This is why the game lacks Tanks...

[Deleted]

I have been playing wow for about 3 years total, which 2 of those were in a row and the last year spread out. I came back to wow for about 2 months ago and made a new character which is now good enough for flex raids. It takes a lot of time to get tanks for flex, if you don't do them on a wednesday.
My background is WOTLK and all cata 25 man hc raids done all up to firelands, which i quit wow after 2 hc kills (after that i have never really raided much until now).

So, now to the problem. I'd love to have a paladin tank. i like the class and all but i always stop leveling it at high level because i realize that none wants a tank who don't know what to do. i dont mean that i dont know what to do, but since i dont have the achivement on the class, none wants you in. this causes a lot of issues and end up with a lack of tanks, since all the other tanks who are above flex raids in guilds.

the only time, in my opinion, to get a tank as main is when there is a new expansion coming out. then none really knows what to do. or when a new content is released.


am i wrong on this one, or what do you think? of course this issue comes across every class but if 2 dpsers die in a flex from standing in random crap none really cares. but if the tanks keep doing it.. ohh my

[Traveler Voltin]

tanks tend to get yelled at alot and treated like crap. so they avoid places that would bring those. so that is why there is a lack of tanks.

[Nomisno]

if 2 dpsers die in a flex from standing in random crap none really cares. but if the tanks keep doing it.. ohh my

I'll print this out in DIN A0 and placard my city with this. Also I'll send it out into space with Voyager 3.

I get your point, but sometimes people just take any tank they can get if it is the only chance (also it REALLY helps to say how awesome your main is)

[Bloodjunky22]

if you truly know how to play your paladin you should have no probs getting a flex group, tanks are a pretty important role and have to be held to a little bit higher standard then random DPS standing in fire. just gotta sell yourself a bit and things should go well for ya.

[TheWindWalker]

To reword and summarize because people are definitely going to miss his point: "I know how to tank, I just don't know how to tank this boss. Even if I learn, I don't have the achievements and PuGs don't care if you watched a video or had someone else walk you through it. The lack of achievement shuts you out."

Honestly, your point about having to wait till the beginning of an expansion is probably going to stay true. Even though they're adding the new mandatory Proving Grounds requirement for queueing for Heroics, random people in raid PuGs aren't going to be impressed by your "Tanked 33 Waves!" achievement even if they couldn't do it themselves.

[zolok2.0]

Make your own Oqueue premade if you're having trouble getting into groups.

[imarealpally]

way I see it, tanks are the goalie or catcher in the game. The mid field can mess up all they want, second the goalie messes up, the never hear the end of it.

[ComputerNerd]

If a DPS dies, people yell at the tank or the healer.
If a healer dies, people yell at the tank or the healer.
If a tank dies, people yell at the tank or the healer.

Notice the problem ? Nobody wants to admit that the dps are at fault.
The tank should have to fix mistakes that dps make, it should be a bonus if they do.
Healers shouldnt be healing avoidable damage, only healing unavoidable damage.
If they heal stupid it should be a bonus, not an expectation.

That is why without cherry-picking a group or setting excessive requirements you can't get a good experience.
And if you have to go to such lengths, then that is simply proof of how awful the community is.

[TEHPALLYTANK]

I see shit tanks in flex all the time so I've no clue what you're talking about. Most of the people in flex don't have a damn clue what they're doing, they just fumble along while being carried by those who know how to play. So yeah, you're wrong. Flex is filled with terrible players who don't even realize how bad they are.

[kamuimac]

tanks tend to get yelled at alot and treated like crap. so they avoid places that would bring those. so that is why there is a lack of tanks.

and about 50 % of tank do get yelled cause they geniuinly have no clue what they should be doin but since most of the tanking nowadays is "taunt at X stacks" they get through somehow - but even when they are competent enough to tank HC SoO when they are put in suddent situation aka "tank adds on sha of pride to help riad" they panic and refuse to do it even though it would help greatly cause anything beyond "taunt at X stacks" is way to hard for them.

there are cases of tanks being blamed for something they didnt do but there is also a tendency to behaving like total douchebag princess just cause they play the least played role and they feel entitled to everything and treating people like shit just cause they are tanks - and then quick kick brings them back in the line.

there is shitload of people who play tanks cause its the easiest way to get into raid but most of them really geniuinly suck at gameplay and go by just cause healers pump into them ton of healing cause looking for a tank usually takes forever so groups would rather deal with weak incompetent one instead look for a new one for 20 minutes.

