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.

The Disappearance of the Bear

Wow.com today ran a good piece on bear tanks: The Disappearance of the Bear. This is a topic near and dear to my heart. As bear tank, I was our guilds main tank throughout Burning Crusade and our Karazhan runs. However, after leveling my bear to 80 and running Naxx with my bear, I quickly became very disillusioned about my spec. Pally tanks were basically better at everything, especially AOE threat. So eventually, I switched to Resto and then Balance and stopped tanking on my druid altogether. That was a sad day for me. Balance is a lot of fun and I am doing well with the spec, but i will always be a bear tank in my heart.

I think the article hits on a lot of reasons why bear tanks are quickly becoming extinct on WOW, but it lacks focus. To me, there are only a few main reasons for the decline. In my opinion, the problems with bear tanks are pretty specific to 10 man raids and heroics.  Which is what the vast majority of players run in the game. Too often, Blizzard focuses is on 25 man raiding guilds which represents a vary small percentage of the player population.

Here are the reasons I see for the decline in bear tanks.

(1) Druid Tanks are Single Target Threat Tanks in an AOE World
No one uses crowd control any more. Ever! So AOE threat generation is a requirement to tank. Druid tanks have the weakest AOE threat of any tank in Wrath. Pally and DK tanks are vastly superior in this area.

(2) Lousy Itemization
I know you are supposed to get Rogue gear and tank with it. But it doesn't "feel" like tank gear. It feels like you are the red headed step child who gets everything as hand me downs. Plate tanking gear has a lot of stamina on it. Heck, feral tanking gear had a lot stamina. Rogue gear does not. So it just feels wrong for tanking.

Plus as pointed out in the article, it can be difficult to get when several people are rolling for the same thing.


(3) Nothing Outstanding about Bear Tanks
In Burning Crusade bear tanks had amazing health and physical damage mitigation. We were the preferred tank against magic wielding bosses because of that extra health. I don't think there is anything about a bear tank in Wrath that makes it superior as a tank. Pally's have really nice self healing abilities. Death Knights have all those cool anti-magic spells.

What did Druids get?  Some sort of invisible damage absorbing bubble that only procs on crits and last for 1 hit. Cool....  Not!!!! You can make all the excuses you want. But the bottom line is, Druid tanks are currently an inferior option in the game. While they remain one, their numbers will continue to shrink.