Could something be done to make people tank?

[Raugnaut]

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

Except that wasn't the case in MoP, when tanks DID the damage as a dps, and often OUT damaged the DPS. Except that only a single tank was required.

MoP was the pinnacle of tanking for sure.

[StillMcfuu]

I tanked HC and occasional low Mythic through BfD this expansion. I had every tank, but mained on Paladin. Its fucking dreadfully boring, and Paladin probably has the most engaging rotation when it comes to offense leading to defense. I screw around on a Blood Dk right now, mainly because they are harder to keep alive. DH is probably the most fun, but its mitigation is generally a 1 button timing affair. It plays alright but that's the real crux.

Tanks gameplay should be mitigation to do damage or some combination of that, but they generally play like 3 button dps with an extra defensive cooldown and higher armor/hp values.

I don't think the lack of tanks has much to do with toxic community. Just tanks tend to be boring overall experience.

[wargone]

I will tell you why. First of all, let me state healers have it worse off. Buuut.
first of all you have take angro from 3 different pack at ones, for 2 guys decided it is them that sets the tempo, and the Hunter just forgot that barrage pulls everything on the screen. All while this is going on, You do have the most expensive repair bill, and beside that, you have to keep being mindfull of stuff on the ground, what is the enemy casting and so on.
I enjoy it at times. but then i get a fucking "wanna be elite" Who thinks it his job to pull everything, and hey, i am a casual player, i dont have the gear that all his mythic raiding guilds friends have. and he also forgot his not on his main, he is on his newly dinked 120 warlock, and so he cant survive as much, but he will still yell and cry over the speed of the pulls.

[Ehrenpanzer]

Put something in the satchels actually worth running for. Like anyone is going to subject themselves to pug groups running heroics for a pittance of gold and a dab of asserite power. I used to chain run heroics on my mythic (was heroic at the time) geared tanks for those satchels back when you could get mounts and pets and there was also a decent amount of gold in them as well.

[Balrog]

I've been a main tank (protection warrior) since vanilla, and I enjoy the gameplay, though I've also played every other class and find most of them enjoyable in other aspects too.

I'll echo the sentiment of several people in this thread, you shouldn't let people tell you how to tank or pressure you into tanking in a way you're not comfortable with. Mostly you need to pull at a reasonable pace, and make sure the healer has mana, and everything else matters very little, even if Little Timmy Hunter wants to pull faster because he has homework to do.

Also definitely a "you pull it you tank it" policy on my side.

And always remember the tank lingo; when your group says :

"need MB" = "need more battles" = you should pull more.
"oom" = "out of monsters" = you should pull more.
"wtf"= "way to fight" = your group is happy with your pulling.

[Aphrel]

Give mage an archon tank spec and ill fucking tank the shit out of this entire game.

holy fucking shit i wish my mage could tank...

I see all these casual fucking boomys, dks, dhs, monks.. all fucking dps and dps only. Casual scrubs who only master one of their 3-4 specs. Their weakness disgust me.

Give my mage a 4th or hell, give us a healer spec aswell and ill ace those 5 specs so hard.

[Thage]

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.

Honestly, the only thing that's going to encourage more players to take up tanking is a significant shift in how bad/inexperienced tanks are treated in LFD/LFR/Mythic+0. Nobody wants to learn to tank when every mistake is met with a tidal wave of vitriol that would make the saltiest sailor blush. I would wager the issue we're having with shrinking tank pools are more a result of burnout from dealing with shitty people, ditto healers, than because tanks are too frustrating to play--pound for pound this is one of the easiest expansions to play a tank in from a purely mechanical standpoint. Tanks are hardly slow leveling, either--what they lack in single-target damage, most tanks make up for in being able to pull half a zone and safely AoE the packs down (even moreso than the AoE All-Stars like mages).

But what I've noticed discourages people from tanking, more than anything, is having the additional anxiety of being de facto party leader multiplied by abuse in chat for minor mistakes or, heavens forbid, the occasional wipe. Until the community does a hard about-face on that front in matchmade content and Mythic+0, we're going to keep seeing people say "Fuck it, why bother?" and go back to DPSing where they can always blame a lag spike on subpar performance and rarely get blasted out.

[mauserr]

Playing Havoc DH, decided I'll actually be the master of my fate, get instant invites into groups and whatnot by rerolling Vengeance. I'm having a blast, assuming it's not Necrotic. This week I just decided to DPS only. Fuck Necrotic and other anti-fun bullshit affixes like that. This is why people don't want to tank. On top of already a big responsibility in group you get tossed shit like that at you.

[ecospherez]

Give mage an archon tank spec and ill fucking tank the shit out of this entire game.

holy fucking shit i wish my mage could tank...

