Could something be done to make people tank?

[Orby]

If a tank did the same damage as a dps, there would be no reason to play dps.

A high DPS tank still has to tank though, so being a DPS on its own is worth it because you are not a DPS that tanks...

[SirCowdog]

The DPS have a lot of responsibilities, .

Yes, but my point was that the nature of those responsibilities relative to what a tank has to cover, and know, is too disparate. And they are triple-redundant!

The problem is systemic. Built into the fundamental frame work of the group dynamic. And that's why it's so difficult to address the problem.

[Sharper13]

I main a tank, but pretty casual - currently 4/12HC, 2 day a week guild.

I'd tank a lot more hardcore if necrotic was removed and raids were more fun for tanks.

And M+ is the worst for tanks, you can't wing it like other specs can to a reasonable level - have to know what pulls do what, when to use CDs, where to go, which mobs to skip etc - so why the hell do we have to cope with the most stressful mechanic in the world - necrotic - as well as all of this?

I'm not going to start because I have such a deep hatred for that affix.

[Henako]

There is no time to learn to tank, especially with dungeons (it's actually much better with raids in my experience). People expect the tank to know every pull and every route in every dungeon.

This is what chased me away from it when I was actively playing. Even in +0, getting flamed for not knowing trick pulls or shortcuts, or how to specifically manage this pull or that.

[Kithelle]

The only time I've played tank, it was when the DK blood a lot of damage from revenge, it was a lot of fun, until he was nerfed and I stopped playing it.
There is a big problem here, and there are very few tanks, because they are very boring and slow killing ... is there any solution? I have a solution, eliminate the tank role. Maybe they should invent a new role, maybe support or dps / tank ..or protector, something but that does not imply that you do less damage than a dps ... is that, what more hays are dps, precisely because they are fun.Every time there are fewer tanks, because they are increasingly boring.

Umm...that is why we can switch specs at will? Nothing stopping a tank from playing DPS while in the world...people don't want to tank because they don't like to tank...they just want to pew pew all the time.

- - - Updated - - -

That's a joke, right?

I do play tank classes, but I don't tank. But that has nothing to do with tanking itself or dps or something else related to the class. I don't tank because of people. When people even in low level instances don't have the time to let a learning tank learn, it's no fun. If I get the feeling within the first minute in the instance that the people I was thrown together with are impatient and really interested in playing as a team, I don't feel appreciated. I don't want to be praised, but I would like not to haste through and get blamed if the overzealous ranged dps pulled half the instance

For me I just tired of the DPS needing on my gear...I'm taking my time to tank the fucking instance and doing my job and I need on a upgrade and some numbnuts says he needs it for his tanking set and wins it.

[Razion]

The last time I liked tanking was back when it played more like DPS.

Prot Warriors and Bear Druids in Wrath, you could just go in all guns blazing and kick the teeth out of anything in your way, passively take no damage, and there wasn't a ton of involvement with defensive abilities besides some short CDs and your longer CDs.

When your core rotation was all offensive and mostly was just there to do damage, which was also supplemented by you often doing the most damage in the group, I think this is when tank was most fun because you were kind of the hero of the group. You just didn't have to constantly optimize stupid active mitigation, which nowadays doesn't serve to make you feel immortal as much as it makes you feel like paper without it.

Also, you didn't have to struggle for threat. You got threat? Good, you had it forever basically. You didn't have to work to keep yourself alive - that was the healer's job. You didn't have to worry about getting aggro after you got it - once you succeeded, you succeeded, and there wasn't any residual stress of losing it after the fact or having to work especially hard to keep it. All you got to do at that point was perfect your damage output, and maybe help conserve healer mana at critical points of fights by using those longer defensive abilities, but because it was so few and far between it wasn't this constant STRESS that you always had to juggle constantly every handful of seconds. Shorter cooldowns (like 30s Shield Block or 45s Enraged Regen, as opposed to using Ignore Pain every 3 or 6 seconds or something) was just so much better.

Tanks during this time did a crap ton of damage. But they were able to do that damage because they were attacked and getting rage or mana or runic power as a result of this. There was vengeance that helped with this too, but it had its own problems. But I like the check of tanks being able to do that crazy damage as a result of being attacked and so much of that damage reduction being passive so the tank didn't have to worry so much constantly and instead they could just focus on being as bad-ass as other damage-dealers in the raid.

[PenguinChan]

Vengeance was a great time for tanks and honestly I wish they'd bring it back. Obviously not as strong in PvP but for PvE it's really nice, and it sets the tone of the game - bigger and bigger pulls means the tank does even more damage! That means going fast and collecting groups is encouraged by just doing your job and that feels nice as a tank.

If they want people to play tank more often for dungeons and M+ they just need to make them more satisfying and not exactly easier to play, but more rewarding.

[Sencha]

People don't like to tank because there is no tank-meter (orange parse) and no ranking to show how well you performed when comparing with other tanks.

