Shaman tank cataclysm

[Lohmar]

Shaman were never tanks, even in vanilla WoW. Yeah we had some talents for it but it was a half idea that never really happened. Heck, back then warriors were really the only tanks. Even prot pallys and feral druids didn't really work as tanks.

Shaman could tank pretty much in the same way any class can tank, by soaking up enough healing to not die, but we were never a tank class and I don't expect it to ever change so please just let it die and reroll one of the 4 tanking classes if you really want to tank.

^
Wasn't around during Vanilla

[Omanley]

The only thing even remotely tank specific on that list is the taunts and even that is a stretch. Some of the things you list aren't even talents but glyphs.
Hunters have a taunt. Does that mean they are a tank?
Warlocks have a nuke that has extra aggro. Does that mean they are a tank?
Priests have bubbles. Does that mean they are a tank?
Mages have an armor that does damage to anyone that attacks them. Does that mean they are a tank?
Hunters have talents to for parry and dodge. Does that make them a tank.
Etc etc.

Even if you want to argue that we have more than other classes it doesn't mean that they need to be removed or we have to be made into a tank class. Similar talents and abilities can be useful for other things. The taunts on the wolf/earth elemental are actually useful. The earth elemental would be completely useless with out the taunt. For wielding shields there are currently 2 classes that want tanking shields and 2 classes that want caster shields. I see no need for that to be changed. You have to look at the class/spec as a whole and not just a select group of talents/abilities. Any class could says if they just added stuff to let us tank we could tank.

you forgot to mention several things:
1.) hunters have distracting shot, which is hardly ever used and therefor just as useless for them as the tanking shit is for us. in the 1:100000000000 event a hunter uses this ability, he is either a noob or his m8es are noobs for him to have to use it. the normal hunter prolly doesn´t have it in his action bar.

2.) warlocks have searing pain which is a spammable +aggro spell. it´s only used in a very small ammount of encounters, where warlocks indeed do tank on range. encounters where they do tank are for example: leotheras the blind in ssc or one of the adds in the kael'thas fight in the fortress of storms.
so while it is still a rare to use ability, warlocks are indeed situational tanks

3.)priests have bubbles, but they can put them on others. that´s a supportive action which isn´t tank specific

4.)mages have a little dmg backlash on their armor, but that´s more of a bonus additional to what it adds

-a taunt is good for tanking nothing else. we have four taunts distributed among totems, pets and ourselves
-a +aggro ability is good for raising aggro, which only benefits tanking
-the +armor and blocking only benefits tanks, as melee does mor dmg with 2h or dw, and casters not getting hit outside of pvp. shamans can weild shields because they originally could tank
-parry/dodge/block isn´t useful outside of tanking and pvp either
-lightning shield does dmg with static shock, but it´s original design was to do dmg to attackers only. that´s a tanking ability because the only place where you are directly attacked besides pvp is, again, tanking

face it, shamans have a good amount of left over tank flavor,and keep gewtting it each x-pack instead of survivability, mobility, versatility or (since 3.0) equally good buffs.
blizz adding those kind of abilities each and every x-pack is prove they do not really look at our class
and giving us a taunt while saying at the same point we are not supposed to tank is a slap in the shaman face.

the earth elemental is even with the taunt completely useless. i´ve never used it outside of doing group quests when leveling. it´s about as useful as sentry totem atm, which they get rid of.

the wolves taunt is as useful as earth elemental, i never used it besides soloing grp quests or simply using it because of the cool sound. the taunt would make more sense if wolves where avaiable for ele/resto, as it would give them a aggro holder to keep casting without being molested by a mob right on your face.

caster shields are simply there because two of the three tanking specs can also take a caster spec, that´s all there is. you could take caster shields out of the game and it would hardly affect shaman/pala.

while those other classes you mentioned where never meant to tank (with the exception of warlocks as occational ranged tanks), shaman was originally meant to tank. we had shield specialisation, which is all you need to know.

again, i onely want blizz to take a stand:
-make us tanks and improve the things we lack to achieve that
-or remove that useless crap and give us instead things we can put to use

[rabbimojo]

you forgot to mention several things:
1.) hunters have distracting shot, which is hardly ever used and therefor just as useless for them as the tanking shit is for us. in the 1:100000000000 event a hunter uses this ability, he is either a noob or his m8es are noobs for him to have to use it. the normal hunter prolly doesn´t have it in his action bar.
...

It isn't something encounters are built around, so there's never a time when a normal hunter would use it. However, an exceptional player knows how to use such mechanics to accomplish the unexpected. e.g., if one of a pair of tanks gets gibbed and your only (remaining?) brez is a bear tank, with coordination the hunter could taunt the boss long enough for the bear to brez.

