I decided to actually record the tanks I run into in randoms for a weekend, to hopefully find that I've been focusing on the negative and things aren't so bad. We'll see. In this I'll keep a running tally of the tanks I am in groups with. I won't just give "good tank" "bad tank", but what I thought was bad, or anything that stood out as good.
Zul'Farrak: Mage
First tank dced, so the feral DPS filled in and did well. We eventually got a paladin, who also did well. Pulled quickly, but correctly, and did not skip any quest bosses, even without prompting.
Zul'Drak: Paladin
DK tank was fine, and did not stop just because of little problems like the healer lagging, DCing, or dropping the group. I mean that as a good thing; I was glad to see a tank who recognized that a ret paladin could do the job well enough and didn't need to sit around for a Blizzard-approved healer.
Zul'Farrak: Mage
Tank wandered off aimlessly, but slowly. Despite not being able to handle it, pulled most of the stairs event. He died. Didn't reseal. Kept overpulling for what he or the healer could handle.
Stratholme Dead Side: Mage
The warrior tank kept on top of the unending stream of adds. I won't count this as a bad tank, but the ret paladin wouldn't remove righteous fury and when he died, refreshed righteous fury but not his seal. We eventually kicked him for being perpetually bad. I did feel a little bad though, the boss had dropped Banshee Finger and Banshee's Touch and it looked he'd rolled on the wand, not the plate gloves, so I pointed out that paladins cannot use wands. He might have been kicked anyway, but now I'm afraid he might think he was kicked for a misread loot roll, rather than for being persistently stupid.
Sethekk Halls: Hunter
This was the Group of Endless Turnover.
Stratholme Live Side: Mage
Tank DCed, so a feral DPS filled in. He didn't have much survivability, but didn't seem to do anything obviously stupid. Still, it caused some wipes and near-wipes, so the group eventually broke up.
Sethekk Halls: Hunter
The DK tank moved along at a good pace and seemed to know the pulls. He did not break my traps when I'd throw them onto the mob that fears. However the healer wasn't very good, for some reason using righteous fury and wearing some strength gear, and seeming to be incapable of healing anyone who wasn't the tank. But that's not a tank, so this run is a "good tank" overall.
Gundrak: Paladin
The paladin tank pulled at a good pace, though he seemed to have low aggro generation. I couldn't find anything wrong with his spec (I once ran into a prot paladin without hammer of the righteous) and he wasn't just running in and auto-attacking one target, so I'll attribute the aggro problems to a gear difference between us.
Actually, while flying around Sholazar for my last farming runs before I get to 80 and Hyjal, I noticed that I have righteous fury up. That's why I was pulling aggro. I'm surprised the tank didn't say anything, given my habit of pulling aggro. I should have noticed, but why would I expect to have righteous fury up? It drops off when switching specs. It must be leftover from when I was running a friend through Old Hillsbrad. I'm a retard.
Culling of Stratholme: Paladin
Bear tank didn't seem to get the concept of constantly moving to get to the next set of mobs.
Culling of Stratholme: Paladin
Warrior tank moved along quickly and efficiently, holding excellent aggro.
Culling of Stratholme: Paladin
Warrior tank moved along quickly and efficiently, holding good aggro.
Utgarde Keep: Hunter
DK tank seemed new and not entirely sure what he was doing in terms of how to hold aggro or how much to pull. He overpulled right after the first pair of enemies, blaming the near-wipe (he died, druid filled in) on blood boil being on CD, rather than having way too many mobs. The druid then yelled at him in xbox english. Yadd yadda yadda, tank didn't pull very well, death gripping melee rather than casters, getting us and himself killed, arguing with any advice.
On a side note, during the run a green grossbow dropped which was a huge upgrade. Alas, due to having spirit (and agility), I was unable to roll need on it. At the end, the boss dropped a 2h axe with strength and hit, which I could roll need on. It seems that Blizzard should tweak their rules so that hunters can roll on any ranged weapon, regardless of the stats, and put strength on our 'ban list'.
Zul'Farrak: Mage
First tank dced, so the feral DPS filled in and did well. We eventually got a paladin, who also did well. Pulled quickly, but correctly, and did not skip any quest bosses, even without prompting.
