MoP dereased the numer of Tanks and Healers, and WoD will do so even more ?

[Deleted]

This is how I see things right now and how I think (read fear) things will be in WoD.

The gameplay of Mists of Pandaria had some influence on the decreasing number of Tanks and healers because:
- Daily questing is most efficient as dps
- Scenario's favour (mostly) 3x dps
- There were very few 5 man dungeons between 86-90
- Hardly any reason to run heroic 5 man dungeons at 90
- Playing a Tank in LFR puts a target on you for frustrated people.

Now in WoD, I expect less reason to play as a tank or healer because:
- All of the things mentioned for MoP
- No flying, so world pvp will ensue and you will quest as dps.
- EVEN FEWER dungeons! (yet 5 more levels to bridge).
- You will have to fight for nodes/herbs more often because you can't fly (or fly away).
- Giant world pvp zone will not favour Tanking in general.

I know that we have double specs and that gear will be more usuable outside of main specs, but I still don't think that people will tank or heal because it's outside of their "comfort zone", and not unimportant either they might not be good at it because they don't regurlary play it because of the reasons above.

I will still play my Tank simply because I love tanking. But I gotta say, my current experiences and the foresight in WoD worry me somewhat.

[Nobleshield]

I'm waiting to see. To be honest, Active Mitigation is what turned me off from tanking (I just don't like how it feels), so we'll see if I like how it feels in WoD.

[Snuzzfizzle]

MoP is when I started playing 3 different tank classes. Active Mitigation was a great change.
Guess that's because I'm not interested in dailies, scenarios, 5m dungeons or LFR...

[Deleted]

I leveled as a Tank every expansion, it is slow to kill mobs but I enjoy never dying. I also played on a PVP server during Cata and it was always hilarious when a DPS tried to gank me only to find out that DK tanks were near invincible, I once had a fight that lasted about 20 minutes (no shit) eventually he got bored and ran away.

[Trubo]

I'm waiting to see. To be honest, Active Mitigation is what turned me off from tanking (I just don't like how it feels), so we'll see if I like how it feels in WoD.

Agree we'll have to wait and see but disagree on Active Mitigation. Tanking, to me, was the most boring role before it's implementation bar Death Knights.

[madmanx]

Just rename this thread "Raging over no flying in WoD".

Infracted, post constructively.

[Deleted]

...and yet most people will refuse to play those roles because "the mean people in LFR are calling me names". Doing dailies is piss easy in restoration gear as an ele shaman. I do it all the time and I don't know where these problems come from.

Being a tank or a healer isn't something you should be specced in all the time if you want to enjoy your class. It's not something that should be encouraged. You should only specc that when you're running a dungeon.

[Terridon]

Where did you get those make up numbers from? <.<
You found a lot less that tried to heal/tank in cataclysm from what i could see. It's not even a week ago there was a bonuspackage for being a dps in lfr :P
Never seen that before. Things is so easy that you swamp up in it. Specially on lower lvl things like dungeons and lfr.

You have dual spec for a reason.

[Nobleshield]

Agree we'll have to wait and see but disagree on Active Mitigation. Tanking, to me, was the most boring role before it's implementation bar Death Knights.

To each their own I know that personally I had a blast tanking in WotLK and Cataclysm (even the much lambasted "hard" early Heroics) but MoP came and it just was like "What the hell is this?" and it made me ultimately give it up.

[Pons]

You'll be able to get LFR-level loot from pre-made 5-mans.

It won't help make tanks available for LFR, but it's a data point too.

[TheWindWalker]

Did you miss the part where dungeons are going to have not only mop-easy max level normal but also cata-style max level heroics that can be run to gear up for raids? Ya know, a place that needs competent tanks that have passed a proving grounds silver in tanking so they can understand how to deal with harder mechanics than "spank it and wait for DPS to kill things?"

Honestly, unless there was a tank shortage at the beginning of Burning Crusade I don't see how this expansion will be a problem.

[Daffan]

5 mans suck in mop so bad

i hope wod is better

[Vightnic]

Haven't tanked since BC, healed since halfway through Cata. Probably coming back to both for WoD.

[gmfitzgerald]

I think that the real reason tanks are rare is because, even though they're semi-plentiful (by comparison) at low levels, they get to 90 and have nothing to do. Even if the raid group is 25 people, it still only needs 2 tanks. That often means 2 tanks *per guild*. What are you supposed to say, "Hey guys, can we let my ilvl 500 Druid tank Normal Garrosh for gear, then we can put him back in storage because we already have an MT and OT?" If our MT or OT is MIA for the night, it turns out there are actually six or seven us with 500-520 tanks that could poorly fill-in. We all made them, tank queued to 90, and then mothballed them.

