World of Warcraft: Shadowlands
This week we take a look at the tanks in-game, and why the number of tanks is so low?
– I want to give some huge credit to Syne, the main tank in my guild, that contributed greatly to this video.
– I would also like to thank Barawer for his help with the text editing:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9idvpXVw7krfzylP5wUcMw
– Sound editing: Yotam Tayer
[email protected]
– Art in Thumbnail created by J.B.VanHarmontt
@JBVanharmontt on Twitter
Music from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3bQlYod-3A
©2004 Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved. World of Warcraft, Warcraft and Blizzard Entertainment are trademarks or registered trademarks of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.
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Great video!
In my case? Because people are toxic jerks.
I main a tank but don't dungeon or raid.
Really interesting. Thanks for this video 🙂
Playing Tank is just too much work.
My Blood DK needs to manage: HP, Runes, Runepower, Boneshield charges plus several Skills and Cooldowns. It's just too much stuff to do. I look at the Ui most of the time and not the actual game.
The problem with tanking is not about some psychological barrier – it's a mechanical one from the gameplay perspective. Tanking is too hard – it's too much buttons and stuff on screen to manage. That's why it feels like a job, is overwhelming and simply not fun to do for the more casual players.
Learning dungeons I just do wierd shit all the time, especially with friends. Thinking outside the box upsets people because people always want to time keys and have had tanks that actually do waste there time. When you find things that work you then start building a default strat in your mind and put those wierd things into those strats. I also like to browse streamers and see what wierd things they discovered, but you always have to think about what the make up of your group is. People have cooldowns at every 2 mins, some have at every 3 mins etc etc. Some people do different dps profiles (AOE, ST, Funnel, Burst etc etc) Once you build up this knowledge to extreme i find people will either hate me or love me. And the people who I get along with have the mindset of thinking outside the box and are always the ones that land at high IO leaving behind all the whingers in the low IO. Sure handling your toon mechanically is big but that's the biggest reason between noobs and skillful players in my opinion is to be able to think outside the box.
And the biggest thing to remember, this is a team base game. Communication is key, always be talking as a tank. Healers need to know when you have gaps in mitigation, and dps need to know when you're going big on pulls so they can plan there damage cooldowns. Without it, it's just about being as predictable as possible and you just doing things considered as ordinary.
Now back to watching Kabaji doing unranked to GM 🙂
i find that tanks are the only melee i enjoy. its a bit annoying to level a melee class or do dailies with them.
first i play ranged dps and healers, then i start doing tanking classes when i have experience with the content.
for queued content and raids, dps has no place in wow, its really sad.
its cuz shadow cant tank lets be honest
Tanking with friends, guildies, or a set up steady group as a tank is very rewarding and fun. However pugging is where most people end up with having issues tanking. Nothing is more annoying than putting the time in to learn mechanics, learn dungeons, routes, count, pace. Then have one wipe or something someone doesn't like then someone leaves, and dungeon is effectively over. Or having people question your routes or your count. While this affects everyone in the dungeon the dps just came to dps and follow whatever path or mobs placed in front of them. Pretty much same for the healer. Is there more to it than that yeah a little but in reality if dps do good numbers and just dont stand in stuff, interrupt here and there they can get pretty high io, without much in the way of any work or time put in other than waiting to get accepted to a group. Healers have a hard time as well but again they just follow along and heal whatever crap people stand in and if they dont follow mechanics no matter how good you are you cant heal thru a one shot mechanic so again really just know your class follow along get decent IO with maybe more stress than dps but not that much more work. I have played all specs in well over +15 keys and tanking is the worst when it comes to pugs IMO. Just my take im sure not everyone feels this way but again just my opinion.
great video Vatts! New tanks, if you feel like it, give it a try!
I love tanking people in pugs are just idiots but I deal with it because pug tanking is how I learned.
I got thick skin and a fuck you macro to go with it.
See you in Shadowlands. Club Thirty Six horde and alliance.
I guess I'm weird since I've played since TBC and have for about 90% of my play time as a tank. I level as a tank, and have pugged virtually everything since Cata. I have friends that I met in FL that I still play with, but not enough for a guild. Trick is to just run your own keys/raids. I've gotten keystone master and AOTC exclusively pugging. In Legion I would do 17's and 18's in pugs. All you can do is be confident, do research on dungeons and fights, and move fast enough for ppl to not have time to type until the dungeon is over.
I think one of the main reason is tanks dont have backup spec. If your class is nerfed and not viable anymore you need to lvl and gear another class and that is too much work.
I used to main tanks but just got sick of dealing with idiots in the group. I’ve switched to mainly healing and I find that role just as fulfilling to play but there’s less bullshit to deal with.
I'm still pissed that I didnt play legion and get the grizzlemaw artifact look
From my PoV as a tank main, tanks are just dps that get to dictate pacing and pathing while also using utility to make the run itself easier in some regard.
Of course, they don't exactly do as much damage, but all you're really doing is spamming abilities for threat and weaving in mitigation.
Personally, I enjoy tanking, but not in WOW. Why? One of the core aspects of tanking is to build and maintain agro. In WOW agro is irrelevant as one hit puts you at the top and keeps you there. I find that extremely disappointing, especially in a tank role.
