The Queue: Why it's not time for a warlock tank
by Adam Holisky 
Apr 3rd 2012 at 11:00AM
Just remember when reading today's Queue that my main is a 'lock, and I'd love nothing more than to sit back and Hellfire my way into the tanking hall of fame.
That being said ...
UberBryan asked:
Do you think Blizz should have added a Warlock tanking spec? IMO DPS only classes are a dated design idea and to be phased out.
A warlock tanking spec would have been very interesting, and in some ways, it lends itself to the natural progression of the class. Warlocks have had to tank something in a raid now and then, and with a few modifications to mechanics, we're able to put out a lot of threat.
However.
There's also a point where Blizzard can do too much in an expansion. A warlock tank would need to be a complete reinvention of the standard tanking mold. There'd need to be extra mechanics added in for survival and avoidance (can't just have a straight mitigation tank). There'd need to be considerations given to PvP class balance; there'd need to be even more variables added to the way raid encounters are designed, etc., etc. ... The list goes on. When you introduce a new variable into an already complex system, if you're not careful, you can entirely unbalance the equation. Right now, I think adding a warlock tank would screw up the matrix pretty good.
I also think that the overall positive community overreaction to datamined spells about warlock tanking has raised an eye in the Blizzard offices. Could we see a 'lock tank in the future? That's a question for Blizzard, but I wouldn't be surprised. Just not right now -- not in this expansion.
HotCelica asked:
Do you think blizzard should make LFR harder instead if it basically being free purples for everyone?
No, absolutely not.
Right now, the Raid Finder is nearly perfectly tuned. There's a great balance of "Hey, pay attention" and "OK, you know the fight -- now go watch Netflix while you spam your heal." It has something for everyone in it. New players get to learn; experienced players get to farm.
Is it too easy for you? OK, hit up normals with a guild. Is that too easy? Then farm normals and early heroic bosses until you can get into a top-tier guild working on Spine and Madness heroic. I doubt there are more than a few hundred people reading this who are at that point, however, so the vast majority of us have a long way to go.
Your worth as a WoW player isn't based on how many purples you have. It's based on the group of cool people you keep as friends in game. Blizzard has been trying for years to create a system where the color of loot doesn't mean anything, and it's struck gold with looking for raid. Everyone can enjoy the raids, and that's pretty damn awesome.
Fuzzl asked:
Do you think Ghostcrawler being more active on the forums lately means we'll hear from him more during the MoP expansion and go back to a "Ghostcrawler Days" kind of feeling again, or will he stop being so active once the Beta is over?
I hope we do. The CMs (folks like Zarhym and the gang) have gotten a ton better about communicating designer intent and information -- it's a world of difference from the way things were four years ago. But there is something ... unique Ghostcrawler brings to the discussion table.
But despite my hope, I'm guessing that he'll return to doing blogs and the occasional Q&A.
Spectres asked:
While looking around the official WoW website, crabby said to me, "There are a total of fifteen "Easter Eggs" in the Beginner's Guide. Can you find them all?" Is that true or is Blizzard April Fools trolling me?
You were trolled. We all were. Crabby promised me a beta key.
ResumeMan asked:
Are there multiple beta servers?? How could one server possibly handle close to a half-million people?
There are four servers that people can select from right now. There's always a possibility to add more, but I doubt we'll see that. Remember that a lot of people who get the beta will download it, play it for 10 minutes, and then stop. A relatively small percentage will actually play through it entirely and submit bug reports, etc... So even though a million will eventually be invited, only a small fraction of those players will be on.
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 10)
Nina Katarina Apr 3rd 2012 11:03AM
A non-panda question.
I'm trying to convince my raid group to go back and finish the tier 11 stuff we never got around to, including Sinestra. To do that, we've got to get past H Cho'gall first, and most of us have forgotten how to Cho'gall. And I'm not sure what the best guides for that and the Sinestra fight would be. Do you have any preferred resources and strats for those fights, especially now that we massively overgear them?
Bril Apr 3rd 2012 11:21AM
Icy-veins.com is very helpful with that kind of info.
Jeremie Apr 3rd 2012 11:24AM
You should be able to find the videos on Tank Spot still. Mechanics haven't changed but timing of things may change when they are based on health of the boss. We may over gear them now but not enough to where you can just faceroll your way thru them and ignore the mechanics of a fight.
Pyromelter Apr 3rd 2012 11:26AM
As I recall, Learn2Raid has a pretty good tutorial on Cho'Gall. Plus, Kinaesthesia is a pretty witty commentator, as raid tutorial narrators go.
thedoctor2031 Apr 3rd 2012 12:30PM
Also, if you can't convince your guild mates to do it, there are a lot of websites that do old content. PUGjobs.com has a great group of people and openraid.us also has some pretty good raids.
For guides I would suggest a mix between LFR or tankspot. They generally have some pretty good guides for this content.
Caz Apr 3rd 2012 12:45PM
I've been trying to talk my raid group into this for months. Our tank outright refuses to go back to any T11 content, since he did it with another guild when it was new.
