Tanking has gotten really boring.

[Brodeo]

Tanking used to be more challenging when tank AoE had limited targets. Most of the boring AoE spamfests we call dungeons now can be attributed to this. Combined with the fact that mobs used to kill people who werent tanks, it actually made good play distinguishable. Good tanks had threat on things, good DPS waited and lived.

Active mitigation doesnt really fill that void. If you spend your class resources on your AM abilities, cool, you saved some healer mana, maybe a wipe in the long run. Outside of the actual challenging content though, mostly irrelevant. If youre the best tank in the world maybe you can juggle it and still only pinch off a few extra thousand DPS.

I do like the idea, and i feel like it was well-implemented for Monks and DKs, but warriors, druids, and paladins all have a pretty boring setup.

Theres no challenge anymore. Nothing about tanking is hard. Juggling 5-6 mobs with lacerates and 3-target swipe used to be engaging. People died if you were awful. If youre not a tank, you probably love this, but honestly i think its negatively impacting people interested in that role. I've all but quit tanking as a result. At least when i DPS i can benchmark my performance.

Theres more to this and i didnt think this out much, but i am interested how other former/current tanks feel about the direction the role is heading in.

[Wildmoon]

It's a legit criticism. Back then I was tanking with my bear and I remember switching target to keep my aggro a lot.

[Nize]

May I suggest challenge modes (as you brought up tanking dungeons)?

[Sketchygr]

100 percent agree. I remember starfiring one mob, moonfiring another and switching to bear form before the pack reached. Also having to be on the ball ready to taunt if a loose mob started running out towards a dps. Nowadays everyone has 5 cds to get out of sticky situations there is no concentration required.

[Aquamonkey]

I remember when using caster gear to place mushrooms and making a macro to detonate and switch to bear gear for pulls was a thing.

[Deleted]

How would you fix tanking?

There's no real way to stand out like a damage dealer or healer could, and afaik this has always been the case. A horrible tank could wipe a raid just like a horrible DPS/healer could. The difference between an average tank and an amazing tank is a lot smaller: you could make progress with either. I feel that having great DPS/healers has a far greater impact on your progress than having a great tank, as opposed to just mediocre dps/healers/tanks.

These days I get most of my tanking kicks by combining it with raid leading and trying to improve my raids and my tanking wherever I can: predicting damage income and using AM accordingly and using the right type of AM (Sblock, Sbar) to make life easier for my healers, making interaction with other tanks (taunt swaps) and interaction with bosses (kiting, positioning, etc) as smooth as possible, explaining tactics, setting up raid positions and configuring groups, etc.

I feel that tanks have the ideal playstyle for a raid leader: you're ought to know when shit is about to hit the fan, which a raid leader should know as well. You don't have the whack-a-mole style gameplay a healer has - with their raid frames requiring constant attention - and your rotation tends to be less complicated than DPS rotations.

TL;DR: if you find tanking boring, look for extra challenge by taking on a (raid) leadership role.

[Deleted]

How would you fix tanking?

There's no real way to stand out like a damage dealer or healer could, and afaik this has always been the case. A horrible tank could wipe a raid just like a horrible DPS/healer could. The difference between an average tank and an amazing tank is a lot smaller: you could make progress with either. I feel that having great DPS/healers has a far greater impact on your progress than having a great tank, as opposed to just mediocre dps/healers/tanks.

These days I get most of my tanking kicks by combining it with raid leading and trying to improve my raids and my tanking wherever I can: predicting damage income and using AM accordingly and using the right type of AM (Sblock, Sbar) to make life easier for my healers, making interaction with other tanks (taunt swaps) and interaction with bosses (kiting, positioning, etc) as smooth as possible, explaining tactics, setting up raid positions and configuring groups, etc.

I feel that tanks have the ideal playstyle for a raid leader: you're ought to know when shit is about to hit the fan, which a raid leader should know as well. You don't have the whack-a-mole style gameplay a healer has - with their raid frames requiring constant attention - and your rotation tends to be less complicated than DPS rotations.

TL;DR: if you find tanking boring, look for extra challenge by taking on a (raid) leadership role.

That exacly Tanking isnt just simple press this button on that mob.Good tanks have to deal with lots of factors in the batle coz if they die that can be wipe unlike death of 1 dps or healer.Tanks need to know fights perfect from any side.

[Brodeo]

Tanking is harder than ever you actually have stuff to do besides pop cds when shit gets bad, this system rewards good tanks and it punishes bad tanks.

Playing a pally tank with constant GCD cap is amazing, being a bear and having stupidly high health and dodge is fun too plus the crit.

Strongly disagree. BC bear tank was high health and dodge. Sure, it punishes bad tanks, but you have to be REALLY FUCKING BAD for it to even begin to matter outside of heroic raids.

[Giscoicus]

Idk, I much prefer the active mitigation style instead of passive.

But I would like to see it be harder, however LFRHeroes stuggle enough

[mistahwilshire]

Tanking is definitely harder and FAR less boring than it's ever been in real raids (Heroic). It's still pretty boring I think but 10x less so than it used to be. It was simply horrendous before. There honestly never was a challenge and you're lying to yourself if you think there was. Current Heroic tanking is without a doubt more difficult.

