Why am I suddenly so popular?
by Matthew Rossi 
Aug 17th 2009 at 7:00PM
Fast forward a few months. Ulduar is more or less on farm, the new Argent Tournament raid and five man are in effect, and I've leveled and geared out a DK for both DPS and tanking. Based on my experience as a Warrior I wasn't expecting to have many opportunities to tank. Instead, not only is the DK in crazy demand for tanking, I'm constantly being asked to tank on the Warrior as well! Since I like tanking, it's not a major concern, but what confuses me is, where did all those Warrior, Druid, DK and Paladin tanks from launch go?
It might just be a case of lots of alts needing runs through all the heroics now that they drop Emblems of Conquest, I suppose. As a guy with a Shaman, Warrior, and DK at 80 I'm aware of the difficulties in getting all of your alts geared up, and even tanks need someone to tank for their Mage, for instance. Without the ability to do a census and see what specs are being played most often by which tank capable classes, it's hard for me to know what's going on beyond an anecdotal level. Alison recently posted about which classes are getting invited to tank, and while it's an interesting subject I have to admit it doesn't seem to matter in my case, the second I log on to either of my tanking toons I'm usually in an instance irritating mobs.
Are there just fewer tanks now? I wasn't tanking seriously before the most recent DK tanking nerfs, do I just not know that I'm not good at it anymore? (I personally love my DK's AoE threat generation, let me tell you.) The recent changes to Devastate make me enjoy tanking on the warrior more, so I can't imagine other warrior tanks have suddenly decided it's not fun, and Pallys and Druids seem as strong as ever when I raid with them... do they just feel like they get enough tanking when they're raiding and prefer to instance as their off-specs? (This is what our main Paladin tank told me he does, so it's a possibility.) Whatever's going on, it's good for me, so I'm not complaining.
What about y'all? Are you seeing more tanks, less tanks? Do you get asked to tank a lot? Are you constantly wishing you could tank, only you're swamped in them and have to DPS or heal instead? I'm curious as to other people's experiences here, as this seems very atypical to me.
Filed under: Druid, Paladin, Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, Instances, Classes, Alts, Death Knight
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
Dract Aug 17th 2009 7:05PM
I have the total opposite. I can tank but am asked to heal all the time.
Bob Aug 18th 2009 12:44PM
Agreed. It's exactly the opposite of the post on AM-H we had been seeing a tank/heals shortage at the beginning of the expansion. But now that my wife and I leveled a warrior/pally pair to be able to better get groups (since spamming "3 DPS LF Tank and Heals for 'roics" was taking hours to get a single response) it seems that we are always being asked to DPS. Now we can't seem to find DPS for our roic runs in LFG to save our lives... very strange situation indeed. Seems like it's the same idea though, you have a surplus of one style and the playerbase on the server overcompensates and switches roles to turn that into a shortage.
Rakah Aug 17th 2009 7:08PM
on the upside there doesn't seems to be such a shortage of healers anymore xD
Phaea Aug 17th 2009 9:56PM
On my server, all I've seen in trade lately is "LFM for Heroic X. Need Heals and Tank." I've been going as DPS on my Priest (Shadow/Disc...was Holy) to get geared enough to heal. I rarely have trouble finding groups when I can heal.
bb Aug 17th 2009 7:08PM
yeah i'm getting the same on my dk and i don't like to stare a gift horse in the face lol
Impyluvcharm Aug 17th 2009 7:10PM
i rarely see DK tanks, im a warrior prot tank myself since beta 2004, but since dual spec,
you would assume there would be more people doing this role, the reality is that it's not meant
for everyone, and it can seem like a "job" sometimes, i really enjoy it, but i cant speak for everyone.
hollow Aug 17th 2009 7:09PM
yeah i feel the same, i'm not one to stare a gift horse in the face though and i must say that with the gear upgrades that have been made avalible my dk tank feels buffed not nerfed.
kia Aug 17th 2009 9:42PM
Useless trivia nitpick: the saying is "don't look a gift horse in the mouth", because you age a horse by it's teeth, and obviously older horses are generally less useful and fit for working. :)
Turlagh Aug 18th 2009 7:36AM
How about "pursuing a feral waterfowl"?
