Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsIs it time to kill tanking?
by Matthew Rossi 
Aug 25th 2011 at 6:00PM
The tanking system has long been somewhat problematic in World of Warcraft. While it scales to some degree, from 5-man dungeons to 10-man raids, the scaling falls apart when we get to 25-man raiding, which currently demands about the same amount of tanking as 10-man. You can get through most of Firelands with two tanks, no matter your raid size. Majordomo Staghelm only requires one tank, again, no matter your raid size. This means that the scaling from five to 10 works, but as soon as you go from 10 to 25, instead of needing 2.5 times more tanks, you need no more tanks.
The other problem is simply that there already aren't enough tanks for every 5-man group. When the Call to Arms feature was announced for the Dungeon Finder tool, it was created out of the simple fact that we're not seeing the distribution we'd expect in the playerbase. In order for the Dungeon Finder to work without significant group queues, we would need 20% of the people queuing up to be tanks (1 in 5 = 20%). This is not the case.
People simply don't want the perceived group responsibility of tanking. It's why changes were made to CC mechanics that allow groups to CC on the fly without pulling. It's why Call to Arms exists. And yet, despite both of these changes, tanking was still so unattractive to players that threat itself needed to be redesigned. All of this work to try and get people to tank. Maybe the problem isn't the players here, though. Maybe it's the role.
Outnumbered two to one
There are currently four tanking specs in the game, out of 30 possible specs. This is the lowest number of specs per role. Healing has five (discipline and holy priests, resto druids, resto shaman, and holy paladins), and DPS has 22, because one of the tanking specs can also be a DPS spec (the feral druid spec). This points to an already obvious fact: DPS specs outnumber the tanking and healing specs combined by a two-to-one margin. Why is this?
Well, for starters, while healing makes a certain amount of sense to people who've played other games, the idea of the tanking figure is fairly unique to the MMO genre and has more or less existed in that genre to help make up for the games' lack of intelligence. The original tank and spank encounters were designed around the idea that the game needed help to decide who the monsters would be hitting. After all, their roots are in pen and paper RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons, but there's no game master to tell the monsters what to do.
With modern encounter design often varying wildly from this formula, one of the reasons for the tanking role has been changed or removed. Tanks often find themselves switching targets, rounding up adds, taunt swapping to clear debuffs, kiting, and in general working on aspects of a fight far removed from the old keep the big, ugly thing punching me instead of the mage aspect of the role. This complexity was even mentioned in the recent Dev Watercooler as a reason that threat was being increased so that tanks don't necessarily have to worry about threat races or having to switch targets to intercept streaming adds.
Class archetypes and character preference
Let's consider, however. With four tank specs and 22 DPS specs, we're already at a significant disadvantage in terms of picking a character that tanks versus one who does not. If you enjoy certain class archetypes such as the demon-worshiping spellcaster or the companion to animals, you're locked out of the role even if you'd like to give it a try. Of course, the argument can be made to roll an alt, but if you simply don't like death-channeling necromancers in plate or turning into a bear, then you're not going to want to do so just so you can tank. Furthermore, there are people who play those four classes who simply don't find tanking as it stands particularly compelling.
There are ways to do without tanks, of course. One way would simply to make healing changes that allowed healers to cope with a boss's switching to whoever had aggro rather than having to have a limited number of people who are talented and geared to make healing them easier and who chose abilities and stances to make enemies want to hit them. Another way would simply to make tanking a choice a class could make by picking a stance, form or presence and opening it up to more classes -- a simple trade-off (you chose to tank, you do less damage and generate more threat) that makes all sorts of classes able to tank who never tanked before. There are plenty of classes that have abilities that could be used to tank -- warlock Metamorphosis, hunter pets, shaman weapon imbues like Rockbiter and their earth elementals -- with a little modification.
What change would be enough?
Whether or not either of these options or any others are really good for the game is what should really be discussed. Is it simply a matter of not enough tanking flavor, and can that be provided without messing up tanking balance? Should tanking be reduced to a simple toggle that more classes could flip, or would that water down tanking too much? Is tanking integral to the game or an outmoded idea no longer relevant with fight design as intricate as it has become, and can you get rid of it without rendering leveling content trivial? Tanking has been with the game since its inception and has seen a lot of design work to keep it a vital role, so abandoning or redesigning it to this extent would be a huge decision. But right now, it's no longer an unthinkable change to the game.
