Facing the end of Cataclysm?

Things start to catch speed. In two days we've had some news that will impact the game heavily.
Yesterday was turning threat into a non-issue for tanks. Hit hard from the begining and don't fear to lose aggro as the fight goes on. On one hand it's a good idea: dps usually outgear tanks quickly, or if not, the dps ramps up faster than threat. That makes a lesser geared tank struggle to keep mobs on him and end loathing the tanking role (as it happened with my warrior duign WotLK). While this means tanking will be easier (and hope more people decides to queue as tanks) we still have to see what Blizzard intends to do. They want tanks to be more active without having to worry about losing aggro, or "more fun" as they say. Right now as tank you have to take care of: aggro, moving mobs, interrupts (or at least be in the interrupt rotation), catching adds or perform special actions (like intercepting some beam, activate any machinery, etc). Even decursing yourself is in your to-do list. Taking aggro management out of the list already leaves tanks with several thigs to perform or take care of. Adding more things may end backfiring and make tanks life more miserable.
The second thing has been announced not long ago: next expansion will bring the Deathwing raid. The aquatic raid of the Abyssal Maw has been discarded because they say wasn't convincing enough and story wasn't fitting. There are two big implications here: first is this will leave a big unfinished story: after all the struggle in Vashj'ir and the Throne of the Tides we won't know how things will end for Neptulon and Ozumat. Again Blizz will be the king of unfinished plots. The second and most important is this can mark the end of the Cataclysm expansion. By october/november this patch will be most likely out in the streets, so the Cataclysm expansion will be done in just one year instead of the typical two years lifespan. Of course some extra patches can be released after (like Ruby Sanctuary on WotLK) but the expansion plot will be finished. Now there are two ways: either we'll be one year grinding old content/extra patches with no determining content or Cataclysm will be the shortest lived expnsion with just one year + the time it takes to get next expansion finished. There's a third way also, let me get my tin foil hat: Cataclysm is finishes after a year and then we get the expansion 4B: Mists of Pandaria. After the storm that created the announcement of the trademarking of the name within the videogame category and all the speculation wether this would be the next expansion or just a stand-alone videogame, today's announcement of the Deathwing raid could mean we get done with Cataclysm and then we move to Pandaria until the next "official" expansion (I think next one was the Emerald Dream one) is relased next year. This would also address the only 5 new levels that Cata brought, so we can set foot on the Emerald Dream (or whatever is next) as level 90.
Anyway, ditching out the Abyssal Maw so fast and with that vague explanation and announcing the final showdown with Deathwing is worrying. Another sign of the end was hinted by Shintar some days ago when she wrote about how disappointing were the Molten Front story-wise. I felt the same, after that long and boring grind you expect some epic ending and you just get a letter with a mount. Maybe they ditched the grand finale due to the same reasons they did with Abyssal Maw: Cataclysm is facing its end and they have no time to add other content.
WoW is showing his age and Blizzard acknowledged also that they've lost almost one million subscribers in the last 6 months. Adding more content is not enough anymore to retain people, specially when you've been playing since first days. No matter how many dungeons, raids or dailies you add. It's all the same. Bigger weapons, shinier armours, different colour cloaks, but it's the same. If WoW really wants to keep being MMO #1 needs to add something entirely new.

