Lack of Tanks? What about pet classes?

[Mayhem]

if warlocks could tank, there would be at least one more tank: me.

I love tanking, but all the tanking classes are so boring when compared to the uber awesomesauceness of the warlock. choosing between the church boy with a hammer or the guy with no super powers or the hippy bear or the drunk guy or a twilight vampire isn't fun.

I miss DK unholy and frost tanking

but no pet tanking. if warlocks were to tank, they should do so with their own skills.

make that two, i´m with you, except for the dk part

[celinamuna]

I can see shamans being "nature" paladin tanks and rogues being *some other form of mitigating damage* tank before we get pet class tanks.

[Kuniku]

Could really mix things up and go with Hunter/Lock pet tanking, but when you're going to tank you press a new shiny skill that gives you direct control of the pet, and the hunter/lock becomes the pet :3

[Stormcall]

1)More tank classes doesn't mean a boom in tank population-when monks were added there wasn't suddenly this massive boom in tank population. Hell, a lot of Brewmasters are just people who retired their Blood DKs, Bear Druids, or Prot Warriors as their tanking toon, people who already liked tanking and already were tanking.

2)You also piss off a bunch of lock and hunter players who don't want their chosen spec to suddenly be a tanking spec, who don't suddenly want their LFR group to ask them to "go tank spec" anytime the group's real tank leaves, afks, or gets kicked, etc.

[Amsden]

Tanking isn't fun, which is why people don't play tanks.
Same is happening with healing, and has been a concern at least since cata. It is becoming a boring role, where smart heals are taking over.

I have fun when I'm tanking, I really enjoy the role, the problem is the attitude the playerbase has developed of "Every tank must be a pro" ruins the fun quickly. My tank is just in BC content but other players can't seem to grasp the thought that I'm still just learning the role.

[Cleric]

As a tank, yes I can draw up the conclusion that in LFR we do tend to get 70% of the abuse if something goes wrong.

Why not look at this from another angle. The encounters are designed around having a traditional tank (or two) usually involving some sort of tank swap mechanic. I'll look back at AQ as an example. With the twin emperors, you couldn't melee one of the bosses or he hit you HARD, so we used a warlock caster to tank him, or even the mind control device for Razuvious in Naxx. Those are the sort of mechanics that would change it out for tanks.

[xytech]

People are talking about abuse against tank, yet I've never experienced that. Sure some horrible tanks that have caused wipes and goes in their healing gear or whatever gets complaints, but never those who do their job properly. If anyone do comment it shouldn't be hard to give a brief explanation of why he's wrong. I find my blood dk the most pleasant char to go lfr with, as it's just so much easier to control things when you're the tank and preferably raid leader.

[Vasilisa]

I've been a tank since early TBC and I would welcome more tanking classes.

For dungeons/heroics/add offtanking I believe it would be nice if pets would be able to take tank role. I remember turtle tanking adds on nerfarian in Bot and it worked nice.

As for raids I wouldn't mind giving more classes tanking spec. Every class has dps one, what would be a problem (except balancing) with e.x. changing survival info tank spec? Just force these classes to use actual tank spec instead of tanking pet while hunter or warlock doing regular dps.

[Dristereau]

Lack of tanks is not due to lack of classes, its due to people not wanting or daring to do it. Ask yourself how many Frost and Unholy DKs, Fury and Arms Warriors, Feral, Balance and Restoration Druids, Windwalker and Mistweaver Monks, Retribution and Holy Paladins you see in a group. The vast majority don't want to tank. I personally love tanking, I like having a massive HP and having some sort of Leadership Role, or control even of the situation.

However in LFR out of the entire group only Tanks are really required to do things right, because if they screw up issues occur. One Healer no worries, couple of DPS is fine, but one Tank dies and hell hath no fury like an angry LFR.