[Brodeo]

How would you fix tanking?

There's no real way to stand out like a damage dealer or healer could, and afaik this has always been the case. A horrible tank could wipe a raid just like a horrible DPS/healer could. The difference between an average tank and an amazing tank is a lot smaller: you could make progress with either. I feel that having great DPS/healers has a far greater impact on your progress than having a great tank, as opposed to just mediocre dps/healers/tanks.

These days I get most of my tanking kicks by combining it with raid leading and trying to improve my raids and my tanking wherever I can: predicting damage income and using AM accordingly and using the right type of AM (Sblock, Sbar) to make life easier for my healers, making interaction with other tanks (taunt swaps) and interaction with bosses (kiting, positioning, etc) as smooth as possible, explaining tactics, setting up raid positions and configuring groups, etc.

I feel that tanks have the ideal playstyle for a raid leader: you're ought to know when shit is about to hit the fan, which a raid leader should know as well. You don't have the whack-a-mole style gameplay a healer has - with their raid frames requiring constant attention - and your rotation tends to be less complicated than DPS rotations.

TL;DR: if you find tanking boring, look for extra challenge by taking on a (raid) leadership role.

I've always done those things in raid. Healing is also in the same boat as tanking. Its gotten boring. I enjoyed healing at the start of cata when it got challenging, but when they nerfed everything i lost interest. Thats another thread though.

As far as fixing it, its hard to say. Making it harder will only decrease tank population, but i also feel that a lot of good players are steering clear because of its current state. "Doing well" doesnt need to be a quantifiable thing. At the moment though, theres is only "full-retard" and blend into the background. Im not even sure theres a way to tell who is good (outside heroics) unless youre playing an undergeared healer.

[Deleted]

I've brought this up on the forums before. DPS should be in REAL danger of death if they pull aggro. There should be consequences for being over-zealous, impatient or downright bad.

Just recently I joined a dungeon, as a guardian druid, and before I'd even buffed, the warrior in the group was running ahead of me pulling everything. A tank wasn't needed.

If a dps enters combat with a dungeon mob or boss, they should HAVE to kite it or blow defensive cooldowns to survive. All dps want in dungeons now is a key to let them in. That key is the "tank" role, but it doesn't mean anything anymore.

[Deleted]

Tanking has become a brainless role thats why I switched to dps role this xpac (was tank since vanilla)

[Deleted]

Yep, dps and healing are definitively fun and challenging in 5 mans. Also, keeping aggro in the past was challenging and fun for all the parts involved. Want me to point you over a few terrible logs and show you the difference between a good and a bad tank? Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but really, some things claim to Heaven.

[Brodeo]

Tanking is definitely harder and FAR less boring than it's ever been in real raids (Heroic). It's still pretty boring I think but 10x less so than it used to be. It was simply horrendous before. There honestly never was a challenge and you're lying to yourself if you think there was. Current Heroic tanking is without a doubt more difficult.

Not sure thats true. Aside from brewmasters and DKs, the system is pretty straight forward. Hell, even movement is easier due to the lack of crushing blows.

On a druid or warrior, theres really no variation. You have 2 options based on the type of damage youre taking/going to take. Theres a ceiling that is too fucking easy to hit. The difference between competent and great is a few thousand DPS.

- - - Updated - - -

Tanking has become a brainless role thats why I switched to dps role this xpac (was tank since vanilla)

Feral (guardian) since BC launch. Fucking hate guardian changes, but again, another thread

[Damosapien]

if your finding tanking boring your simply not doing it right, the tanking role has changed, you have to maximize your mitigation now and also have maximise your damage done, tank damage meant something for a few in cata but before that it meant nothing, you could get aggro then afk until somebody got close for all of wrath, in bc/vanilla you had to read essays to raid tank.

tanking now is in the best spot its ever been.

[Louis CK]

It's funny, because when I say things like this, I get a dozen people quoting my posts and telling me I'm stupid for thinking tanking is too easy/boring nowadays. I tanked from BC to Cata (Firelands) and stopped in Firelands when they broke threat.

I agree OP.

[Nemah]

Strongly disagree. BC bear tank was high health and dodge. Sure, it punishes bad tanks, but you have to be REALLY FUCKING BAD for it to even begin to matter outside of heroic raids.

Exactly. I think the designers kind of "overfixed" tanking in a lot of ways. I don't tank as a main, but up until the 500% threat buff or whatever it was always maintained a tank on the side for pinch hitting when the guild needed it.

While I enjoy the active mitigation play style and love that direction (some classes being a bit more fun with it than others) it's as said above - it's pretty mindless up to a certain point. I don't think we need to go back to BC era tanking, because with the current state of the player base I think tanks would largely vanish (accountability is painful in the new WoW crowd), but somewhere between that and now would be nice.

Sometimes I wonder if there are so few tanks about simply because in "average" content they're dull.

[barackohmama]

Tanking is not hard now lols. Last time tanking was hard was in TBC. back then you had to work for aggro and really pay attention to your gear and cds before big hits.

[Angrybathtub]

Go do challenge modes but after 50+ runs those become boring aoefests too.