IDK… I have a prot pally, warrior, blood dk and guardian druid. 🤷♂️
I personally am fine with playing tank, I just prefer dps. When your one out of 3 dps in a dungeon or one is who knows how many in a raid, your mistakes aren’t as noticeable. But being one of of, if not the only, few tanks can put a lot of responsibility that I prefer not to have
i think the biggest reason that we don't see many ppl start playing tank is just the demand is low . don't get me wrong i know you can get inside a random dung in a matter of secs i mean that see a raid group or a guild group how many tank does it need and compare it with dps and healers . you need twice or more healers and like 7 – 8 times more dps for a simple mythic raid group .
any one who has played tank and has tried to join a high end guild has seen the struggle . most of good guilds have their own tanks and it's really hard to find your spot .
the other important part 1. tanking in raids is insanely boring . most of mechanics don't apply to tanks and your job is just nothing literally nothing .
2 . tanking in dungs are insanely hard . every mechanics apply to you and more . u have control the speed of dung and when u go fast healer is upset when you go slow ppl start pulling adds like morons ( i really hate that) . and at the end of the run any thing that went wrong is your fault (ofc when it goes smooth ppl really like you and add u as friend) .
i am sure that any one who has tanked for even a little while has felt these .
i know all of these but i still only play tank and nothing else . it's like you know Holy will never be better than disce but ppl still play that …
because i play a warlock ……. would if i could.
In my experience, as a new player, I have encountered trouble learning all of the dungeon paths and boss mechanics. Learning the role is not hard itself. It is also very discouraging when you have veteran players that are unwilling to be patient as you learn, and are sometimes even outright discouraging via a kick or getting called this or that.
Because it's the biggest responsibility in both mythic+ and raids. I have played all 3 roles. A solid tank can hard carry a bad or average healer and most dps specs are braindead rotations. As a tank your expected to know the perfect route and be either exact % for every key or 1-2% of it and have perfect positioning. Meanwhile dps sit at there desk with their 3 button rotation and occasionally interrupt or stun. Half the healers I have played with stand there lifeless because I don't need any healing most of the time. I have ran nearly 500 keys in just S4 alone. Last night I had a dps yelling at me for not doing the route they wanted and barking orders at me to pull packs I did not need. Mind you the highest key levels they have ran were in the 16-18 range on their main. This is why I don't tank for pugs anymore. I simply don't login unless I have a group.
Toxic LFG players.
Great video!
It's extremely boring!
Tanking now is so easy!
If your not comfortable leading
Tanking isn’t for you.
Tanking requires leadership and taking ownership for your mistakes. People don't like to do that.
I wish Blizzard would give more tank specs to classes:
Hunters can coat scents and pheromones on their ammunition to Frenzy your beast pet to ignore damage but if the pet dies the pet lunges for the hunter bleeding them to death.
Rogues get Combat or Weaken that causes poisons to decrease damage done to the Rogue and is able to inject more to decrease more or even cause damage done to heal the Rogue (Tricking Poison).
Shamans get Earthen or Stone spec that places Stoneclaw totem sharing damage taken and is able to be healed.
Warlocks can Possess a voidwalker to become a tank leaving your spirit behind and will enter the realm of the living if the voidwalker dies at 1% hp and stunned for a short duration.
This is my opinion and probably mine alone.
Playing a a great tank takes effort. More than playing dps. I was considered one of the best tanks back when i played. Being a warrior and able to control groups of mobs and never letting anyone in my party get hit. People use to ask me what mods I used cause they wanted there guilds tanks to get them. I never used mods tho, I think they are to distracting.I always just payed attention to the damage numbers, buffs and cool downs in my head. I could tell if a group would succeed or fail based off of a quick look at the gear that the party was using. Its all math and if you excel in math then you can excel as a tank.
Very detailed explanation! Thank you for work!)
Good job man! ✊🏻✊🏻✊🏻
I stopped tanking because the tanking community is incredibly toxic. I also don't enjoy having to work 5 times as hard as everyone else as my role, I'd much rather dps and just wait in queue.
These day's My most played role is tanking. My pally is my main tanker, Then my druid,Warrior at 3. Going to try Brewmaster & Dh,Never even played any of the 2 tank specs.
I have A high level Dh,just sitting on the shelve. One way that pushed me into more tanking.
Finding a guild who's not to serious. I would ask and let them know I like to Practice tanking this dungeon if anyone was willing.
Just let them know what's' up,Hey I'm trying to get over this whole tanking anxiety or what ever. If no one minds a few Or lots.. Mishaps let's roll.
I totally agree when you say that tanking can be very relaxing when you know the dungeon. It's so good to make things go smoothly and shape pulls. When i play as a dps, tanks sometimes want to take too much mobs or be too fast, leading to wipes. As the tank of the group, it's great to dictate the pace regarding of your group strenghts and weaknesses (item level, knowledge, classes…). It's really rewarding and i would say tanks are usually well designed compared to some dps classes which seem lacking (Survival hunter, Arms warrior…) in dungeon.
=> To conclude, i'm worried about multi-spec in Shadowlands : if it's too hard to switch, there will be less tanks than ever.
Probably because standard leveling is better done as a dps and playing tank is usually boring and unrewarding. Especially if you are in a group with toxic jerks that blame you for anything. That being said, I've have the most fun playing Veng DH because of their high mobility makes it feel less like a tank but when I am not tanking a raid/dung, the lack of high dps makes questing take forever. (I even tried Havoc DH and for some reason it is worse in terms of dps.)
I think it is 95% the learning curve of being the dungeon guide. I have no hesitation to jump into a dungeon I know nothing about as dps. As a tank, zero chance. To be a tank, I have to learn all of the dungeons before I queue for even random heroics. As a dps, I don't have to learn any. That is a LOT of pre-work that people aren't willing to do.