BlizzCon 2009: The Future of Tanking
by Matthew Rossi 
Aug 22nd 2009 at 8:30AM
We tanks are apparently living in interesting times. Whether you're a Druid, Paladin, DK or Warrior tank, how you do your job is in for some serious changes. Itemization is about to take some serious twists and turns in Cataclysm, and stats we've come to depend upon simply won't exist anymore. What does this all mean for those of us who generally go about our game 'lives' keeping the ire of our enemies focused on us and away from the more fragile sorts?With Attack Power on gear gone, and classes more directly gaining AP from stats (which to be fair is pretty much how most tanks do things now) and even more importantly, with Defense gone and all tanks gaining their critical strike removal from talents as Druids do now, we could very well be looking at the end of tanking gear entirely. It's possible, perhaps even likely that in Cataclysm your DK, Warrior or Paladin tank will wear the same gear (perhaps switching in a shield in the case of warriors/paladins) to tank as he or she does to DPS. For an idea of what this might look at, we can consult the current itemization of Druids with the Survival of the Fittest talent.
After all, once you've removed stats like AP and Defense from gear and had them derived purely from stats, the temptation to keep the process going and simplify gear even more must be strong. If Dodge, Parry and Block were entirely removed from gear (we already know that Block Value will be removed and Block will remove a percentage of damage as some of you suggested in our past discussions of Block) and your Dodge, Parry and Block were simply based on your stats (each class could be tweaked in one way or another) that gear could be itemized to provide DPS and tanking stats in one item. A piece of gear like the Undiminished Battleplate, for instance, is already almost flexible enough to be used by DPS or tanks (my tauren wears it as a threat piece as he has enough defense without it to be uncrittable) - in a system without defense it would only be more attractive.
Another potential issue with the loss of defense on gear and the use of talents to compensate is one of off spec off tanks. Right now, an arms or fury warrior or ret paladin or DPS spec'ced DK can still slap on their tank gear and be uncrittable, making them reasonable substitute tanks in an emergency. (I did this tonight on Auriaya in fact, throwing on my sword and board and SBV set so that I could offtank one of her annoying Sanctum Sentries and still equip my DW weapons afterwards,) If tanks are now uncrittable purely through talents, then either those talents need to be available fairly easily so that Arms and Fury/Ret/various DK's can pick them up and still off-tank (and then we run into the difficulty of PvP balance) or you simply have to accept that when you need to offtank, you have to switch to your tanking spec.
There's also reforging to consider. We saw it mentioned in the Class, Items and Professions panel, and it has the potential to be a real force in tanking itemization. Since Engineers, Leatherworkers, Blacksmiths, Tailors and Jewelcrafters will all have their own Reforging specializations, each tank will have the potential to alter certain drops. With the ability to reduce points in one stat on a drop and put it into a stat that the item of gear doesn't currently have, an item like the Breastplate of Frozen Pain could be turned from a DPS chestplate to a tanking one by, say, removing the critical strike rating and replacing it with Expertise or Dodge (if Dodge stays as itemization) or what have you.
Finally, for two of the four tanks, a stat that is currently relegated to trash tanking and threat will be completely revamped. Block Value is gone, and a successful block will reduce incoming damage by a percentage, meaning that the stat will scale to be as good against a boss that hits for (as an example) 20k as it is against a trash mob who hits for two hundred. In fact, if in the new system a successful block reduces 20% of an incoming attack, then it is actually worse against trash than it is now (right now, a high block rating/block value set can completely remove all damage from a trash pull) while being much better against big spikes of damage. (If a current block takes 2k damage off of a 22k hit, you take 20k damage. If instead a block reduces an incoming hit by 20% that's 4.4k damage off of a 22k hit, more than doubling the amount absorbed. This is a big change, and it will make Block a valuable stat against bosses, especially if you can get more taken off of an attack by stacking the stat in some fashion. This does argue against losing stats like Dodge and Block from gear, however. It would still be possible to do so by simply having Block (as an example) calculate from Strength and Dodge from Agility.
As of the time this is being written we haven't even heard any specific class changes for the four tanking classes and we're already seeing a paradigm shift for tanking gear. More details on each class will provide a sharper focus for the future of tanking in World of Wacraft, and I for one am dying to hear more. Just from what we have so far, Druids will be the least changed as other tanks move towards a similar system.
BlizzCon 2009 is here! WoW.com has continuing coverage, bringing you the latest in Cataclysm news, live blogs, galleries, and reports right from the convention floor. Check out WoW.com's Guide to BlizzCon for the latest!Filed under: Druid, Death Knight, Expansions, News items, Blizzard, Analysis / Opinion, Items, Warrior, Paladin, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Nieker Aug 22nd 2009 8:41AM
too bad that this means all retards can be crit immume, and then think without any mitigation gear thay can tank......
Ametrine Aug 22nd 2009 8:50AM
how's that different than the retards who think they can tank now after glancing at a spreadsheet for ten minutes and spamming Sunder?
sephirah Aug 22nd 2009 9:12AM
And what about the tards that spend too much time QQing on the forums?
Nibbit Aug 22nd 2009 8:43AM
I’ll go back to playing my Warrior tank after the “hell freezes over” patch comes out.
yea right... Aug 22nd 2009 11:55AM
Absolutely the same here.
No simplification can make people wait for tank to pull, or not to hit the thing that's not even meant to be hit.
whitecrip Aug 22nd 2009 8:44AM
1. Stam Stack
2. Str stack
3. Equip DPS gear
4. Faceroll in DPS gear
Kemikalkadet Aug 22nd 2009 8:52AM
5. watch your healers cry as you die due to not having any avoidance.