[Nephys]

I see a lot of people here saying that dps would make tanks "fun", but if you really think about it, dps is just numbers, won't change anything...

I used to tank in Legion, but I got tired of being yelled at just because I wasn't following someones route, even if sometimes mine would be better. In bfa it became even worse with the reduced aggro and increased responsibility.

In order to have more tanks, the specs need to become a bit less boring and have less responsibility. Maybe get rid of interrupts, make that a dps only job, maybe give them some interesting utility? Make dungeons less route-optimal?

[unbound]

Would say not much can be done becouse biggest problem is the community and how they act at lower levels, i fully understand why alot start out and try tank and then give up and switch,

Scream on them to go faster and pulls stuff becouse the tank isnt fast enough, seen to many trying to vote kick tanks for not moving fast enough.

I would agree with this. There is nothing more annoying than tanking with dps screaming "Go Go Go!". Even though about 75% of dps are fine, the 25% that are jerks means that many tanks run into this far too often and decide to play something else. When I was playing in Retail, I could usually only stand 2 or 3 instances before switching back to a dps or heals.

[Polarthief]

People play DPS for 3 reasons:
1. Every class has a DPS option. All 12/12 classes. That means people are more likely to play that role.
2. DPS generally have less responsibilities (depends on the content, but this usually holds true). A tank or healer messing up is usually spotted right away while DPS can generally absolve themselves since a misstep in your rotation usually results in less DPS than just outright wiping.
3. The Parse Monkeys love just doing the highest number. They don't care if the content succeeds or fails, they just want that epeen rank that means nothing.

The solutions to these reasons to potentially bring more tanks in?
1a. Pures no longer a thing. Give a tank (or healer) role to every class. I guarantee you there will be more tanks (and healers) just from doing this alone. 100% guarantee, because I'm currently playing a Rogue and if I could tank or heal, I would do it from time to time. Net gain: At least 1 person (me), so there would be more. Joking aside, I'd bet anything that just doing this alone will make others try them out too.
2a. TBH, I don't know what you could really do here. M+ tank responsibility just increased even more with this new S4 affix, even higher than S2 in making sure you have a solid route down and you know the skips. Healers I have a few ideas, but this thread is about tanks, so I won't talk about those here.
3a. Well fixing this won't really increase tanks, but we should be socially shunning people who fail at mechanics and bring nothing but DPS.

[Kyriani]

Ultimately I don’t think its possible to “get more people to tank”… at least not in any real way that matters. All the bag bribes in the world only get people who are already willing to tank to do so more often or people who really don’t want to tank, and possibly not very good at it, to turn on tank for a fast queue and a potential bag.

I was healing a dungeon where a DH had queued as a tank but refused to change to Vengeance spec. We kicked him soon after.

One big reason being a tank isn’t popular is because it comes with the responsibility of leadership. It’s why I don’t tank. I don’t like being the leader, the person that sets the pace of the dungeon and takes the initiative. I also don’t like being in melee because my view of things is more limited than when I'm at range.

I am far more comfortable healing a dungeon on my priest or dpsing on my mage. Healing has its own responsibilities but I enjoy them. I can handle keeping my group alive, doing mechanics, and what not. I also get to be at range with a much better view of what’s going on.

There is always tons of DPS because dps is the role with the least responsibility and the most visible performance indicator via meters for people who like to measure e-peens.

Tanking is probably the most thankless job in pugs. Healing at least gets some recognition when you keep people alive through hairy situations they expect to die in. I had one Mythic+ Atal’Dazar when the dungeon was spawning double the mobs in a few spots due to a bugged world quest. There was a bigger pull than anyone expected and I used every cooldown, every trick, and bit of mana, to keep everyone alive. That group was quick to show me some love since they expected to wipe. But situations like that aren’t really common outside of bugs or high+ keys.

I would like to see Hunter, Rogue, and Warlock get a tanking spec, and Mage to get a healing spec as a fourth spec. The classes that currently only have dps roles need an alternative role option imo. It won't necessarily increase the amount of tanks (and healers) but it will give people playing those classes as their main the option to try them out, and perhaps fall in love with them. Some people are very set on their main class and won't main swap for anything. If the classes with only dps specs had an alternative role option, they'd be able to at least try it out without giving up their main. I know my mage will always be my main but I'd absolutely go ham as a healer if they gave mages a healing spec because I really enjoy healing.

[klaps_05]

Yes, be nice to existing tanks.

[Marc7]

I see a lot of people here saying that dps would make tanks "fun", but if you really think about it, dps is just numbers, won't change anything...

I used to tank in Legion, but I got tired of being yelled at just because I wasn't following someones route, even if sometimes mine would be better. In bfa it became even worse with the reduced aggro and increased responsibility.

In order to have more tanks, the specs need to become a bit less boring and have less responsibility. Maybe get rid of interrupts, make that a dps only job, maybe give them some interesting utility? Make dungeons less route-optimal?

