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  1. #1

    What style of tanking do you like?

    My guild was having a discussion today on which way we would rather tank.

    The Old way with no Vengeance and tanks had to work for threat

    The Cataclysm way With tanks essentially just being another dps that held aggro with the new spell vengeance

    The MOP way Active mitigation with no real issue of threat.

  2. #2
    Stood in the Fire S Blieft's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by reddog View Post
    The Old way with no Vengeance and tanks had to work for threat
    The Old way when all my pally had to do was breath in the mobs general direction and I'd have agro for years.
    (i don't ever remember working for threat back then, nowadays yes)
    And eight, eight, I forget what eight was for

  3. #3
    Honorary PvM "Mod" Darsithis's Avatar
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    Active mitigation without an issue of threat. Working to keep threat was boring. Working to stay alive, now that's fun.

  4. #4
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    The MoP way.

    The old was just a nuisance. "Work for threat" was more like "Wait for 5 sunders" and the Cataclysm way was a bit numb, since you rarely had threat issues. Both also had the problem of tanking being a static role, where the only active role of a tank was doing dps (or threat, which came by dps and a few token spells).

    Active tanking is way more fun. I have to watch my rage, I have to be wary of spike damage and so on and so forth.

  5. #5
    The Insane Aquamonkey's Avatar
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    Gotta wait for 3 sunders.

  6. #6
    The Insane Thage's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Darsithis View Post
    Active mitigation without an issue of threat. Working to keep threat was boring. Working to stay alive, now that's fun.
    This. It's not much fun keeping your eyes glued to Omen, instead of keeping your eyes on your health, cooldowns, and what the mob's up to so you can anticipate incoming damage spikes to mitigate, so your healer doesn't end up hating you (and OOMing).
    Be seeing you guys on Bloodsail Buccaneers NA!



  7. #7
    Herald of the Titans PickleballAce's Avatar
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    Never liked having to sit there doing nothing while waiting for an undergeared/underskilled tank to gain threat. I appreciate that people may miss that but I could never see the fun in it. MOP style for me.

  8. #8
    Immortal FuxieDK's Avatar
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    Old style ftw!

    Vengeance and 500% threat was bad enough, but active mitigation nailed the coffin shut...
    Fact (because I say so): TBC > Cata > Legion > ShaLa > MoP > DF > BfA > WoD = WotLK

    My pet collection --> http://www.warcraftpets.com/collection/FuxieDK/

  9. #9
    There was no real "working for threat" pre-vengeance. It was more of a case of poor tanking or DPS jumping the gun.

    imho - the current active mitigation system is the most fun. Just my preference. I like actually doing things to reduce damage.

  10. #10
    Bloodsail Admiral Omertocracy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by reddog View Post
    The MOP way Active mitigation with no real issue of threat.
    You mean the way we DKs pretty much always have? Yes that is how Daddy likes it.

    (Daddy is a DK tank from a guild I was in for a brief while.)

  11. #11
    The Lightbringer Lovestar's Avatar
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    The only way I like tanking is when I'm basically another DPS, who happens to be standing in front of the mob. Survival management is immensely contrived and boring to me.

    That said, melee DPS in WoW is even more contrived and bizarre. I really prefer the GW1-style model where "melee" = "frontline" and it's a group of tougher characters holding the line, popping defenses as the battle shifts toward them and then going more offensive as other targets are selected. That's more of the 'melee fantasy' for me.

    Sadly, 'Tanking' in WoW delivers more on the melee fantasy than actual melee DPS does. "Stand behind this target's butt and clusterfuck around with 5 other people in a cramped nightmare situation while executing a ludicrously over-complicated button piano" ... not really what I signed up for in my imagination when I thought about being a steel-clad warrior charging into battle.

    All of which is to explain why I prefer Tank styles that are as DPS'y as possible. I'm doing it because it feels much more natural and exciting than MDPS, but I'd really rather not have the artificial survival overhead thrown in.

    But Cata's version was way too boring since there was no real 'rotation' either, it was mostly meaningless face-slamming. I'd rather have a Tank style with a dedicated DPS cycle without the overblown survival gimmickry. If, for example, I could do Fury's rotation while tanking I'd be pretty happy. :p

  12. #12
    High Overlord Dunker's Avatar
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    Rolled a Blood DK for MoP, and I enjoy:

    Quote Originally Posted by reddog View Post
    The MOP way Active mitigation with no real issue of threat.

  13. #13
    Honorary PvM "Mod" Darsithis's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by yjmark View Post
    There was no real "working for threat" pre-vengeance. It was more of a case of poor tanking or DPS jumping the gun.

    imho - the current active mitigation system is the most fun. Just my preference. I like actually doing things to reduce damage.
    No. There was working for threat. I remember in the weeks leading up to Cata that I stopped tanking on my bear and warrior in groups and let them do it for me 'cause nothing would keep threat. When you'd have a mage doing 3.5 - 4k and yourself as a tank doing 1k, nothing could keep that mob glued to you, not even sunders. After the 540 defense cap I did switch out for some hit/exp and that improved things a bit (waste of threat if your sunder didn't land), but it still did little when people rolled in with 277 gear and I had T9 'cause he was an alt.

  14. #14
    Deleted
    MoP way.

    As a DK, I love managing my runes and abilities because it has a real impact on my survivability. Makes tanking way more fun than it used to be.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Darsithis View Post
    No. There was working for threat. I remember in the weeks leading up to Cata that I stopped tanking on my bear and warrior in groups and let them do it for me 'cause nothing would keep threat. When you'd have a mage doing 3.5 - 4k and yourself as a tank doing 1k, nothing could keep that mob glued to you, not even sunders. After the 540 defense cap I did switch out for some hit/exp and that improved things a bit (waste of threat if your sunder didn't land), but it still did little when people rolled in with 277 gear and I had T9 'cause he was an alt.
    Yes, when DPS out geared you, it was extra work. And there were some issues at the very very top tier of raiding where DPS scaled a bit too much. But it was not a large over riding issue across all tiers of play where tanks everywhere were losing threat because of mechanics. There were plenty of people raiding with warrior and bear tanks that were doing just fine.

  16. #16
    Honorary PvM "Mod" Darsithis's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by yjmark View Post
    Yes, when DPS out geared you, it was extra work. And there were some issues at the very very top tier of raiding where DPS scaled a bit too much. But it was not a large over riding issue across all tiers of play where tanks everywhere were losing threat because of mechanics. There were plenty of people raiding with warrior and bear tanks that were doing just fine.
    They did fine because their raiders knew what to do, of course. Ah "waiting for sunder"

    Most pugs? Nah. I remember an ICC where a paladin ripped Lord Marrowgar off of the tank (me) before I could even get initial aggro, died, and then trash talked everyone in the raid about how we all sucked before leaving.

  17. #17
    Don't mind the current way although at least as a warrior I still feel that the mitigation part is a bit boring. Still think that tank (aoe) dps is ridiculously retarded.

  18. #18
    Active mitigation with damage is nice. Passive mitigation is boring and ends up having gear be the only distinction between good and bad tanks.

  19. #19
    I dunno. I liked the WotLK tanking, where it was kinda a mix. Vengeance wasn't scaling as OP as it was (not for me at least) and it just felt... I dunno, fun. Like I didn't have to worry about losing aggro, or taking massive damage, and so a lot of pressure and responsibility from tanks was eased or non-existant. And for people like me who don't do well under pressure, that's what makes the game fun and enjoyable for us.

    Then again, I'm a Paladin, so ye ol' 6969 rotation was awesome.

  20. #20
    active mitigation, over 5x sunder

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