[Count Zero]

I don't tank LFR anymore (and rarely Flex, even with guildies) because of the abuse. I'm halfway through the place on heroic, so even if my main is a ranged dps I at least know the basics of the encounters. And my tank outgears Flex (gotten real lucky with Ordos / Celestials). Yet when dps have zero personal responsibility for their own survival somehow that's my fault. And even if I'm chain-pulling trash to the point where even on Flex I have to pop cds to survive, nope, still not pulling fast enough.

[Saybel]

Uh? Make your own group?

As tank I always raid lead, I know what to do, I get my achievements done to join better groups and I'm always the one to get my character geared fast through Flex/early Normal bosses due to that.

Leading isn't exactly difficult, you just throw a few markers down, maybe a random soak/intterupt/cd rotation or tell people a kill order, and look through the death log if you wipe to see if people could avoid their deaths and look through the DPS to see if people are heavily underperforming. Infact I do it while tanking just to stop myself from getting bored. :x

If you're standing in crap as a tank and dying to it as leader I'd get pissed. If 2 dps die to standing in crap they could avoid, as leader I also get pissed, that's the beauty of being the leader, when you tell someone they're making a mistake, the sheep of the group will usually just roll with it because you have shiny orange writing.

Also I don't ask pugs for xp unless we're doing normal personally, if they don't know something, I expect them to ask in chat or throw me a /w so I can explain it to them.

[Deleted]

I had the same issue as you did, but what I did is just read up tactics and start doing LFR. If you can do LFR ( which you can because all the requires is taunting on a certain amount of stacks ) you can do Flex raids too. I usually don't mind it when a tank doesn't know the tactics exactly, but i do hate it when they just roll in like " yo whatsup, what should i do here". If you are scared because you can do stuff wrong then you probably shouldn't roll tank, having responsibility is what makes it more fun than dps for me and it's not like there are insane hard tactics in LFR & Flex and probably even Normal mode.

[wimbo125]

Yeah, tanks get treated like crap, get over it, install a DPS meter, read logs and use evidence to burn the haters to the ground! I'm a tank myself and I love doing this, because no one will blame you if you've got the knowledge how to put the blame on those who deserve it!

Tanks ftw!!1!

[Kioshi]

Tanks get more blame than any other class.

Example:
Was in a Garrosh pug, and got killed. (ilevel 565)
Healer said "Tank is too squishy"
Look at recount both healers are under 40k healing
pointed it out, and was told they can't heal 1 shot
look at my log, and I took 10 hits without 1 single heal

People don't tank because they get all the blame

[Deleted]

Step 1 - Join a guild as a social
Step 2 - read up on tactics, do fights as a DPS
Step 3 - offer to tank for alt's members doing flex runs.

Problem solved.

[Deleted]

In LFR as a tank I usually do NOT focus on the chat and simply put the chat of the other tank i'm whispering in a different window, i talk to him or her if i need some info on the tactics so that i can use that later for Flexible groups, I also read/check video's of the raids as a tank knowing where or what i gotta do before I do them and if they ask for an achievement i just lie about it saying i got another account having an achievement there. Dick move I know, but that's how you can easily solo tank without going throught all the trouble to find a Guild

[OzoAndIndi]

Untimely I would think it's a number of things and varies. All have the ability to be a jerk about it, and all have the ability to be lashed out at by a jerk. Dumb humankind can't control the actions of another and make them preform perfectly to suit themselves so stupid humans flip out. Happens in more than just gaming... I have no more sympathy for 'poor me' tank whining than any others.

[xindralol]

it's not like there's a whole lot to know. just know how to do damage and know where your taunt key is. gradually you can learn about damage mitigating abilites but it doesn't really matter to get started. since damage equals threat these days all you have to do is do a lot of damage. and know where to go. nothing is worse than a slow tank that doesn't know the way. also if you're slow it's likely someone else will pull for you and then it's harder to get aggro if the mobs are all over the place.

[Giscoicus]

Tanks just have more responsibility than Healers or DPS. And healers more responsibility than DPS.

Make the individual responsibility of each dps the same as that of a healer and a tank, and it will improve. DPS get away with sucking, tanks don't. The issue isn't how tanks get negative responses, but the lack of response to other roles underperforming.