Breakfast Topic: The tanking shortage
by Allison Robert 
Dec 3rd 2008 at 8:00AM
I've seen several Death Knights already at 80 on my realm (and to my everlasting horror, two of them in my guild beat me to 80), but haven't noticed any real difference in the number of tells in trade and LFG searching for a tank. Whenever I see these, it's hard not to wonder what's going on. While it's much too early for the majority of leveling DK's to have had a big impact on 5-man tanking between 70 and 80, most of the ones I've seen at 80 are rerolled DPS and have continued in that role. Some would like to tank but just don't have the gear to withstand the damage of a high-level dungeon. Others have privately admitted that, while they're willing to give tanking a try, having to learn it at 80 with an impatient group that just wants to get through a dungeon is a daunting prospect. Still others really do just prefer to DPS.
I think I'm watching this more closely than anything else developing in Wrath; I think it's going to say a lot about whether you really need a certain personality to enjoy tanking, what people see as fun in the game, and what was actually causing the "tanking shortage" in the first place.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Breakfast Topics, Features, Druid, Paladin, Warrior, Death Knight, Instances
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 12)
Bruce Russell Dec 3rd 2008 8:07AM
I hope the easy duel-speccing goes into effect soon. I'd love to be able to switch from my current healadin role to survivadin at the click of a button. That would help a lot.
Draelar Dec 3rd 2008 8:31AM
Remember that you'll need to have two different gear sets as well. And I'm not sure the tanks that you play with will appreciate you rolling on their gear as well. Of course, if you just greed it, so they can need it, I guess that isn't a big problem.
Deadly. Off. Topic. Dec 3rd 2008 9:20AM
I would hope that people who would need two sets of gear would have the decency to role first on gear for their main spec and then pass on gear for the secondary spec.
Should only ever roll on secondary gear after the main spec people get their gear first. Otherwise you're just being a jerk and stealing gear that would help someone who might never have a secondary spec.
Naix Dec 3rd 2008 9:36AM
Once the duel spec comes into play people are going to roll for either spec. There will be no more main spec, just the spec you are right now.
I know I will be needing on healing gear and dps leathers on my Druid.
Jason Dec 3rd 2008 10:00AM
I'll wager that Dual-Speccing will be yet another source of loot angst. *joy*
Whenever it becomes a reality (and I'm not holding my breath on it) I'll dual-spec Healadin/Tankadin. Until then I'll stick with Healing.
One thing I've noticed about PUGs as of late is that the ease of going through the dungeons in Wrath has made everyone lazy. No one wants to CC because they can blow through anything in their high-end gear from BC. Once you get to level 80 dungeons and heroics though that doesn't work out so well - tanks can't hold threat as easily, healers can't heal through everything and DPS can't down the mobs fast enough. Folks need to get back in the habit of following kill order, watching threat and using CC. Once they do it'll be a better environment for new Tanks to get their feet wet.
As another poster pointed out, you have to enjoy tanking to do it regularly and you have to do it regularly to do it well...the flip side is that no matter how good a tank you are the group you run with has to cooperate or you're just racking up a huge repair bill.
Cyanea Dec 3rd 2008 10:08AM
I switched my Paladin over to Protection. She's mid-BC right now, and I'm gonna work on her once I get my main to 80. I'm dreading the hunt for equipment more than learning how to tank, cause I'm with a pretty good guild and think I've earned enough "respect" to be able to say "Hey. I'm gonna tank this, but cut me some slack cause I'm learning. Critique me."
It would be AMAZING if Blizzard used the new phasing technology to institute little tutorials...like, if you play a multi-role class, you talk to your trainer and are given the option to do a little tutorial about tanking, healing, or DPSing, explaining what kind of gear might be best, what you need to pay attention to, etc. It's certainly better than hoping to find some good article or web page somewhere and have to shift through sometimes conflicting information. Not everyone will listen (think of how many times you skip through the tutorials in other games), but I think it might help out a lot of people who are used to playing one class, but want to learn others. All of my characters have been DPS in the past, but I want to have one tank and one healer.
FireStar Dec 3rd 2008 10:27AM
I never really believed that adding another class that can tank would help having more tanks. It's generally a certain type of mentality that makes people want to be tanks. I personally like either healing or tanking, so i have a shaman healer and i'm levelling my druid tank.
