Is it me or tanks are extinct?

[Loveliest]

No thats not true at all. The only expansion I remember having to chain cc multiple mobs in most runs was in BC.

You're the one who's wrong. CC-ing mobs at the start of Cata was a thing. I can wager a guess why you don't remember, but I'll give you a sort of proof instead. There was a change that should be in the release notes where CC changed the way it worked in the initial weeks of Cata. The change was made so mobs didn't pull mobs when placed (a change that survived to this day).
You think Blizz decided all of a sudden to change this when people didn't CC at all?
I'll do the rundown of what happened at the start of Cata:
- some people moaned loudly (as per usual) how boring Wrath dungeons are; how awesome BC ones were when you needed to CC and shit and actually worry about aggro;
- obviously, these people were thinking of the end of the expansion Wrath dungeons where we had jokes running around that it's enough to put down consecration and go afk and you'd still hold mobs and never die (obviously, we were overgearing them by miles)
- but Blizz made the Cata dungeons feel more like the BC ones anyway; they now required 2 things:
1. CC
2. Interrupts (whoa, what's an interrupt!)
They also lowered aggro by a lot, bosses required actually doing some mechanics (like kiting, dispelling, priority killing etc)
- A decent coordinated group was having a lot of fun - we marked targets (whoa... marking!), we coordinated CCs - CCs had to land at the same time and the tank had to be ready to take them without breaking the CC; this was FUN; As a paladin, I could pull from range and my shield didn't break CC - which meant I was pulling them safely so dpses wouldn't break CC either
- But then you had the other people: people who didn't know how to deal with changes; useless tanks who tried to pull like in Wrath or those who broke CC and didn't understand; dpses who didn't know about CC or just wanted to dps like in wrath; for the majority, interrupts didn't exist; so basically pugs, especially those put from LFD had MASSIVE issues completing the dungeons (so yeah, a lot of ppl don't recall CC because they were NOT CC-ing, they were just wiping and going again)
- Tanks stopped tanking, it wasn't fun for those who were only doing it in LFD and weren't dedicated; numbers dropped; people at the start wanted to level in dps anyway, so obviously you'd have less tanks anyway; even holding aggro was bad because you needed expertise and hit not to miss or be parried;
- I recall people crying they weren't able to do their daily dungeon in an entire day; and it was needed because you were getting VP and those red orbs for crafting
- And here's the thing, people were whispering me offering gold to tank for them all day long - so yeah, paying a tank to tank isn't a new thing, it's always been a thing for when you just can't get a bloody decent tank
- So... Blizz changed stuff; they nerfed the dungeons HARD twice in the beginning few weeks; they changed the CC so it wouldn't engage mobs; they gave all tanks interrupts so they wouldn't rely on crappy dpses; aaaand... it was still kind of an issue with tanks, though not as bad as before
- People started getting more gear (and raid gear), some people who were displeased just quit (there was this massive drop, like 2 mil people at the start of Cata) and so the issue lessened
- Blizz added call to arms here I think, rewarding tanks for participating into LFD alone; and tanks were still pretty scarce; so eventually they changed the aggro modifier to 5x halfway through Firelands and all of a sudden there were tanks. Tanks all over once again.

So to actually be on topic, there's a lot of things that help with tanks: tools, self sufficiency, LFD (yeah, hate it, but people who couldn't get a tank were getting one, even if a shit one), but the ONE thing that adds more tanks to the pool is THREAT. Because those tanks that are added aren't your dedicated ones - those will probably stick with their guild groups and not bother with random. No, you add those who don't enjoy the challenge of threat or being responsible for their group's mistakes. Which is the majority of tanks.

[chrisnumbers]

Druids can't tank past level 40+ instances so thats the problem

False.
Druids get better and better beyond that point.

[Bhanzai]

Ccing in cata. Hilarious.

[W1sp]

Im a fury tank and i currently only need 1 peice of MC gear and im done with all the gear i need for full BIS (not counting thunderfury). I dont tank dungeons unless its for a friend or guildy since there is no point. I just level alts and chill. Do some two man jump runs. If the DPS warriors just went def stance they would be able to tank every dungeon in the game atm. This would solve most of the tank issues atm.