We've tried bribing tanks, changing CC, letting the instant queues tempt them, and even reducing how much they have to juggle to get them interested. Is it enough, and even if it is, is it a sign that tanking simply isn't worth the hassle?
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Filed under: Druid, Paladin, Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, Death Knight
Reader Comments (Page 17 of 17)
michaeljannino Aug 27th 2011 3:00PM
come on rossi.... you're better than this
Gorbag Aug 28th 2011 12:40AM
I think it's pretty clear that the toxic LFG environment is the cause of fewer tanks queueing, but we haven't looked at the cause of the toxic environment, or at solutions that could be implemented by Blizzard or the player community.
Most of the comments above suggest that it's those retards/assholes/baddies/arrogant elitists that are ruining it for all of us perfect angels, and I think that's a simplistic and exaggerated view. From my experience tanking and DPSing in heroics, most of the players I get grouped with handle themselves reasonably well; they may not be the most skilled or best geared, but they get it done. It's true that occasionally I'll kick someone for their attitude or poor performance (and it's got to be *really* poor to deserve a kick - not just low dps) but I'd say only once in twenty heroics or so.
I think the real problem is that Blizzard is trying to allow people to accomplish two different things with heroics, things that attract people with interests that do not combine well.
The raiders are sick of heroics, but do them anyway because they want the points. They know every pull, every boss, and the shortest, fastest way to the VP at the end. An inexperienced player or an undergeared character in their group doesn't make the run interesting or challenging; it just tries their patience and wastes their time.
The new players, or those playing characters that perform an unfamiliar role, need practice, coaching, a chance to fail, and the opportunity to learn from their hard-won successes as well as their mistakes. They want a slower pace, so that discussion on tactics and methods can happen. They also want a chance to be fully invested in a new experience, whether it's new content or a different perspective on things they've completed before. The gogogo uber-geared character isn't helping them learn how the fights work, or how they could have handled a problem better, or even letting them look around and enjoy the ride.
Forcing these two groups together has resulted in a negative experience for both, and poisoned the LFG system to the point where most people are unwilling to communicate at all. Blizzard has said that they want a mix of skill, experience and gear in heroic groups, and that's reasonable, but people on either side of that spectrum should have the choice to opt out - not just for their own selfish reasons, but also to allow the other people playing the game to have the experience they want.
Or, perhaps, they should have the opportunity to opt in? What if there were a toggle that selected mixed-experience or similar-experience group?
Ægen Aug 28th 2011 5:19AM
The problem, and why I am starting to really hate tanking, is that DPS do not focus, they pull, they seem to make a point to not attack the mob someone else is attacking. Then they mouth off when the tank asks them to perform. It's ridiculous, yet the tanks are the ones who are accused of having ego's. Fight's go much smoother when the dps don't open up before the mob even get's to the tank, never mind they like to open up on mobs the tank hasn't even touched yet.
Pooter Aug 29th 2011 5:05PM
I think you missed a major point of lack of tanks which is the need for tanks (at least good ones) to do a lot of homework on encounters. Even trash encounters, the tank is typically the one responsible for marking which mobs to cc, etc. You can carry DPS who don't know the mechanics (most will at least understand to not stand in fire), healers to a lesser degree but can still do their job for the most part even not knowing the whole fight, but tanks will kill themselves at the whole group often if they don't know the encounters. This extra knowledge needed just adds to the complexity of the role.
Obviously I run into a ton of new tanks that have no clue regardless, but most people are impatient and won't want that responsibility themselves even when they demand their tanks be both geared and knowledgeable.
Zhanji Sep 1st 2011 11:03AM
I started playing WoW about 5 months before Wrath hit. My first class was Warrior but all the way to 80 I never tanked once, never even felt the urge to try it out. 2H boomcrits were what attracted me to the class and nothing that I saw on Wowhead or Insider about Prot Warriors compared.
