So, how are we in the fun side of tanking?

[Kyno]

Hey guys & girls,

I was about to answer another tanking thread but I thought I might as well create a new topic since I've seen this question comes back a few times here and there.

I realize "fun" or "interesting" mechanics is all relative, but it would be interesting to see if the below statements still stand.

I'm personally looking to build a tank class, which I don't currently have, and I'd like to level it sooner rather than later with the xpac coming. Hence, partly, this topic.

For the record, I was playing a BM hunter in WOD, interesting and not so easy rotation as far as I was concerned. Tried MM, but felt very boring.


From what I had gathered a while ago, end Alpha/early beta if I remember correctly, here is how the classes seemed like:

- Prot Paladin: Effective, but boring, boring, boring. Hit everything on cooldown. Annoying consecration. Huge margin for error. Nice animations.

- Prot Warrior: Overly rage starved against bosses, not fun. A multiple seconds ability you can't cast while moving, not fun. Decent animations.

- Brewmaster Monks: Full RNG/random anti-fun mechanics.

- Blood DKs: Lot of changes incoming at the time. From what I've read recently, it seemed OK. Need to keep up bone shield (I believe) very regularly, which can be annoying for some. Death Strike not feeling as strong as before.

- Guardian Druid: Lot of hits on cooldown as well. Very effective with the current numbers, although prone to eventual balancing. Read multiple times it was quite fun, but I fail to see how exactly compared to the other tanks. If someone could enlighten me on this...

- Demon Hunther: Must say I hadn't look much into it since the friend I'll be tanking with is going to play it.


So, it's not only to discuss these specific matters, but what do you think about the fun/interesting side of the current builds?

[Echil46]

Have been tanking on and off, mostly on since february. I originaly had planned on going for a DH vengeance, will be havoc instead (guild reasons).

From what i've heard, Druid seems to be the "must have" tank, as in "if you're MT1 but not druid, that's plain stupid". Fun factor side, it seems to be on par with the effectiveness.

Prot Pal is boring as boring can be (or even beyond that point). But very effective, i heard.
Blood DK is the opposite, fun, but ends up on the lower step of the ladder. Innefficient as prot pal is boring.

I've played a bit of prot warrior, and I can't say i'm impressed. Animations are cool, but nothing has changed much with the 7.0 (except for the talent tree, but the most efficient ones seems to be passives). If i were to play a tank, i'd be Vengeance (Lots of movement, cool anims, cool synergy inbetween the spells themselves). But, aside from Vengeance...

Aside from druid (can't stand the shapeshift thingy), it's a choice between fun or effectiveness. Note that, with gear and scaling, the inneffective might catch up. None will catch up with the Druid tho, that mastery is way too OP (mastery increases the HP pool and the effectiveness of received heals).

[Kyno]

Thanks for the feedback, it sums up rather well what I've read recently.

That's also an interesting point. I guess they're still tweaking number at that point. They apparently tend to do that after launch too. Are Paladins & Druids effective because of the skill sets, or just numbers? With the latter, things could still change a lot. Well, even not being top tier, I know the fun part will interest me much more than the effectiveness anyway.

I still wonder why make the druid apparently so fun to the other classes (not that I ever really loved the bear form and the feel of it unfortunately, but you never know if the mechanics are that good).

[insomniac1969]

Hello,
I tanked on my druid for years prior to World of Draenor. Since its release, except for leveling it and garrison daily’s, I really have not played it much. My main prior to the legion pre-patch was a Marksman Hunter; while my primary alt was a Protection Paladin. About three months prior to the pre-patch, I abandoned my Hunter and made my Paladin my main.

Prior to the pre-patch, I was able to solo dungeons and some bosses, including Doom Lord Kazzak. I know that is really nothing spectacular, but I no longer am able to solo them. Kind of a let-down for me, but it was expected. Healers needed something to do I guess.

