Why can't tanks just deal competitive DPS?

[draticus]

I think the difference is that you can tank low level dungeons in any gear but at 85 you have to run heroics as dps until you have full tank gear before you can tank. All they need to do is make entry level tanking gear easily accessible. Make leather workers and blacksmiths level their professions by crafting tanking gear so that people who WANT to tank CAN. I would love to tank from the start at 85 but it takes forever queueing as a dps, building dps gear, and then eventually building tank gear when the tanks don't need it. They want to encourage people to tank as much as possible but then they make it so that you can't tank until you have all your gear and once you have all your gear you dont need to run heroics much anymore. Let me get easy tanking gear, then Ill run heroics as a tank in order to get dps gear. That'll result in me queueing as a tank at least twice as many times before I'm fully heroic geared in both specs. Problem solved.

[Sanctioned]

Honestly at lower levels there's barely even need for a tank anymore, that's why it's more popular. Fast queues for throwing on a shield. And some tanks out there I've seen pull some major DPS so it's just on knowing what to do.

[Deleted]

just pull the mobs and hold aggro. if you wanna do dps make a dps spec/class. and don't bother tanking
sorry but i think that that was the most stupid idea even

[Auralan]

All they need to do is make entry level tanking gear easily accessible.

There are tons of crafted and rep tank items out there. Think I had 3 epics equipped at the moment of hitting lvl 85, and was running hc's at the 9th of december already. It's not that difficult to gear up.

[The High Druid]

I see no problem at all with this as long as it is done through the vengeance mechanic, or something similar.

So, to the people saying why take anything other than a tank to a raid? Because everyone other than the person getting hit would be doing crappy damage. You would have to be actually tanking to get the damage on par with others. Not to mention having a raid with 7/19 melee would be suicidal.

And as for PvP (I don't PvP much these days so I have not much idea on this) but can't you just stop vengeance working in PvP? Problem solved.

I think it could actually lead to some more intersting tactical decisions on raids, do you take an extra tank to take over in emergencies but accept the lower damge, or take the extra DPS to kill stuff faster? Imagine a scenario where the 2nd or 3rd tank *has* to build up sufficient vengeance while off-tanking something and then swap to the main boss in order for the fight to succeed?

Just to be absolutely clear, I'd be all for this as long as the additional damage only works while you are actually tanking and not if you are just doing melee damage.

[killars]

Pure DPS classes already feel stupid when a hybrid can out DPS them I don't think having tanks, who already play such a vital role, topping charts would go over so well. I play a Rogue and I feel it is my job to do the most damage as it is all I can contribute no matter what spec I am (excluding kicking grrrrr). If a tank who can already serve his role amazingly well by taking immense amounts of damage and get healed through it could also do the same or more damage as me I wouldn't want to be playing the game much longer.

I've personally never had a tank beat me on a 5 man boss, I don't think trash damage really counts for too much when talking about balancing classes etc.

[SkitZoFrenic]

Why not let Dps heal as well as healers?

They already do. They are called melee dps...

[ComputerNerd]

The tank role has greater survivivbility, and from a pvp view is meant according to a blizzard quote have superior control.
Add that to have competitive dps and you have something which removes the reason for any hybrid that can to play a dps over a tank.
Tanks need a compromise and that is their dps, dps have their compromise in their relative squishyness compared to a tank.
I don't see why hybrids shouldn't be competitive if specced for the dps role, but should have their ability to perform other tasks substantially nerfed, particularly their ability to heal or tank while not specced for it. That currently I do not feel is the case.

[Firedemon]

I lol'd so hard. What's the point of having squishy dps if tanks do as much as them ....

You sir just won the trolling contest for tonight.

[XenuMC]

As previously mentioned, if tanks could deal competitive dps then there would be no point in taking squishy dps'ers when you could kill every boss with 8 tanks and 2 healers.

Vengeance says hi. 7 of those tanks would do crap dps because they aren't tanking. Besides, have fun this tier with 8 melee. What will you kill exactly? Argaloth?

[Kruul]

if tanks delt as much as dps then a raid would be heals tanks maybe 1 or 2 mages for CC. silly idea wont ever ever ever happen.

[Afrosaurus]

if tanks delt as much as dps then a raid would be heals tanks maybe 1 or 2 mages for CC. silly idea wont ever ever ever happen.

Yes, because Vengeance has absolutely no effect on tank dps.


@OP, I hold my own 12-13k dps while tanking. I've seen tanks do a piddly 4k dps while tanking, and it really is just a matter of knowing your rotation.

[draticus]

There are tons of crafted and rep tank items out there. Think I had 3 epics equipped at the moment of hitting lvl 85, and was running hc's at the 9th of december already. It's not that difficult to gear up.

No, it's not difficult to gear up. But you do it as a dps running heroics. It's simple math, if every tanks starts out in heroics as dps and gets tank gear while they're getting dps gear then by the time they have enough tank gear to tank heroics they aren't going to need to run heroics much longer to finish out their gear. They'll already have all their dps gear by that point. There are NOT enough tank pieces to buy a complete set off the AH. And most people do not the gold to spend 30k on tanking shoulders anyway. You can't build policy around "should." And most tanks/healers are not skilled enough for tanks to tank a heroic in 333 gear like they "Should" be able to in a skilled guild run. Every tank I know was willing to tank long before they had the gear to tank. If they have people wanting to tank but lacking the gear while they're trying to create new incentives for tanks to queue then they're obviously overlooking the solution of making entry level tank gear easier to obtain.