Wow needs more Tanks!

[SirLancelittle]

I play a druid so when I queue for the new LFG I always queue as healer/tank/dps figuring this will get me a group the fastest. And it does. If I just queue as dps or healer is often takes 10 minutes to find a group. If I queue as tank (or as healer/tank/dps) I always end up in a group within seconds (as the tank). Has anyone else noticed this inbalance.

I think the reason for this problem is pretty simple. Every 25 man uses 7-8 healers and only 2-3 tanks. But in 5 mans you need an equal number. The result is that there are generally 3 times as many healers as tanks which causes a buffer problem where every group is LF tank.

I'm really not sure how blizzard could fix this problem, besides requiring more off tanks in raids. Any ideas?

[Eyetotem]

this is both a new and exciting observation..........

[Cpttrips]

dont look at me ill heal but i dont like tanking :P

im a bloodelf im to pretty to be a meatshield it messes up my perfect hair

[crayven]

i like tanking but since they made all raid bosses DESTROY tanks, no fucking wonderno many ppl play such spec <.<

[magicism]

God, I wish tanks did more dps so they were easier to level...

[Shiira]

Well at least you're part of the solution and not part of the problem, there is nothing worse than druids, warriors, paladins or death knights complaining about this same issue and yet refusing to tank anything.

[Aerikaya]

7-8 healers? We are by no means hardcore and we 5 heal most content with an occasional 6th offspec healer for a very select few fights.

There are fewer tanks because we are the most gear dependent role, having to juggle the defence cap, health, and avoidance while still being able to throw around enough threat. Right now with the way gear drops its hard enough to gear out 3 tanks for current content(hardmodes, not just badge gear) and you would have us have to gear 5, or 7-8 per your example?

Sure one piece of plate tank gear drops from almost every boss, equal to dps and healing... and how many cloth drops per boss? Mail? Leather? Oh poor bear tanks are rolling against kitty dps AND rogues aside from the fact that the leather drop could be SP.

On the flip side, what would a 5 tank fight be like? Council fight? 5 man cleaves? Taunt immune with aggro dumps? High King in Gruul's was close, but it had gimmicks (mage tank, enslaved felpup tank, etc)

As for the reason so few play tanks, its because we are almost always the first ones shit on when something goes wrong, even if its out of our control. And from the way most people respond in chat, they don't take criticism well(read "QQ the RL yelled at me, /wrists, WTS Lvl80 DK, etc)

[johnllt]

The main problem is the for the most part tanking is the hardest role in any group, especially if the rest of the group sucks, the dps can suck, the healer can suck but so long as the tank is good enough the group can avoid wipes.
Seriously, of all the times I've killed the BK a good number of them I was the last man standing.

[Pheonixis]

[awake283]

It's the most intuitive role in the game. If you're also a raging control freak, it fits that too. I dunno, I've always felt as a tank that what I do severely outweighs what the rest of the group does. I've carried so many terribad 5 mans it's mind boggling. But it works both ways! Paired with a balls-to-the wall skilled healer, you're unstoppable. High skill cap. High responsibility. High rewards.

[Thallidomaniac]

On the flip side, what would a 5 tank fight be like? Council fight? 5 man cleaves? Taunt immune with aggro dumps? High King in Gruul's was close, but it had gimmicks (mage tank, enslaved felpup tank, etc)

Vael and the original Four Horsemen encounters were examples of the need to have that many tanks.

[sh0k]

Vael and the original Four Horsemen encounters were examples of the need to have that many tanks.

vael could be done with 3-4 iirc, hitting the 5th was usually a bad sign in terms of dps output. 4hm required 6-8 tanks (pending your strategy). it was not fun.

on topic, im glad to join the dungeon finder and hit instant qs. im not so much a fan of carrying bads through groups, but its preferred to joining as dps, and watching a fail tank not know how to push buttons. i suppose im a bit of a control freak, id gladly be doing highest dps/damage throughout the instance, if it means no wipes. sadly, this tends to happen quite often since the patch (lolprotadindps). but i am a big fan of direct ports/port outs.