Sure, lots of situations that wouldn't end well. You don't taunt a dragon into the raid. Most hunters probably should keep it off their bars, as a fat-finger taunt at the wrong time can be a raid-killer. However, there's nothing wrong with buying your group several seconds with taunt and/or deterrence when cleaves won't cause trouble. A boss running around is a boss not doing damage.

It's too bad so few people know what "clever use of game mechanics" really means.

That said I don't know whether the shaman taunt is actually much use. Part of why distracting shot has potential is because the hunter can live through it for a decent window due to range and deterrence. I think the OP's idea is amusing but unlikely to get much traction.

Oh, and lastly: We can say the raid is bad for ever getting into a situation where these abilities are used, but it's a silly comment. The entire progression concept is built on the idea that you+your group push as far as you can before hitting a difficulty ceiling. You then work to break that ceiling. I.e., unless you're lazy, at most times you're on the hardest content your guild can handle. I guess if you've never wiped, you can talk trash. :P

[Azyoulike]

you forgot to mention several things:
1.) hunters have distracting shot, which is hardly ever used and therefor just as useless for them as the tanking shit is for us. in the 1:100000000000 event a hunter uses this ability, he is either a noob or his m8es are noobs for him to have to use it. the normal hunter prolly doesn´t have it in his action bar.

Erm no? On Lady D heroic our hunter always kites deformed fanatics, I'm quite sure Distracting shot gets used there. Likewise on Saurfang I'm sure he DSs bloodbeasts when his target is dead. Valithria is another good place for it, keeping Blazing Zombies from exploding all over the tanks.

D shot is a very useful tool.

[conqq]

People don't like shaman tanks, never did, never will.
People like OP need to just stop posting & /gamequit for being nuisances to the community.

Just to reiterate, no one wants shaman tanks.

EVER.

[Vizardlorde]

1.) except resto, shaman have no instant heals. the only way to instant heal as enh is maelstrom, which you have to stack first. furthermore, potions are generally used for dps (haste pot)
2.) it is suiciding to taunt a boss which will 1hit you and probably even cleave your melee buddies as well when he turns around
3.) wether you use an ankh as resto or ele/enh, you will use it anyway in case you die, because it would be a waste to use ss/b-rezz on a dead shaman with ankh off cd. we dont have the freedom to choose which to b-rezz, but we still do it worse on ourselves as well
4.)to me, a new dmg spell would be FAR better than this. crappy utility is crappy, and not automatically better than an additional dmg spell
5.)there will be no such thing as a back up tank except melee dps specs of tanking classes i.e.: feral, fury, ret, frost/unholy dk, as they only have to switch into bear form/defensive stance/equip shield+1h or switch pressence. and shamans are not great in contributing to the raid. not anymore. the auras of other classes provide the same buffs in a more convienient package (range, undestroyable/dispellable, mobility, usable with utility)

a paladin had interrupt resistance and now gets an interupt as ret (earth shock => windshear)
a paladin has movement impairing effect removal and now has a snare (frostshock)
all that´s left is to give them an offensive dispell, and paladins are the better supporter, melee dps, healer, additional being able to tank, having the offensive capabilities of shamans ripped off together with their buffs.

oh well, i derail. rockbiter taunt is crap

wait, wait, wait since wen do paladin's have a snare havent read any blues about this... unless you are talking about seal of nobodyusesthis(justice) which is movement speed normalization not a snare

[Blankspace]

Blizz already stated Shaman tanking is a forgotten road.Period.
We are not getting tanking skills each xpac...we actually lost lost shield specialization and the increased armor talent in wotlk.
Rockbiter effect with unleash wep is prolly just cuz they have no idea what to do with rockbiter but want to keep it for the sake of having our 4 elements enchants...sooooo they gave us minor and super situational utility and it's fine really, u don't like - no1 will ask u to use it

And if i rember correctly rockbiter taunt works like distractiong shot and death grip, so pls keep in mind these work differently from regular ones like Taunt, Growl, Dark Command and pally one(name escapes me atm) ! Distracting and such ONLY force the mob to attack u(once it ends it will go back to the target with the highest threat), pretty much like taunting a mob u already have aggro on - it does not put u ontop of the threat table.

[Cerus]

To those who keep commenting on Distracting Shot and other similar abilities. They were used quite often in Vanilla and BC and WILL be making a comeback in Cata. There's a reason such aggro abilities exist - it's called kiting.

[Tempos]

I do believe that Shamans will be able to tank while leveling up, or even in higher level dungeons when u way outgear it. Even if we have a lot of tanking tools, we lack what all real tanks will have, reduced crit, and super armor. Shaman will never be able to tank newer content, they aren't designed for it, and honestly no healer would want to go through the experience.