Mastering tanks, one boss at a time.
Lately, I’ve seen lots of complaints and confusion about our class, whether we’re underpowered and squishy or whatever. I’ve seen the same complaints for every other tanking class, so I’m pretty sure it’s not just us.
So if it’s not our class, why are heroics so hard?
Hey, an expansion is coming up! How to do it?
If you want to know more about the changes that came with the expansion patch, go here.
This is a guide for the upcoming patch before the expansion. Before we step into Tanaan Jungle, before we unlock leveling perks, before Garrisons, and before level 100 talents, we have everything else.
(If you spot anything I missed, please let me know.)
A few months ago I wrote about Shuffle’s position as a maintenance buff, and the positives and negatives of it being up all the time. Some changes in Warlords will further decrease any remaining complication that came with maintaining shuffle, while also reducing the necessity to keep it active. In turn, Purifying Brew usage will only increase.
As we drive closer to actual release, we want to know more about what stats we’ll actually need to look for. The tank squish messed some things up, and we still don’t know how hard bosses are actually going to hit, but we can still make some educated guesses.
Continue reading “Another Look at Stat Priorities in Warlords”
Recently there was a nerf to all tanks’ defensive power in Warlords beta. Celestalon has provided quite a bit of background for their reasoning, but the gist is that tanks have too much control over their own survival, to the point where we barely depend on healers to stay alive.
I know nerfs feel bad, but believe it or not this is a good thing, and will lead to more engaging gameplay for both ourselves and for our healers. It will lead to more interesting gearing decisions (since we will be threatened by more than just burst damage) and more social interaction.
As we have have moved through the Mists of Pandaria, there has been a trend of resources growing from scarce to common. Really, this happens throughout the growth of all expansions, but it became most apparent to me while playing a Brewmaster, a spec where much of the depth revolves entirely around resource management.
Where energy was slow in Mogushan Vaults, we now are at risk of capping in Siege of Orgrimmar. Where Elusive Brew procs were precious and rare in Terrace of the Endless Spring, they are now not the slightest concern. That’s natural, as our effectiveness increases with our stats. However, I found that at least for myself, it decreased my enjoyment. Sure, I was more powerful than ever, but spending those free-flowing resources was far less satisfying compared to the days when they were scarce. Why are limited resources more engaging? And why are resources fun to manage in the first place? And would it even be possible to maintain interesting resource management throughout the entire expansion.
The tier 100 talents are emerging with the unique theme of damage vs. defense tradeoffs. Chi Explosion is at one extreme, actually hurting your defense (by removing your ability to pool chi) but likely providing the largest damage increase. Soul Dance at the other extreme, doing nothing for damage but providing a situational but powerful damage management passive. And Serenity is somewhere in the middle, providing a weak defensive and offensive boost.
I normally don’t do these types of things but Arielle of the Inconspicuous Bear called me out and it’d haunt me for a few days if I didn’t.
This is the second of a two-part post on the emergence of damage dealing-focused tank. The first one covers the elements of the game that contributed to this attitude, and this one will cover how small raid sizes contributed to the changing paradigm and how 20 man Mythic Mode may help bring back the defensive tank.