A Tyranny of Tanks

It's nothing new that tanks are scarce. Even before the new Dungeon Finder system came in it was hard to get a tank to run a 5man pug (see one of my first posts). But witht he new Finder tool things doens't seem to improve. Right now having a tank entering the LFG means assured run in 5 seconds or less (unless someone declines). It's the faster way to grind emblems and you can get 5/5 T9 in a very short time. Not only that, you can play as tank and spend the emblems in your second spec, no matter if it's the main or secondary spec and have that char ready for ICC in few days. Yet still the number of tanks hasn't grown.
Being a tank is not the most fun job in the world. Back then it was also stressing, when threat wasn't so easy to get and maintain.  But right now tanking isn't that stressing, healers get most of it. Ok, the job is still boring (plant yourself in front of a bunch of mobs or a boss and let them biff you while watching you're the only one being biffed) and few strategy is involved (I'm talking about 5man instances, not raids), but it's right the same for dps: click buttons and forget about your health (and mana mostly). The only thing dps have is the "fun" to deal big damage numbers, while a tank could only take pride in how high is his threat, the number of hitpoints or the percentage of avoidances. Not very funny, I know. yet still tanking can be challenging (specially in Halls of Reflection).
So why people aren't running tank alts? If the job isn't that stressing or challenging anymore, the only answer is for being not as fun as dpsing. But it's so funny doing "big critz lolz"? I don't think so. Maybe it's me, but I don't care much about what the dps meter says. It's good to see some competition between fellow dps, but I don't care about the position I'm in the list at the end of the instance. As long I've played correctly (and that means more than doing over 3k dps, things like avoiding fire, not stealing aggro, buff the fellow players, etc) I'm happy with my dps character, be either melee or ranged, easy to play as arcane mage or more complicated like cat druid. It has sure more responsability than a dps job, but as said before the threat issues are almost gone and with them the biggest source of stress for tanks.
I was in a party tanking with my poorly geared DK while the rest where clad in T9 and the only concern was my low amount of hitpoints. No one managed to snap a mob off me. I reckon not all tanking classes may be appealing. While I enjoy the protection paladin and the frost DK, I feel unsecure with my protection warrior. I feel he lacks good aoe aggro and thus try to avoid tanking with him. So maybe I'm not playing good the prot warrior, but you can't beat me at prot pally or frost DK (and since my druid is cat I can't tell much about bear tanking, I did some offtank and didn't like it, possibly because I lack the right skills and got a tough time).
Right now tanks hold the power in PUG runs. Getting a healer is not an issue anymore, there aren't tons of them like dps characters, but if you only need a healer you won't wait more than 2 minutes (at least in my battlegroup), while getting a tank may mean over 13 minutes. You know that line "who has a friend has a trasure"? Well, if by any chance that friend is running a tank you've hit the jackpot. It will be "interesting" to see how tanks cope with that power. Right now I've experienced both sides. I got into a pug and we were sent to Azjol-Nerub. On entering the instance the tank left without any explanation. I suspect it's because AN is very short and only has 3 bosses (making a total of 5 EoTs), but it's very clear that tank, unless it had a solid reason to quit, was a stupid moron. If you quit a pug you get a 15 minutes penalisation where you can't join the Finder. AN can be completed in less than 15 minutes with the current average gear people has, so maybe he thought he would get more emblems in another place like Gundrak? (5 bosses + 2 reward emblems). In the time he's waiting without getting into any pug he would have won 5 emblems. So damn stupid. On the other hand I was running Forge of Souls (2 bosses and 2 extra emblems) and the tank decided to go afk in a place with wandering monsters. Of course he aggroed them and first I tried to keep him alive without snapping aggro. A DK tried to tank them  but he couldn't cope with the mobs and died, with the rest of the party wiping shortly afterwards. The first thing I did before ressing was to propose a votekick that passed in a blink and the dickhead tank was expulsed (he had issues before, leaving rampant mobs alone that killed some of us, but what really ticked us off was going AFK in an unsafe place). So we waited for a new tank and luckily we didn't have to wait much. A protadin came in, we told him first boss was dead, he asked what happened and when we explained the previous tank decided to go AFK in the worst place possible and only Devourer of Souls was the only boss alive he answered "good, fast and easy emblems for me, lol!". We finished FoS without any issue. And the tank was pretty happy to gain 3 emblems for just some minutes of easy work.
So will tanks become tyrannical idiots thinking they're "master and commander" because they class is so needed right now? I hope not. One bad example is not enough to create a tendency, but since they're the one that have the frying pan by the handle (as we say here), things could derive in a game of aversion with everyone getting hurt. I also hope people sees the benefit of playing tank chars, not only for the easy and fast loot, but because tanking can be fun and/or satisfying too (at least as fun sitting in the back chugging out spells like there's no tomorrow). And there're also benefits for the rest: more tanks mean more people doing runs, more emblems at the end of the day.
Just as I was finishing this article I found Calli at Pew Pew Lazers! wrote an excellent post about the reverse side of this article, or what we could call A Tyranny of the Rest. Go and read it.