However, I think this dual spec thing would go a LONG way to attempt to get more tanks. Even for my druid right now, i have him specced wholly into kitty mode for quicker levelling. I'd love to be able to do that when grinding dailies too. For my healer, i'd love to switch to ele spec to do dailies or to run a guild heroic if we already have someone else that really wants to heal.
Max Dec 3rd 2008 12:26PM
a TUTORIAL? are you fucking kidding me?
This is one of the easiests games in the world, it doesn't need to be any easier. Just ask around, look on the forumns, and search google.
In other words, use that thing between your ears.
Bruce Russell Dec 3rd 2008 12:33PM
As an ex-tank and current healer, I really find that WoW's whack-a-mole healing isn't that tough, except in fights like the last boss in the Nexus, where the fact that you have to keep moving to dispel the debuff makes things challenging given the nature of pally healing.
I enjoyed tanking, but went healadin because of guild need at the time. I find neither is what we'd call mind-bendingly difficult, so long as you know the basic tricks, have the right add-ons, make sure your gear is up to what you're doing, and concentrate on the task at hand. I had to turn down some 5-man runs last night as I soloed some quests because I didn't feel it would be fair to the group to try and heal instances while keeping track of my infant son. Focus is the main key to either job.
Willferal Dec 3rd 2008 1:03PM
It's DUAL spec. Duel spec means you are specced for a duel. durh.
Andy Dec 3rd 2008 1:16PM
@ Max, I think it would be a pretty good idea. Even though this is in most respects an easy game; some players simply do not know how to play another role.
@Cyanea
Wait for CC, toss your shield to pull the mobs. If they are ranged, Line of Sight them. If you have several mobs play whack-a-mole with the cool downs on your various abilities. Keep your Holy Shield up and if it is a single target, avoid blowing mana on Consecration unless you are having major aggro issues. If you find you are way ahead on aggro, you can slow down your game of whack-a-mole.
Always make sure Righteous Fury is up. I Recommend using Blessing of Sanc on yourself, use ret aura unless you need some extra mitigation or resistance. As far as Seals go, I find myself using Seal of Vengeance Primarily (Isn't that Alliance only though /shrug). If you want to get some extra aggro, wait till SoV is stacked 5 times, switch over to SoR till the stacks are about to go off, release the seal then switch back to SoV.
My pally is not my main, but when I do what I have listed above, I very rarely get pulled off of.
BlackCat Dec 3rd 2008 7:13PM
@Cyanea
Try maintankadin.failsafedesign.com
It's the very best protection paladin resource I've found, hands down.
Some basic advice, though;
For Blessings, you want Kings, then Sanctuary, unless you're in a situation where you overgear content or it's an AoE pull.
Always, always have Righteous Fury up.
You want to use Seal of Vengeance/Corruption (same thing, it's the alliance/horde versions respectively).
Use Devotion Aura for bosses, because I'm lazy and I usually run with a Ret I leave it up all the time, you can use Ret for trash though.
In terms of skill rotation, the most basic is the 96969 rotation. It alternates between 9 second cooldowns and 6 second cooldowns.
9 second cooldowns
Holy Shield
Judgement of Light/Wisdom (unless it's an AoE heavy fight, Wisdom tends to be better. If you have a Ret, let them put up Light because it scales better with their gear)
Consecrate (optional in free GCD)
6 second cooldowns
Shield of Righteousness (ShoR)
Hammer of the Righteous (HotR)
It looks something like this
0.0 Holy Shield
1.5 Shield of Righteousness
3.0 Judgement
4.5 Hammer of the Righteous
6.0 Free GCD (Consecrate, reseal, Avenger's Shield, Exorcism, etc)
7.5 Shield of Righteousness
9.0 Holy Shield
And so on. ShoR and HotR can be swapped on a multi-mob pull for snap aggro, sustained aggro generation isn't a problem in current endgame content (i.e. once it's beating on you, it will probably keep doing, even with retarded DPS)
5/60/6 is the cookie-cutter spec, you can find it here: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sVZaxVAbuMteIRGoxo
In terms of gearing, the defense soft cap is a must (535 for heroics and 540 for raiding).
