you can blame the lack of 5 man tanks squarely on the raid designers.

1-2 main tanks for a raid of 10-25. 1 tank for a group of 5.


dps you can pvp or pve, and we only get 2 specs.


lot of times you may roll up your dk/war/pal to be a tank but they just aren't needed in the raids you join. so you start focusing your gear on your off spec and soon enough, your tank gear and spec is completely obsolete and not needed.

I think a lot of the shortage is people give up trying to gear up their tanks, cause everyone wants a tank in tier 9 gear. I am trying to tank, but noone wants someone that 1. is learning (cause no one runs regulars lvling up anymore), and 2. not geared out the ass. Yes, I have tried guild, noone ever responds. Before you say find another guild, I am working on that too.

There wasn't a shortage on my server till they over nerfed DKs.

And it is thankless. Anything that goes slightly wrong ends up being your fault in some way.

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Q u o t e:


Paladins are the only tank class that have a set rotation. You don't watch for procs, or for a rune. You just hit something with two macros, and you can tank. A 4 year old can hit two buttons. Here's the macros:

/castsequence Hammer of the Righteous; Shield of Righteousness

/castsequence Holy Shield; Consecration; Judgment of Wisdom

Press 3 to pull, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1. Give or take a few spells to adjust.

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Judgment of Wisdom? Seriously?

The rest is correct, you just wait for spells to get off cooldown.

Warrior is almost the same, but they get 2 proc abilities.
HotR = Heroic Strike or Cleave
SoR = Shield Slam
Concecrate = Shock Wave
Avenger's Shield = Thunderclap

Warrior gets 2 proc abilities - Revenge and Sword & Board.
Paladin has to keep Holy Shield active.

To be honest, they are both the same when it comes to single target mobs. In AoE fights, Paladin just does it better.
Judgments = Devastate

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Q u o t e:
And it is thankless. Anything that goes slightly wrong ends up being your fault in some way.

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Amen. Hence why I only run with the guild. Every heroic this side of ToTC is almost trivial for 4 people. I'm fairly confident 3 could do 50% of them or better, and my gear is not even that great. Given that, I always have a guild group available anytime I want it.

Given the choice to run with guild mates or PUG....most tanks choose the safety of the guild.

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Q u o t e:
On my server, there is no tank shortage. There is an absolute healer shortage.

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^ I have found this to be true on mine as well.

Tank shortage huh? I thought there was a healer shortage, all I see in trade is tanks LFG need healer...I want to roll a healer just so I can group all the time (grizzly hills server)

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Q u o t e:
There is no tank shortage, there is only a shortage of tanks willing to pug because pugs suck.

"Hey, guys, gimme a sec to grab them"

The Moonkin, Mage and Retladin go AoE wild and 2 of them die

"WTF! YOU SUCK!!!!"

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I get that alot, not the you Suck part lol

but people always tend to Attack right away, so then I have to Rush in and try to grab them back. sometimes I jsut let them Die and take the mob back when they do, since I am 2nd on the aggro list I dont have to worry

the Worst is when you Mark the kill order and tell them this is the order and they still go Full out DPS on the last guy we were suppposed to kill.

I do that on my rogue (start DPS right away) but thats cause I am with overgeared people and I am undergeared so Aggro is not an issue.

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Q u o t e:
So why is there still a shortage of tanks?

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Before the last patch I could tank Htoc on my DK without having 535 defense.

Post patch that is no longer the case.

I think part of it is the pressure put on tanks and healers. In a five man group there are three DPS, you don't have to be on top of your game, you have two other DPS working along side you. When you get to 25 mans it is even easier to relax and sit in the middle of the pack. The healers and tanks on the other hand have to bring it everytime. If agro breaks loose or healing can't keep up you always have one or two people taking all the blame.

Along the same lines a DPS can press three buttons and do reasonable DPS, they won't top the chart, but they will be OK. A tank, even a paladin, has several buttons needed for minimal tanking and several more to really push the class.

A healer is even worse as the default interface for healing is simply inadequate. Many people will argue this point, but I can say from experience that time spent on addons and tweaking ui leads to exponential gains in healing. As a druid trying to keep up four HoTs on multiple targets you must have addons. I once lost my addons folder, it took me three hours to get the interface back the way I needed it, most people won't spend that kind of time.

Tanking for a PuG is essentially doing a favor for that PuG. When you tank, people expect you to take over the raid/instance group and handle everything. Dealing with friends that you know and play with often is enjoyable, even if you are forced into the leader role, at least you know their boundaries and they know yours, they know when not to press your buttons and when to shut up and do what yo say.

