Is tanking in raids as boring as it seems?

[Tauguy]

For some reason today, I was pondering about what our guilds tanks actually do. Most of the fights they just pass the boss back and fourth and run out a little bit. Debuff here, big hit there, soak this and that. Wheres the cool mechanics they should be doing? Also no wonder no one likes to play tanks.

What mechanics can you think of that would increase the fun and popularity of a tank? or is it already hard enough?


(The only bosses I see real thought processes used on is Aggramar and maybe Portal Keeper ish)

[hulkgor]

Tanking, as healing, is awesome during progression and throughout the learning steps. It turns into absolute boredom when things get on absolute farm status, whereas it's the opposite in damage dealers.

[Tauguy]

whereas it's the opposite in damage dealers.

I agree and for some reason I didn't realize this.. hahah

I usually heal.

[A Chozo]

People don't like playing tanks because one fuck-up of a tank is disastrous, and the DPS are quick to harass tanks for whatever reason, not because it's "boring" - tanks love tanking and the reactional gameplay, instead of DPS' "target this, press keys, tab to add, press keys, tunnelvision the damage meter".

Nah, all positions in a raid are cool, but you need to like it's playstyle to feel worthy.

[Flurryfang]

Most bosses require movement, which is the most fun tank mechanic to do, as you choose placement for the entire squad. Furthermore, many bosses have quite clutch taunt mechanics, that happends fregent enough for you to stay on your toes.

But aside from that, it is really much like being a dps, just that you have to deal dmg and also heal yourself. You jump between doing defensive abilities and offensive abilities, constantly choosing between each, which is where most of my thought procsss goes to

I have done healing, melee dps and tanking on medium level raiding and tanking have been the most fun experience for me, as i find the resource management of personal CDs, damage mitigation and battle to do as much dps as you can at the same time, to be an exciting experience.

Besides, tanks are 9/10 times the most active class, as you never have to run away from dmg or wait for dmg to happend. You will nearly always be in melee range and able to do actions.

[Khallid]

My guild leader (and main tank) claims to watch Netflix during Mythic Varimathras, since the two main tanks purposely need to not move in that fight. The third tank does have stuff to do though.

From what I've seen, the only fights in Antorus where the tanks have a lot of things to do are Kin'garoth and Aggramar. I haven't seen Argus though.

[Flurryfang]

Tanking, as healing, is awesome during progression and throughout the learning steps. It turns into absolute boredom when things get on absolute farm status, whereas it's the opposite in damage dealers.

Well when it comes to farming, you really just turn into a dps as a tank or as we do in my chill raid, just reduce the number of healers to a point, where you have only yourself to rely on when it comes to survivability That brings the interesting elements back into farming.

[Wildpantz]

Tanking is super fun untill you have to much gear at that point it start to get boring fast.

[Tatahe]

I feel like it's kinda boring indeed but probably it's not that bad at early progression on hard bosses. It's like healing. Healing is AMAZING during progress, but literally after first kill (or sometimes even after several low% wipes) it's really really really boring.

[Raiju]

Well when it comes to farming, you really just turn into a dps as a tank or as we do in my chill raid, just reduce the number of healers to a point, where you have only yourself to rely on when it comes to survivability That brings the interesting elements back into farming.

It's sorta nice to push your dps as a tank, but given it's relatively small gain compared to a dps pushing it can feel a little unrewarding. Also given the nature of tank dps it's hard to be competitive if you either a) are far above your co-tank due to class or b) have near no hope of catching up to your co-tank due to class. Logs are nice, but a personal competitive element is always more fun in my opinion.

I've almost solely raided 2 nights a week and people often aren't too fond of losing what little time we have because either tanks or healers wanted to try something quirky on farm. It happens long after the point it's safe, generally.

[Marrilaife]

What mechanics can you think of that would increase the fun and popularity of a tank?

Tanks are already popular enough. It's already hard enough to find a guild as a tank, because there are too few spots and too many tanks around. Check this poor fella: https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...n-a-dire-state

Half the answers in that thread were "you won't find a guild, because you're a prot warrior". So it's not just my opinion.

Now healers that's another story, it's really hard to find a competent healer these days for example for a pug mythic+. Too many of them queuing are really just dps players who think healing is no big deal and faster queue, and then fail miserably. Same story on the more casual end, I went to lfr on my rogue and tanks were dying - check healing meters, two holy palas below the tanks in healing done. And can't say there was nothing to heal so they ended up low, because well we wiped due to tank deaths (and no, they weren't in dps spec, they were in healer spec).

Healing is notorious for being to worst spec to level up as, requiring raid frame and healing addons to do efficiently, and being the most boring in a good group while the most punishing in a bad group. Maybe if you main a healer it doesn't bother you or you don't notice it (you won't have to go through m+ pug after pug with crapo healers because YOU are the healer and control that variable), but I notice it a lot.

When my guild had recruitment open for a tank, we got an avalanche of apps, we even get tank apps when we aren't recruiting one anymore. We have a recruitment currently open for holy pala / disc priest and barely any interest.

[Deleted]

Tanking is only ever fun when there's an actual risk of dying, which in raids is only the case during progression. It's another reason for why m+ is so much more enjoyable.