Getting rid of interrupts would make tanking so much worse because you couldn't even do anything about that cast that's about to go off and that none of your tunneling DPS has noticed. The game needs more mechanics that punish DPS players spesifically for playing stupid, mechanics that the tank can't help with because otherwise its still your responsibility as a tank to help. And I don't mean mechanics that just hurt them, because that punishes the healer. Don't know exactly how they should function but CCs and undispellable debuffs that drastically reduce damage done for a time would seem good motivators to get DPS to do mechanics.

The routes thing sucks hard, but that is again on the players not the dungeon. Especially since around 100% of the time when you do attempt a skip in a pug someone ends up bodypulling anyways. Shouldn't act like you're in MDI when you're doing random dungeons. DPS who chain pull extra mobs because they don't feel like the tanks doing enough are the worst, especially those who pull the stationary worms in Underrot.

[valky94]

hey if my warlock could tank id tank the shit out of everything

[SkagenRora]

If a tank did the same damage as a dps, there would be no reason to play dps.

In previous expansions, at least in low level tanks did far more dmg than dps in dungeons. I rather the times when shield slam or revenge made bonkers amount of dmg.

I'm sure other tanks had similar things going on.

But at max level i doubt that will ever be a thing.

[Marc7]

People play DPS for 3 reasons:
1. Every class has a DPS option. All 12/12 classes. That means people are more likely to play that role.
2. DPS generally have less responsibilities (depends on the content, but this usually holds true). A tank or healer messing up is usually spotted right away while DPS can generally absolve themselves since a misstep in your rotation usually results in less DPS than just outright wiping.
3. The Parse Monkeys love just doing the highest number. They don't care if the content succeeds or fails, they just want that epeen rank that means nothing.

The solutions to these reasons to potentially bring more tanks in?
1a. Pures no longer a thing. Give a tank (or healer) role to every class. I guarantee you there will be more tanks (and healers) just from doing this alone. 100% guarantee, because I'm currently playing a Rogue and if I could tank or heal, I would do it from time to time. Net gain: At least 1 person (me), so there would be more. Joking aside, I'd bet anything that just doing this alone will make others try them out too.
2a. TBH, I don't know what you could really do here. M+ tank responsibility just increased even more with this new S4 affix, even higher than S2 in making sure you have a solid route down and you know the skips. Healers I have a few ideas, but this thread is about tanks, so I won't talk about those here.
3a. Well fixing this won't really increase tanks, but we should be socially shunning people who fail at mechanics and bring nothing but DPS.

I would end up tanking constantly on my rogue if I could. What's the point in waiting a week for a queue to pop for something like timewalking when its very easy content anyways. I think this is something RIFT did well way back when it released.

[Khaza-R]

It’s more of a problem with the community imo. I have no problem tanking for my guild but why would anyone want to tank for a PUG. There’s inevitably some asshole blaming you for something.

[potis]

Getting rid of interrupts would make tanking so much worse because you couldn't even do anything about that cast that's about to go off and that none of your tunneling DPS has noticed. The game needs more mechanics that punish DPS players spesifically for playing stupid, mechanics that the tank can't help with because otherwise its still your responsibility as a tank to help. And I don't mean mechanics that just hurt them, because that punishes the healer. Don't know exactly how they should function but CCs and undispellable debuffs that drastically reduce damage done for a time would seem good motivators to get DPS to do mechanics.

The routes thing sucks hard, but that is again on the players not the dungeon. Especially since around 100% of the time when you do attempt a skip in a pug someone ends up bodypulling anyways. Shouldn't act like you're in MDI when you're doing random dungeons. DPS who chain pull extra mobs because they don't feel like the tanks doing enough are the worst, especially those who pull the stationary worms in Underrot.

There arent ways to make people play better that wont make them explode into QQ and tears, or straight unsub.

Blizzard can easily add a monitoring tool or something similar to/a simplifcation of warcraftlogs that simply says at the end of the dungeon "Yeah, you are a shit player, you didnt do, you didnt do, you didnt do" but not in words, Ranks/numbers/letters.

People dont like being told they are bad.

And unless you add a punishment, people wont change, and the tears will flow, imagine having "Ranks" at the end of dungeons, the same way Korean MMOs do, and you were told "Yeah, you didnt manage a S++/S+/S/A/B, therefor you dont get any loot".

Just imagine the outcry.

Thats why community tools are created to filter out people that simply arent up to par to play to a higher level for some of the content.

[yomammyass]

The only time I've played tank, it was when the DK blood a lot of damage from revenge, it was a lot of fun, until he was nerfed and I stopped playing it.
There is a big problem here, and there are very few tanks, because they are very boring and slow killing ... is there any solution? I have a solution, eliminate the tank role. Maybe they should invent a new role, maybe support or dps / tank ..or protector, something but that does not imply that you do less damage than a dps ... is that, what more hays are dps, precisely because they are fun.Every time there are fewer tanks, because they are increasingly boring.

You basically answered your own question.

Be a good sport and re-roll tank, we'll all benefit, you, me, XdurionX etc