At precisely noon today (that's right now!),
Ask the Devs Round 9 will be up on the official forums. This time, the devs want to know what you want to know about tanking. Are you interested in the
incoming 4.2 change that strips dodge from agility for warrior, paladin and death knight tanks? I'm personally interested in why they bothered to do that. Maybe you're more curious about the general direction of tanking in 5-mans, raids and even tank specs in PVP, or you're wondering about how good mastery is going to be for your paladin tank in 4.2.
Whatever your questions are, now is your chance to answer them. So go! Go, my legion of the tanks, go and get the developers' aggro and do not let it go until your questions are answered!
The news is already rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new Tier 12 armor!
Tags: Ask-the-Devs-QA, ask-the-devs-round-9, death-knight, druid, forums, paladin, patch-4.2, tanking, tanks, warrior, world-of-warcraft-patch-4.2, wow-patch, wow-patch-4.2, wow-patch-4.2-news, wow-patch-news
Filed under: Druid, Paladin, Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, News items, Death Knight, Cataclysm
May 25th 2011 at 3:00PM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
mark May 25th 2011 3:07PM
why does everyone mention the agility changes, but noone cares that my bear/cat is losing so much from str
as a less well geared alt that threat loss is gonna hurt :(
Shinae May 25th 2011 3:27PM
Why would you equip any gear with strength on a feral druid in the first place?
I use all strength-gear on my warrior and all agility-gear on my feral druid. Isn't that the gear design in Cata?
MattKrotzer May 25th 2011 3:36PM
Yeah... you're doing it wrong. You get twice as much AP from Agility as Strength as a druid. What gear are you using that has STR anyway?
talkingmike May 25th 2011 3:57PM
I imagine this stems from tanky rings and neck pieces that have strength on them.
Seems to be a valid concern.
Necromann May 25th 2011 3:59PM
Horn of winter and such buffs give str and agi, nurfing feral.
Eros May 25th 2011 4:11PM
The strength change will hurt cats more then bear in the end. Its mainly coming from the loss of AP from battle shout, kings and Aggression. @MattKrotzer currently druid gain 2 AP per point of strength, which is what is changing in 4.2. Though i dont see why a bear would use strength items over agi ones.
Hail May 25th 2011 5:40PM
Currently my warrior tank can roll on agi rings/stuff. I can only assume this is because they get dodge from them, so this fix means tanks will be less able to ninja in 5-mans.
Lemons May 25th 2011 3:22PM
I wonder how many horrible "why can't my shaman tank?" questions we're going to get?
Brb going to ask why my rogue can't tank.
WaterRouge May 25th 2011 3:32PM
More importantly: Why can't my Rhino as a Beast Master tank anymore?
Parrin May 25th 2011 3:57PM
Rogues can totally tank! We were in the Scarlet Monastery: Armory and my brother, the tankadin, loses his connection. One of the DPS chalks it up as a lost cause and drops. I’m healing on a priest, and the rogue asks if we are going to re-queue. The shaman says, “Nah. Go get him.”
So he does!
Anytime I couldn’t keep a shield on the rogue, the shaman would switch of f lightning and help me heal. It took a little longer, but it was absolutely the most fun I’ve ever had in a boss fight.
Shinae May 25th 2011 3:24PM
Until I heard about the agility change in the 4.2 notes, I was under the impression that agility's contribution to avoidance was already negligible for plate wearers (at least since Wrath). So there's no let-down for me. Then again, I only tank heroic 5-mans, not raids, and I don't bother with best-in-slot lists.
With hit and expertise being such low-priority stats for tanking, I wonder if they'll consider rolling a bonus to Hit into a ability low in each tanking tree to allow for smoother threat generation. (Ok, maybe there already is, and I've forgotten?)
The tanking thing I'm most curious about is how it will be once we get aggro-free crowd control. But that doesn't warrant a question, I'll just see how it is when it happens.
Xayíde May 25th 2011 4:44PM
Apparently some agility items are currently worth using for plate wearing tanks. It's weird, but I've read some respectable tanks writing about how some agility items are viable for them.
Ice May 26th 2011 8:04AM
It is basically "forcing" people to use "poorly itemised str items" (as our tanks so delicately put it) of Firelands.
Example on current tier is that for example http://www.wowhead.com/item=65058 is best ranged slot item for warrior tanks after reforging crit to avoidance.
And tanks have been looking at http://www.wowhead.com/item=69001 as way better TANKING trinket than http://www.wowhead.com/item=68996
and item=68994 would've given dodge and nice mastery proc!
And for example T12 would have item=71414 as super awesome tanking ranged slot if it werent for the change making only mastery and whatever you reforge to useful
Theres no tanking ranged items in firelands as of yet.
(NOTE: cant post more than 3 links so just add ptr wowhead com to item links at bottom)
Lemons May 25th 2011 3:25PM
I think your real question is "when can I queue for dungeons with 4 NPCs who will follow my orders without question?"
Also this: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/02/16/
Parrin May 25th 2011 3:30PM
I'm guessing the whole votekick thing irritates you almost as much as those whippersnappers that keep messing up your lawn.
coville May 25th 2011 3:41PM
As a dps I would like to know if we can get an option that forces a tank to not whine about who rolled on what drop and just pull the next mob.
You may be the tank in this group but that DK dps may be building their tank set and roll need on that plate helm you laid claim to in your own mind. Forget it and move on pin cushion.
TallMan May 25th 2011 3:53PM
I'd say the tank that is doing well enough to allow for boss kills should get first pick of the tank gear. After all, he's taking on more responsibility for the run than a dime-a-dozen dps. Please someone argue to the contrary, I could use a laugh today.
Iirdan May 25th 2011 3:54PM
It's funny you should mention this. On my DK, I've more often than not had the opposite happen. A tank will roll need on a DPS piece, because he is only tanking for the Call to Arms bag or for the instant queue. I've lost too many items to tanks like that.
e.friedman1992 May 25th 2011 3:59PM
What?! That's retarded =/If I am tanking in a dungeon, it means I have to deal with the rest of your complaining and the only reason I do it is to be nice to other people, do pugs a favor and get myself a specific upgrade for that would allow me to do tthe job I was given and be do better at my specfic job.
Basically, for you sober people out there.. You may have an issue translating to High Speak.
Noyou May 25th 2011 4:19PM
Rolling need on Tank/Heals gear without asking if you can is one of the ruder things you can do in a random dungeon queue. How would you feel if they rolled need on that DPS trinket you have been running a dungeon for the XXth time because they want to build their offspec up? Yeah that's what I thought. You and Stella need to learn this game isn't just about you. Sorry to break that to you. After your time out learn to play nicely with the kids in the sandbox.