Tanking Balancing Discussion

There is a really lively discussion on the balancing of Tanking Classes on the WOW forums this week. Definitely worth a look if you are a tank.

The warriors are trying to make an argument that essentially, they suck compared to other tanks. Now in terms of DPS and AOE threat, this is probably true. But to what degree?  I'm sure a reasonably geared Warrior can tank any instance or raid in the game. Now those runs might flow a little bit differently than if they were tanked with a Pally or a DK.  However, warriors can still be successful. I think that is GhostCrawlers argument more or less.

He points to the fact that most elite raiding guilds still use warrior tanks as the reason warriors don't need to be buffed. However, I think this is a poor data set to use for the health of a class in the game. Raiding guilds exist to essentially serve the needs of its officers. More than likely, in those guilds, the main tanks are warriors and have been officers or GMs in those guilds for a long time. Given the amount of effort that would be required to gear a 25 man raid tank it seems unlikely they would be changed for another class. So if the raid guild started with mostly druids, they probably still have druids. If they started with warriors, they probably still have warriors.

In our heroic runs and 10 man raids, our groups are totally focused on AOE DPS and AOE threat. The best tanks for holding AOE aggro is by far a Paladin. The best tanks for DPS are Paladins and DKs. Thusly, as I have been leveling my Paladin tank, I have noticed I have a LOT of company. If I was gonna look at where tanking specs are headed, I think I would look at the demographics of tank classes who became 80s in the last 6 months. My guess is they are mostly Paladins with just a smattering of the rest.

I think Blizzard is really trying hard not to focus on 25 man raiding so much. But sometimes I think that focus still clouds their judgement.