PuGs on the other hand generally have little respect for the person that comes in and lords over them, despite the fact that they refuse to lead it themselves. Thus it's always a struggle for control and getting everyone together to reach a goal. If a tank screws up and goes AFK for a second, then some retard will pull and wipe the raid. If a tank makes a mistake then someone dies, or if its anything bigger than a minor mistake then everyone dies. This is particularly annoying when you're with a PuG because they expect their leader to be infallible, the minute he screws up all sense of order goes out the window and people QQ all over the place.

The reason there are always a shortage of tanks is because don't know how to shut up and follow orders when an intelligent responsible tank comes along. Whats worse is when a tank has to carry an undergeared group. Tanking is the one position where you will always find a well geared time invested player, tanks HATE it when we join groups with DPS and healers in blues that we have to carry through content.

The other reason is probably because all the people you see on the forum that are just complete douchebags like those people saying "People who roll DKs as their mains are just not intelligent enough to tank" etc. Do you think I (a DK main) am going to want to tank for someone that doesn't shut the hell up about how much of a noob I am because I rolled a DK? The answer is no.

TL;DR - Idiots who don't listen to the tank and other people who make a tanks job harder than it should be are the reason you don't see as many tanks as you would like. The reason you don't see as many DK tanks is because it's pretty goddamn annoying when people tell you that you're a noob all the time because you're a DK main. Respect is mutual.

There are 100 warriors, 100 pallys, 100 druids in BC. only 30 want to tank out of them all.
There are 20 warriors, 20 pallys, 20 druids, 7,238,733 dks in Wotlk. only 30 want to tank out of them all.
see mah point?

I've always been intimidated by tanking. The hit cap, expertise cap, dodge, health, ect. Gemming seems more precise, researching what gear you need to be capped for what fight.. all seems so much more difficult than healing or DPSing. But I never played that "Oblivion" game because there seemed to be too much to do, so that's probably just me.

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Q u o t e:
Really?? Im not good tanking??......ummm maybe I just think I am.

No, wait I am. Ive tank FTH several times, 25 Naxx quite a few times and have in Uld a few times. I pull and hold 100% of the threat and hold it 100% of the time. THE only time I lose it and dont get it back is when I chose not to.....like my bfs rogue (he likes to think he can tank) or when Im training another DK tank.

ROFL!

Might want to look at the tanking spec and not my PvP spec.

God I just love it when ppl who have never run with you, tell you want you cant do.

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Parry haste - Learn what it is and why DW tanking is bad because of it

Rune Tap is not a good tanking talent
IIT is not a worthwhile talent for tanks
2/3 Annihilation when Obliterate it is a top TPS behind RS and DnD and opens up Killing Machine
Deathchill is worthless for tanks
Every boss will be immune to Chillblains effect
You don't have BotN
Acclimation is bad
Unholy Command is bad for tanking


Yes your tanking spec is awful.

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Q u o t e:
Tanking for a PuG is essentially doing a favor for that PuG. When you tank, people expect you to take over the raid/instance group and handle everything. Dealing with friends that you know and play with often is enjoyable, even if you are forced into the leader role, at least you know their boundaries and they know yours, they know when not to press your buttons and when to shut up and do what yo say.

PuGs on the other hand generally have little respect for the person that comes in and lords over them, despite the fact that they refuse to lead it themselves. Thus it's always a struggle for control and getting everyone together to reach a goal. If a tank screws up and goes AFK for a second, then some retard will pull and wipe the raid. If a tank makes a mistake then someone dies, or if its anything bigger than a minor mistake then everyone dies. This is particularly annoying when you're with a PuG because they expect their leader to be infallible, the minute he screws up all sense of order goes out the window and people QQ all over the place.

The reason there are always a shortage of tanks is because don't know how to shut up and follow orders when an intelligent responsible tank comes along. Whats worse is when a tank has to carry an undergeared group. Tanking is the one position where you will always find a well geared time invested player, tanks HATE it when we join groups with DPS and healers in blues that we have to carry through content.

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These reasons, mostly.

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Q u o t e:
Just putting the question out there. In TBC there was a tank shortage. Blizzard adds death knights in WotLK, adding another melee/tank hybrid like warriors. That's three tank classes now up to four, and and the addition of dual specs so people can spec for tanking while still having the dps spec they want for soloing and pvp.

So why is there still a shortage of tanks?

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Because generally only 3-4 main tanks are needed for each guild, with maybe a couple offspec tanks thrrown in for offnights, a lot of other people who might otherwise want to tank are discouraged from trying. Why tank, when you won't be allowed to raid as a tank in a guild where the tanks are well established? They might do it anyway, if it weren't for the fact that tanks have higher barriers to entry than other roles.

I am a tank. We don't have an excessive shortage on my realm. I love tanking, and i understand why some people might get frustrated by the fact that they are unneeded for raid tanking.