How Bad is the Tank shortage on your Realm?

[Velerios]

For 5 man's.... Paladin > Druid > Warrior
for raid bosses Warrior > Druid > Paladin

Not always: For Lord Malechazaar is a Paladin-tank the best one for example. Also a Paladin-tank have an extreme gear-dependence: I personally say that with low gear paladin is by far the worst tank, but when you reach sunwell, a paladin can outshine both Warriors and Druids on every boss. Thread output is always extreme high for a paladin-tank, probably higher than the other two, even on single-target. Just in the term of survivablility paladin really have issues.

The biggest question is here: how comfortable you feel to keep the tank alive: if the answer is not so, then a Pala-main tank might not be the best choice; but if your raid have more thread than survivability-issues, then you might go for the paladin-route; especially for the many extra-blessings you also get!

[Askyl]

Its because dps is more fun, thats all.

[justandulas]

The fact that people who played during that era are willing to suffer AGAIN the endless hours spent looking for tanks and healers, is beyond my ability to understand.

They must love pain.

it's because retail is no longer WoW. it's basically diablo 3/destiny 2 wearing wow's skin.

Classic FEELS like WoW again. It feels like a proper RPG once again.

Besides, retro gaming is in. Did you hate on people who played SNES classic? How about those arcade1up machines, do you hate them too?

A good game, like a good movie, is good forever... and TBC is simply good, a far better RPG than retail. Retail is more akin to destiny 2 today, but without the fun stuff, than classic WoW.

Seasonal content? No thanks. Expansion progression ladders? YES PLZ

- - - Updated - - -

Not always: For Lord Malechazaar is a Paladin-tank the best one for example. Also a Paladin-tank have an extreme gear-dependence: I personally say that with low gear paladin is by far the worst tank, but when you reach sunwell, a paladin can outshine both Warriors and Druids on every boss. Thread output is always extreme high for a paladin-tank, probably higher than the other two, even on single-target. Just in the term of survivablility paladin really have issues.

The biggest question is here: how comfortable you feel to keep the tank alive: if the answer is not so, then a Pala-main tank might not be the best choice; but if your raid have more thread than survivability-issues, then you might go for the paladin-route; especially for the many extra-blessings you also get!

my combo for tanks in TBC was Paladin and Warrior. Warrior for the hard hitting bosses like Illidan, and because they can generate a load of single target threat, but paladins are gods at aoe so are a MUST for content like ZA bear runs. Paladins are unrivaled in ZA, IMHO.

[anveena]

I play a tank so I dont have this problem. I only run dungeons with guildies or friends. I have no desire to deal with randoms when I can easily avoid them.

[VinceVega]

I would say 18 out of 20 posts in LFG are people looking for tanks with 1,5 for healers and sometimes the odd looking for dps... which you ALWAYS only see once with a message shortly after that he cannot answer everybody and the group is full^^

But i will never understand why people like to play DD in dungeons and raids in anything before maybe cata... you have nothing to do...

#healandtankmasterrace ^^

[Crimson Spears]

There are a lot of tanks... the monkey paw twist is that they are all terrible feral tanks.

[Master Guns]

It's honestly unreal on Whitemane horde. I saw someone legit willing to pay 1k gold for a steamvaults tank in spam. I whispered and he said yes, he's serious. I was blown away.

I tried to find a tank for Underbog last night for over a hour and just gave up, was spamming in general and /4. No bites.

[OokOok]

by far, the hardest role in classic is a tank and it isn't even up to debate. Disagreeing with that is simply ignorance of the subject.

And yes, tanking in classic-tbc is hard because of the threat. Paladins struggle with holding threat on raid bosses, and warriors struggle on aoe pulls because then they turn into juggling artists rather than focusing on any set rotation.

If it was easy, everyone would do it but there's a shortage on the classic realms (not the retail) side for a reason, because it is harder. Harder even than retail.

Mythic raiding has harder fights to coordinate no doubt about it, but when is the last time your tank lost aggro in a mythic or heroic raid? Ever since wotlk, it's nearly impossible for a tank with even half a brain to lose aggro. There is no dps player in the entire world of warcraft capable of pulling off my tank in retail, it is statistically impossible.

Now, for classic? I'm probably the best threat generating warrior tank i know, i outperformed my counterpart when he had thunderfury and i did not, but threat is still very real. Even if your rotation is perfection, a good dps player should be able to overcome that threat such as a mage in classic, or a good sbolt spam lock in tbc bt. The tank simply does not have the tools to counter when a dps player is dropping 10k nukes on a boss.

And notice i didn't even mention the community yet, which can treat tanks like rock star's when they are at the top but are monstrously unforgiving of new tank players.

- - - updated - - -



dual spec isn't the issue here, classic had way more tanks for example. The issue is that warriors become gimp as dps in tbc so all the warrior mains rerolled or quit, and those remaining, are likely prot like myself.

Out of the dozens of warriors we had in classic... I legit think im the last one standing as all of them went lock/paladin to a man.

Dual spec wouldn't help this at all because fury/arms will still be half a dps spec compared to classic, or to dps classes in tbc

edit: I guess it would give paladin's more flexibility in the tank department tho, so i stand corrected.

loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool

"you disagree with me so you're ignorant!!!"

