Warlock Tanking.

[Tides]

Since the discussion have rolled a bit offtopic it acually interests me now ;P

I'd have to say though, the "lack" of tanks is not due to a lack of choice or even that people dont want that "Leading role"

If you look at 5mans vs raids its simply a numbers game.

1 x 5man holds 1 tank.
1 x 10man holds 2 tanks.
1 x 25man holds 2 tanks.

The above holds true as a general rule of thumb. Which is why there can feel like a shortage of tanks alot of the time in dungeons. There's simply not a demand for tanks in raids high enough to translate over to enough tanks for 5mans when people queue for such things..
Thats my take on it anyways

[Deleted]

Warlocks could tank Sarth 3D alright with PvP gear, amybe they can do that again in MOP.

[Paranoid Android]

Why are so many people gettin a woody for lock tanking? First off I am kinda assuming a lock as a main tank? If its main tanking then we would need some type of mitigation cloth gear to help our stats. That would force blizz to make more items (which they would not) or another cloth class a tanking spec. I know some are going to come back at the spells we have for locks. I'll admit I have not studied them all closesly but again no way will they every be strong enought for locks to be a main tank. If they were I somehow would see some problem with locks being OP in bg's (where most nerfs happen) and the QQ would begin. Without some mitigation with gear we would be like frost DK's in Lich for tanks hard to always keep fully healed.

My last point would be one of your trees would be taken away more or less for tanking. Would some people like losing the demo tree. I'm kinda indifferent on that since I played affliction or destro but I will paly the FOTM spec that does most damage or if guild needs a buff. Again no way is blizz going to mess around with Demo tree to make it like Druid's feral tree where you can go bear or cat. So do you want a 3rd damage tree or 2 damage, which one would be de-facto pvp and other damage I guess. No way is blizz goiing to make say affliction damage raid worthy damage and then step into arena and melt face.

My last part besides the pro-tank in MMO and WoW forums, how many of us are going to tank. In here I'm sure alot would give it a try if viable. Like a few threads that always popl up is this the solution to tank shortage for dungeon ques? It would help because some would definately tank and back to mitigation gear or just gear. You que as lock tank and cloth gear drops and you roll (I'm talking about the scenerio if we just tanked by using spells/abilities).

[Deleted]

Having a warlock being able to tank plus with introduction of Mon will defenitly increase the amount of people joining dungeons up as tank. I do most of my heroics on my warlock (my main) and I can imagine others as well BUT....

People don't like to tank, they didn't queue as a tank back in WOTLK when tanking heroics was piss easy. Even now the queue time hasn't really changed much as a dps, back in WOTLK I waited 15 mins, now I was between 10-15 mins average.

So my observation is that players in general don't like to tank, hell even when tanking heroics was easy (WOTLK) I saw dps Warriors, Paladins and DK rather queue as dps (they needed no gear) and wait 15 mins then to just queue up as tank.

I tanked with warrior, feral and DK. During bad and good times. The only real problem with tanking heroics? You do not need 5 tanks for a 25 man raid. Yes. Raid tank situation is the reason why most people do not tank. What do you get if you run heroics as a tank? A preraid equipped tank with no where to go next, unless you know a guy who knows a guy or want to wipe through raids.

It would be cool, but it would not change much. Well, it would be a pain to balance in PvP.

[Vynistra]

If the training dummy made people drool and get excited, this one will make them have to change their pants.

[XepNes]

If the training dummy made people drool and get excited, this one will make them have to change their pants.

I do not need to change pants as I do not currently have them on. I do have to say I need to change underwear and bed sheets. I can't say anything else then I'm looking more forward to Metamorphosis tanking then pandas and monks. Now I just wish for a more useful lvl 90 talent to help with the tanking part. Archimonde isn't worth it and Mannoroth works with aoe tanking I would assume. I still think that all of the level 90 talents for warlocks is quite lacking. Going to start leveling my warlock to 85 next weekend when Easter starts and get accustomed to playing locks again.

[Pr0ev0lution]

If the training dummy made people drool and get excited, this one will make them have to change their pants.
/snip video out of quote/

wow just wow.... the damage mitigation is insane.

on the issue of lock tanking i'd LOVE to be able to tank on my lock even if its just 5 mans. i think it would be really fun to be able to tank as a caster i absolutely love my lock already and been given the choice to fill more roles in a group surely can't be a bad thing. either way its nice to see blizz experimenting with the idea through a glyph giving us the tools to tanks such as taunt.

if blizz decide to scrap the idea of lock tanking (which as much as i love it, and all the positive feedback its getting its likely not to survive) the glyph is gonna get scrapped too since there is no way we will be allowed to have the mitigation from resiliance, the glyph and talents ontop of the self healing from talents, we would be near on unkillable.

[Travio]

... having seen that HoT video? I am now excited to potentially see viable end game Warlock tanking.

[Count Zero]

I do not need to change pants as I do not currently have them on. I do have to say I need to change underwear and bed sheets. I can't say anything else then I'm looking more forward to Metamorphosis tanking then pandas and monks. Now I just wish for a more useful lvl 90 talent to help with the tanking part. Archimonde isn't worth it and Mannoroth works with aoe tanking I would assume. I still think that all of the level 90 talents for warlocks is quite lacking. Going to start leveling my warlock to 85 next weekend when Easter starts and get accustomed to playing locks again.

