#0 - May 26, 2009, 3:15 p.m.
Currently from what I've seen DK's are considered the best tanks due to their avoidance, health, mitigation, and cooldowns. In almost every situation a DK tank has the advantage. So, at this point in the game tanks are not rated based on how good they are (aside from the generic are you good/bad), but how they can survive mechanically. Now, I have full faith in blizzard to correct the deficiencies in the other classes bringing them closer together - but that's not what I'm asking...
Before DK's, druids were the avoidance tanks - with close to 50% dodge in many cases they could avoid huge amounts of damage and would be a sponge to damage with the occasional crushing blow requiring some healing.
Before Wrath, Warriors were the de-facto tank for most fights with the best mix of avoidance, health, mitigation, and cooldowns. There were only a handful of fights that you didn't have your warrior tanking simply because it was usually the best option.
Once Prot paladins became viable, the were the AoE tanks. How many people ran Mount Hyjal pre-wrath patch without a Prot paladin? Trash pulls were that much easier with a prot paladin.
Raiding to me has always been about getting a group of people with differing abilities working together. As it stands currently, I don't see any reason not to take 3 paladins (for buffs/2heal), 2 shamans (BL/totems/1heal), a druid (moonkin), 2 DK's (tanks), 5 rogues (melee DPS), 5 priests (4heal, 1dps), and 7 mages (or whatever max ranged DPS happens to be at the time)... You've got 5 or 6 melee DPS (DK alts to DPS) at that point, 7 healers, and 9 ranged DPS.
So the question I would then ask is... Why would I need anyone else? Why do I need a warlock, hunter, warrior? Why do I want a class of XXX spec over whatever I have now?
But let's forget that question for a second and look into the concept at hand - Tanking. I understand that blizzard is trying to get away from having certain classes required, but what I feel they have done is doomed them into oblivion instead.
Why can't we have our Avoidance tank, General Tank, Threat Tank, and AoE tank? What is wrong with that? What is wrong with being exceptional at one facet of tanking? Why must I be forced into this mold of tanking that prevents me from having my moment? I'm not saying that you have to make tanks extremes on one end, but balance them based on what categories they require... here's an example...
Avoidance, Threat, AoE, mitigation
1, 4, 2, 3 - Death Knight
2, 1, 3, 4 - Druid
4, 3, 1, 2 - Paladin
3, 2, 4, 1 - Warrior
Then all you do is balance the abilities of the tanks based on that chart. Most raids have 2-3 tanks. If this is the case, then Any 2 tanks will provide you with a viable tank for every tanking requirement. Granted, if you picked a death knight and a Paladin you might have issues with threat, or a Druid/DK might have mitigation problems (for fast low-damage fights). Now this is a simple chart obviously, nothing nearly as complex as tanking really is - but the concept is sound and can be translated easily into the real thing.
Then, let's balance the variety of fights around this... Make bosses that Attack very rapidly but for low damage (mitigation would be the key there)... Make fights where bosses change modes of attack, requiring you to change tanks with it. Iron Council could be adapted to have a tank of each style on them.
These are just ideas, and I could go on forever, but I'll save you that pain. I just want to know what is wrong with tanks having areas of expertise.
TL;DR version - Tanking has become this mold of universal goop. As a result, there will always be one tank that is mechanically superior to all others. My question posed is, what's wrong with the way it was, and what's wrong with Tanks being exceptional in one area.