Now, while Druids have always been an effective tank, remember that they; unless it has changed, no longer dodge blows like a ping pong ball and are unable to block or parry like a Warrior or Paladin Tank. Some of that may have changed for the Guardian, but, I have not worked on it yet. I am still working on sexy Weak Auras and muscle memory for my Paladin. So, while they may have a huge health pool, that will always be a health pool that has to constantly be replenished by healers. Yes, no different than a Warrior’s or Paladin’s health pool.

The paladin has number of ways to reduce its damage taken through active mitigation x 3 charges, instant recharge of the active mitigation x 3, a steed talent that reduces damage taken by twenty percent, Divine Protection that allows you to AOE taunt and take zero damage for eight seconds, standing in consecration to boost our active mitigation and self-heal and a host of other damage reducing abilities such as Blessing of Hammer, etc. Once we get out weapons in Legion, I really think that the Protection paladin will be an excellent addition to any dungeon or raid during Legion.

While I am disappointed in self-heals right now, I think they will scale even better with gear and weapon progression.

Insomniac

[Deleted]

completely anecdotal evidence here but in the few days I've played since patch, I have found DK/Guardian tanks are insanely OP. BrM can seem worrying but they loose health then kinda stabilize, Paladins tend to drop but heal back up before you even react. Warriors need constantly healing but do insane dps

[Daffan]

Brewmaster feels pretty lame.

[Deleted]

- Prot Warrior: Overly rage starved against bosses, not fun. A multiple seconds ability you can't cast while moving, not fun. Decent animations.

Care to explain which one? The artifact?

[Krom2040]

People seem to shit on warriors, but they seem pretty powerful to me.

I think a lot of this feedback is just completely subjective anecdotal opinion with very little basis in reality.

[Flaks]

People seem to shit on warriors, but they seem pretty powerful to me.

I think a lot of this feedback is just completely subjective anecdotal opinion with very little basis in reality.

Ignore pain is way overtuned for current content. I've heard the weaknesses start showing up at 110.

[Kyno]

Care to explain which one? The artifact?

Damn, I still can't remember what it was. I'll try to find it, it has been talked a lot at the time, I read often about how it didn't feel "right" in the gameplay.

EDIT: Found it: Neltharion's Fury

I would really disgard which tank is currently the best on PTR. It's obvious they'll still make number changes until (and eventually even after) the xpac releases, so uber Druids could still go from top to mid ranked tanks for all we know.

As far as engaging/fun goes, I'm hearing good things about DK and Warrior. Monks seem to be a love or hate thing. DH looking nice too in this regard, although apparently on the bottom side of things when it comes to effectiveness, at least for now.

I wish I could be on beta. I hate leveling new toons, I wouldn't want to do it twice

[Bethrezen]

Prot warr feels a lot of fun to me. Don't have rage issues unless not actively tanking, pre-patch and beta.

[Zethras]

I’m withholding judgement until I have the artifact in my hands. Right now, blood feels a little incomplete, but I feel like once i’m smacking demons left and right with Maw of the Damned, it’ll be a completely different experience.

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

Brewmaster feels pretty lame.

Monks are lame in general

[Deleted]

From a purely fun perspective:

Druids feel great. The GG rotation gives you something to look out for besides Mangle procs, and you get to realize the lifelong Druid dream: spamming BOTH Swipe and Moonfire. Having an on-demand spell-shield block is a welcome nice change, since for most expansions all you could to protect you from a big incoming spell was "get better gear earlier". Very stable, very comfy, easy choice for a Legion main.

Death Knight feels awful. I can see how the mechanics click together, you still have the AMS, and you get to keep the ever-important Gorefriend's Grasp, but overall there's so little to look out for that I'd be falling asleep at my keys if it wasn't for the constant yelling of my character. The yell (or in the blood elf case, the disinterested "haaaa.") at every Death Strike is a dealbreaker, and if they don't nerf it I'll probably end up shelving my lolknight.

