Demand for Tanks on Classic

[Lucarocks92]

Can anyone tell me if there will be a huge demand for Tanks?

Seeing as people want raid spots and preemptively factor this in when starting for the first time will it be possible that there are too many warriors seeing as it will most likely be the most played class in the game for sure?

I'm heavily leaning towards Warrior for the demand for Tanks and the fact they are great at DPS and PvP also but I don't want to roll warrior if they will be in abundance

Any info on people's recent experience on classic servers would be nice to know thanks

[solarfallz]

Large demand for tanks for 5-mans. Raids, not as much.

[Hammerfest]

Can anyone tell me if there will be a huge demand for Tanks?

There will be a huge demand for tanks. Warriors were the only viable raid tanks during Vanilla.

[Rakaji]

Even though there will probably be an abundance of Warriors in Classic, you'll still easily be able to find a spot in a guild. Warriors are not only the best (and only) raid tank out there, but their DPS capabilities are among the best as well throughout the entirety of content.

There will also be a huge push to get warrior tanks in once Naxxramas opens up as well, since the common strategy to beat the Four Horsemen requires 8 warrior tanks to pull off.

[Hammerfest]

Warriors are not only the best (and only) raid tank out there, but their DPS capabilities are among the best as well throughout the entirety of content.

DPS Warriors weren't a think during most of Vanilla. I didn't see a Fury Warrior in a raid until Naxx.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Well of course their will be to a certain point.

A whole lot of setups in raiding in classic goes like this. 1-2 warrior "main tanks" that do most the tanking. Sometimes a 3rd will be in there and could be something like a bear tank that gives crit to a group and also pick up some adds or something if needed. Then you will have a couple DPS warriors that spec just enough into tanking to be viable off tank but mostly DPS. Where you land in this run of people will depend a lot on who you know, who you prove yourself to, and if you are good at what you do.

When it comes to like 5 mans and stuff you pretty much can get into any group you want. So that part of the game will be nice. Also some 5 mans were pretty profitable to run with people you know can do it well. So you being willing in those situations can make you and some friends a lot of money.

[urasim]

Even though there will probably be an abundance of Warriors in Classic, you'll still easily be able to find a spot in a guild. Warriors are not only the best (and only) raid tank out there, but their DPS capabilities are among the best as well throughout the entirety of content.

There will also be a huge push to get warrior tanks in once Naxxramas opens up as well, since the common strategy to beat the Four Horsemen requires 8 warrior tanks to pull off.

They were also the best in group pvp, too. At least on horde side that is(windfury totem + warrior = godmode).

DPS Warriors weren't a think during most of Vanilla. I didn't see a Fury Warrior in a raid until Naxx.

Guessing you were alliance.

[Rakaji]

DPS Warriors weren't a think during most of Vanilla. I didn't see a Fury Warrior in a raid until Naxx.

Big difference between what was then and what is now. The knowledge base for playing the game is way more expansive than it was in the original days, and part of that abundance of guides, knowledge and such has been players on private servers (with blizz-like balancing, mind you) using DPS warriors and rogues to push content as quickly as possible. You simply can't beat either of those two classes at an equal gear level.

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They were also the best in group pvp, too. At least on horde side that is(windfury totem + warrior = godmode).

Oh, for sure. The only downside is that warriors in solo or 1v1 pvp situations were pretty damned disadvantaged - especially versus classes like Mages, Hunters and Shadow Priests. That's a good excuse to get good, though!

[Mormolyce]

I assume healers would be massively in demand? I mean even more so than usual.

Which would make the options Priest, Druid and Shaman? How was the healer balance in Vanilla? I seem to recall Priests being a bitch to level though.

[Orbusg]

Maybe fury warriors weren't a thing until end game back then, but go on any pserver and 2hand fury is THE leveling spec.
And if you have a shaman in the party throwing down windfury totems, good times and big numbers are soon to follow.

[God Save The King]

Tanks were much more needed in dungeons compared to raids, since the % of the group made up of tanks were higher in dungeons than raids.

It's similar today, when you need 2 tanks out of 20 people, 10% tanks, to do a raid, whereas you need 1 tank of 5 people, 20%, to do a dungeon.

[Lucarocks92]

I assume healers would be massively in demand? I mean even more so than usual.

Which would make the options Priest, Druid and Shaman? How was the healer balance in Vanilla? I seem to recall Priests being a bitch to level though.

Playing Resto Shaman will most likely put you in a good position for demand anyway.

Chain Heal being really the only good AOE heal as well as bringing totems to the raid

Resto Shaman will probably be one of the most in demand classes in Vanilla

[God Save The King]

I assume healers would be massively in demand? I mean even more so than usual.

Which would make the options Priest, Druid and Shaman? How was the healer balance in Vanilla? I seem to recall Priests being a bitch to level though.

It depends on the patch, but priests were generally the go to healer. Druids were useful for brez, innervate, etc, shamans had totems, and paladins had buffs. But priests were the strongest for a while.

[Jilor]

Some false statements in this thread. Dps warriors did exist before Naxx. I raided with several over my two years in Vanilla. They benefitted greatly on the horde side from Windfury Totem. I can't speak for alliance. And of course, the 1200 different pet names for the 'execute' phase when the dps warriors would go from middle of the pack dps to top 10. The issue was getting them geared enough to make them competitive. But a geared dps warrior was incredibly useful.