Post soundtrack: A Tyranny of Souls - Bruce Dickinson

The Tanking Questionnaire

If some days ago I posted my answers to the Healers Questionnaire created by Miss Medicina, now it's turn for the Tanking Questionnaire created by Beruthiel at Falling leaves and wings (and again thanks to Righteous Orbs, if you are not following this blog you're missing a lot).
Again the character chosen will be Turnak the paladin. As tank he's the best geared and also is the one I enjoy more when standing in the line of scrimmage. So let's go with the meme:

What is your primary tanking environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)
Any place. While I used Turnak the most in 5mans, I became the unofficial guild's OT, so I'm also tanking in raids unless some friend comes and then I switch to healer or dps.

What is your favorite tanking spell for your class and why?
Mmm this is tough, protadins have a lot of good tanking spells, but I think I'll be a draw between Avenger's Shield and Hammer of the Righteous. Avenger's Shield is a great pulling spell, while Hammer of the Righteous helps me get aoe aggro fast. I know Consecration affects all mobs inside, but Hammer generates more aggro (or at least it's what I feel). Avenger's Shield gets a plus bonus for that Captain America feeling :)

What tanking spell do you use least for your class and why?
Divine Sacrifice. I think I've never used it. I feel is too dangerous, specially if you're facing a boss that hits hard and affects several players. If healers are already struggling to keep you alive they don't need more work. Also nowadays I don't find much utility inr aids since most of the times you have some healer able to do good aoe healing. The only place I can see this can be useful is 5man runs with a paladin healing where there's a lot of splash damage (like poison debuffs in Azjol'Nerub)


What do you feel is the biggest strength of your tanking class and why?
The ability to generate a lot of aoe aggro and keep all mobs focused on you so they don't run rampant around. Also pallies have great tricks to solve mobility situations (like Hand of Freedom), protective measures (wearing plate armour and a shield, Sacred Shield spell, bubbling someone, etc)

What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your tanking class and why?
Before Divine Plea it was keeping enough mana to get your spells going. Right now it's just a matter of keeping Divine Plea always up, so only good timing is needed. Still in some occasions you may run oom, then you better pray that you generated enough aggro before so nobody snaps a mob off you until you regain enough mana to continue your duty.

In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best tanking assignment for you?
Whatever the raidleader assigns me. Thanks to the great aoe aggro I may be better offtanking in fights where you have to pick up several adds, but maintanking the big bad boss is also ok for me.

What tanking class do you enjoy tanking with most and why?
Paladin. You can see why in the answers above: great aoe aggro generation, good survivality and also brings utility to the raid with blessings, hands, etc.

What tanking class do you enjoy tanking with least and why?
I'd say bear druid, but I'd be lying since my feral druid is specced cat, so I'm just an emergency tank when playing him. The real answer is warrior. I feel I have to struggle a lot to generate good aoe aggro, so when doing 5mans or tanking groups of mobs in raids I always feel I'm going to loose aggro ons ome mobs and they will crush a dps or healer, so I don't like tanking with the warrior. And it's not really a matter of gear (he has very decent tanking gear) or skills, I just feel warriors are best tanking one mob than a group, but nowadays you have to deal with groups of mobs or adds almost everywhere.

