The Queue: Animated Ghostcrawler GIF
by Adam Holisky 
Mar 22nd 2011 at 11:00AM
Okay, so I'm not going to put an animated GIF above the break on WoW Insider. There's no reason to troll everyone with a Ghostcrawler head running around on a crab body.
But after the break? It's all yours, WoW community. Use it wisely. Many thanks to Aedonix, who shopped the GIF together for me from a thread I found on Reddit.
Eattheirdead asked:
How much will the new Winged Lion mount cost?
The Celestial Steed is $25, and I'd assume that it will cost the same. However, there's been no word on cost from Blizzard.
I also want to point out a great suggestion that came out of the comments in last night's announcement post: Blizzard could easily donate part of the money they get from the mount to the Japanese earthquake disaster relief. Just highlighting this for any Blizzard folks who happen to be reading The Queue today.
Jerizayh asked:
Has Blizzard mentioned any kind of update schedule for the faction leader stories?
None yet; they seem to just come out whenever (not that there isn't a schedule, just none that we know of).
Neothanos asked:
Any ideas what could help decrease the long dps lines in LFD?
The only real answer is more tanks. How to increase that is the multi-million-dollar question. Blizzard could do things to make tanking more approachable for new players, decrease the learning curve for current players, and make getting up to an acceptable gear level easier. The latter will be accomplished somewhat in 4.1 and certainly moreso in 4.2, as great epic gear is easier to come by.
I do suspect DPS queues in the LFG tool to drop quite a bit over the next few patches -- maybe not to Wrath levels, but they'll keep going down at least.
Mahoumelonball asked:
Adam, are you sexy IRL?
I don't think I am, but my wife-to-be thinks I am for some reason. Although I'm told I'm quite handsome in a suit.
Gomatgo asked:
How awesome is it that Mat McCurley called that winged lion was going to be in the mount store?
At least 23 awesome. Maybe 24.
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column. Leave your questions in the comments, and we'll do our best to answer 'em!
Filed under: The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 12)
kerese Mar 22nd 2011 11:06AM
I agree that tanks are desperately needed. The learning curve you speak of, however, isn't that bad. I have always healed/dps'd on my pally and I just started a tanking set. I am ilevel 350 after about a month of gearing and have run only 10 or so heroics as a tank. I don't find them difficult when things are marked and dps listen. Tanking isn't that scary. All dps should give it at try at least before they complain about the dearth of tanks.
Adam Holisky Mar 22nd 2011 11:08AM
I don't think it's a very bad learning curve either. But let's be honest here too, if you're reading a WoW website, you're already ahead of the game. For the average player, tanking can be pretty damn hard.
fallemwarrior Mar 22nd 2011 11:16AM
You may have gotten lucky, i think tanks need bad groups, (Stay with me here) It teaches them split second reactions, what do do when and how to do it to save a group from disaster, its tanking fundamentals to be able to watch not just the thing your threating but the entire raid/party as well, especialy if u have certain cd's, a prime example is pallys aoe damage reducer, wait till a large aoe is gonna hit and use it then, also waching threat and being keen on moves that can reduce threat/save players, i use healbot on my warrior and have it set up to display threat, i also have intervene linked to a key and a macro that taunts the targets target incase they pull, you dont always get a good group that knows what they are doing, so my advice if your going to tank is to be prepared, prove Ilidin wrong and bring the pain my tanking compatriots
Krytture Mar 22nd 2011 11:23AM
I still think they should mark talents as Tank, DPS, Heal. And if you have X talents that are "Tank" then you can be a viable tank in dungeons. Like, give Beast Master a "Tank" spec. So if you have the stam and armor talents, a few others, and a Tank pet, you can queue as a tank.
Hell, I've seen some rogues hold their own against dungeon bosses with a good healer covering them.
Grak Mar 22nd 2011 11:24AM
Every player comes up through the leveling process as "dps". You cant heal or tank your way through quest zones, you just have to hit things until one of you die and you can collect your xp. At best players will learn a little about on-the-fly healing, but there is nothing that teaches players how tanking works.
This is enormously intimidating to players who have never tanked before. It might be relatively short learning curve once they actually start, but its still very steep at the start, because its a complete gameplay change from dps. I know plenty of veteran players who have never once even tried to tank, and to this day remain as dps players "Oh no I could never tank, I have no idea how."
