Could something be done to make people tank?

[Keristrasza]

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

Same reason I refuse to tank, if there was a way to stop impatient people from teaming up with me or hinder their ability to pull for the tank then maybe more people would consider it. Also them just being toxic when things don't go their way.

[Zyky]

People played plenty DPS in MoP.

And Vengeance allowed many fights to be cheesed. Off the top of my head I distinctly remember cheesing Animus in Throne of Thunder and Paragon of the Klaxxi in Siege of Orgrimmar.

They need to make tanks enjoyable, there's nothing enjoyable about the current design of tanking. Fun doesn't need to be damage.

[Mysterymask]

You know this thread is missing a fundamental lock on what keeps a person from tanking...GEAR..more specifically weapons but the gear is a HUGE roadblock. One of the things I liked about legion is having all 3 artifact weapons let me basically go to all 3/4 specs at my leisure..hell as a Rogue who basically leveled Outlaw its a huge deterrent for me to try the other 2 specs simply because I have to go out and find a decent pair of daggers.

now lets look at all the tank classes..and what they need versus the others

DK
Needs at the LEAST a 2 hander...sadly only one other spec uses a 2 hander and its not the popular one...wouldn't of been a problem if blizz didn't decide 2H frost wasn't a thing anymore

Warrior
Needs a 1 handed weapon and a shield...neither of their DPS Specs uses a 1 handed weapon anymore so they have to go out and find those JUST to tank

Pally
Needs the same as a Warrior....holy is the only thing that uses that combo too but...they are caster weapons and usually not suitable to tank with

Monk
Needs a 2 handed staff/polearm...WW USED to be able to use those...but like the DK blizz decided DPS monks were duel wield only

DH
Needs 2 1H weapons...ironically the only thing the DPS spec can use too...they can pretty easily transition from one spec to another with ease

Druid: Needs a Staff/Polearm to tank....Feral DPS uses this too but there's a problem if they are Balance or Resto

and that's just to even TANK to begin with...

[Tech614]

You know this thread is missing a fundamental lock on what keeps a person from tanking...GEAR..more specifically weapons but the gear is a HUGE roadblock. One of the things I liked about legion is having all 3 artifact weapons let me basically go to all 3/4 specs at my leisure..hell as a Rogue who basically leveled Outlaw its a huge deterrent for me to try the other 2 specs simply because I have to go out and find a decent pair of daggers.

now lets look at all the tank classes..and what they need versus the others

DK
Needs at the LEAST a 2 hander...sadly only one other spec uses a 2 hander and its not the popular one...wouldn't of been a problem if blizz didn't decide 2H frost wasn't a thing anymore

Warrior
Needs a 1 handed weapon and a shield...neither of their DPS Specs uses a 1 handed weapon anymore so they have to go out and find those JUST to tank

Pally
Needs the same as a Warrior....holy is the only thing that uses that combo too but...they are caster weapons and usually not suitable to tank with

Monk
Needs a 2 handed staff/polearm...WW USED to be able to use those...but like the DK blizz decided DPS monks were duel wield only

DH
Needs 2 1H weapons...ironically the only thing the DPS spec can use too...they can pretty easily transition from one spec to another with ease

Druid: Needs a Staff/Polearm to tank....Feral DPS uses this too but there's a problem if they are Balance or Resto

and that's just to even TANK to begin with...

Umm, you still needed proper relics for said weapons. Without good relics those artifact weapons where no better then some shitty WQ blues you can equip on your characters in BFA. Talk about such a non issue you typed a life story about, when it was literally the same.

[Mysterymask]

Umm, you still needed proper relics for said weapons. Without good relics those artifact weapons where no better then some shitty WQ blues you can equip on your characters in BFA. Talk about such a non issue you typed a life story about, when it was literally the same.

relics were pretty easy to get in comparison...world quests did drop them often...and often the weapons shared at least SOME of them..and I'm not talking about high level stuff either this is just to even enter the door

[Tech614]

relics were pretty easy to get in comparison...world quests did drop them often...and often the weapons shared at least SOME of them..and I'm not talking about high level stuff either this is just to even enter the door

If you're not talking about high end stuff getting a weapon is literally a joke and as easy as getting terrible relics was in legion. Again what are you on about? You're literally creating some fake issue in your head.

[Soluna]

There's plenty of reasons for a player to tank. Final Fantasy figured it out, I'm sure WoW can-... Nevermind.

Lol not sure if you are sarcastic or not, but healers and tanks are very rare in FF XIV too. Stop spreading bullshit friend. Go to any recruitment discord and you will see that literally 90% of the groups are going ham week after week trying to find a single decent tank/healer.

[SirCowdog]

I don't want to deal with jackasses

I think this is something that Blizzard really needs to do some work on. There is virtually no consequence for trolling or being a jackass in WoW. In chat you might get a temp ban from using public chat channels. In groups, at worst the offender is going to get a deserter debuff(which is a joke of punishment).