[Mashanerz]

I'm a prot spec warrior that loves tanking.

But I can't fucking stand most pugs because no one can watch where they're standing, tab target pull on top of it, somehow DPS are always perfectly co-ordinated to make sure they're all attacking different targets, don't know how to CC to save their life, there's always the one stupid fuck mage that thinks Blizzard or Arc Exp is the only spell to use ever despite them being the only AoE class in the group, if they get agro they just run away from the tank, no one know what threat is, interrupts must be tank only and might be included in phase 5.

No one seems to know what marks mean anymore, so when the mage pulls agro on the moon because they're spamming blizzard, I assume they've decided that kiting is the alternative to sheeping....but that's not how people react.

Most of the problems become more trivial as tanks become more geared, but as they become more geared, the less they need to subject themselves to the bullshit.

The problem with tanks is that they can be prima Donnas because we can find other groups, but you can only deal with so much stupid shit before you say "I wouldn't do this even if you paid me" but since being a tank limits your ability to farm, you do end up doing as a way to make money, and since our repair bills can be crazy high, a bad group will often cause us to run it at a loss while the shitty hunter that keeps multishotting extra groups just FD's every time they make pull that wipes the group.

[Bjay]

+10 is still zergable bud... maybe 15+ yeah get some good cc in there. In BC I remember ccing like 4-5 mobs at once. No where in BFA was that required in a 5 man.

I said on launch. A +10 4 weeks into BFA when you had 350 ilvl is equivalent to a +20 atm with 430 ilvl (arbitrary number for the sake of argument). During the first weeks of BC, you had to CC mobs when group was in full blues. After the initial nerfs to Arcatraz etc. and ppl got the hang of the mobs you could zerg it with a prot pally and cleave dps. Scaling in mythic+ however is infinite which means there's always need for heavy CC at the top. Same with challenge modes where gear was normalized before later patches when you could stack sockets and all the right stats (especially MoP CM's).

Magister's Terrace was the exception in BC. You had to either outgear the place or CC heavily there to get through it in a reasonable amount of time. I do agree thought that the baseline difficulty of BC heroics was much harder than baseline heroics of last expansions (excluding cataclysm of course). But heroics have been a literal joke for years anyway.

[Mirishka]

Blame 7-8 rs of Blizzard dumbing down content for that. The last time cc was a big factor was in BC, but Blizzard has been dumbing things down so much now dps has been brainswashed into thinking only their dps numbers matter. I personally hated when Blizzard kept reducing the need to cc and pull targets over the years. Some of my fondest memories where setting up pulls and cc in vanilla/bc dungeons and raids. It was particularly fun when you could do it with a class mix that people said couldnt do it (eg, needing multiple priests for the Moross adds in Karazan early on).

Disagree. Blizz returned to difficult 5-man content in Cata (remember the heroics at launch?) and players railed hard against them for that.

And you can say 'well the content has been easy for 8 years', but if you're playing Classic then you should adjust. Instead people are trying to play Classic like Retail, failing, then blaming Blizz when they should be blaming themselves for failing to adjust. My warrior can tank like 30 mobs in Freehold, but I know better than to try that in Classic UBRS. You won't see me trying it anyway, dying, then crying "REEEEE RETAIL DID THIS TO ME".

- - - Updated - - -

You're the one who's wrong. CC-ing mobs at the start of Cata was a thing.

Yep, absolutely was.

[Saverem]

The tank problem is even worse than retail, I can't find a tank at all and the tanks that join my group usually have requirements like being paid or res an item. I managed to finish the entire brd without a tank because I had an 60 lvl warrior who could tank in dps gear, he was raid geared. Lbrs+ is very hard without a clean tank and you can't outlevel the dungeons.

Is it me or this is a serious problem?

I was a Prot up until Phase 2, then I switched to Arms for PvP. Guessing A LOT of Warriors did the same and made the tanking situation even worse.

[threads]

that's what happens when everyone spreads the meme that warriors are the only tanks and all the moron fury players refuse to tank.