Hal Mar 22nd 2011 11:31AM
Part of it is likely a numbers problem. With only four of the 10 classes able to tank, but all of them able to DPS, there's just always going to be more DPS players compared to tanks.
More to the point, though, I think the responsibility, and subsequent pressure, are what drive most players away.
Tanking requires a very specific sort of mindset. You set the pace for the group, the direction, the priorities. If you don't communicate these things well, the group can struggle. If you haven't geared properly, the healer will find it hard to keep you up and the DPS will outpace your threat. If you don't know where you're going or how the fights play out, you could get lost, spend too much time in the dungeon, or just cause a wipe from various things.
The point being, there's a lot riding on the tank's shoulders, and most people look at that and think, "All I want to do is kill some monsters. I don't want the enjoyment of this dungeon for four other people to depend on me."
That's not even including the people who make tanking a thankless chore. That DPS player reluctant to tank sees how those jackasses treat the tanks and legitimately ask, "Why should I put myself through that? Why should I make myself their target?"
Adding in more tanking capabilities for other classes might help add in more tanks, but the rest of the problem is cultural.
sporkwind Mar 22nd 2011 11:37AM
Tanking in general isn't super terrible. It's when you get bad pugs that pull for you or you get to go toe to toe with unfamiliar mechanics (Stonecore anyone?). That's when tanking sucks so frigging much.
Because of that, I don't tank unless I'm with a guild group. Sorry PUGs I've been burned too many times.
Faltor Mar 22nd 2011 11:38AM
I just started gearing my lvl 85 druid as a tank because my guild needs one, and I think the tank shortage is actually a group leader shortage.
Let's face it: PUGs are full of evil, nasty people. Well, not quite, but it sure seems that way when you are the one in charge. Because of the way the tank/dps/heal triangle works, most of the control of what happens when is given to the tank, and thus they are the default leader.
The problem is that the tank/dps/heal triangle is, in fact, a triangle. A bad one (and I don't necessarily just mean unskilled or undergeared, but impatient, rude, or egotistical as well) of any of the three hampers the group. Like in real life, if a situation goes sour that we don't completely understand, we blame the leader.
In this case that's the tank.
I've been in several wonderful groups, and have had some very supportive and helpful runs. But I've also been in a handful that have been just awful. One really was my fault. Two I can't tell. Two were definitely one of the DPS.
But they were all blamed on me. One of the DPS ones caused the group to kick me - my first kick so far.
I don't mind being the leader of a group of people socially accountable for their actions (i.e. guild runs). I mind being spat on just because somebody else is a douche.
Just like the column several months ago about the community hitting the self-destruct button on the forums, the tank shortage is more the fault of the community than anything else. I am more convinced now than ever that anybody can learn to tank: why they'd endure the crap to do so without cajoling from their friends in a guild I can't say.
beedub Mar 22nd 2011 11:42AM
This may be slightly off topic, but I think another way to get and keep tanks (not talking about raiding here, but lfd heroics) is to just be a little more understanding of mistakes, and not being a total toolbag if/when a wipe happens.
I logged onto my pally tank last night, all ready to run 3-4 heroics using the lfd tool since none of my guildies were on. We wipe on the first boss of Grim Batol, and when I ask what I did wrong, since I've downed that boss before and had no problems, I get told things like, "you f***ing suck," and, "quit being terrible." I left the group and promptly started leveling my Boomkin.
I'm not saying I'm not going to play my tank anymore, but yeah, I was a little bit butthurt. I hear dps talk about the long waits for tanks all the time, and then when you get one, you want to be a douche to him/her, and make them not want to play with you. It doesn't make sense. Yes, I realize that random groups are random, and no, not everyone is like that, but come on. Maybe more people would tank if they weren't treated so poorly when they made mistakes.
Elwoods Mar 22nd 2011 11:45AM
@Krytture
You have something here. I have been playing Rift recently and one of the strange things you see if rogues tanking (its quite fun BTW).
Now if we take the 4 pure DPS classes and turn them into healers or tanks:
1) Hunter - BM tanking. Maybe change Eyes of the Beast so the hunter becomes the "pet" and you tank from pets perspective.
