Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Are we becoming FOTM tanks?

I tanked on both the DK and my warrior in wrath. Granted I didn't raid much with the DK due to gear, but I did use him to do the daily heroic or pug stuff. After the talent changes warrior tanking just didn't feel "right" so I kept him fury and focused on tanking with the DK. I usually tank for guild groups for our random but I also queue for DPS while doing Arch. That said it seems that I'm seeing more and more DK tanks in the system, and less and less warrior/pally. I don't think I've ever been in a LFD group with a druid so I figured they're nonexistent.

So is my "enjoyment" of DK tanking stemming from them being somewhat faceroll? Is my "dislike" at being a warrior tank from them not being faceroll? I mean I've seen some pretty bad DK tanks the last week 10 day, and I consider myself slightly above average at best, but I try to offer friendly constructive advice if I can. Is anyone else seeing this trend? Is DK tank the new reroll tank?
Of course you're going to see more DK tanks than other tanks, you get to start at level 55 instead of 1, saves a lot of time! Honestly though, I would have to say this is the main reason for it, and it's the only reason I rolled a DK at all. I've got 2 dps toons and 1 healer toon, so the obvious choice for trying my hand at tanking was a DK, since I wouldn't have to start at level1 and possibly end up waiting until level 60 or 70 (when most key abilities are available) to decide I didn't like it.

Add that to the fact that blood is actually pretty awesome right now, and will be getting a slight buff in the next patch, and you have your answer as to why there are so many around right now. Sadly, I still see plenty of incredibly fail DK tanks when doing heroic and non-heroic dungeons on my other toons.
Honestly I feel DK tanks are extremely strong right now, IF THEY KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING. I cant tell you how many times ive been in fail groups even with warrior or pally tanks. I rolled a DK for UH but because of the ridiculously long queues for DPS i started to gear for tanking and actually fell in love with it. I tank heroics all the time and I know for a fact the problem isnt me 95% of the time because people dont know how to listen. Heroics aren't hard, they just need to be organized and not have retards claim to know whats going on then stand in the middle of a blitz in Grim batol, or stand the in the middle of crystal shards in Blackrock.
I have been tanking just because I though hell yea 2hand tanking! After grinding dungeons from 58 59-78 its a little old. Granted the death knight seems to take less damage than others that I heal on my shaman, but yea I miss shield slamming stuff.
It feels like DK survivability/self healing has gotten a lot better in cata, and our aoe threat feels a lot stronger than warrior and druid are atm. I haven't tanked at 85 on a druid and you don't really see a any of them around, and Pally seems as strong as usual, however warrior threat and mitigation just feels....broken.

I used to love tanking on my warrior in LK, but it feels like an uphill battle holding threat in 5 mans now, and the healers seem to have to burn a lot more mana keeping him up.
Thing about dk survivability and healing is it is very largely reactive and facerolling won't cut it. Our abilities are like specialized shield swapping with cds attached.
Maybe, DKs and pallies seem to be the best right now. I can't say that for sure since I don't have the others leveled, but feral seems rough and warriors seem to be complaining. People think DKs suck, and they often do, but the class is quite strong. We are excellent tanks and some of the top DPS as well. Our healing is amazing.

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