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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Classifieds: The birth of a mage tank
by Michael Gray 
Jul 20th 2011 at 8:00PM
Yes, Virginia, mage tanks do exist. While I wouldn't call them a common occurrence, this PUG member was thrilled to find himself becoming a mage tank in this instance run:
My name is Kardas, from Emerald Dream, and I'm a mage. On Tuesday, July the 12, I was running a regular Vortex Pinacle with a friend when the tank and the only other plate wearer (My friend the DK, who happened to have atank spec) dc'd. This left a Restoration Shaman named Blowmytotem of Stormreaver, and a Moonkin named Guudru from Twisting Nether, and me, directly at the begining on the instance. I a bit better geared for the instance so we said, 'What the heck, let's try mage tanking the thing'. They we're great about everything, even everytime I screwed up and got the Moonkin killed. It took about 3 hours, but we finished it, including Al'akir. They are now some of my favorite people on WoW, for everything they've done.
They deserve to get recognized for this, so I figured I'd drop a line and see if I could get this up. It would be really appreciated!
Random Acts of Uberness
It's when another player lights up your night with precise play, a wicked sense of humor or unexpected generosity that your login becomes something to remember. Share your Random Acts of Uberness with theclassifieds@wowinsider.com. Keep things brief (150 words or less, please), and be sure to list everyone's character names and home realms or battlegroup. Don't be afraid of sending an entry more than once if it doesn't appear; sometimes internet dragons eat email, and we'd hate to let that keep deserving players from getting their due.
Streetglory My level 64 troll Shaman was goofing around waiting for some group members to finish up the attunement to Molten Core. As I ran up the stairs near the Prince, I was startled to see a huge drake with an 85 human warrior atop him. Being on a PvP server, I immediately said "Oh crap!" in Vent, and prepared to die. Not only did Streetglory of Soldiers of Lordaeron not immediately bash my face in, but he threw down his "Spectral Sandbox tiger toy" and let me have a ride. I was thrilled! I've never seen one in-game before, and had a ton of fun goofing around for a few minutes with him. Thanks Streetglory! You really made this troll's night :) -- Kirna
Employment: Guild recruitment
Looking for more? Send in your guild name, realm, a link to your guild website or armory listing and a sentence or two on your guild's focus (10-man, RP, late-night raiding, whatever) to theclassifieds@wowinsider.com.
Beer themed You have to love a guild that works with a beer theme. Like your favorite ice-cold beer, Unfiltered is relaxed, refreshing and doesn't take itself too seriously. We're a Horde guild on Hellscream and consider ourselves "casually serious" -- we want to clear content but aren't hard-core about it. It's a game, and we want to have fun! Come as you are; we'll help you level, gear up and get up to speed so we can all go kick some Alliance tail. Bring your favorite movie quotes (Monty Python and Happy Gilmore are especially welcome) and come hang out with Unfiltered. Check us out at http://unfilteredguild.enjin.com.
Death rebels yell I feel like we've seen these guys before. Deaths Rebels is a friendly casual Horde guild on Arathor with focus on helping one another and having fun in game. We hope to raid in the near future and are always looking for more recruits to have fun and run with. If you are interested and want to just hang out enjoy gaming,running classic dungeons/raids heroic guild runs and those type activities then give any member you see a shout ,they will point you to an officer if they aren't one. http://deathsrebels.guildportal.com/Guild.aspx?GuildID=355627&TabID=2977514
Euphoria is awesome These sound like some fun folks. We are Euphoric Madness, a horde raiding guild on US-Turalyon. We were a top 10 guild on US- Argent Dawn last year, but moved to a server with a higher raiding population. We're a fun loving guild with a great core that gets along very well and is never without something fun to do. My characters name is Syraanix, and I am an officer, raid leader and main tank for one of the raid groups. We were 12/12 in Tier 11 and are currently 3/7 in T12. My goal is to build this guilds reputation up as well as crack the top 10 server rankings here as well.
Open enrollment Esoterica University open enrollment is here! Esoterica is a Horde university on the lovely campus of Steamwheedle Cartel-US. Our open curriculum allows the student to participate as much or as little as they want to and devise a path of development that fits their needs! Our focus is Undergrad and Graduate Retro Raiding, but we also offer a wide variety of classes in Heroics, PVP and RP. Enrollment is open to any full time or part time students who are looking for a new university to call home! So feel free to pick up a brochure at our website and apply today! We hope to see you at ESO SOON! Eso is a Mature Retro Raiding Guild on SWC. We are looking for laid back players to join our guild for fun and shenanigans. All applicants must like Canadians, Cake and Goblin Machetes. Apply on our website, www.esotericaguild.wowstead.com, LFGuild or contact Reiyel or Handredor in game.
Crack open The Classifieds for weekly player and community news, help finding the right guild, events of interest and more. Send us your shout-outs for Random Acts of Uberness and mail your news tips and announcements to TheClassifieds@wowinsider.com.
Filed under: The Classifieds
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
Gobuywow Jul 21st 2011 5:25AM
I will try with my little mage lol
Tiga Jul 21st 2011 6:27AM
If the tank shortage is a problem for 5-mans, Blizzard could provide "tank suits" for all classes, taking your gear iLevel and letting anyone tank an instance using vehicle mechanics. The suit should maybe allow players to tank 13-26 iLevels below the actual item level. Ideally, you wouldn't want a "mech tank", but if you overgeared the content, it could work well enough.
nosoup4u76 Jul 21st 2011 6:48AM
That's not a half-bad idea there. I mean really all you need is to have the suit provide you with some level of mitigation, increased threat, and a taunt/interrupt.
The only killer though is that tanking requires at least four functioning brain cells, and the ability to not try to eat dinner, watch a youtube video, and take the dog out all at the same time while you play the game. This part would likley disqualify 75% of the DPS I've run into in pugs.
Tiga Jul 21st 2011 7:02AM
Thanks nosoup,
The tank suit could be a reward from a solo quest chain that checks that you have at least the basic skills to perform as a tank. I think Gnomeregan would be a good place for the tank suit quest line (plenty of mechanicals in there already, so it would make sense lore-wise). You would do the quest with NPCs that fill in the roles of healing & DPS (similar to the daily quest in Hyjal).
immamanktoo Jul 21st 2011 8:03AM
I mage tank a lot, whether its asked of me or not! I leeeeeroy pull and rock the meters! It is a ton of fun!! Never underestimate the mank!!
themightysven Jul 21st 2011 10:11AM
ahh, mage tanking. now, if only there was a mage spec already associated with high survivability but who's role in PvE was practically non-existant due lackluster damage and/or years of raid prejudice so that said spec could, with minor tweaks, become a fully fledged kiting based tank, maybe with gaining shield use and a block modified by Intellect, so their avoidance is block, dodge, kite.
yep, if only that were possible