I can't believe I'm about to say this, but.... Maybe Blizzard needs to look into some kind of official ranking or scoring system for players? I'm not sure how it could be done fairly, or to avoid abuse, but it seems like the open grouping community for dungeons and raids badly needs policing or moderation.

[Stormwolf64]

Quite easy answer really, but impossible to execute. I dont think many have issues with tanking really, it's more about the expectations they face as a tank. You're expected to know new stuff inside out even for your first time, and you most certainly cannot fail. You'll face the worst backlash of your life if you're somewhat unlucky. Who in their right minds want this? First of all we have to accept tanks making mistakes or not knowing the fights (we dps sure as hell don't read up on new stuff unless we're doing higher difficulty stuff so why should we demand that tanks do?), second we have to start being less hostile to tanks who fail as this will lead many to be too insecure to be comfortable tanking. I see many tanks who will only do dungeons but are too afraid of doing raids. Answer to this is very, very obvious.

[SoulSoBreezy]

I think this is something that Blizzard really needs to do some work on. There is virtually no consequence for trolling or being a jackass in WoW. In chat you might get a temp ban from using public chat channels. In groups, at worst the offender is going to get a deserter debuff(which is a joke of punishment).

I can't believe I'm about to say this, but.... Maybe Blizzard needs to look into some kind of official ranking or scoring system for players? I'm not sure how it could be done fairly, or to avoid abuse, but it seems like the open grouping community for dungeons and raids badly needs policing or moderation.

There's already a consequence - I just tank for my guild and removed myself from the pool.
An official rank/score system would work well enough in matchmaking content (Solo queuing LFR/LFD/Islands), but it falls apart in M+ because the process of putting said group together isn't automatic.
I'd say that communities are the answer but it appears that the good ones are hard to get into, and the rest are meh. If anything I'd like to see Blizzard work on that system and promote it more.

[apples]

requirements of a dps: dont stand in fire
requirements of a tank: know exactly what causes fire, when, and how to let every member of your group not stand in fire

[Zandalarian Paladin]

Tanking comes with responsibility. People who are usually attracted to tanking are either doing it for their friends, because they need some feeling of control, because they want to be optimal, but hardly because of the "fun" of it.

I mean, YES, there are people who genuinely enjoy the concept of tanking. But it's a hard task, with a large social pressure - your group counts on you, or your group will work against you (pulling instead of you, blame you for mechanics they failed, you are the defacto leader and the group will pressure you into it).

The tradeoff is just not worth it. If I wanted to have the feeling of managing a kindergarten, I would work in one.

It's better if you have friends, but seeing as this thread is about the general tank population, well... there we go.

[WowIsDead64]

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.

Current game is grindy enough to maintain DPS spec for outdoor content. I don't even bother about other specs nowdays.

[Vakna]

Most of the annoying M+ affixes are a big fuck you to tanks, and on top of that tanks are expected to know literally everything about the dungeon before ever stepping foot inside it (routes, skips, everything each mob does etc etc..) Pretty much everything in M+ is unfriendly to new tanks and veteran tanks will rarely pug, there is your problem.

As a tank main I can't even remember the last time I pugged something, the very thought of it is enough to make me alt F4 and go play another game instead.


Can it be solved? Unlikely.

[Echocho]

If they can shift the responsibility of leading the run over to someone else more people would tank.
The problem isn't the damage or anything like that but having to be the team captain.

[Shaetha]

There's plenty of reasons for a player to tank. Final Fantasy figured it out, I'm sure WoW can-... Nevermind.

FFXIV has the exact same problem.

[Mermeoth]

100% this. The GOGOGO mentality doesn't allow for error or caution, not to mention that you must know every shortcut and mob skip in every dungeon beforehand. The difficulty and stress just isn't worth it unless you're with a full group of friends.

Yeah people are oriented towards efficiency instead of having just a fun.
However it's kind of problem of WoW itself. Game is designed like that.
I hate how almost everything feels like rush these days.

[Jazzhands]

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

Revenge was actually perfect to make tanks fun and prevent this issue.

Revenge was great because you had to take damage in order for it to activate, and only with it did you do decent damage. A group of 4 tanks would do terrible over all damage because either one tank has all the threat and only that tank is doing good damage, or each gets a mob and they all do subpar damage, and make the healers job more annoying. It was also nice because when you outgeared content a tank became a monster and could do massive pulls or janky strats for more damage. Truely the time when tanking was the most fun.


Bring back revenge imo.

[Donald Hellscream]

Make the gogogogogogogoogo mentality go away.

I have been tanking for a decade, so I know what I am doing, that being said I have not done every single dungeon enough times to know every single skip or shortcut. This means that every so often I find myself in a group with people, who goes absolutely apeshit the moment you happen pull something that could've been skipped.

[Sithalos]

They could make tanking as a role fun, instead of every boss fight being "taunt swap at X stacks, Zzzz..."

But hey, what do I know?