[Lifereaver]

I'm really not sure how blizzard could fix this problem, besides requiring more off tanks in raids. Any ideas?

Blizzard already tried to fix it by adding a new "Hero Class" that could tank without a shield. DK's were expected to fix the tank shortage but instead people don't want to tank with them they want to dps.

And in all my raid experience... 5 - 6 healers not 7 - 8 unless maybe you are learning new content in a not so hard core raiding guild.

2 - 3 tanks i pretty accurate with maybe another 1 or 2 tanks that are dual spec.

All those that rolled DK's just need to start learning to tank.

[alucardxvt]

God, I wish tanks did more dps so they were easier to level...

leveling 70 - 80 was easier and faster as a prot warrior then it was trying fury or arms.

[Royalite]

Waited ten minutes in a group with a healer (myself) and three dps. We were waiting on a tank for HoR. So I decided to switch to my 232-245 geared DK tank and instantly found a healer.

OMG I HATE TANKING HOR!!!!!

That is about all I will say about that horrid experience...

[Aerikaya]

Vael and the original Four Horsemen encounters were examples of the need to have that many tanks.

I know back in the 40mans it was common to have that many for those fights, but for a 25man thats a bit much.

[Zagga]

First of all most guild maintanks are being ninjaed by there guildies to go heroics each day. Most tanks that do heroics with pugs are alts or unguilded tanks, both of them rely heavilly on pugs to go where they want.

Now, its really nice when your tanking heroics and stuff, since you indeed get instant groups. But try going into a 25man, and it is quite the other way around. Pugs just wont invite you that often to a 25man, and for some reason they really always want to have exactly the minimum number of tanks with them, who are supposed to also outgear the place. most 25mans are ran with 2-3 tanks, meaning a 1 to 10 ratio. Also forget about being invited for your dps dualspec, most pugs seem to just invite all people that are only dps before inviting dualspecced guys because obviously your dps gear must suck...

This is the reason why so few people want to play tank indeed, it's not fun at all to hardly ever get a group for the top content, and when you do get a group most of the times your stuck on doing an OT job tanking that one add that spawns halfway through the fight or just /follow on the tank and afk (lol koralon and marrowgar).

The reason to "fix" this is indeed not to make more classes able to tank, but to design each encounter to require at least 2-3 tanks on 10man and 3-4 tanks on 25man. The problem however, is that if blizzard does this and it doesn't work in the way they intended, the whining about OMG THERE ARE TO FEW TANKS FIX IT will just get alot stronger.

[Mr_Bojangles]

No fights currently take that many tanks, that is very true. But, if blizzard wanted, they could easily make every encounter require that many tanks. I'm sure there are a ton of fun things they could come up with too, besides just eating cleaves and adds. This boss changes elements every 20 seconds, and needs a different tank to use his element. You get your element from a pool of magic 20 yards away or something. A boss does a target AoE that does a massive amount of damage to the closest thing to the point of impact, so you need a 40k hp tank to soak the blow so that someone 15 yards away doesnt die. They could easily make every fight have mechanics that need a ton of tanks.

[Grimreaper]

If you dont like the tank shortage, roll a tanking char. No really, i'm serious. If more people atleast made tanking alts, it would help quite a lot. But instead people prefer to faceroll the extremly easy roles, and then go whine about the game beeing too easy.

If you complain about tanking shortage without having any tanking chars, you are just another selfish moron.

[penorzilla]

I think the reason for this problem is pretty simple. Every 25 man uses 7-8 healers and only 2-3 tanks. But in 5 mans you need an equal number. The result is that there are generally 3 times as many healers as tanks which causes a buffer problem where every group is LF tank.

It is not even this, you have to break it down, who can tank? Well you have your warriors, your druids, your paladins and your death knights. Warriors and druids (myself being a warrior) are usually dps or healers, and not tanks seeing as paladins and death knights are more wanted for their aoe ability and useful buffs twords raids. This leaves 2 main tanking classes, compared to all the other classes that could easily dps or heal.