Firestride Aug 22nd 2009 12:31PM
Except that the (unfounded) implication of this article was that all non-block avoidance was going to be removed.
angelickrelian Aug 22nd 2009 8:47AM
Well, this makes me worry a bit about my druid. He already seems less useful than other tanks in ulduar.
Make other tanks crit immune and have block dodge and parry? what will druids have?
That said, overall i'm very excited about cataclysm :)
Chris M Aug 22nd 2009 9:05AM
Perhaps I misread your statement, but all tanks are already crit immune in PVE, and already have Dodge/Parry (not druids)/Block (not druids, DKs).
I for one am not happy with these changes as it seems it's vanilla-izing the statistic layout for tanks. I liked being able to boost my avoidance sky-high with massive amounts of def rating on gear, or having a dedicated set for tanking trash and weaker-hitting bosses like Loatheb (for example). The loss of block value and consolidation of stats is really going to homogenize tanking, and tanking gear.
Some people like vanilla ice cream -- but I've always been more of a strawberry man, myself.
angelickrelian Aug 22nd 2009 9:13AM
What I meant was, one of druids Niches now was that they are crit immune and require no defense so they can stack other stuff like agi. They are already undersirable compared to other tanks in ulduar and if you buff up other tanks so they are crit immune it makes a druid tank wary.
All I'm saying. :)
kabshiel Aug 22nd 2009 10:33AM
That's not a niche. That's just a bandaid so that druids can wear rogue gear.
jyorore Aug 22nd 2009 11:13AM
Ive tanked all of Ulduar on my druid just as good if not better than the other 3 classes of tanks we bring to raids.
Druid tanks are very powerful, but much like Holy Paladins, have a very small toolbox. Learning to adapt to many different situations with a more limited pool of ability's is where the fun is. Player skill can over come not having an instant "I win" button against certain abilitys (Ex. warrior Berserker Rage against fears).
Side note before I post this, I am not jabbing at any class, I'm just noting some comparisons, I love my warriors and holy paladins
Rob Aug 23rd 2009 11:41AM
Yeah druids are good, but as a druid myself, I'd rather have a DK in equiv gear and skill. Or a warrior. (You know what's sad - warriors who dont tank, i mean, why bother leveling a class who is designed around tanking and not tank). I am not sure this means giving druids more buttons to hit is the solution. Maybe druid tankingn should just be scraped and start over.
Anyway i just cant see the gear homogenization being any good. You run 90% of the instances at max level, so lets ignore leveling for now (which as it is, any tank char can tank any leveling instance). Part of the fun of gearing up on a noncrit immune char is reaching the magic 540. Also right now all 4 tank classes have different gear by default.
Druids will always have leather.
DKs can't use shields, so shield block is uselss (I think).
Warriors use shields
Palys do too, but use spellpower.
I can see them giving up shield block as a stat but not the rest of it. I guess I just can't fall in love with 'oh its dps/tank gear'. Then you'd be running around with exactly the same gear just different enchants depending on what you want to do.
Meh just not excited about this. Time will tell.
Damon Aug 22nd 2009 8:48AM
Yaaaay shields! It always baffled me that the actual statistics behind something as unbelievably important to defense as your shield where sub-par. Kinda annoyed me, seeing as i have actually taken part in medieval battle recreations.
I mean, the shield is the symbol of durability: Just having one should just scream "YE SHALL NOT PASS!". And now i can go into battle tanking a boss knowing it will defend me just as well as it did his swarms of weak mooks.
Now if only they could get rid of expertise...
angelickrelian Aug 22nd 2009 8:51AM
I think they should get rid of hit and keep expertise imo. Would simplify things for tanks and dps. Expertise just makes more sense to me.
Wulfkin Aug 22nd 2009 9:02AM
Ditto. Hit is annoying. Expertise has the feel of a tanking stat.
MoarHeroisms Aug 22nd 2009 9:03AM
I wonder if we currently need too much expertise for endgame. My warrior tank has 28, sacrificing a good chunk of stam for the expertise/stam gems, and still frequently encounters short parry chains.
As for the shield block % dilemma, perhaps there will be a minimum damage absorption value aside from the % reduction, easing the affect it will have on trash tanking.
.....
Idk.
Dave Aug 22nd 2009 12:37PM
I disagree. Look at your shield next time. It's contributing about 30% of your armor. BV might be a little milquetoast, but the armor your shield gives certainly is not.
Also, if you'll forgive my hyperbole: I get a little ill every time I read a wow.com writer talking about using DPS pieces to tank. Sacrificing .5% - 1% of avoidance, extra defense buffer, block value, and lord knows what other stats to wear a dps chest? No thanks. Have you SEEN how hard Ulduar bosses hit? Maybe that kind of stuff can fly in heroics or Naxx, but I wouldn't step up against anything in Uld in that kind of gear.
Angus Aug 22nd 2009 11:59AM
They just need expertise armor pen and hit to get rolled up into that stat.
Mastery: All your attacks hit more often and are harder to defend against.
(increases your chance to hit, lowers their chance to defend and does more damage once it hits by X)
So now hit, expertise and armor pen get rolled up into a single stat. This stat is good for EVERY Class/spec in melee.
No more having shaman ticked off at armor pen that only helps 50% of their damage ( melee, SS, WF) while MM Hunters get almost 100% of their damage increased by that percentage. No more stopping at a soft cap because it isn't as good a stat once it hits a specific threshold. (22 expertise so you hit the dodge cap) No more juggling hit to make sure you don't overdo it compared to other stats.
If mastery can combine a bunch of stats and make them all useful at any level since they are always increasing something, it will be a good change.