Nathanyel Aug 17th 2009 7:10PM
I'd say those guys noticed how stressy tanking gets in higher-tier content and quit.
Pete Aug 17th 2009 7:47PM
Speaking as one of the the launch tanks that gave up, I'd say you're right. I've been a raid leader and guild master and healed and dps'd through Hyjal and BT back in BC, but it wasn't until I leveled my DK in Wrath that I came to really appreciate how challenging tanking can be. My DK's still geared and spec'd to tank, but I'm back to the resto druid :-)
Muse Aug 18th 2009 2:02AM
Yep. Tanking the regular instances as retribution or arms or whatever else was possible to tank without actually *being* a tank, just the one with a wee bit more threat so healer only had to heal one target, this was all fine and dandy in the beginning of the expansion. I tanked every single wrath non-heroic as retri. But I also stayed retri after, and heroics are a different baby altogether, despite the roll-over content. New alts to straight from Ding! 80 to heroics bypassing the regular instances, hence tanking needs.
Dennis Aug 18th 2009 12:00PM
I tried tanking, i hate tanking. I wish that i wouldn't have wasted all of the gold on dual speccing and buying equipment.
Tim Aug 17th 2009 7:15PM
I don't love tanking anymore and just like you my prot warrior is forced to tank. I usually want to see the instance from direction. And since Warrior DPS is who knows what, tanking is sometimes better for gearing my dps set. Although I never experienced a time where I wasn't wanted as a tank, and im not even that good lol.
lsprof4 Aug 18th 2009 12:21AM
I'm still trying to gear my prot/war and learn to tank but get begged to help out even when I point out my shortcomings up front... I've decided to avoid pugs tho as they almost never work out well and it seems dps'ers could care less about making things easy on the tank if they have no prior relationship or guild connection. It's always "GOGOGOGOGO!"
Tina Marie Aug 17th 2009 7:17PM
Well, my druid has given up on tanking for a few reasons. First, the massive gear changes to bears have made gearing frustrating at best - "Defense Leather! No, you don't need defense anymore! Agility - it's all about the agility! Feel free to compete with cats and rogues for every piece of gear. Oops, never mind, we're going to nerf agility by 15%!".
Second is the proliferation of AoE DPS. It's gotten better with the swipe changes to bears, but it still takes me a second or two to gather and get solid aggro on a group. Maybe I'm just not good enough, but I just don't see how waiting 2 seconds before opening up is the end of the world for DPS.
And third? The size of my butt. It's even worse with the new models - I'm constantly moving, shifting around to find some position where I can see what's in front of me, instead of staring at my Giant Fuzzy Tanking Butt.
The upside is that we have plenty of warrior tanks who are enjoying tanking again after the warrior prot changes, so no one needs me anyway. I'm happy to just heal.
Nick Aug 17th 2009 7:36PM
Every raid I've tanked since 3.2, I've had a healer or dps or someone else comment on how large my bear butt is. Even zoomed out, all I'm seeing is 2 giant hairy cheeks moving this way and that in front of whatever I'm attacking. /barf
martin.tomasi Aug 18th 2009 5:51AM
I LIKE BIG BOOTS AND I CAN NOT LIE
Evi Aug 18th 2009 5:59PM
I'm with Tina. My main is a feral druid and I used to do a lot of tanking. I got sick and tired of all the changes to gear. I don't even know anymore what a druid tank wears. It's frustrating. Also, my ass is HUGE! Seriously. It's annoying. It sounds silly, but it makes it really hard to maneuver in tight spots when all you can see is a giant bear butt.
Rubitard Aug 17th 2009 7:17PM
I've been a tank on and off for years, and I can tell you it can burn a soul out. It's not so much the act of tanking, it's the inherent expectation that you're there to lead. Tacitly, the tank is expected to manage everybody in the group. That's the part that wears on me after a while -- being "on" for everybody.