It’s a frustrating time in World of Warcraft, at least if you play a DPS class. Any time you get into a queue for a random as DPS, and even to a lesser extent as a healer, you are in for a long wait. On many servers getting into the random instance queue can mean an hour of wait time to get a group as DPS and about 20 minutes as a healer. Sign up for a heroic and it can be significantly longer. However, if you sign up as a tank you are in instantly. Why?

With 4 different classes that are able to tank, you would think that there would be many tanks around. There are hardly any though and that’s why the queues have reached epic proportions and many players are getting extremely frustrated. Here I look at the many factors that I believe play into the disappearing tank issue and a few things that may help get some back into the World of Warcraft.

The Issues

E-peen (ego) – One of the biggest reasons that players do not play tank classes is that they have ego and want to see huge DPS numbers to stroke that ego. They don’t want to sit back and take a beating and not be able to say they are better than everyone else in the group by pushing big DPS.

You can see this even with some players that tank, many Death Knight tanks are examples of this. You can find many DK tanks that focus on their DPS numbers rather than avoidance and mitigation and therefore make horrible tanks. Ask anyone that has to heal a DK who does this how fun the instance was, and you won’t get a very nice answer.

Gear – There are several issues with gear. While tanking gear is easier to get than before and you can cheat a little since there is no more defense on gear to worry about, it still isn’t easy to get a full set if that is not your primary spec.

Even for tanks it can be a challenge since, while you are leveling, you will be focusing on DPS gear so that you can solo content to level. This means that finding, buying, enchanting and gemming a whole second set of gear can become very costly. For many players thinking of tanking this stops them completely.

Too much responsibility / Tanks get blamed for everything - In many groups everyone automatically assumes the tank will take control, or know the whole instance and every fight. If they don’t they often feel intimidated and feel a lot of pressure. In addition, when something goes wrong, if there isn’t a Huntrard or Gnome in the group to blame, the tank is the obvious target to blame for failure. Many people just can’t cope with this added pressure and responsibility.

Frustration – I play a tank and I can say that a big part of lack of tanks in the random queues has to do with the simple fact that so many other players are so horrible that accepting the added responsibility of leading a group, walking people through content, and holding a group together with a healer is just too much to ask. While I am not the most patient person in the world, I do have some patience and can take some frustration. However, when you sign in as a tank and are the highest DPS, it’s hard to take.

Worse yet is actually signing up for a heroic, getting in and then being stuck with 3 DPS all at 4-6,000. I mean, come on, really? When a DPS class turns 85 and is in leveling items it’s easy to get 4k. Once you run a few instances there is no reason not to hit 6-7,000 damage. Before you try to step into a heroic instance, you should be doing at least 10,000 damage, and there is no reason not to be able to do that while ½ asleep. Players expect people to take the time and effort to gear up to tank since they can’t go without one, but then don’t even have the respect to go and be equally geared and ready.

Guilds – The guild system improved immensely with Cataclysm and as a result many players now stick within their guilds for almost all their runs. Especially tanks, given the number of issues noted above. This means that there are far fewer tanks to run in randoms, making it hard for anyone not in a guild to find tanks.

Potential Solutions

There are a few things that could improve the situation that currently exists. A few that could be looked at are:

Make tanking more fun – This is a very subjective one, as I certainly find tanking fun and rewarding in general. However, many players do not. Is there a way to make tanking more interesting for players? Potentially more complicated rotations to keep things interesting? Potentially simpler rotations for more time doing other things like DPS or instant heals? I think the Cataclysm priority system went a long way to making it more fun and involved, but others may have different ideas.

Make tanking simpler to learn - One thing that I have thought of in the past is potentially having two different tanking methods. One that is very simple and allows damage, but only works in regular instances (not heroics or raids) and another that is a full tanking method that is used in harder content. If players could just jump in and tank easy content easier, potentially they would get hooked and learn to tank using the full, or more complicated method.

Make it easier for DPS to target the tank's target – This would make it simpler for tanks to hold agro while learning to tank. It would also reduce the number of times a DPS player pulled agro by hitting the wrong target. If players could simply target the tank and when they used an offensive ability it hit the tank's target it would be easier for everyone. This can be done by macro’ing your abilities to target your target's target, but most players don’t do this. Making it an option in the game would help.

Make tanking more rewarding – This is something that I believe would help a lot. Currently a group really relies on getting tanks, and more importantly good tanks. One idea is potentially rewarding tanks that queue up in random instances with double Justice Points or Valor Points at the end of a run that goes well. Either grant them based on successfully finishing in less than a certain time (which means things went well), or if there were no wipes, or based on a vote by players at the end.

This would certainly get more players to queue as a tank, and as long as it was in some way performance based, would ensure that they made sure they learned to tank correctly so that they got the bonuses. This does cause issues with other people being required as well for a group and potentially getting upset that only the tank gets a bonus, however, currently there are not issues with getting other classes, only tanks. If that changes in the future the bonus could jump from tanks to healers or whatever else is in demand.

Make tanks more useful everywhere – Part of the issue when you are a tank is that you are really only good at one thing: PvE multiplayer. By your self in PvE you are too slow at killing things and therefore not that useful or fun. In PvP you are not that useful in Arenas and even in battlegrounds you are not that useful, other than a few specific things such as carrying the flag or tanking essentially PvE bosses in PvP content. If being a tank spec was valid in all cases rather than just a PvE group, then more players would be interested in putting the effort into getting the gear and skill required to do it right.

The Messiah's Take

Since this can be taken as a very negative article focused on the issues with tanking, and at times the many other classes in a group that cause issues but really are required to play the game, let me end the article with two comments that are in a way partial solutions that players themselves can work on.

The first is that a lot of the drama involved with playing a tank comes from the other players in the game. Too many times players are too pushy, too opinionated, and down right rude to people. If a person is trying to tank and is just making small mistakes offer some help and correction. Even if they are making big mistakes but are obviously trying, offer some advice, don’t just be rude about it.

Even if you don’t want to run the instance with them because they will fail it, offer some advice other than “go and die please cuz u fail noob”. A few minutes of assistance to a player can make a huge difference. Would you really treat a person in real life the way many treat them in WoW? It just seems that everyone is so critical instantly. It is very rare that anyone helps players learn, although almost everyone jumps on a bad player and calls them a noob, and insults them. Very rarely is there any form of constructive criticism. Players in generally should listen and help.

The second way to be part of the solution is to actually make a your own Tank. This is the simplest and most direct solution. If you are tired of waiting in queue, create a new character or re-spec your current one (if it is capable of tanking) to a tanking role. You just helped solve the issue by reducing the queue for everyone and adding another tank into World of Warcraft. Sure, you won’t be the best tank for a while, but you’ll learn. In fact, to help you check out our tanking guides: Paladin Tanking Guide, Big Guide to Tanking.

Playing a tank will also help you learn more of the game. In my opinion every single player should have at least one of each of the holy trinity of classes; a tank, a healer, and a DPS. If you know how to play each type of class you are far more likely to be a quality player. The game can not survive on DPS alone, nor healing alone, nor tanks alone. We need a quality mix of all three, and being able to play all three will help ensure you are always required in the game.

Top 10 ways Tanks Fail | Zone and Instance Guides | Paladin Tanking Guide | Big Guide to Tanking.