Zul'Drak: Paladin
DK tank was fine, and did not stop just because of little problems like the healer lagging, DCing, or dropping the group. I mean that as a good thing; I was glad to see a tank who recognized that a ret paladin could do the job well enough and didn't need to sit around for a Blizzard-approved healer.
Zul'Farrak: Mage
Tank wandered off aimlessly, but slowly. Despite not being able to handle it, pulled most of the stairs event. He died. Didn't reseal. Kept overpulling for what he or the healer could handle.
Stratholme Dead Side: Mage
The warrior tank kept on top of the unending stream of adds. I won't count this as a bad tank, but the ret paladin wouldn't remove righteous fury and when he died, refreshed righteous fury but not his seal. We eventually kicked him for being perpetually bad. I did feel a little bad though, the boss had dropped Banshee Finger and Banshee's Touch and it looked he'd rolled on the wand, not the plate gloves, so I pointed out that paladins cannot use wands. He might have been kicked anyway, but now I'm afraid he might think he was kicked for a misread loot roll, rather than for being persistently stupid.
Sethekk Halls: Hunter
This was the Group of Endless Turnover.
Stratholme Live Side: Mage
Tank DCed, so a feral DPS filled in. He didn't have much survivability, but didn't seem to do anything obviously stupid. Still, it caused some wipes and near-wipes, so the group eventually broke up.
Sethekk Halls: Hunter
The DK tank moved along at a good pace and seemed to know the pulls. He did not break my traps when I'd throw them onto the mob that fears. However the healer wasn't very good, for some reason using righteous fury and wearing some strength gear, and seeming to be incapable of healing anyone who wasn't the tank. But that's not a tank, so this run is a "good tank" overall.
Gundrak: Paladin
The paladin tank pulled at a good pace, though he seemed to have low aggro generation. I couldn't find anything wrong with his spec (I once ran into a prot paladin without hammer of the righteous) and he wasn't just running in and auto-attacking one target, so I'll attribute the aggro problems to a gear difference between us.
Actually, while flying around Sholazar for my last farming runs before I get to 80 and Hyjal, I noticed that I have righteous fury up. That's why I was pulling aggro. I'm surprised the tank didn't say anything, given my habit of pulling aggro. I should have noticed, but why would I expect to have righteous fury up? It drops off when switching specs. It must be leftover from when I was running a friend through Old Hillsbrad. I'm a retard.
Culling of Stratholme: Paladin
Bear tank didn't seem to get the concept of constantly moving to get to the next set of mobs.
Culling of Stratholme: Paladin
Warrior tank moved along quickly and efficiently, holding excellent aggro.
Culling of Stratholme: Paladin
Warrior tank moved along quickly and efficiently, holding good aggro.
Utgarde Keep: Hunter
DK tank seemed new and not entirely sure what he was doing in terms of how to hold aggro or how much to pull. He overpulled right after the first pair of enemies, blaming the near-wipe (he died, druid filled in) on blood boil being on CD, rather than having way too many mobs. The druid then yelled at him in xbox english. Yadd yadda yadda, tank didn't pull very well, death gripping melee rather than casters, getting us and himself killed, arguing with any advice.
On a side note, during the run a green grossbow dropped which was a huge upgrade. Alas, due to having spirit (and agility), I was unable to roll need on it. At the end, the boss dropped a 2h axe with strength and hit, which I could roll need on. It seems that Blizzard should tweak their rules so that hunters can roll on any ranged weapon, regardless of the stats, and put strength on our 'ban list'.
4 comments:
Your low threat Paladin probably forgot to turn righteous fury on.
Blizzard is ignoring the strength weapon problem as hunters will lose melee weapon stat sticks in Mists.
An agility/spirit bow? Seriously? Shamans can't use ranged weapons, who would use that?
@Anonymous: I'd checked and he had it. But so did I.
@Bristal: It was a random stat weapon: of the wolf. The other day my friends and I were remarking on the irony that "of the bear" (strength/stamina) isn't very good for bear druids. Some of the random stats mixes weren't very good ever, but many got even worse, such as "of the boar" (strength/spirit).
"of the Bear" used to be decently good for bear tanks, but random stat generation of pre-80 content never got fixed. I still have a +arcane damage shield that dropped while I was leveling an alt post-Cataclysm. In some ways I really don't blame them, the readjustment of random drops is probably a tough thing to do, and as quick as leveling is, it's probably a very very low reward, and it'd take away one more thing to complain about.
mattH
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