LFG & Cat. - Blue Tracker

#0 - Dec. 28, 2009, 5:36 p.m.

First, I want to give a little Praise to Blizz for the addition of the dungeon finder. It has definitely made building groups extremely easy. Most importantly, I spend most of my time in dungeons now rather than waiting to build groups.

So why is there going to be a problem upon the release of Cat? It’s quite apparent that there is a pretty big tank shortage already and this is only going to become more of an issue when the expansion is released.

Even posters on this board recommend: “DPS to gear up and learn the instances, and then switch to tanking.” Otherwise you risk being repeatedly ridiculed and harassed, and generally just get frustrated with tanking.

So how many tanks are out there, that will gear up as DPS? 50%? 75%? That just made the queue for DPS 30 min. to and hour long.

Worse yet, when DPS are actually placed in a group they are likely going to have unrealistic expectations of instancing. The dungeon finder works great now because pretty much every tank over gears all of the instances.

How patient are players going to be when tanks are still learning the pulls and bosses, and wipes, rather than victories become the norm? When instances are back to an hour rather than 15 minutes?

Anyone else put some thought into the upcoming tanking tragedy?

On the bright side, perhaps the long queue is the solution to the problem. Maybe DPS will learn some manners and not blame the tank for everything. God forbid the tank just leave group and be rewarded with an instant queue, while the DPS are punished with another hour long queue.

Ghostcrawler

#4 - Dec. 28, 2009, 6:19 p.m.

Without a defense stat there should not be a huge gear requirement to tank 5-player dungeons. It would be ideal if say an Arms warrior could go Defensive Stance, maybe use a shield, and be able to fill the tank role in any normal dungeon or even the easier heroics.

You will still likely need a Prot-spec warrior (or the equivalent of other classes) to MT actual raids.

Ghostcrawler

#90 - Dec. 31, 2009, 6:57 p.m.

Q u o t e:
DING DING DING winner winner winner. If you think that dropping defense is going to cause a higher tank population your wrong. This poster is spot on.

Aesop's fable the Northwind, and the Sun.

The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger, when a traveler came along wrapped in a warm cloak.
They agreed that the one who first succeeded in making the traveler take his cloak off should be considered stronger than the other.
Then the North Wind blew as hard as he could, but the more he blew the more closely did the traveler fold his cloak around him;
and at last the North Wind gave up the attempt. Then the Sun shined out warmly, and immediately the traveler took off his cloak.
And so the North Wind was obliged to confess that the Sun was the stronger of the two.

Blizzard has been the Northwind this entire expansion, and appears to be continuing in this path for the next expansion.

I think what you're trying to say here is that tanking is too hard in LK? If so, I'd beg to differ, at least compared to BC. Just off the top of my head: Mobs are rarely taunt or CC immune now. All tanks have a ranged taunt and a ranged pull. All tanks have AE tanking potential. Tanking trees have a lot more utility and fewer passive survivability or threat talents. Etc.

We did add DKs to make it easier to find tanks, and it has. We also added Dungeon Finder to make it easier to assemble groups, and it has. Neither of those designs guaranteed you could find a tank within 30 sec, and really nobody expected them to.

At the end of the day, tanking is a lot of work. Tanks are generally called upon to lead groups, set the pace of run, and keep things organized. Even a healer by contrast can kind of go along for the ride, healing here and there without really understanding the encounter mechanics. (I'm talking the 5-player Dungeon Finder experience here.) If there's a wipe, it's often blamed on the tank. If the dps pull aggro, it's often blamed on the tank. It takes a certain kind of player to want to tank, and really we're not trying to change that. We just want to do what we can to keep you from having to sit around too long waiting for a tank, up to and including you deciding to tank the run yourself.

Ghostcrawler

#91 - Dec. 31, 2009, 6:59 p.m.

Q u o t e:
There are three reasons players don’t tank.
They feel they don’t have the Gear.
They feel they don’t have the knowledge of the encounters.
They don’t want to tank.

Yeah, I'd basically agree with that. All we are really interested in doing is solving the first bullet. If you're sitting around with 4 other friends and want to run a dungeon but you have no tank, maybe the Arms warrior (or Ret paladin, etc.) will say "Well, I guess I could tank if you guys can help me figure out what to do," instead of "Sorry. Not def capped."