Paladin is pretty good. It used to be a bit wonky with the combo points, a bunch of small upkeep buffs that seemed to matter very little, and Avenger's Shield resets changing your rotation to Shield-Shield-Shield-Shield-Shield on any pulls bigger than two mobs. Now it's solid, you slam people with your shield and drop Consecrations, then slam them some more, and sometimes ride a horse. Can also get a magic shield you can cast on others, and a big immunity-AoE taunt cooldown, both pretty interesting options.

Warrior is pretty much same old Swiss Army Knife of a tank, except that Ignore Pain replaces your old Shield Block as a button you're building rage for, and Shield Block is just something so cheap you pretty much always have it on by default. Shares DK's problem of noisiness with constant yells on your major rotational ability, but the goblin yells sound way better than the belf ones, so it seems I lucked out there. DPS cooldowns seem a bit clunky, and beware the non-existent self-healing.

I wish Blizzard would change the yells to only happen on cooldowns like Last Stand. All the tanks got very noisy overall, and longer sessions can be hard on the ears.

[Dezminion]

Honestly, been fooling around beta with all other tanking classes but DH, and have done it a live too (after pre-patch) and I just find them to be so freaking boring.
They gutted them so new players could play at the absolute skill cap, so guilds would not die at mythic bosses due to crap tanks.

Now the ones with a tiny bit more skill suffer from dull and lame gameplay. :/

[Deleted]

They gutted them so new players could play at the absolute skill cap, so guilds would not die at mythic bosses due to crap tanks.

Now the ones with a tiny bit more skill suffer from dull and lame gameplay. :/

Care to elaborate? Druids actually have more to keep track of now than before (Mark of Ursol for magic burst, Ironfur stacking for physical burst, GG procs), so their gameplay became less lame, and Warriors are pretty much the same as before (and good Warriors will have way more success than bad ones due to how Ignore Pain relies on you maximizing your rage generation, including Intercepts on friendlies when opportunity arises). Paladins used to have an almost completely static rotation for Holy Power generation, and learning a static rotation isn't skill.

DKs have reasons to complain, sure, and I don't know about monk, but I don't see the reason for such overall doom and gloom.

[Deleted]

From a purely fun perspective:

Druids feel great. The GG rotation gives you something to look out for besides Mangle procs, and you get to realize the lifelong Druid dream: spamming BOTH Swipe and Moonfire. Having an on-demand spell-shield block is a welcome nice change, since for most expansions all you could to protect you from a big incoming spell was "get better gear earlier". Very stable, very comfy, easy choice for a Legion main.

Death Knight feels awful. I can see how the mechanics click together, you still have the AMS, and you get to keep the ever-important Gorefriend's Grasp, but overall there's so little to look out for that I'd be falling asleep at my keys if it wasn't for the constant yelling of my character. The yell (or in the blood elf case, the disinterested "haaaa.") at every Death Strike is a dealbreaker, and if they don't nerf it I'll probably end up shelving my lolknight.

Paladin is pretty good. It used to be a bit wonky with the combo points, a bunch of small upkeep buffs that seemed to matter very little, and Avenger's Shield resets changing your rotation to Shield-Shield-Shield-Shield-Shield on any pulls bigger than two mobs. Now it's solid, you slam people with your shield and drop Consecrations, then slam them some more, and sometimes ride a horse. Can also get a magic shield you can cast on others, and a big immunity-AoE taunt cooldown, both pretty interesting options.

Warrior is pretty much same old Swiss Army Knife of a tank, except that Ignore Pain replaces your old Shield Block as a button you're building rage for, and Shield Block is just something so cheap you pretty much always have it on by default. Shares DK's problem of noisiness with constant yells on your major rotational ability, but the goblin yells sound way better than the belf ones, so it seems I lucked out there. DPS cooldowns seem a bit clunky, and beware the non-existent self-healing.

I wish Blizzard would change the yells to only happen on cooldowns like Last Stand. All the tanks got very noisy overall, and longer sessions can be hard on the ears.

I'm pretty sure you can disable the yelling with some fiddling with the sound files. Hunters did this some time ago to replace/remove the gun sounds.

[Maudib]

Editing sound files is considered against ToS.