Comments on: PUG Tank Brutality

By: Arencey

Arencey — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 19:36:32 +0000

I hate to break it to you pal but Ive been a full time tank for 2 almost 3 years and it doesnt get any better. The bastards keep you out of raiding even when you get all the heroic gear you can, and after that dont expect to be taken far in icc 10 unless you have 25 man gear.(thats right people want to make tanks farm 25 man gear to do 10 mans).

Luckily blizz is fixing that issue when cata is released by making 25 man gear the same as 10 man, as for the getting into raiding after heroics issue I find that the best remedy is to host your own dang raids until you get some raid gear and t10 then boot all healers who make any crude remarks about your gear or hp even after you tell them you have full heroic gear.

By: JustARet

JustARet — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:17:20 +0000

People have become extremely lazy these days. A result of end game content and high level purples being more easily obtainable no doubt. Healers expect to sit on their hands the whole run with popping out 1 or 2 HoTs or insta heals to show their presence where as DPS don’t even care about aggro management anymore, I swear they don’t even look at the screen anymore, the only thing that matters on it is the little box in the lower right corner that says recount. Yes I play a ret pally too (Horde side, Eonar US) and I have wanted to try myself out as a prot as well but mostly because of this I never did. So I dual specced ret, PVE and PVP and doing arenas instead. In conclusion people should relax more and not get so hell bent over actually having to do some work in the 1 single daily heroic that they have to complete.

p.s. Great site Khor , keep it up.

By: Arutha

Arutha — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 12:21:56 +0000

Hell, I just gotta say thankyou for writing this. My main is laser chicken so kinda not relevant to the thread I guess but I raid/heroic generally as boomkin and was up until recently offspeced resto. After a few lucky drops I had enough bits and pieces to consider tanking, just for the novelty of instant random queues. My first 2 runs went beautifully, got some very good advice from some folk who have tank mains, and general encouragement all round. Then I landed PoS and i gotta say after that storm I was to embarrassed/nervous to try again. Just the knowledge that some people out there have the understanding and intelligence to realise that I cant be instantly awesome is kinda gratifying…

By: Haven

Haven — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 23:34:02 +0000

Khor wrote:

Hey Haven. Sounds like an unfortunate situation you’re in It’s far too common to see people with little or no patience in PUGs, and most of that is thanks to 2 years of WotLK.

:+: Indeed it is but it is no longer a stranger to me but more like a thorn by my side.

Cataclysm will be a clean slate for everyone, so you can gear and upgrade as needed with your guild. If they continue to exclude you, or not rotate you in regularly, there may be other guild politics in play

:+: I’m hoping so until then I’ll keep researching, tweaking and keep up on the updates on this wonderful forum =) :+:

At that point, I guess you can either ‘heart’ your guild and stay, or maybe find greener pastures that give you more opportunities to grow.

:+: Indeed it is but it is no longer a stranger to me but more like a thorn by my side. My toons are a bit spread out on different guilds to be an observer and how each of these guilds function.

Its going to be a very long, bumpy journey until I finally settle in a “guild” that holds true to their conviction not just a fan of smoke and mirrors.

By: Morgh

Morgh — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 12:45:02 +0000

I read your article while I was researching the class for my new paladain (level 50 currently) and I thought this article was saddly true. I have a warrior tank that sort of became my main since the guild needed an OT for ICC 10. Right from Deadmines to Halls of Ref., you get some nasty PUGs along the way. You just have to get mean. DPS and healers will come and go, but uou’re the tank and as long as you know what you can and cannot do and can play within those boundries, the rest of the group is just filler. Luckily, I am long past tanking in PUGs but I remember those days well.

By: Khor

Khor — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 23:13:43 +0000

Hey Haven. Sounds like an unfortunate situation you’re in It’s far too common to see people with little or no patience in PUGs, and most of that is thanks to 2 years of WotLK.

At that point, I guess you can either ‘heart’ your guild and stay, or maybe find greener pastures that give you more opportunities to grow.

By: Haven

Haven — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 22:11:28 +0000

I agree with all the posters as I experience the same scenario not just tanking but as a Dps. I gave up on healing. I like my guild but it seems the guildies are on a different path of goals and the runs are few and far betweens. I’m sorry, I’m still upset about the scenarios and just not finding a solutions.

Tbh, I don’t get it why its so hard to understand that you have to start somewhere to get gear upgrades not like its insta raid. And make a big grief about gearscore.

Skill> GS/CS

I was “benched” because my “gear” is not up to par. Ya think? *sarcastic* Help has been offered but when I redeem it its only one run. I’ll work for my emblems but don’t offer help if its only one run. I took myself out of the raid scene and just help out the fresh 80′s and run Naxx as a tank for exp and practice and possible upgrades.

I truly understand the tank issues and its burden.

By: Ana

Ana — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 18:37:45 +0000

The people that I feel sorry for are the ones that get pugs like that when they are new to tanking. That’s the attitude that can cause tanks to switch to a dps spec.

Personally, having had you tank for me on your main Khor, I would have no problem with you tanking on your alt. But it’s because I know that you DO have the skill and experience. When I see a new tank in a pug, I do try to be nice and patient. I just know that when I’m healing them (or the rare occasion dpsing), I have to pay more attention. I don’t understand why people are such jerks about it.

By: Kharner

Kharner — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 13:51:25 +0000

As someone who just started playing WoW in May and got my first 80 with a Pally, your website has been awesome. This article hits home for me as in all my previous MMO games (4+ yrs), I tanked which is my strong suit. But after hitting 80 and getting a few tank pieces, I gave tanking a go, and after 4 runs I know have a ret pally. I have to say that alot of people don’t give you a learning curve and assume you are a crappy tank if you aren’t ICC tank ready. Just my 2 cents. Also want to say thanks for all the advice. Going on 2 weeks of a fresh 80 and am close to being ready to go for the ICC. Hopefully I can get a group who is willing to teach a noob the ropes.

By: Silverblaise

Silverblaise — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 12:55:48 +0000

As a paladin tank that now has a few ICC10 (and a couple ICC25) pieces, random heroics are a non issue. I’ve been using heroics to raise some of my other weapon skills just because i got a piece of equipment to do it with.

Now my fiancee who just got her DK to 80 and has been tanking for a while gets attitudes like this all the time. We’ve had healers check her gearscore and state “you’re not a tank” then drop group entirely. The more prominant one is the healer that is just too lazy to heal a tank without defense cap (or far exceeded in my case) and 40k unbuffed health. Now we’ve run with people from guild healing and they have absolutely no problems keeping her little DK alive. (had a priest healing in shadow gear for one of em so it can’t be overly hard) yet these people immediately deride her and say she should go back to regulars.

I realize with this that i’m preaching the the choir. guess i just wanted to add in my two cents.