Then, many months later, after leveling a DK to 80 and gearing him up in Ulduar my guild started running Ony-80. I was still /dancing my way through fights as a DPS-specced Blood DK and swinging 7k quite comfortably and had absolutely no intention of Tanking, even though my bags contained a full set of the latest tanking gear and a sub-spec into Frost.
One night the OT dropped out just before we engaged Onyxia and no other tanks were online in the guild.
So the Guild Leader looked to me.
The experience of handling 40 whelps by myself, pulling Lair Guards off my healer, Rune Striking the Brood Mother in the face every second... it was so liberating.
From then on I was just as much a tank as I was a damage dealer. the week after my initial experience, in fact, I tanked Patch-25 by myself with no melee support.
My message is this: if you ant to get more people into tanking, you have to make them feel special. If a player tanking is constantly looking at Recount to see their DPS standing so they don't get raged at for not contributing enough to the group DPS, they're not having the right experience. A tank has to feel like they're holding the weight of the world on their shoulders, keeping their allies from being crushed underfoot.
And they have to feel like they're capable of that feat.
Aibhilough Aug 30th 2011 1:58PM
I have several varities of tank. I've leveled all 4 tanking classes, to at least 80. I think that another tanking class would be good, but it wouldn't solve the problem.
Personally, enhancement shamans would be a logical dual-wielding tank class with minor change, mostly able to be done, I think, through new glyphs.
The real problem with tanks in CTA (call to arms), and LFR, is that the game is so complex that tanks have much more to do than just run instances all the time.
Besides guild and raid responsibilities most tanks I know have maxed 2 professions and, at least cooking. There isn't time to level the other skills that are need in game and tank.
When I start my weekly 7 runs, I usually run right through them in a day. Since Molten Front came out I spent most of my time grinding rep for the "free" gear. Nothing in the instances came close to the stuff I was earning. But the grind takes so much time that at the end of it, I was either too tired to do CTA's or I had other toons to "care" for.
I admit that the extra loot, cash and "bag" are good incentives for me but not enough to overcome the rep grind for "free" gear. And then there doesn't seem to be any way to tell if the "random" CTA you signed up for is actually "random". On my warrior I have never not received the extra loot bag when I sign up for a random CTA by myself.
However, on my bear, I have received 2 bags for several dozen runs. I expected the bags would show up in the mail later but no.
Finally I submitted a ticket, waited and it turned out that the "random" group I had CTA'd for was not considered "random". Turns out the group I ended up tanking for had been together for a couple of instances and so my inclusion did not count as being "random".
Cata H's are easier to tank for since most people are just doing it for JP and are "overgeared", Troll Hs are harder because there are still a lot of groups out there that don't know the fights or are undergeared. There's almost nothing a tank can do at that point.
Is it time to get rid of tanking, maybe. What do you replace the tank first model with? That's a trickier question.
mamajag Sep 1st 2011 8:35PM
I like to tank. What I DON'T like to do is tank PUGs, and no little bag of goodies is gonna get me to do it. Tanks are treated like crap. If they were treated better, I think you'd see a lot more tanks willing to PUG.
KingWolf14 Sep 2nd 2011 11:03PM
Let me tell you why nothing you are saying is practical or, for that matter, makes any sense.
The number of tanks in the game that are currently tanking is irrelevant. So DPS & healers have a little bit of a longer wait time between random ques. So what? It's part of the game at this time, get over it. There's no reason to change the game so that these two peices of the triangle can shave off a few minutes of their 'busy' days.
What tanks are currently doing in fights & raids is irrelevant. So, they're picking up adds & running over here & picking this back up? It's part of the game, and its what us tanks enjoy. It's how we like to play; thats why we do it. If we simply wanted to DPS, we'd do that. But we like being the center of the raid, and having all these different variables.
And finally, a pet cannot tank a boss and still be anywhere near as entertaining. A lot of current raid fights require tanks to move quite a bit, either to position the boss correctly, to work around mechanics, get into range of a healer, etc, etc. How do you expect to accomplish this with a partialy controlled pet? Point made.
Not sure where you came up with this idea that anyone can tank, or that what us tanks do is redundant. Maybe you were just looking for some article to write that would heat up some heads and get your name passed around because it wasn't on peoples' lips otherwise. Whatever the reason: fail.