Boss mechanics in raids for tanks have been incredibly lack-luster in Legion as well though, nowhere near enough things to do mostly just swap at X stacks, bosses in m+ provide a bigger challenge than that especially since they actually hurt.

[Deleted]

It's fun on progress when you're figuring out your CDs, positioning and such

on farm, you're just going autopilot, thinking how miserable your life is

[Deleted]

Most bosses are designed that tanks need to get their s*** down so the raid can start to progress the fight (e.g. taunting and setting up cds for Vari). From that point on the tanks have close to zero influence on progression which makes things a bit boring imho.
The fights boil down to "taunt at x-stacks" and "the free tank picks up the add" - if there are no adds it's just the taunting.
It can be very frustrating to wipe the entire evening to mechanics that you have nothing to do with (Vari is a good example again, wipes are due to adds or debuffs not moving - so progress for the boss-tanks is "taunt when the energy bar resets).

I stopped raiding as a tank because I got too frustrated with this and started focusing more on mythic plus, where the tank feels more like a dps and everything is more fast-paced. You have faster pulls, your dps matters, more mechanics and the open-end system makes surviving much more challenging.

[munkeyinorbit]

People don't like playing tanks because one fuck-up of a tank is disastrous, and the DPS are quick to harass tanks for whatever reason, not because it's "boring" - tanks love tanking and the reactional gameplay, instead of DPS' "target this, press keys, tab to add, press keys, tunnelvision the damage meter".

Nah, all positions in a raid are cool, but you need to like it's playstyle to feel worthy.

What game are you playing? Tanking is the easiest role in the game. Taunt when u need to and maybe use a CD when needed. Tanks fuck up lots but healers save them. It is more dangerous for a dps to fuck up because they are likely to die and that can be difference between a kill and not in progression. A tank has to majorly fuck up to wipe a raid. We are talking retard level here.

[Elbob]

What game are you playing? Tanking is the easiest role in the game. Taunt when u need to and maybe use a CD when needed. Tanks fuck up lots but healers save them. It is more dangerous for a dps to fuck up because they are likely to die and that can be difference between a kill and not in progression. A tank has to majorly fuck up to wipe a raid. We are talking retard level here.

you clearly don't tank, most tank mechanics are not just recovered by healers healing them back up. They get 1 shot.... Tanks messing up their basic rotation can result in starved resources and get them killed aswell where a dps messing up a rotation for a few seconds is just a small % of their overall dps by the end of the fight.

[FecundDecay]

For some reason today, I was pondering about what our guilds tanks actually do. Most of the fights they just pass the boss back and fourth and run out a little bit. Debuff here, big hit there, soak this and that. Wheres the cool mechanics they should be doing? Also no wonder no one likes to play tanks.

What mechanics can you think of that would increase the fun and popularity of a tank? or is it already hard enough?


(The only bosses I see real thought processes used on is Aggramar and maybe Portal Keeper ish)

No; tanking in raids is not boring.

/thread

[Tauguy]

Tanks are already popular enough. It's already hard enough to find a guild as a tank, because there are too few spots and too many tanks around. Check this poor fella: https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...n-a-dire-state

Half the answers in that thread were "you won't find a guild, because you're a prot warrior". So it's not just my opinion.

Now healers that's another story, it's really hard to find a competent healer these days for example for a pug mythic+. Too many of them queuing are really just dps players who think healing is no big deal and faster queue, and then fail miserably. Same story on the more casual end, I went to lfr on my rogue and tanks were dying - check healing meters, two holy palas below the tanks in healing done. And can't say there was nothing to heal so they ended up low, because well we wiped due to tank deaths (and no, they weren't in dps spec, they were in healer spec).

Healing is notorious for being to worst spec to level up as, requiring raid frame and healing addons to do efficiently, and being the most boring in a good group while the most punishing in a bad group. Maybe if you main a healer it doesn't bother you or you don't notice it (you won't have to go through m+ pug after pug with crapo healers because YOU are the healer and control that variable), but I notice it a lot.

When my guild had recruitment open for a tank, we got an avalanche of apps, we even get tank apps when we aren't recruiting one anymore. We have a recruitment currently open for holy pala / disc priest and barely any interest.

He did get wrecked in that forum lol.. "Go spam your worthelss self in trade chat" classic

[Nnyco]

i prefer tanking m+ alot more, just seems alot more fun overall

[Thirtyrock]

Tanks are already popular enough. It's already hard enough to find a guild as a tank, because there are too few spots and too many tanks around. Check this poor fella: https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...n-a-dire-state

Half the answers in that thread were "you won't find a guild, because you're a prot warrior". So it's not just my opinion.

snip

When my guild had recruitment open for a tank, we got an avalanche of apps, we even get tank apps when we aren't recruiting one anymore. We have a recruitment currently open for holy pala / disc priest and barely any interest.

Man, things have changed since the last time I was looking for a guild, which was, admittedly, back in Wrath (I tanked through Cata & MoP but with the same core group). A competent tank couldn't have just any guild, back then, but they could be assured of finding one. If they wanted better progression they could stair step up through a realm's guilds, so long as they were competent and had a decent reputation.

I don't raid anymore, so I didn't realize this had changed.