What is your worst habit as a tank?
Good question, because I'm not sure I have an answer.This doesn't mean I'm a perfect tank. I just try not ot pull too many mobs at once, try to keepp high aggro on all... maybe I'm too cautious and I could make instances faster by pulling more, but I don't want to wipe for being trigger-happy. Maybe the worst thing I've ever done is forgetting some times to put Righteous Fury up and then wonder why people is getting aggro.

What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while tanking?
Aggro monleys. People that doesn't wait for me to even cast Avenger Shield or Exorcism. And then they scream "AGGRRRRROOOO!!!" and run away from me.

Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other tanks?
In fact i think protadins are better than the rest of classes since they seem to have all the tanking tools needed: good mitigation (including block and parry), good aoe generation tools, a set of "oh shit!" tools (hands, bubbles, heals)... I couldn't ask for more. For example as I mentioned before I feel that warriors lack some better aoe aggro tools (I know they have Demoralizing Shout, Thunderclap and Shockwave). Bears need to stack hitpoints and because they lack mitigation (parry, block) while stacking too much dodge means they will starve rage.

What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a tank?
Basically Omen so I see I have enough aggro and RatingBuster to check new loot and if it's better than my current one. I also have a script that tells me if I need to go for parry or dodge. Not sure if it works only for paladins or also for warriors and death knights, I got it from a paladin blog which name I can't remember right now (shame on me):

/script DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage("If ratio above 1.88 start getting Parry. Currently at: "..string.format("%.2f", (GetDodgeChance()-10)/(GetParryChance()-10)))

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your class?
Again I'm not sure, nowadays the tank classes aren't so different and they can perform good in simmilar situations. Still there're situations where some classes have some advantage (like Death Knights pulling the sparks in Malygos fight or spores in Loatheb, while paladins excel at tanking the zombies in Gluth)

What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new tanks of your class to learn?
Probably getting the right stats. You have to care for defense, health, parry, dodge, block... too many things to maintain and when you start a tank this can be cumbersome. Then in second position is mastering your spells/skills rotation.

Effective Health or Avoidance and why?
Depends on your gear and skill. For new tanks, health. Once you have decent health and are defense capped, you can start worriying about avoidance. For bears can be more tricky, too much avoidance will ruin their rage generation.

What tanking class do you feel you understand least?
Bears. Probably because my druid is cat specced and when he had to tank it was a stressing. Also almost all the abilities have a paw or claw depicted so it's very very easy to confuse them if you don't play a bear on the daily basis.

What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in tanking?
Omen, Outfitter (without this we dualspeccers would go insane), RatingBuster and that macro I mentioned before.

Do you strive primarily for balance between your tanking stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why?
As I said once you're defense capped and got a fair amount of hitpoints it's time to worry about the rest of stats. In the begining I went mainly for hps. Right now I've stopped getting more health and I'm stacking dodge until my macro tells me to get parry.

Where have all the cowboys gone?

That's what Paula Cole sang back in 1997, but to be more precise in this case... where have all the tanks gone? You know, when trying to put up a pug, forming the backbone (tank + healer) is always the hardest part. Not everybody finds joy in being biffed by big meanies or staying in the back trying to keep everybody alive, so when you enter LFG channel it's typical to find lots of dps hoping to get inside a group but very few healers and tanks.

For some mysterious reason the amount of tanks available in LFG on Hellscream server has decreased to almost extintion, while months ago getting a healer in LFG was like finding a gold vein (in real life). So why this change? Nowadays it's easy to see 2 or 3 healers (all of them dualspecced, of course) available for each dungeon, but no trace of tanks. And you guessed it... all the huge load of death knights roaming LFG-land are dps! I know tanking is possibly the less exciting role in the game (unless you get inside a band of happy-trigger dickheads who think aggro holding comes built in all tanks as a passive skill) and requires more skill than most dps classes who only smash one or two buttons (hello mages and hunters!) but seriously, people should try tanking and break away from the I-only-play-dps-chars mentality (something I once did). Not only will give you a better understanding of game mechanics, it may reveal a hidden über-skilled tank in you. So... where's my John Wayne?