Being a Tank - curse or blessing?

[Facefive]

So when B11s and Spacegoats hit, I decided to roll a B11 Pally. I chose Prot as my main spec.

Being a tank is the most satisfying feeling as far as dungeonlevelling, dungeon-repgrinding and farming heroic batches goes. Nothing even remotely compares to being a tank and being able to choose whichever dungeon you want to run and when. "Protpally lfg SL hc" -> boom. Instant invite. Try doing this as a rogue. As a healer you can somehow relate but only a little. Tanks are the gods of "Dungeon-TBC". Doesn't matter how shit you are. You want to go afk for a bit, because [reason]? Sure go ahead. Your group will wait. You wan't to charge money for tanking a dungeon? Hell yeah no problem whatsoever. You still need to do the escort q in Manatombs while everyone else doesn't? Just start the damn quest, people will do it. Wan't to farm SV for rep, when everyone else just wants to run through the dungeon? Just pull unnecessary mobs, you're group won't disband. You get the point. There will always be some exceptions, but bottom line is tanks are dungeon-gods. Period.

But here is the flipside. When my guild decided to change raid days I was basically left out as a raider and this is when the trouble started. Try finding a guild that still needs a tank. You can either join a guild that doesn't raid, make your own guild (which comes with so many responsibilities that it is just not worth it) or PUG. Even PUGs are so overrun by tanks it is ridiculous. The last option is staying a dungeon-god.

So the question is:
Is being a tank a curse or a blessing?

[Ludek]

It's a blessing if you are a tank in your guild - then you are both god in puging dungeons, and one of the most appreciated members of the raid team.

When looking for a guild to tank - yea it can be rough, even on retail, where raids can be flex, but the amount of tanks is not (there is dual spec, but if you want to just tank, your guild search will be longer)

[Raven]

Seems like you already answered your question, its a mix depending on what situation you are in.

[Magneto]

Yin and yang

[HildaKristiansen]

Yes and no)

[anon5123]

Tanks are much less in demand for raids because you really only need 2 or 3 of them in a 25man, and Kara can be almost entirely solo tanked by a paladin, only netherspite requires 2 tanks.

The solution is to just get a heal or DPS set for raids and tank 5mans, like I did. When I was gearing up for preraid, I tanked because every group was "LF1M tank", and I built a tank set...and also collected any healing pieces that the healer didn't need. I ended up with a preraid bis tank set and a nearly preraid bis healing set.

I heal raids on Sun/Tue and tank 5mans for gold the rest of the week. Ez game ez life. I wish we had dual spec though so I didn't have to keep paying 50g every swap.

[Northern Goblin]

T4 is easy enough that you should be able to find a competent semi-organised pug group to get your weekly clear.

Should help you build a reputation up for finding a new guild too.

Being a badge hero won't do a great deal for a while now until the new loot comes out in phases 4 and 5 sadly. So I advise you try to push for a new home rather than just foreverfarm heroics.

[ellieg]

Tanks are paladins and they have blessing. You're thinking of warlocks for curses

[Samuraijake]

its a blessing... non tank players turn it into a curse.

[kail]

Could tank enough heroics to build either a pre-bis ret or holy set and swap to those for raiding. Yeah it's costly but really that 100g will come easily to a prot pally doing some aoe farming. In my server, ret is the most demanded specs for raiding of all the paladin roles. Any of the three specs can tank T4 raids easily, but guilds and pugs really want that one-of ret that nobody seems to ever play.

My plan for my pally to raid as ret. The seal twisting playstyle is rather unique in all of my time playing WoW, don't want to miss out on that experience.

[ellieg]

Could tank enough heroics to build either a pre-bis ret or holy set and swap to those for raiding. Yeah it's costly but really that 100g will come easily to a prot pally doing some aoe farming. In my server, ret is the most demanded specs for raiding of all the paladin roles. Any of the three specs can tank T4 raids easily, but guilds and pugs really want that one-of ret that nobody seems to ever play.

My plan for my pally to raid as ret. The seal twisting playstyle is rather unique in all of my time playing WoW, don't want to miss out on that experience.

Id kill to have a ret in my 25 man's. Just need 1 that knows how to crusader strike and keep any of the pally judge of wisdom up. Jow for hunters is about 230 mp5 and solves all of their mana problems

[chrisnumbers]

whats a b 11.
is that like a b52?

[Djuntas]

I have so far gotten 1 primal nether reserved when I didnt ask for it, fast runs due to me some times, and quick invites. So yea...its as always the best. Been tanking since TBC day 1 on my druid, and ill never do anything else for 5 mans. In raids I dont like being main tank really, but I can if need be. But yea, Im always gonna tank...Like Im playing with some friends now, and often I fear if I wasent tank I woulden't get invited to karazhan or some....but lucky I like tanking anyway.

Also TBC heroics satysfying to tank, doing the pulls right is nice, but threat sucks...hate that.

[Millyraynge]

In most cases tanking is stressful or boring. The sweet spot in between occurs fairly rarely.

[Lochton]

I believe the true answer is both.

[last1214]

whats a b 11.
is that like a b52?

I play as an Arizona broccoli. Don't hate just because you dont know what it is...

[Millyraynge]

whats a b 11.
is that like a b52?

German slang

B11 = Blood Elf

Elf = Eleven

[Kumorii]

Man, the first paragraph sounds like a horrible person to play with.

[Shaetha]

You wan't to charge money for tanking a dungeon? Hell yeah no problem whatsoever.

Ah, yes, the WoW equivalent of a hard drug dealer.

[FAILoZOFF]

its a blessing... non tank players turn it into a curse.

This, try tanking as feral/warr... with people having current retail mentality of "go go go AoE fest" without letting you get some rage, build some sensible aggro and just refusing CC.
Its a hell.
Paladins... paladins have it different.