I remember a time..
..When tanking used to mean something! Now I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. Its unfortunate that I never got a chance to raid in vanilla wow but I think I still have a decent picture of how it was back then. Celaeno; a guildie of mine recently brought up a good point on her blog about tanks, healers and how little praise they receive for a job well done. Now I’ve done it all, healed, tanked, and topped the damage charts so I’d like to think that I know what I’m talking about. Tanks and healers have in many cases a significantly more difficult job than dps (not always, but a lot of the time) and the consequences to their failures generally affect a greater number of people in raid. They are first to take the blame and last to receive praise.
DPS have damage meters. Healers have healing meters. Tanks have…meat shield meters?? No, they don’t have anything. Whats more frustrating is that 90% of wow players don’t know enough about the various tanking classes or the job itself to tell a good tank from a fail tank. It can get really depressing sometimes.
BUT
I remember a time when being MT of your guild meant a great deal. No one needed a quantifiable means to judge my performance. Why?? because MTs don’t fuck up and if they do, they fix it before the next attempt. They are immovable pillars upon which good raid groups are built. Now I know thats a rather bold statement to make but if you speak with any successful vanilla wow tank he will tell you close to the same thing. Tanking in WotLK has been a joke compared to prior expansions. Today anyone can pick up a sword and board, shape shift, or chance presence and be an acceptable tank as long as either fucking GS is over this weeks outrageous number and they have more HP than the next guy. These are sad times indeed.
I think back to my own experiences back in BC. For a young level 70 tankadin the quest to reach uncrushable was EVERYTHING. It meant something to be uncrushable, or to mitigate more damage, or to make that crazy last second clutch move to save a raid from a wipe. But no one notices these things anymore untill they are no longer there.
We tanks of days long past are a dying breed. Trully a dime a dozen. fortunately for my wonderful guild, this tankadin won’t soon lay down his sword and board, We’ve got bosses to down and dungeons to conquer.
January 20, 2010 at 6:59 AM
I was using the random dungeon finder on my rogue the other day. I got into ZF. The tank was a level 45 full blown Fury Warrior that obviously couldn’t hold aggro on any mob. Even the healer was overaggroing him.
I remember a time during BC as I leveled my first toon and went into ZF. I used to wipe on trash constantly. Sadly, even my Rogue was able to tank mobs in there without dying. As soon as we were able, we kicked the Fury Warrior. Even if the group was making it work, it wasn’t how any of us wanted to play.
Tanking definitely isn’t what it used to be.
January 20, 2010 at 2:28 PM
rogues actually make decent tanks at low levels if they have ok gear, I actually tanked at 70 in raids (only bosses though) with 115% avoidance sets
as for the state of tanking in the game, i do miss the old days but the whole issue of tanking being less than it used to be kinda complies with it just overall being easier to do (especially compared to vanilla) and because of this mre tanks are actually around which for me at least….is wonderful. In fact, tanking isn’t easy enough imo, it should be faceroll so all the stupid people can do it amazingly and i don’t have to wait an hour in a queue as dps
January 20, 2010 at 2:52 PM
I played an Orc Warrior in Vanilla, and BC. I tanked everything from Deadmines to SSC. To be a tank back then meant you needed to be a bit of a leader, to KNOW not just the encounter but the trash. My Guild counted on me, and I took it serious…maybe too serious. Hell if I didn’t show up for the raid, my guild wasn’t raiding that night.
I knew times were changing when Death Knights were going to be able to tank, and dual spec came out. That and I was burnt out, big time.
I miss it once in awhile, and am leveling a pally to try pally tanking. It’s not the same, I see the quality of todays newer “tanks” and I laugh. There was a seriousness to the game, that just not there anymore.
January 21, 2010 at 11:46 AM
[...] to the meat of my discussion. The WoW of 5 years ago, is not the WoW it is today. Inspired by this post by Mach. Tanking isn’t the same, but then I thought. Nothing is the same as it was. This MMO has [...]
January 22, 2010 at 10:44 AM
Hmmm,
I’m not sure if tanking is that much easier than it was or if its you who’s simply better than you were. Granted i have no idea what tanking is about since i dont have any tanking toon but i know it does make a huge difference in a raid when you have tanks that are good/know what they are doing.
I will give you our tuesday attempt at ICC 10 this week as an example. We had good dps, we had good healing but the tanks were not our usual tanks and it really showed.
So, is tanking easier than before? Most likely (everything else is easier) but is it so easy that anybody can just respec and get gear to tank high level raid? Not even close.
February 17, 2010 at 10:58 AM
Hello,
Stumbled upon your blog while I was doing my daily reading. As a tank who started in TBC, I completely understand what you are feeling.
I am currently tanking for our 10-man crew for ICC. I’m so used to having a MT & an OT. The Main tank does the brute damage taking while the OT does pretty much all of the dirty work.
Now, both tanks are treated equally which has it’s pro’s & con’s.
Pro’s because I remember being the OT all of the time and pretty much being the ADD bitch while the MT just got to stand there & be the hero. Now, there really isn’t one to be thrown at the adds on all occasions.
Con’s because now you MUST have two very well geared tanks at all times. The OT was normally the less experienced and less geared tank. They were there to assist the MT, gear up, and learn the fights. Now you have to pretty much have two MTs in ICC. If one tank slacks, you’ll find yourself in a pickle.
Do I find that tanking is easier? Not sure because Paladins have recieved quite a few tweeks that are well deserved and we have experience under our belts.
If I were to break down the majority of tanks:
35% are just horrible
60% are decent tanks
5% are Incredible
Even if the game is “easier” strive to be better regardless of the environment you find yourself in. Once you get sloppy because it’s Faceroll content is where you lose your wits.
<3 Fuu