2) Rogue - Evasion tanking. Rogue with less DPS and Stuns and better dmg reduction - kinda like druid bears/cats
3) Lock - Something like BM above
4) Mages - You got a choise here - 1) give them a "healer" spec 2) Ranged tanking 3) turn them into Locks :)
Jaq Mar 22nd 2011 11:47AM
I just started tanking simply because my off spec is the closest thing to a tank my guild currently has (the transition to Cata hit us hard) and frankly the notion of tanking heroics still terrifies me. Definitely going to work my way up through normals, preferably with my guild mates. And no damn way do I pug heroics. Learning to tank heroics with understanding guild mates is gonna be hard enough!
ahsanali Mar 22nd 2011 11:55AM
The best thing Blizzard could do for tanking is make the default UI more conducive for tanking. I tank extensively and the default UI sucks for tanking. There is no easy way to see which mobs you have solid aggro on and which ones are about to break loose. The camera is so close in, you usually can't see the next pat approaching.
Someone who wants to tank starts out at a huge disadvantage because they don't know about threat plates and zooming the camera out beyond the default max distance to see the big picture.
If Blizzard modifies the default UI to fix these two issues it would go a LONG way towards making it easier for people to get into tanking.
These changes wouldn't "dumb down" tanking either and will be fine for tanks who already tank and are past the learning curve.
Glaras Mar 22nd 2011 12:03PM
The major contributing factor to more tanks entering the ranks is when it becomes common practice for anyone who is not a tank to be supportive and patient with new tanks as their earn their stripes. Nothing is more devastating to someone trying to do something new to have the first failure (the inevitable wipe due to bad pull, losing an add that eats the healer, losing aggro) be met with sneering disdain. When you make an instance run something that quickly becomes a nightmare of personal insults and hypercriticality, it shouldn't be a surprise if a new tank decides he'd rather not deal with any kind of pug runs.
Same goes for healers.
DBNM Mar 22nd 2011 12:07PM
@ Hal
"Adding in more tanking capabilities for other classes might help add in more tanks, but the rest of the problem is cultural."
I cannot agree with or thumbs up this enough. As a 6 year WoW veteran and a player who had all tanking specs at lvl 80 during wotlk I can say that tanking has in no way gotten any less fun; but the bile, rancor, and licentious attitudes that permeate the WoW community simply has caused many would be tanks (or former in my case) to become burned out and ignore dungeons all together.
I have read several forum posts about how the LFD system is eroding the community of servers or that it enables problem players to game the system but I disagree with these conclusions. The LFD tool has been an immensely useful mechanism that has streamlined finding a dungeon group and increased the accessibility of players to participate in said groups. The erosion of community, vote kick abuse, and griefing of players is just an extension of the player base's general attitude. Penny Arcades Internet F**kwad sketch has a lot more truth to it then most people realize (in my opinion).
In summation: The queues for dps are horrendously long because people are impatient, abusive, and just plain mean to each other. This isn't an issue that Blizzard can fix because they didn't design human nature.
Backfire the Exalted
vocenoctum Mar 22nd 2011 12:09PM
I find that getting gear is a hurdle for me, so none of my former tanks (warrior/ druid) are tanks now. Sure you can chain run, but that accentuates the increased time that Cata dungeons take. Whether you like it or not, if a dungeon is twice as long, you can only do half of them in the same time frame. Which means half the gear. Also I've had very bad luck with drops in general, and that's why I always liked the Emblem/Point systems.
I've got a paladin I've leveled as prot and done a few dungeons with, and just did Blackrock Caverns. Most of the run went fine, I know the dungeon back and forth after 6 other alts. The only issue I had was the crazy mages right at the start. I smacked them with my Avengers Shield, but instead of coming to me, they stayed put, then started casting after the debuff. Didn't see anything on WoWhead about this, so don't know why they did it.
So, problems with getting tanks:
1) Gear seems harder to come by in general than in Wrath
2) Dungeons take longer, which is more of a time commitment and feeds into #1
3) Pugs are still a random experience full of silent competence or loud mouthed incompetence.
4) Learning fights requires homework, very few of the fights are intuitive in their gimmicks. "Don't stand in fire" is one thing. "The boss has a shield that you need to dip him into that fire to remove, but don't hold him in the fire for too long or he'll AE burn the group" is not intuitive.
(It's like the old FPS games where there would be a field with snipers. How do you find the snipers? by dying repeatedly so you know where they killed you from...)