[Halyon]

Yes it's blizzard fault's. So what? They will certainly not give gold for people to tank lol they don't need to run dungeons. DPS do and so they should pay. The same reason why mages ask for a gold when you ask for a portal.

No, tanks should not take gold because they choose to play a shitty spec that requires others to do shit. It's largely the same for healers as well, should they start charging so less and less people can do things outside of guilds and make the game less social than it's so vaunted to be?

[Coldfrostzero]

No, tanks should not take gold because they choose to play a shitty spec that requires others to do shit. It's largely the same for healers as well, should they start charging so less and less people can do things outside of guilds and make the game less social than it's so vaunted to be?

So they should play it to help out others and just suffer the repair cost because half the group can't breathe and blink at the same time? This has been a thing since vanilla and there is nothing wrong with it. Why do you think Blizzard added in bags for tanks and healers to make money to incentivize dungeon running? This is just the community version of it.

If you're not playing a tank, I highly recommend it when someone ass pulls half the dungeon because they couldn't wait the 3 seconds for you to position the mobs and you wipe. Since you're in plate, it costs you near double the rogue and almost triple the mage. It's great!

[ghotihook]

Tanks are so rare on our server that one of our MTs does runs where he reserves all Righteous Orbs. He said he could run indefinitely if he wanted to.

[Grimreaper]

Satyr's bow, tarnished elven ring, battleborn armbraces, brigam girdle, blackstone ring, and the horde hit trinket.

Dont forget the plate shoulders from the ST warrior quest.

[Izzyfurious]

Depends on your realms server pop. I can already confirm for example on even a high Pop realm (used to be medium, now it usually states high) pop realm like Windseeker. It takes endless hours to get one tank for people who play Classic Solo like me. So yes, on such realms. They are extinct, i bet it's because of the annoying things they go tho with all sorts of player types behavior.

[Ehrenpanzer]

I leveled a Bear and slapped the Warden Staff my main luckily got on him and i've been making a killing selling Tank runs. I can tank dungeons just as well as 99% of warriors and my repair bill is nowhere near as expensive so my profit is on avg higher than Warrior tanks selling runs who still have to consider the plate repair tax.

I'm so glad I decided to save that Warden Staff now instead of sell it. I easily made my money back already through tank carries and DPS alts with plenty of gold to waste are happy to not have to wait an hour for a tank.

Basically this. Even as a mage, I can sell "tanking" services for low lvl dungeons and make a fortune from groups that dont want to wait to find a tank

[Danvash]

I love tanking, but I'm not playing classic until the next raid releases. Also, I have a guild to play with and don't need to join pugs for dungeons.

Pay tanks and be a good player. If you pull too much threat or die all the time, they are right in not wasting any more time with you when they can instantly join one of the other 10 groups that need a tank. Unlike in retail with the dungeon deserter and vote kick systems, nobody is ever entitled to another player's help.

[iamthedevil]

Tanks or tank? This is what happens when you have one spec of one class that fills the criteria people are looking for.

[Xemioza]

Just use cross realm group finder....oh wait xd Classic is like a demo version of WoW

Warriors are the only tanks in Classic, and once they are geared they dont care xd. Just ask guildies for help, maybe someone is bored ? Make friends or roll a tank xd.
Its fun...no idea how its in Classic (played a healer) but I had a great time tanking in wrath/cata/mop, but these are the times game become playable.

Forgot there is no dual spec xd and you are stuck in prot...so dont roll a tank, wait for Wotlk realms xd

Or roll a tank and sell boosts

“I’ll be your tank for 35g per run”
10 g each dps 5 g healer

[Ozyorkbourne]

It is so bad that now people are selling tank services.....

It was less of a problem in bfa but the best time to find a tank was around legion IMO

People have sold tank services for a long long time, from vanilla and TBC hc dungeons, to challenge modes and mythic+. It isn't new and it isn't going away.

[Vampyrr]

because full blown hard cc is inefficient. It would make it trivial, but we are running timed stuff, so we have to maximize what we can do with non disruptive cc's and that's the risk.

Yes and before you HAD to do hard ccs now you dont really outside one or 2 mobs. I even remember priests using MC to take a mob out of play not required anymore