After that, it's a matter of opinion, though the general consensus is the block cap is the next most important thing (though generally not worth it without raid gear). It provides us with a very good amount of mitigation.
The block cap is the old uncrushable, you're at the block cap if, for you: miss% (mouse over your defense on the character screen) + dodge% + parry% + block% (with HS up) = 102.4%
Strength is almost always the best option. The old potency (+20 strength) is the standard tanking enchant.
In terms of what you can grab as soon as you hit 80; there's the blacksmithing sets: Tempered Saronite, Daunting and Titansteel. If you're an engineer, the engineered hat is better than the titansteel one. The sets aren't itemized fantastically, leaning a little too much towards stam and defense, but they'll get you into heroics and raids. For more detailed info, check out Eanin's writeup in the Gear Discussions and Guides sub-forum.
Hope this helps
jbodar Dec 3rd 2008 7:16PM
@ Andy
Horde get Seal of Corruption now, and Alliance get Seal of the Martyr, so there are no faction-unique seals anymore. Also, you forgot to mention Hammer of the Righteous, which you should be spamming like hell, since it's a great new multi-mob tanking skill.
@ Cyanea
Tutorial? Seriously? Just find a good website (key word: good) and do your homework. I personally like Maintankadin forums -- http://www.failsafedesign.com/maintankadin/ and obviously Elitist Jerks -- elitistjerks.com. A tutorial can't teach threat mechanics, at least not well.
Bruce Russell Dec 4th 2008 10:09AM
/embarassed that we wrote "duel" instead of "dual"
Watcherzero Dec 3rd 2008 8:08AM
Ive seen a fair few DK tanks, and while a bit flaky in their mitigation (see the GC DK issues) they can tank in any spec with the right gear just fine.
However to balance out the greater number of DK tanks ive seena large fall in warrior tanks and feral tanks, its quite possible a lot of them have rerolled DK and not really advanced the general availability of tanks.
Jeff Dec 3rd 2008 11:12AM
i dont see why they dont just give warriors a low level mount to help them get around easier... I think thats one of the main reasons we dont see many warriors. Their just too much of a pain to get from A to B
Jedirawr Dec 5th 2008 2:49PM
well feral tanks have a reason because very little of our leather gear is actually used for tanking(if u look at all the leather Naxx gear there is no dodge/defense on any of the leather stuff just agi and stam plus no intel on the stuff. even our t7 doesnt have any >
VSUReaper Dec 3rd 2008 11:41AM
@ Jeff - What are you talking about??? Warriors arent the only class that tanks, they are one of 4. The issue isnt about leveling, its about the desire to play a role in a game that has the strictest set of gearing rules (i.e. stam, ac, def, avoidance) and if they don't meet those standards, then they are instantly labeled a "bad player", no matter how good they are. You dont see groups dissolving b/c the DPS isnt DPS'ing hard enough, its b/c the tank cant take a hit or hold aggro on multiple mobs.
Only healers are comparable to tanks with the amount of rules and restrictions placed on them by the community, but even they can walk into an instance undergeared and do fine.
A tank never will. A tank has to be overgeared in order to be considered good enough.
Zamboni Dec 3rd 2008 1:26PM
Feral tanks have had their gear stats changed around. My feral druid went from outstanding to mediocre in the last patch, and the not much of the leather gear in Northrend is going to help him get better. Blizzard monkeys with the Druid tanking talents every few days, so a good chunk of the feral community is sitting on the sidelines waiting for the dust to settle (or they've respecced to FotM Boomkin).
Darksentinel Dec 3rd 2008 5:12PM
@Jedirawr:
Feral tanks don't need Defense, take a look at Survival of the Fittest = crit immune.
And Agi > Dodge, while dodge gives better pure Avoidance, Agi gives threat (through crit), armour and in a raid setting (Kings) gives better overall avoidance as well.
On another note, I don't like pure DPSing anymore. Tanking or healing well is much more satisfying, since it is a slightly more demanding job. I prefer smooth fast runs, to topping e-peen dps meter readouts that wiped multiple times.
On thing I have noticed is there's a lot of "LF1M healer, gtg" in chat, especially for Utgarde Keep. During peak times in Howling Fjord there will be at least 1 group in this situation.