Jollyroger Mar 22nd 2011 12:16PM
All of the above comments have some weight to them, but i don't they are end all reasons of why the tank shortage.
In my mind it comes down to this...
10 man raid:
healers needed 3
DPS needed 5
Tanks needed 2 (some fights 1)
25 man raid:
Healers needed 7
DPS needed 16
Tanks needed 2
So basically when you decide you want to make you tank your main you have to go through all of the horrible things posted above me and after you make it though all the "yuck" that is pug tanking 5 mans and finally get ready to raid there is a nice choice waiting for you...
Do everything you can to get one of your guilds 2 tanking spots or find a new guild.
Almost every guild I've been in has healers that switch out or dps that switch out but almost always use the same 2 Tanks.
TLDR: Tanks have to go through a bunch of crap while learning to tank, pugging to gear up and then get rewarded with no room left in the raid.
Mell Mar 22nd 2011 12:18PM
I agree with all of the above comments, but there is a flip-side to this coin. I have always been patient with any tank I get in with through LFD, however....I have noticed that tanks, being short in supply and high on the need list, are starting to abuse their need. They know they can insta-que and are in high demand. I am seeing an increase of tanks leaving group because they don't want that particular dungeon, because a certain pull didn't go accordingly, a piece of gear didn't drop for them on a certain boss, and so on. For everyone else, this just adds time to an already long q time. Tanks need to be patient with the group if they want the patience back. I have the utmost respect for tanks being I have tried tanking and know (personally) that it can be difficult, but don't abuse your role.
Faltor Mar 22nd 2011 12:23PM
@ahsanali: The UI point is a very good one. Before this I played (and loved) a Holy Priest. Although there was a learning curve involved, a good addon (like Grid/Vuhdu/Healbot) that gives you all the information you need at a glance is a big big help. The difference (usually) between terrible healers and adequate healers is just a good addon, and that's usually enough to get people to stick with it long enough to become good healers.
But nothing shows you all the information you need to tank. It bothers me tanking that, even with Threat Plates, I don't always have a sense of "how close" that caster I can't get to come to me is to turning his blue blots of pain on the healer without tabbing to him and checking Omen.
I'm not sure it's solvable (I can't think of a UI way to display everything I want without being crazy cluttered) or even necessary for good play, but it certainly affects learning curve.
matt Mar 22nd 2011 12:23PM
One thing about tanking that has been irking me since cata launch is that tanking a heroic is MUCH harder than tanking most raids. when you zone into a heroic you are gonna have lots of complex trash packs to deal with and lots of bosses with mechanics that require the whole array of tank skills.
In t11 the most complex trash I have seen was the opening packs in BoT which are not simple to tank but are certainly no more difficult than the patting triangle packs in hVP, or the opening pulls in h stonecore. Raid trash are often more like mini tank and spank bosses (from the tanks prospective) not big packs that require CC, interupts, AoE threat, complex positioning etc.
When it comes to bosses, Orzuk is about as demanding of tank skills as any boss in t11. the only difference is that they hit harder but that is really a healer problem. the only skill you need to raid that is not used in 5-man heroics is taunt swapping.
Add into this that pugging is common place for 5-man content and you've got a recipe for disaster. The skill curve for tanking is not a smooth lower left to upper right kind of thing. it peaks when the load bar completes on your first heroic and goes down after that.
Krytture Mar 22nd 2011 12:28PM
@Elwoods
Bingo! Thats what I was saying. Though I don't want these pure DPS classes to have a tree that is just all about tanking. I think it would be better if the talents within the tree's that could add up to a Tank like spec. And again, it doesn't have to be raid viable.
Just give some crazy survival abilities that gimp your DPS so much that you can't really try and abuse the system by being unkillable and awesome DPS.
And you have to have all of these survival abilities to qualify as a tank. If its your secondary spec, then queuing as Tank/DSP, and getting called in as Tank, would switch you to the spec that has your Tanking Points, and lock you into it during the duration of the dungeon.
Or maybe allow you to change if someone else flips into Tank spec and marks themselves as the Tank.
Not sure what I think about a Mage healer though..
But Locks proved they have some bit of tanking ability with certain demons and talents. Rogues certainly do, they just need a little extra oomph to hold out long enough. As a BM Hunter I have tanked a good amount of the new Cata heroics, having a Pally as backup encase my pet bites it.