough to lead.
I can play my tanks well enough, but I only do it with friends who don’t care if I make mistakes… It’s one thing to know your class well, and another to know the dungeons/fights well.
As a DPS or heals, I can follow the tank, dodge stuff and offer all my utility as the need arises. You wouldn’t even know I don’t know the place.
Not if I’m tanking though, you’d be hard pressed to kick me. 
9 Likes
Something people fail to consider is: Tanks are unfun to play.
For example, if your main mechanic in raids is to press taunt to swap with the other tank… That’s not very engaging gameplay is it?
For most people damage is also a big part of what they find fun. It’s why I have no problem with tanks doing the damage they are doing right now. While also being tanky. Being wet noodles + doing no damage is just gonna push even more people away.
I think some tanks could use an update with how they mechanically play. Is bear’s currently gameplay really fun and engaging? I remember the memes of a bear just spamming thrash with their eyes closed.
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If a tank leaving group put you at the back of the line, rather than the front, and it told the incoming tank how many bosses were killed, everyone would treat tanks a lot more nicely.
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Tanking used to be fun, when it wasn’t about precision and the absolute derangement of players in a PUG environment.
Pull too little? People will leave. Take a different route that’s not in the M+ meta, but bleeds into heroic and normal dungeons? People leave or bash the tank who may or may not be an entirely new player.
The Devs could solve it by making either trash mechanically harder to deter people from pulling large groups, but no one liked Cata dungeons.
Your other problem is that a raiding guild only needs 2 tanks at the least and is an often a competitive spot and very damaging to a guild once one of their geared tanks leave.
IMO as a long time tank, even though I don’t entirely feel the pressure of PUG running anymore (because I just don’t care what a random player thinks for the run), those entering the role or just want to try it have a higher barrier of entry for time and having to research/lead people who may not have their best interest at heart.
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Make tank top dps for a raid and you’ll find crapload of people roll on tank.
1 Like
If anything, there are too many tanks, at least compared to the need for tanks.
Looking for a guild? They don’t need tanks.
Want to join a raid team? They don’t need tanks.
Want to arena? They don’t need tanks, if a tank spec is accidentally good in arena, Blizzard nerfs it.
Want to do rated battlegrounds? They need 1 tank tops, if that.
Want to do world content? It’s gonna take forever. Tanks not needed. The hunter/warlock pets will spam-taunt everything off you, which is super annoying.
WoW has the Unwelcome Mat out for tanks, across the board. There are far more people wanting to tank than there are spots for them to fill.
The ONLY exception is 5-man random pugs.
27 Likes
I prefer to tank.
However, every time I find that I like a tank spec Blizz goes and changes the way it plays to something completely different with the new expansion. Than I am left to try all of the tanks, which leaves me irritated because none of them are close to what I was having fun with just a week ago. It takes about a patch of dpsing to go back to wanting to tank and having enough time were I no longer compare the new builds with the old ones.
I just want the ability to freeze my spec in time. I don’t want change.
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Tanks are also victims of bad pugs. However, they seem to have a vanity issue as well.
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Idk, I saw a huge increase in people playing tank since late season 2 of m+ all the way until now, the most popular one being BDK of course but season 3 I saw some BrM, prot pals and VDH and good amount too.
With tier sets for tanks more people found them fun to play I guess.
I tanked from season 1 to end of season 2 mostly on paladin and some in season 3 on pal but I switched to fury warrior and some surv hunter in season 3 because I actually got annoyed of how bad dps players were at helping the group succeed and only cared about their damage and literally nothing else.
It’s funny how many people have mentioned “I don’t want the responsibility, it’s easier to be a dps less responsible for things going wrong” it’s such a bad take and easily not true in higher keys in 25s and such. Everyone can be doing something to help not just the tank carrying 4 mouth breathers
- Memorizing routes sucks when you are constantly being told by pugs their route is better.
- Kiting as a tank doesn’t feel good at all. I’m a tank, not a dps being chased by an add
- Having to monitor your groups CDs to not pull small vs big is a hassle (not needed to do but if you want to be a good tank you would do this)
My 2 cents on if you want more tanks in the game implement something for a baseline route that shows either checkpoints or world markers of which mobs to pull next that allows for a basic run through of the dungeon. Maybe make this available in keys 0-10 to tanks to toggle on / off to get practice on each dungeon. I realize addons exist that let you do this but having something in game live while you’re pulling / playing really would work better. That being said I have zero problems tanking for friend / guild groups but when it comes to pugs I really dislike doing it.
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Nope, but I always drop bear when incarn becomes to powerful because playing around a three min CD is never fun (as dps or tank,) but galactic thrash with convoke looks to be tons of fun in DF (although I seem to be in the minority on this one.)
The only time you are wanted as a tank is for dungeons, and even then most people have their tank friend already. If you want to tank dungeons you’re thrown to the less than self aware LFG crowd that just make you instantly fall back in formation as a dps.
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Bear tanking is a meme imo. I love it, don’t get me wrong. But its a meme. Your entire kit depends on incarn and doing huge pulls with it combined with smaller pulls when your other defensives are cycled through. My experience is limited though to tanking like 16s or 17s and below on my bear for weekly vault for friends / guildies.
I would say this is still a proper assessment on higher keys. It’s why I’ve rerolled FOTM BDK for the remainder of the expac