Here you go ... (pro tip: watch what he does to the spiders in the second nightmare...)

leave the annotations on, also

[Inactivity]

Having a warlock being able to tank plus with introduction of Mon will defenitly increase the amount of people joining dungeons up as tank. I do most of my heroics on my warlock (my main) and I can imagine others as well BUT....

People don't like to tank, they didn't queue as a tank back in WOTLK when tanking heroics was piss easy. Even now the queue time hasn't really changed much as a dps, back in WOTLK I waited 15 mins, now I was between 10-15 mins average.

So my observation is that players in general don't like to tank, hell even when tanking heroics was easy (WOTLK) I saw dps Warriors, Paladins and DK rather queue as dps (they needed no gear) and wait 15 mins then to just queue up as tank.

I love to tank, I do it all the time... meaning I'd like to tank on my main, for once.

And yes, queues are queues. But I often tank on my DPS raid toons just for a faster queue. After having to wait 60min+ queues on my poor warlock (which, at that time, was my only 85) I would love to be able to do another role, even if healers are now the ones getting fast LFR queues.

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

I remember when I could tank certain encounters in Vanilla on my warlock, and heavily geared Warlocks could tank any boss in Vanilla, including Faction leaders.
It'd be nice if we could have an official tanking spec, then I'd never stop playing my Warlock and I'm sure she'd forgive me for abandoning her for my lovely Shadow Priest these last 2 expacs.

[Mayhem]

Can't agree anymore strongly with this.
Even the hero class of death knights with a huge amount of the levelling process removed did nothing to resolve any tank shortages.
Even the prospect of the demon form tanking, allbeit more appealing than a bear form has been done before with druids so that is no arguement for it either.
People simply want a class to be something it is not.

well for me i don´t play any tank just because i love playing my warlock, but i loved to tank, if it become´s viable, maybe only in 5 mans i would tank every day every time, i just love the idea

[Speedy92286]

If the training dummy made people drool and get excited, this one will make them have to change their pants.

I am playing my Lock tank with Nightwish playing in the background from now on. At least the first song is Nightwish, not sure about the others.

[Deleted]

Video Related, I'd mute the video, the music is bad.

God damn at that video, i hope Demonology spec will work in pvp, id love to go mano a mano with them melees.
Those destroWarlock-frostMage-restoShaman days from Wotlk are surely missed.

[Kouki]

I got forwarded here by a mod:

Hey there forum.

So by now we all saw the Warlock Tanking the current Cata Heroics.

Id like to know the following:

1: Is this lock really 85 like the video shows, or is it just beefed up stat wise to a 90 but not showing 90?

2: Are warlocks getting a tank spec on purpose or is this skill Op?

Now if they are not getting a tank spec it does give me an idea.
Several dps classes have 3 specs for dps, hunter rogue lock mage.

The new talent system gives options that are seperate from the spec you pick.
With this system i could see lock tanks and maybe mage healers or even shaman tanks.

Would anyone like to see locks as a real tank spec when in demon?

---------- Post added 2012-03-25 at 12:14 AM ----------

I'd much rather see Blizzard fix warlocks weaknesses vs. melee, especially dealing with rogues.

A demon warlock that would be a tank would be well equipped to fight mele.

[Speedy92286]

I wish Demonology would become the tank spec. I don't see a reason to make a 4th spec for Warlocks to just add a tank spec when Demonology could just be slightly twisted around. Same for making enchancement tanking. Mage healing would be interesting, but they probably would need a 4th spec for it.

[Kouki]

The main problem of having a lack of Tanks isn't because there's not enough choices, it's just that some people don't like Tanking for whatever reasons. Giving Warlocks, or even Shaman, a Tank specc won't help the 'Tank deficit' too much.

The problem is tanking is boring, The warlocks have more to think about worry about and they have buffs to keep them alive, it looks like fun imo and i want it soo bad.

[Deleted]

No cloth class should be tank... thats imo.

[Deleted]

The lack, or perceived lack, of classes which can tank is not that role's problem. After all, there is a tanking class which starts at level 55 which most people choose to DPS with. You could make every class tank and it wouldn't make it more attractive to most players. The fact that the percentage of tanks needed in raiding is very much smaller than the other roles and the unspoken role of responsibility in 5 mans makes it less attractive than the other roles. Warlock tank spec wouldn't change that one bit.

[Bigbamboozal]

Can't agree anymore strongly with this.
Even the hero class of death knights with a huge amount of the levelling process removed did nothing to resolve any tank shortages.
Even the prospect of the demon form tanking, allbeit more appealing than a bear form has been done before with druids so that is no arguement for it either.
People simply want a class to be something it is not.

But...when dk came out, everyone and their dog rolled one. I believe for a while (if this happens), everyone who has a lock will get it out and dust it off to give it a go. I will be.
But enjoy tanking to a degree, so I guess maybe my opinion is slanted, however, more ways to do it could make for some interesting changes in content and more interestingly the way fights are handled and strats to deal with the change in content.

I am more excited about this then fuzzy pandas, monks, and the pub-dungeon.
Yes, I called it pub-dungeon. I am coining that term, feel free to use it.
As in "yah me and my mates are goin down to the pub-dungeon for a cold (elemental) one."