I see all these casual fucking boomys, dks, dhs, monks.. all fucking dps and dps only. Casual scrubs who only master one of their 3-4 specs. Their weakness disgust me.

Give my mage a 4th or hell, give us a healer spec aswell and ill ace those 5 specs so hard.

I laughed at this, hope it was a joke.

[Thage]

Another problem is the "rush rush rush" mentality and "no errors allowed" ,esp since Legion and the introduction of M+, of most groups in my Opinion.

"No errors allowed" has been the 5-man pug's shrieking credo since TBC, when people in the LFG chat demanded t5 for Heroic Durnholde of all things. This is a cat that's been out of the bag about as long as there's been a bag.

[Powerogue]

If only there were some sort of goodie bag to motivate less-played roles, combined with easy spec swapping at any time, combined with flexible gear that changes stats depending on your spec so your alt spec requires fewer unique pieces. Surely that would solve it?

Any of my alts that can tank, do. It's healer you'll have trouble getting me to do, as that role gets proportionately harder the noobier people are, making the learning curve very steep.

[salate]

Make people understand that even tanks can do mistakes, people are so mad towards each other if somebody does a mistake or doesnt know something about tactics. I tried to do 15+ keys but if I did something wrong because some people use some super addons (aka method dungeon etc) and didnt follow some kind of tactic = they leave instantly, sayin rude stuff and etc.
Dunno, now I dont even do M+ anymore, bored. Dh tank here

[clevin]

Also it would be quite easy to make it so that you only do this damage when you are active tanking.

I love it when people who don't know jack about software say "it would be quite easy..."

More on topic... don't PUG. Find a guild that has a fair number of people active and that do what you want (M+, high keys, whatever). PUGs are tank (and sometimes healer) killers because everyone knows that they won't see the other 4 people ever again and play selfishly, blaming the tank, pulling, gogogo, etc. Who would want to log into a game (game... fun, entertainment...) and get bitched at by a bunch of anonymous assholes?

[Cizr]

I dont think players dont want to play tank role because they do low dps. I think that players just dont want responsibility and tank lore is natural leader in dungeons

[Angelpunk18]

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

I remember having the hope of being a warlock melee tank using demon form... Maybe someday... maybe

[Mirishka]

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.

No. Never going to happen. Lots of people enjoy tanking. I love warrior tanking more than any other role/spec in the game. So don't confuse your opinion with everyone else's.

And FYI, there are plenty of tanks, just not plenty of tanks in PuG content - I personally know a couple dozen that utterly refuse to tank for randoms because you often end up with a bunch of 'OMG U RETARD PULL MOAR I ONLEE HAV TEN MINITS B4 WURK' mouthbreathing morons.

Tanking isn't about dps (though, a good tank can do great dps) - it is about pulling, positioning, and mitigating as much damage as possible so that everyone else can do their jobs. All things equal, a tank should never do more damage, or as much, as a dedicated DPS - that's the trade-off for being able to take vastly more damage.

So if all that matters to you is damage, stick to playing a dps.

- - - Updated - - -

"No errors allowed" has been the 5-man pug's shrieking credo since TBC, when people in the LFG chat demanded t5 for Heroic Durnholde of all things. This is a cat that's been out of the bag about as long as there's been a bag.

Thank you. This stuff has been going on forever, and yet people always want to label it as a 'legion' thing or a 'BFA' thing.

[prwraith]

The DPS have a lot of responsibilities

I needed that man. Thank you. Best laugh i've had all day

[Mirishka]

The damage has never been a turnoff for me. Tanking random dungeons isnt worth the aggravation of dealing with DPS who want to tank but wont fill the role themselves. There are too many players who want all of the authority but none of the accountability.

I would say keep tank damage as is and just make dps squishier so they aren't pulling for the tank. Dps shouldn't be pulling two or three groups to the tank and expecting their tanks/healers to clean up their mess.

I totally agree, and think that dps should get wrecked in dungeons.

I ran a +9 AD last week on an alt, my DK tank, and a DH kept rushing off and pulling extra shit with Glaive toss. Wiped us twice doing that. The healer called him out for it and the DH dropped group and hearthed.

Shit like that is why people don't want to tank for randoms.

[cerebro]

People don't play tanks because damage is low. They don't play tanks because people are very toxic to any little error. Or they are completely clueless as to what's going on and constantly pull additional packs, or pull ahead of tank. If it happens once or twice it doesn't bother me, if its every single pull I'm going to say something.

[Wyattbw09]

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.

Can't make anyone do anything. What they should do is make it so that EVERY class should have a tank spec. That is probably the single biggest thing they could do to encourage more tanking.