[deenman]

The tank shortages of classic and tbc will remain, because they are by far, the hardest role in the game due to threat

In retail, anyone can tank because threat is a non factor but in the vanilla-tbc days (they neutered threat in wotlk) you had to not only be good at surviving as a tank, but holding enough threat your dps classes could go wild. If it was easy, everyone would do it

Warrior tanks, in particular, are more of a juggling act in dungeons than anything else

lol anyone can tank in retail?right because THATS what matters holding aggro? no,a tank shortage is just as bad in retail because tanks have way more responsability than in classic,no tank no matter how ''skilled'' will never hold aggro vs a dps thats popping off like crazy,aggro isnt just a tank issue in classic

[DazManianDevil]

There are a lot of tanks... the monkey paw twist is that they are all terrible feral tanks.

"And I took that personally"
I've actually been curious, what sort of minimum floor for gear should a fresh leveled tank aim for before tanking the early dungeons? Obviously things like def cap or an ilvl bracket are largely useless or impossible in BC but does anyone have an idea of an arbitrary HP value, assuming the player is half decent?
I want to tank dungeons, I played DPS for all of BC back in the day.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

Kind of off-topic to the thread but found this old gem from TBC era. Just l-o-l.

[Prag]

"And I took that personally"
I've actually been curious, what sort of minimum floor for gear should a fresh leveled tank aim for before tanking the early dungeons? Obviously things like def cap or an ilvl bracket are largely useless or impossible in BC but does anyone have an idea of an arbitrary HP value, assuming the player is half decent?
I want to tank dungeons, I played DPS for all of BC back in the day.

Are you talking about Normal Outlands stuff while leveling? For a boosted Feral, I’d buy some Bear greens and focus on the dungeon/quest rewards since they have some nice Hit and Dodge.

Our Feral had 19k hp and 16k armor before running Kara. His tanking is great - our heals are happy.

[DazManianDevil]

Are you talking about Normal Outlands stuff while leveling? For a boosted Feral, I’d buy some Bear greens and focus on the dungeon/quest rewards since they have some nice Hit and Dodge.

Our Feral had 19k hp and 16k armor before running Kara. His tanking is great - our heals are happy.

Def the former scenario. I'm only 59 but I have targeted quest rewards, there's a nice blue chest piece with bonus armor early on.
I'll see if my friends can give me some welfare greens to get me started, I'd totally forgotten greens are actually decent in TBC.

[Clawsout]

Def the former scenario. I'm only 59 but I have targeted quest rewards, there's a nice blue chest piece with bonus armor early on.
I'll see if my friends can give me some welfare greens to get me started, I'd totally forgotten greens are actually decent in TBC.

As a pally i did a few hellfire quests and then bought maybe 3 or 4 pieces and went right into ramps normals are really easy if you have issues tell your dps to give you a moment for aoe situations

[DazManianDevil]

As a pally i did a few hellfire quests and then bought maybe 3 or 4 pieces and went right into ramps normals are really easy if you have issues tell your dps to give you a moment for aoe situations

Thanks for the input, I've done a few dungeons on my Hunter who has left over AQ20 and ZG gear but that didn't give me any real indication of how hard mobs would hit the tank.

[Crimson Spears]

"And I took that personally"
I've actually been curious, what sort of minimum floor for gear should a fresh leveled tank aim for before tanking the early dungeons? Obviously things like def cap or an ilvl bracket are largely useless or impossible in BC but does anyone have an idea of an arbitrary HP value, assuming the player is half decent?
I want to tank dungeons, I played DPS for all of BC back in the day.

If your a druid the main thing is having a weapon that adds a minimum of 100 atk power I would say. pallies and warrs get by with whatever to be honest but druids... you can painfully see why blizzard had to nerf def gear for rogue to avoid rogues replacing them.

[Daronokk]

My realm has a shortage of everything. It has like 20 people online at most. I really don't see why Blizzard doesn't take action.

[Prag]

If your a druid the main thing is having a weapon that adds a minimum of 100 atk power I would say. pallies and warrs get by with whatever to be honest but druids... you can painfully see why blizzard had to nerf def gear for rogue to avoid rogues replacing them.

Forgot about those staves. I think they’re “of the Beast” or something.

Biggest problem for Bears in HFP dungeons was AOE threat. Swipe just didn’t cut it and people assume that it’s low Outlands dungeons and must be easy, which is true until two Felguards smack you.

[Twdft]

there would probably be more tanks if the 3 dps in the group wouldnt do everything in their power to make the tanks job harder/more miserable.

source: tanked in classic and now tbc

That's been the same for WoW entire lifespan, in every expansion. There is no tank shortage in groups of friends/guilds, lots of people have tank alts they use to get everyone they know through dungeons. But tanking for pugs? What the hell, surely not.

[Crimson Spears]

Forgot about those staves. I think they’re “of the Beast” or something.

Biggest problem for Bears in HFP dungeons was AOE threat. Swipe just didn’t cut it and people assume that it’s low Outlands dungeons and must be easy, which is true until two Felguards smack you.

Its a combination of bad aoe threat and utterly terrible damage mitigation. A bear is simply a big hp bar and it baffles me how they appear to be so prevalent but it could just be im behind the leveling curve and most of the other tanks have outgrown sp and ub normals.