It's been almost five years since I've played a tank in any capacity in an MMO. I used to tank on my Ninja and Paladin all the time in FFXI. Many times, much to the dismay of my other tanks, i enjoyed tanking on my dps Warrior as well. FFXI had to be the only MMO in the world where Warrior wasn't a dedicated tank class despite having the only taunt in the game. Everyone used it as a subclass and left the real tanking to the other two classes.
Once i finally said goodbye to that game, i tried tanking in Aion and it was terrible. The concept of threat as an entire group mechanic was foreign to the players i grouped with. So much so that it put me off to ever tanking again once i moved on to Rift, The Old Republic, and then GW2. I pretty much switched to a dps only mindset since i have not and will not ever play a healer. I like seeing the action and not staring at health bars. The dedicated healers out there have my respect but that play style is just not in my make up.
As i began playing WoW almost a year ago now, i realized just how bad most tanks were. I'm not talking about the ones that main tank for their guilds and have experience. I'm talking about the ones that decide to level a tank just to level one. Those instant queues are pretty enticing so understand why they do it but how they do it is just downright painful to me.
I've had tanks in dungeons that were not even in the correct tanking stance and preceded to yell at the healer and the dps for either taking threat or not keeping them alive. Then there are the ones that did't know the basics such as turning the mobs away from the group. While i understand there's no need to while leveling in dungeons, it forms bad habits for later on. I've witnessed these same habits wipe groups in LFR and even normals.
The overwhelming theme of most tanks i group with seems to be a lack of situational and group awareness. They think that as long as they stay alive, their job is done. They never question whether they're positioned in line of sight of the healer or if mobs are in a good spot for dps to do their thing. They never look at the group make up to see if it would be better to slow down so casters can actually get a cast off before pulling mobs out of range. I'm not even going to get into the holier than thou attitude most tanks seem to have. Those instant queues really inflate their heads.
Since i decided to level a Warrior alt, i figured i'd stop complaining about tanks and actually play one again. I couldn't stomach spamming dungeons with ego maniacs or knucklehead tanks again so i went Protection. I'm not going to lie, i was pretty rusty the first few dungeons but i think that was more due to playing a new class than anything. The basics haven't left me as far as i could tell. It can only get easier right?
The first dungeon i had pop up once i hit 15 was Ragefire Chasm, which i had never run before. The only issue i did run into was something that i imagine is pretty common. Of course i mean Hunters and their damn taunt happy pets. Well i say go right ahead and taunt away! I don't mind at all. My newbie tank journey is on its way. Hopefully i don't embarrass myself.
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