Kinda makes me wanna find a new guild. Selfish players blow.
anglgnnr Apr 3rd 2012 12:57PM
H Chogall is pretty easy if you are geared up. The only significant change is the addition of new adds that periodically spawn and must be dps'd down. If you can get through the other hard modes to reach Chogall you should be fine.
Sinestra on the other hand is a real challenge. It's well worth going back and experiencing. Even with 397 gear, you will be working on that fight for a while. Good luck!
Kuro Apr 3rd 2012 1:00PM
Got people who don't wanna do old content? Screw the selfish players.. go without 'em!
Use cross real raiding to find a repalcement. I raid lead a t11 group that I pugged on Open Raid to finish the t11 metas recently.
http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/20/cross-realm-raiding-resource-guide/
Chetti Apr 3rd 2012 5:19PM
I love the L2Raid folks, their guides are the ones that I used for T11 & 12. I think I looked up some of their DS guides, but with raid finder my raid team hasn't been reminded as much to watch/read up on the fights before the next raid.
Its been a while since I've done T11, we did have a raid team going back through those a few months ago, I remember it going fairly well. Course.. nefarian was still a a pain in the butt.
thedoctor2031 Apr 3rd 2012 11:10AM
Any news on PvP power and defense? Has it been implemented in any gear yet or do we have to wait for level 90 PvP sets? Also, have the new talents been implemented yet?
Spelio Apr 3rd 2012 11:33AM
In Beta the talents are live. I have not seen any of the PvP gear...at least not yet. I have concentrated on the starting zones and the 85-90 leveling process.
Fuzzl Apr 3rd 2012 11:15AM
Won't killing off Garrosh at the end of the Xpac cause (even more) huge continuity issues for the next expansion? He seems to play a pretty large role in some of the 1-60 zones now and having him warchief-ing all over the 1-60 places when he's not even warchief anymore seems like it would be really confusing.
Philster043 Apr 3rd 2012 11:18AM
Only when you're in Orgrimmar, maybe. But in this case I think the 1-60 progression would still be normal story progress towards Cataclysm zones 80-85 and then 85-90 would deal with Garrosh's fall from grace, so I don't think it would be too jarring. It would be nice if a specific spot of Orgrimmar would "phase" (the HQ for example) for people who's defeated Garrosh though.
matt Apr 3rd 2012 11:23AM
yes, it will be wierd. To use a static world mmo as a story telling tool requires some compromises. It is possible to imagine an MMO that told stories to the players, AND was extensible enough to not require time travel nonsense a new wow player encounters. WoW is not that MMO, there are a lot of paradigm shifts that would be required, and the mmorpg sacred cow of leveling > endgame would likely need to be re-thought.
In chronological order:
68-80 is one story
58-70 is one story and
1-60, 80-85 is one story
Once MoP launches, a new 85-90 story will be added
matt Apr 3rd 2012 11:24AM
oops bc and wrath are in the wrong order, WTB edit button
Philster043 Apr 3rd 2012 11:52AM
I think phasing technology is going to be the answer for future MMOs to deal with this problem. Whole zones would stay the same physically but quests and NPCs would change as you level through it, and would continue to change with more expansions.
Fuzzl Apr 3rd 2012 12:08PM
Yeah, I'd be fine with them phasing stuff out. I know you pointed out that it wouldn't be too confusing outside of Orgrimmar, Phil, and I definitely agree with that. But I also remember quite a few quests that have you return to Org to talk to Garrosh and it ends up being more than a generic quest-giver aspect of turning it in; a lot of the Garrosh quests in Orgrimmar have him playing a significant role (at least from what I remember). I think that's the part that will be especially confusing.
Puntable Apr 3rd 2012 12:11PM
You character is playing "in the past" depending what level he is. The chronological level order is: 60-80, then 1-59, then 81-90. It's just a jump to the left.
Fuzzl Apr 3rd 2012 12:25PM
Yeah, I understand that, Puntable. My point was that after this expansion, the 1-59 portion of leveling that includes Garrosh will at some point have to overlap with the 90+ "new" Orgrimmar that does NOT have Garrosh in the lead.
It's not just a matter of leveling in a different continent that is in a different timeline, but rather leveling in a zone that includes two different timelines that overlap.
Rhüarc Apr 3rd 2012 12:30PM
While you must always remember that you are playing in the past, Blizz has already implemented an answer to this problem in the past. During WotLK, if you had completed the Wrathgate chain, all of the way through Siege of Undercity, and you were a Horde player, when you entered the throne room, Varimathras was no longer present. However, if you had not completed the Siege of Undercity, Varimathras was still present for your character.
This could be a very handy trick for the Garrosh problem, though it might cause some issues with groups trying to defend the Warchief from a "For the Alliance" run, as people who had not yet completed up to Garrosh's fall from grace may not be able to see the people attacking the new warchief if the throne room is completely phased.