No Tanking Weps in Cata?

[Bucky Mclachlan]

I did think. I never said it would be hard to get a weapon, I was merely suggesting that it would be annoying to have to roll with a bunch of DPS, and then have to tank with a DPS weapon, it just feels awkward and sloppy by Blizzard.

---------- Post added 2010-06-27 at 09:10 PM ----------

That's it though. They said in the blue post that tanks won't want them anyway.

I think it will work out fine, it's just the fact that this seems lazy on Blizzards part, and just homogenizing weapons.
It's something when the players decide they want to do something sort of wacky, but to design it as such?

Given the extreme lack of available tanks in comparison to other classes, especially DPS it should be pretty clear that tanking classes need some sort of "homogenization". And by homogenization I mean they need to be more than a punching bag.

I'm sure all of these changes are going to result in more players rolling tanks. Maybe not a substantial amount at first but it'll surely be better than things currently are.

Besides, this certainly isn't the first time tanks have been using dps weapons, take note of the best tanking weapon available pre-bc, Thunderfury. It wasn't the best tanking weapon because it had the best stats for tanking.

And finally to completely counter your argument when it comes down to it being able to spec so you simply have a ton of HP and get threat simply by virtue of being in a specific stance or something IS LAZY. You should have to work for your aggro. You should have to compete against dps to hold that aggro.

That's the one and only reason I don't hate DK tanks most of them I do, because almost all of the players rolling them are total retards especially if they choose to dual wield. But they're actually a bit fun to play because their threat generation is based more off of DPS than any other tanking class.

When I'm on my warrior the only time I enjoy tanking is when I'm off tanking in hybrid arms spec. Because my ability to tank isn't just a matter of me simply being a walking punching bag and I enjoy competing against dps to maintain threat. It was awesome in 3.1 when I could MT some bosses in that spec like Malygos and maintain 4k+ dps. That was fun.

So between this and Blizz's talk about changing misdirection and tricks so it's not simply more free threat for your tank I for one am very excited about this. Tanking might actually be fun in Cataclysm, imagine that.

[Crawford]

In the recent post there was something mentioned about lack of, or possibly removal of tanking weapons.



This makes it sound like tanks will be rolling against a bunch of DPS classes now, including other Warriors if they go through with an alternative to Titans Grip.

I personally love tank weapons, and do not know where they got the notion that tanks don't want tanking weapons. Not only do I like weapons that increase mitigation/avoidance, I really dislike having to roll against a bunch of DPS.

I would have posted this in the Warrior forums, since that is what I play, but this really concerns all tanking classes.


Thoughts on this? Would you like to use DPS weapons in Cata? Will there still be "Tank Weapons" with just a bit more Stam like they said in the blue post?

Yeah, I dislike having to roll against other people too. Right now, itemization is kind of a mess.

There are only two tanks per raid, and only warriors and pallies use the 1h tank weapons. But they have to be itemized.

And only rogues and enhance shaman use 1H dps weapons. And only rogues use daggers, but not all rogues. But they have to be itemized.

And they have healing maces, but the holy paladins want the crit/haste sword anyway, and the only reason priests take the mace is that they can't equip the sword.

And Resto/Moonkin, Hpally and Rshaman have to be individually itemized and each kind of loot drops roughly as every other kind.

Honestly, I'm not sure why you think you deserve automatic loot for being the tank. I've been playing with a prot warrior lately, and I think instance tanking is pretty easy.

---------- Post added 2010-06-28 at 03:09 AM ----------

Given the extreme lack of available tanks in comparison to other classes, especially DPS it should be pretty clear that tanking classes need some sort of "homogenization". And by homogenization I mean they need to be more than a punching bag.

There is a shortage of tanks because instances require 1 in 5 players to be a tank, while raids require 1 in 10 players to be a tank.

I think the fix is to let classes that can tank have a third spec.

[TheDrsour]

My guild has the worst of luck ever with tanking weapons. Literally, about 50 LK kills, 10 and 25 man combined across a few different toons total, my guild has seen 1 25 man, and 1 10 man weapon. Also 1 Sorthilas, and 1 of each of the 10 man ToGC10 weapons.

I'd like to see "tank" weapons go away, just so I can have a weapon keeping up with everyone else, and actually DO competitive TPS, although threat sounds like it won't be an issue with some of the mastery changes.

Lol i agree. My guild has only killed lich king once on 25 man because we only raid 2 nights a week and we are working on heroic modes 25 man. But on that 1 lich king 25 man kill we got 2 hunter polearms...yes...two...i was like...wtf...variety please? lol

[jonfauscett]

I don't even use a tanking weapon when I slap on my shield, The fact is that I have better threat and hit (surprisingly little hit on endgame tanking gear) with a DPS weapon.

[Crawford]

Fixed.

The ratio of tanks to everything else is lower for 25 man raids than it is for 10 mans and heroics. That contributes to the tank shortage.

And while I agree with your first comment, that tanks should not get automatic loot (many times it ends up sharded, as it doesnt take long to gear 2 tanks in 10man barring bad luck on drops), I think your last comment refers to giving tanking classes a trispec? If thats the case, thats absurd.

Not only would allowing tanking classes to trispec be blatant favoritism (you could go as far as saying druids have 4 valid specs, so they should get quadspec while no one else does.. see how dumb that is?), it would not increase the tanking population at all. The people who WANT to tank, WILL tank. The dps who play a tanking class, but dont WANT to, WONT. No amount of specs will change that. No one needs trispec, speccing is supposed to be a choice, there are multiple threads and blue posts on this and the topics been beat to death, so let it go.

I understand Blizzard's rationale for not wanting tri-spec; they want spec to feel like an important decision.

But at the same time, they have to understand that every role and function needs a tailored spec. PvP needs a min-maxed spec; PvE damage needs a min-maxed spec; PvE tanking needs a min-maxed spec. You can't hybridize your spec for multiple purposes unless the content is designed to be very gentle on players with suboptimal specs. I would much rather a healer get three specs than for content to be designed so that healers in PvP specs can cruise through the endgame.

My main is a warlock. I have a spec for PvE and a spec for PvP. A Warrior need to be able to do PvE damage sometimes, PvE tanking sometimes, and PvP sometimes. If he wants to have a spec for PvP, he can't be optimized for one of his PvP roles. Every time a warrior or a death knight chooses PvE damage and PvP for his two specs, the player pool loses a tank.

Blizzard's position that spec should feel like an important choice comes with a price, and that price is long dungeon-finder queues for DPS. I would much rather tanks get three specs than to have 15 minute dungeon queues, or to have heroics designed to be tankable by an arms warrior.

[Myrlae]

Maybe there will be more weapons like Last Word

[killingcheese]

Welcome to what DK tanks have had to do since forever.

stfu dk, you've had it EZ mode since Wotlk. JS