Some people don't seem to understand..

#0 - April 13, 2009, 5:40 p.m.

According to Blizzard, all 4 tanking classes are capable to main tank ANY boss. Which ever tank you choose will NOT make your progression more difficult to the point where Blizzard will feel you are at a disadvantage.

1 cooldown, 4 cooldowns...this is NOT an issue Blizzard wants to address at this time. Currently it is felt that things are in a remote state of "balance".

However, this does not address all of the problems being brought up time and time again about MT vs OT roles.

The debate on who is going to be doing most of the Main Tanking is not ALWAYS a question of which tank is best at MAIN TANKING, but rather a question of which tank is best at OFF TANKING.

Everyone knows that on a hard mode boss fight, every advantage available WILL BE USED.

Now lets ask the million dollar question..which tank provides the most ADVANTAGE while off tanking?
This question alone will influence most main tank decisions, and as it has already been stated..the Paladin wins the OT role...

There is no getting around this..

So unless Blizzard has information regarding the decisions made about Paladin talents, which it seems they do not, there is nothing to discuss.

All these threads about which tank is the strongest for a MT role is becoming ridiculous..PLEASE use reason to see that the question has NEVER been who is the best MT, but rather who is the best OT.

The only thing I can hope for (or ask for rather) is that Blizzard make tanking more dynamic by requiring multiple tanks to handle equally difficult mobs rather than one tank and one boss.

EDIT: for those that are confused, I am not agreeing with Blizzard but merely stating what they have already said.

Ghostcrawler

#39 - April 14, 2009, midnight

Q u o t e:
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Q u o t e:
Yet Blizzard has said that some of the nerfs are specifically because of that one fight.
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Source?

The nerfs are because in Ulduar, when they're trying to make things harder, bears and DKs were a lot more effective than paladins and warriors. They had advantages that work on any fight whereas block is only effective on some fights.

We made some changes because of Sartharion and some changes because of Ulduar. We have stated we thought druids and DKs were originally too good at Sartharion.

Q u o t e:
That's like trying to block the sun with your thumb. Rather than bring up to par those tanking classes that are at a disadvantage they cut off the legs of those that are ahead and bring 'em down -- while solving none of the problems of the former.

When PvE content is concerned, we are not likely to make sweeping changes to make content easier. We don’t want to bring up classes that have a disadvantage. We want YOU ALL to be at a disadvantage, unless the content proves so difficult that groups of reasonable skill and gear are struggling. Currently there are no encounters like that in the game. Ulduar might bring some.

Ghostcrawler

#72 - April 14, 2009, 8:56 p.m.

Q u o t e:
So what are your contingency plans if one of the tanks fails hard in ulduar?

Give them a pony of course.

Q u o t e:
I do not understand the philosophy or design strategy behind nerfing a tank's entire mechanic structure because it is better at doing ONE SINGLE fight in the game. i do not understand how you take a CLASS-DEFINING trait of one particular class (namely having the highest armor in the game) and nerf it so hard that death knights are top armor while still having vastly superior avoidance and cooldowns that bridge the gap that passive mitigation abilities may create.

Miscomm. We would not have nerfed a class for one encounter. We made the changes because we thought the problems we saw on Sarth were going to continue anytime we relied on a massive but short burst of damage that the tank needed to survive.

EDIT: Many players above answered this pretty well too.

Q u o t e:
Then you have failed once again. While Aerill here is only level 65, I am already tearing up quests that I remember being very difficult on Feanorion. The death knight has no class-specific weakness that I have seen so far, and is vastly superior to my paladin at the same approximate level.

Tear up those quests, young Aerill! Just don’t tear up Yogg-Saron and you won’t have any argument from us.

Q u o t e:

I would be incredibly surprised to find that Blizzard balance classes around ability to Solo Blacktalon the Savage.

NERF INCOMING.

Ghostcrawler

#129 - April 15, 2009, 8:15 p.m.

Q u o t e:
the people making the decisions have no concept of what their design changes mean to actual players, how raiding guilds function, or what the word "fair" means.

If I insult the developers, maybe they'll buff me! :)

Based on our testing and what we've seen on the PTR, we think the tank balance is close enough that guilds with warrior or paladin MTs or whatever will still be able to beat the hard modes. We'll know more when more guilds start trying them. Does this mean that anytime we see a group use a different tank for a different boss that the system is a failure? Of course not. It only has to be close enough, not identical. Realistically, it's never going to be identical. It is as close as it has ever been in WoW's brief history. We'll keep an eye on it to make sure it's close enough.