I haven't done much LFR Recently, mainly due to CBA and also due to Flex, where everyone works hard and the environment is a bit better. If people are crap they get kicked, and nobody afks or autofollows a healer. Hopefully soon I'll move onto doing a few normals, and then try to avoid LFR if I can.

[Tiev]

People are talking about abuse against tank, yet I've never experienced that. Sure some horrible tanks that have caused wipes and goes in their healing gear or whatever gets complaints, but never those who do their job properly. If anyone do comment it shouldn't be hard to give a brief explanation of why he's wrong. I find my blood dk the most pleasant char to go lfr with, as it's just so much easier to control things when you're the tank and preferably raid leader.

So let me show you something about abuse:

So I come back to the game after a long pause. And yesterday I thought, well, WoD is coming in the future and I'd like to see Siege of Orgrimmar before the expansion starts. I was going to Queue for LFR and start Throne of thunder which is where I left (at least with LFR, I quit regular raiding a long time ago). So I queue for the first wing as DPS.


Enter the raid and proclaim: My first time here guys.

I get no response.

We proceed to kill every boss and finish the raid.

Then I think well, that was easy. Let's see, I only have 1 hour now, I'll go ahead and queue as tank because the queue times are shorter. That should be enough.


So I get in and proclaim: My first time here guys.

What follows next is anything from - GET THE F OUT OF MY RAID to YOU ARE NOT GEARED ENOUGH YOU NOOB! and many name calling in between. Now, I have a thick skin. I Ignore it, 10 minutes of in-fighting begins, many leave the raid. We have to wait around, reform, and do it with no wipes.



The point is: If you are a dps, you can go a to an LFR raid as unprepared as you'd like and nobody gives a rats ass unless you wipe. If you are a tank, you need to be geared, you need to know the fights and you need to lead. And all that for not enough reward since you get the same level loot as every dps and the same toxic environment.


It is pretty evident to me why there is a lack of tanks in LFR and that, friends, has nothing to do with a lack of classes that CAN tank.

[Deleted]

Pets cant switch tanks, move boss away from aoe...you get the point. I don't think this would be a good idea even if they could.

Make enhancement shamans and demonology locks be able to tank well and make tank more fun with better skills and dmg and stop complaining and being rude with tanks on LFR when they are doing like half of the job and rushing the semi-afk people (every LFR has a few).

[xytech]

The point is: If you are a dps, you can go a to an LFR raid as unprepared as you'd like and nobody gives a rats ass unless you wipe. If you are a tank, you need to be geared, you need to know the fights and you need to lead. And all that for not enough reward since you get the same level loot as every dps and the same toxic environment.


It is pretty evident to me why there is a lack of tanks in LFR and that, friends, has nothing to do with a lack of classes that CAN tank.

Well, I'm always aware of tactics and like to get some organization to the unorganized so I suppose that's the reason. Also when a tank say they're a first timer I go into details of what they need to know for the fights in whisper (regardless who I'm playing) so it's be all good.

If I could tank on my lock I would, so that's one more tank when playing him. I always choose tank/healer over dps on classes who can. It would make some difference, perhaps not too much though.

[Drilnos]

So, consensus seems to be that (A) having more tank classes would help with variety but wouldn't really increse the number of tanks and
(B) pets can't be controlled well enough to tank.

Any suggestions how to fix (B)?

J.

Transfer control and PoV to the pet, and give the player character a pet bar. Like Eyes of the Beast.

[Tya]

The problem isnt really that there arent enough options for tank classes. The problem is mainly the fact that tanks take the brunt of abuse in LFR especially, One mistake and you either get kicked or slated constantly for being a noob. If you don't know the tactics perfectly you get the same problem.

Then you get the problem where tanks are expected to lead the raid, a lot of people don't want that. Also in lfr tanks are one of the only classes in the raid that actually have to pay attention and play properly or everyone suffers. I dont have a solution for the problem other than people being more grateful towards tanks and less hostile towards their mistakes.

More tanks would fix every problem you mentioned.