Put tanking out of its misery

by Matthew Rossi

I have played World of Warcraft since its inception. I have tanked that entire time. I have tanked in every expansion, and until I started to go blind I tanked the hardest fights the game had to offer -- and even with my eye difficulties I've tanked up to Heroic Nighthold thanks to friends. I've been at this a long time, and I've seen the ways the game has changed its model for tanking design and how tanking works.

Tanking right now is about as well designed as I can imagine it being. Active mitigation is a great model for how a tank should focus his play, putting survival in the hands of the tank to a degree. (I'd argue that it was a bit better in Warlords, but the basic design didn't change, just how it was tweaked.) I'm a big fan of the AM model, and I generally like how tank classes work right now. (I have first hand experience with Blood DK, Prot Warrior and Brewmaster Monk.) So when I say it's time to drag the role of tank out behind the shed and dispatch it quickly and as painlessly as we can as if this were the end of Old Yeller, I'm not saying it lightly.

Tanking right now is the single biggest bottleneck to groups getting filled at the five man level. It's the target of mass player discontent, whether it's because it's viewed as 'too mobile' or the arguments over tanks pulling dungeons too quickly. Tanks are the hardest for raids to replace, they're often the ones who feel the most pressure at every level of WoW. I've been a MT, an OT, I've been the DPS player who had to step up and tank to keep his guild progressing. I've done all of these things. And I say it's time to change the way World of Warcraft handles threat, healing, and player responsibility so that one set of shoulders isn't holding up so much of it.

Yes, there are players who are amazing tanks. I've known many. Women and men who have stepped into the role and practically carried their raid to glory, who show up in a five man and calmly lead the way through. I respect anyone who steps into the role. But the fact is, it's time for DPS players to learn what a world without tanks is like. It's time for group content to mean players have to be somewhat responsible for themselves instead of getting to get behind the mobs and DPS freely. I've seen much resentment over tanks pulling too quickly from people who often run ahead of the tank and pull for her or him if they don't do it first -- its time for the game to allow these players to tank it themselves.

Games like Destiny 2 don't even have tanks or healers per se -- every class is expected to see to its own survival to some extent. Sure, World of Warcraft is rooted in a design going back to the late 90's and has an expansive class/spec system that would be nigh impossible to retrofit to such a design, and I'm not arguing it should. It would be ludicrous and would wipe out a great deal of what players like about the game.

Tanking can be an incredibly fun experience. But it's clear that some players find the combination of survivability and mobility that some of the specs (I mean, not Blood DK's or Prot Paladins or Guardian Druids, or even Prot Warriors... and really, Brewmaster Monks just have the same mobility every other Monk has... and Vengeance DH's are not really more mobile than other DH's either -- now that I think about it, does any Tanking spec have more mobility than the non-tanks in that class?) have. So rather than force the inequity of one player in a group taking all the damage, I say it's time to let everyone take the damage. That way, we can all be equally mobile and equally survivable and the healer can try and keep four players from dying at the same time.

Unless we abolish healing too, I suppose. That'll show those uppity healers. I look forward to the next expansion, where LFR plays out like 25 people trying to do multiplayer Diablo 3.