Are you planning to go "hardcore" raiding? I ask that because many people give up playing what is "fun" and pick up the "gets the job done" class du jour for the job that raiding can become. Although with the current homogenized direction, it seems Blizz finally figured out this might have been part of costing the game tanks. I digress.


The advice I have handed out for over 10 years now is: play what you love. And play the class that best fits you and your playstyle. You will make it work much better than anything else.


It's a game. Go have fun!

 

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Meh, I appreciate the sentiment, but this only goes so far. This is the reason why there are so few healers and even fewer tanks. It is always going to be more fun to just smash and blast away as a DPS class then to take on some responsibility and sit back and heal or be up there an tank.

That is why there are a million rogue/hunter/warlock, ect..

Sure there is the aspect that the tank/healer classes require more skill so many players opt for the easier choice, but as we all see on a day to day basis, there are many players who still choose a tank class despite their lack of skill...

I want to be a good tank class because I want the responsibility, I do find that fun, but I am sure I'd have more fun over all if I was a Warlock and just sat there and blasted away, but then.. there are a million of those already.

 

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I understand what you're saying. And for most of the people, DPS IS probably their idea of fun. Doesn't hold true for everybody. (I have a guildmate that I finally coaxed into DPS after years of doing nothing but tanking, just so he could understand it and because he was frustrated in PvP.) Personally, straight up DPS bores me silly! And my guildmate doesn't like it much but finds it very effective in PvP (he's an old FPS player). I know there are folks out here who play nothing but healers from game to game.


In this specific thread, I was responding to a question about a choice of tank from among 3. I stand by my: the one that best fits and is the most fun will probably be the played better (... if not more often.) That's just human nature. Ill-fitting anything can be uncomfortable, often a struggle, and usually less effective.


And yes, I agree, that's obviously a qualified "sentiment". (Otherwise we wouldn't be grousing about grinding for gear in cookie cutter specs.)

 

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Auenwing,

I hope you didn't read any sarcasm or negativity in my response to you, none was intended, its hard to tell someones tone through their posts sometimes so I just wanted to be clear there. I do totally agree with you in the sense that if you are trying to 'force' a certain class because the forums told you it was the best, it is just never going to feel right and you'll eventually just quit it possibly with out even realizing why.

Either way I think I may have taken your post out of context since it was intended to refer to the 3 tank classes and not Dps/Heal/Tank in general.

Since you brought up PvP I'll ask this question, which of the 3 tank spec's do you think doubles as a great PvP class?

 

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Your post was fine, I was clarifying mine. Hope MINE didn't come off as attacking, it wasn't meant to. I think we're in violent agreement.


As far as PvP, if you'd asked me before 4.0, I would have said DK. (I still love PvPing with mine.) I've seen somebody who can really wield a Prot Pally go "bowling" taking out groups of players, without blinking, take out another wave...heal up, keep going... sick.


I can't claim any data in this area, as I've only PvP'd a frost DK and a ret Pally out of the tank classes. (we won't mention my brief incursion with a boomkin... )


I KNOW there are many others actually qualified to answer that (excluding self-proclaimed "experts" with suspect data, of course.)


I assume you mean PvPing IN the tank spec, not dual-spec?


So bump the thread for response to that, or maybe start a new one? Could be a fun discussion.

 

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My prot pally is a monster in battlegrounds. 50k health, constant heals via holy power, and on demand burst. Other melee classes are a joke right now because the new divine intervention is up pretty much every fight and the healing is based on level 85 health pools = which means a 3HP word of glory hits me upwards of 15-20k. In addition, if you spec into it you can heal others and are healed yourself as well. Mighty handy in bg's. That said, if I get unlucky on grand crusader procs, most casters can kite me for days.


To the op, all classes got major revamps. Tanks are no different. My pally and my warrior (druid retired, tired of staring at bear arse after so many years) have two specs now, both for tanking (single target and aoe trash). I "believe" it will be normalized more once we move into cata and the return of cc. But if you want to tank ICC with heavy handed dps, you will need a different spec for trash and bosses. Of course if you don't pug or raid with tards who can't manage to watch omen you can easily get away with one spec.


p.s. This is assuming we're discussing situations where you need to eek out every bit of threat that you can.

 

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I think the answer to the question posed in the threat title is a resounding, "ES."

I'm seriously considering deleting. It's a shame...I really liked the class and I've played nothing but warrior since I switched to horde, but this is ridiculous.

 

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Nah, don't delete your warrior if you like tanking with it.

Tanking with a warrior will always at least be reasonably viable. There will almost certainly be a period during the early expansion where warriors are the least favored of tanks, probably druids along with them, while raids are looking for Pally and DK tanks instead. However, that will not likely last for TOO long.

 

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I think in terms of "this too shall pass". Nevertheless it is hard to understand them making Warriors less powerful. Until we start seening more tanks they should be thinking in ways to make the class more popular. I'm starting to believe the developers are getting into us vs them thinking.

 

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