#0 - Dec. 5, 2008, 5:07 p.m.
(And I'm trying to be objective for lower levels of play, I'm not interested in elitists talking about everything being fine at T7 or 8, we have to be able to get there without being carried!)
Credentials:
- Every 5 man instance, multiple times from level 60
A few heroics here and there
Up to Sartharion on this character
A year of tanking experience on my Paladin
Around a year of tanking experience on my Druid
(sorry, I figured I'd take care of that so I didn't have to qualify any points I make later).
The Problem:
Too many cooldowns! And not just on survival abilities... I feel like nearly everything I do is subject to a cooldown... if not a static ability cooldown, a runic power cooldown (which is dependent on a rotation), or a Rune cooldown.
Example:
Fighting a 4 pack of mobs in Utgarde Pinnacle, two Witchdoctors and two Berserkers
You get your standard rotation out, ya know, Death n Decay, get your diseases up, spread em, howling blast for good measure.
Well... right into the fight, let's say just as Howling Blast went off, an AoE fear gets cast on the party!
This causes someone to run into the next pack of enemies and add them onto our current burden.
Well... As you see this happen.... you realize that Death and Decay is on cooldown... Pestilence is on cooldown.... Bloodboil won't be effective enough in time... Howling blast is coming up, but without being able to spread Frost Fever onto the oncoming pack, you're not guaranteed to overtake healing aggro... So... what do you do? Well... You can taunt one... most of your runes are finishing their cooling down process... You can try to rip one off with Icy Touch... How about the other two?
Now granted, the above example can be very vague and up to interpretation, and perhaps there are more things to do to be effective. The reality though, is that in split second decisions like that, all of your AoE utility spells are just down...
Solution:
I think there might be some merit in cutting the cooldown on Pestilence, I don't really understand why it needs to be 10 seconds. I'm not sure if it's because you don't want people to not have to cast Icy Touch or Plague Strike to refresh diseases (but Scourge Strike glyphed does the same thing, anyway) or what have you. However, I feel as though it might make things a bit easier, at least as far as Frost (and possibly blood?) go.
Perhaps also have Bloodboil have an effect to where if a non-diseased target is near a target that Bloodboils, maybe the eruption of the disease hurts them a little bit? at least enough to tap them over healer aggro.
More Problems:
Too reliant on defensive cooldowns!
I understand that this is potentially being addressed by a slight buff to Frost Presence and a slight nerf to Icebound Fortitude.
However, I just feel like giving 2 copper.
I feel extremely squishy compared to other tanks that I run with, namely, Paladins and Warriors.
A lot of it (I feel) has to do with their block and active abilities to significantly up their block.
Realistically, in my current gear (which isn't all that great yet, crafted/normal/heroic dungeon blues).
I understand that I have Blade Barrier, which is wonderful, but part of me longs for the 15% block that I would likely have at this junction if I were to have a shield (I'm not asking for one).
Let's look at a Paladin, they're likely to have Parry/Dodge equal to me in the same gear that I'm wearing. However, they're likely to have 15% more block, as well as 30% more through Holy Shield.
That's a TON of damage mitigation, especially when AoE tanking.
Let's couple this with the fact that Righteous Fury reduces all damage taken by a good amount, and we have a very big incoming damage discrepancy.
What's my option? well... every minute I can take 50% less damage for 18 seconds(for Runic Power)... or boost my armor/parry temporarily for 20 seconds(at the cost of a Frost rune that I never have available because I need it for threat).. I can take 75% less magic damage for Runic power... but that's too situational.... or I can go Lichborne, which really has no drawback other than the 3 minute cooldown.
All of these options are wonderful by themselves, really, they're great.
The problem though... When they're down... I get to go splat!
Now, I'm sure I could work in a rotation where I hit Unbreakable Armor, then what that goes down hit Icebound fortitude, and cycle through them.. (and actually... that's not a bad idea), however, there's even still some time where I'm going to be taking a lot of damage for sheer lack of nothing left at that point.
What can I do? Hold on tight and pray healers can keep me alive.
Proposed solutions:
Cut the Frost rune cost on Unbreakable Armor, it's silly, really.