Warriors were not the only tanks. I had bear tanks in ZG, AQ and Naxx. Were they as good as warriors? Absolutely not. BUT they did serve purposes both with their health pool and the fact that if you're trying to gear four (or like mentioned above - as many as eight) warriors for tanking, it's actually nice to have a tank that isn't absorbing the same tank gear and making the gearing process for tanks that much longer. And 4H could totally be done with six tanks, it's how my guild did it (one of which was a feral druid - no idea why someone would think a feral druid couldn't taunt just like a warrior could).

[Rakaji]

2hand fury is THE leveling spec..

unfortunately, no. Unless you are with a group of people (or just a healer), leveling as a warrior is a massive pain in the ass. It's worth it once you get to 60, though.

[Jilor]

unfortunately, no. Unless you are with a group of people (or just a healer), leveling as a warrior is a massive pain in the ass. It's worth it once you get to 60, though.

Agreed, leveling a warrior in Vanilla sucked. But give that same warrior Naxx weapons or a Thunderfury and it was totally worth it.

[Mormolyce]

Playing Resto Shaman will most likely put you in a good position for demand anyway.

Chain Heal being really the only good AOE heal as well as bringing totems to the raid

Resto Shaman will probably be one of the most in demand classes in Vanilla

Was chain heal party specific back then? Were the other Shaman specs any good as well?

[urasim]

It depends on the patch, but priests were generally the go to healer. Druids were useful for brez, innervate, etc, shamans had totems, and paladins had buffs. But priests were the strongest for a while.

This is accurate.

Priests were the best. Shamans brought a, somewhat unreliable, fear break. Which was lacking on horde side. They also boosted DPS more than their alliance counterpart of paladins. But paladins did have an amazing threat dropping skill. Paladins also came with single target 5 minute buffs... So, I guess that's the tradeoff?

You'll need druids for fights like chromaggus. Unless you force your mages to dispel the curse...

Was chain heal party specific back then? Were the other Shaman specs any good as well?

Chain heal and totems was restricted to group.

Resto was the only viable raid spec until the end of BC when elemental found a roll in sunwell. But they weren't even close to top dps.

unfortunately, no. Unless you are with a group of people (or just a healer), leveling as a warrior is a massive pain in the ass. It's worth it once you get to 60, though.

Probably the worst leveling class in the game until wrath.

[Nitros14]

Hm, just off my vague memory/best guess and wowpedia for 40-mans.

Molten Core Trash 4-5 Tanks?
Lucifron: 4-5? Guard against mind controls.
Magmadar: 1
Gehennas: 3
Garr: 5-6 don't all need to be specced and geared.
Baron Geddon: 1
Shazzrah: 1
Golemagg the Incinerator: 3
Sulfuron Harbinger: 4-5? could be done with less.
Majordomo Executus: 4-5? Can CC 4 of the things.
Ragnaros: 3-4? Alternating getting knocked back, might want more for the sons.

Razorgore: I seem to recall guilds using 4-5 tanks to kite the adds around here.
Vaelastrasz: He blows up a tank every 45 seconds, has to be dead by ~3:15. So four tanks?
Broodlord Lashlayer: You'll probably want 4-5 tanks just for the suppression room, Broodlord has a constant threat drop.
Firemaw/Ebonroc/Flamegor: Constant threat drop so you'll probably need at least 2.
Chromaggus: 3? If the bronze breath is around. Otherwise 1.
Nefarian: Probably at least four for phase 1+20%.

The Prophet Skeram: Probably five to cover mind controls and all the boss clones.
Silithid Royalty: Four? Two on Yauj and two on the other bosses.
Battleguard Sartura: Probably at least 4-5 to keep everything under control with the whirlwinds.
Fankriss the Unyielding: At least two on the boss, I don't think the spawns were tanked just feared or kited and killed.
Princess Huhuran: At least three to rotate the dot.
Twin Emperors: I think a lot of guilds used warlocks to tank an Emperor but some used warriors. You'll need a warrior on each side and some to tank bugs.
Ouro: Probably 3-4, two for sweep tank swaps and some to pick up bugs, unless you just want to try to cc and kite them all.
C'thun: At least 2 to cover giant claw tentacle spawns.

Anub'Rekhan: At least 3.
Grand Widow Faerlina: 4-5 to get everything picked up.
Maexxna: 1
Noth the Plaguebringer: 4, one for each spawn point + Noth
Heigan the Unclean: 1, but maybe more for trash gauntlet.
Loatheb: 1
Patchwerk: 4, one main tank, three hateful tanks.
Grobbulus: 1
Gluth: At least 2, maybe more if using tanks to kite chow.
Thaddius: 2
Instructor Razuvious: 2-3 to pick up understudies?
Gothik the Harvester: 4-5?
The Four Horsemen: 6-8 depending on gear.
Sapphiron: 1
Kel'Thuzad: 5-6 for backup on chains and guardians.

[Orbusg]

Didn't say it wasn't bad, the low to mid level ranges are still slow and a pain, but it's still the spec most people go to for leveling a warrior.

Arms is a beast for leveling once they changed rend ticks to trigger overpower, don't remember if that was tbc or wrath but it ain't in vanilla.