If dailies and dungeons are going to cap out at (random #) ilvl 640 and the first Normal raid is going to go to 680, then a lot of the tanks will just be stuck at 640.

[Eon Drache]

Idk where you get your data, but queue times for 5 mans are much faster these days than they were in Cataclysm. I see more people enjoying tanking because they can still see the big numbers, and most tanks I run into love playing tank. They get to set the pace without getting kicked by a tank, and they still see big numbers. Source?

[jeremynative]

if they make it so gear changes based on your spec then there will be a lot more tanks and healers. you can *Enjoy* the game as a dps (really the only way for me and many others id assume) and tank/heal when needed when your gear stats swap with your spec

[Seditian]

This is how I see things right now and how I think (read fear) things will be in WoD.

The gameplay of Mists of Pandaria had some influence on the decreasing number of Tanks and healers because:
- Daily questing is most efficient as dps
- Scenario's favour (mostly) 3x dps
- There were very few 5 man dungeons between 86-90
- Hardly any reason to run heroic 5 man dungeons at 90
- Playing a Tank in LFR puts a target on you for frustrated people.

Now in WoD, I expect less reason to play as a tank or healer because:
- All of the things mentioned for MoP
- No flying, so world pvp will ensue and you will quest as dps.
- EVEN FEWER dungeons! (yet 5 more levels to bridge).
- You will have to fight for nodes/herbs more often because you can't fly (or fly away).
- Giant world pvp zone will not favour Tanking in general.

I know that we have double specs and that gear will be more usuable outside of main specs, but I still don't think that people will tank or heal because it's outside of their "comfort zone", and not unimportant either they might not be good at it because they don't regurlary play it because of the reasons above.

I will still play my Tank simply because I love tanking. But I gotta say, my current experiences and the foresight in WoD worry me somewhat.

Dungeons will become useful in WoD again, you actually need them in order to properly go through Heroic raids. Tanks are by far the strongest in world PvP, they cannot die in a 1v1 battle, ever. They just don't. Besides, Blizzard wants tanks to do 75% of the DPS of a pure DPS class, so together with your survivability, you might actually quest faster, depending on how mobs are positioned.

I agree with the world PvP parts like Ashran, though. Hybrids should definitely get a tertiary specialization (hybrids only!), so they too can PvE and PvP. The reality is, you need two specs in hardcore (current Heroic raiding), one boss requires 2 healers, the next 3, the next requires 3 tanks instead of 2 etc.. Hybrids should not be punished for playing a hybrid class, they enable other players to stay pure DPS and frankly, Blizzard does a shitty job of making a hybrid's life easier. Gear changing with specs is a small step towards the right direction, we still need bigger backpacks (again, hybrid only) and a tertiary spec.

That all being said, I don't think tanks will stop tanking because of WoD, I think more people will start tanking. Healers however, not so much. They're becoming harder again, which is a very good thing, plus their DPS is useless. I'd like to see healers being able to do 75% DPS of a pure DPS as well. Without healing, of course. Yes, Smite spam should be removed as well. Either heal, or DPS.

[darkwarrior42]

I doubt it, regarding tanks.

Regarding healers? Quite possibly. It is mandatory (per Blizzard, in all but outright statement) to have a dps spec, and it will be easier for a dps set to be used for healing, but the changes they're making to healing will make a lot of people skittish.

They're being very adamant about not repeating Cataclysm's mistakes.... but while I am heartened to hear that they are aware of this possibility, I will not believe they can achieve their goals until I see them. (Cataclysm as an expansion burned pretty much all of the "benefit of the doubt" I was willing to give them). Between that and the fact that healing while leveling is just not something that works well outside of dungeons, I am willing to bet that healers will be the rare role for WoD.

[Lightwysh]

I'm waiting to see. To be honest, Active Mitigation is what turned me off from tanking (I just don't like how it feels), so we'll see if I like how it feels in WoD.

Same, I cant really get into active mitigation.

Healing was OK this xpac, but going back to the Cata model may kill that for me too.

Lets see how the ability squish pans out.

[darkwarrior42]

if they make it so gear changes based on your spec then there will be a lot more tanks and healers. you can *Enjoy* the game as a dps (really the only way for me and many others id assume) and tank/heal when needed when your gear stats swap with your spec

Considering that Blizzard has made dps specs mandatory, I do agree this will help and will, combined with other changes, help make sure tanks aren't that rare. I just don't think it'll help as much with healers because of other changes.