Project Lore

We live in a different world than we did a year ago. We have the ability to check some boxes, press a button, and be handed a (theoretically) well-composed group and a dungeon to entertain us as much as we like. A year ago, you had to actually make friends, get to know people, and plan for this sort of thing or be satisfied with spamming trade chat for hours to build a questionably competent group. A lot of people praise the new Dungeon Finder system for being able to do such a fantastic job. I loved it so much, I used it exclusively to level my Death Knight from level 75 to 80. In that leveling process, I found groups instantly when I queued as a tank, and generally other players were gentle with helping me learn how to tank. I played with quite a few people who had no idea what they were doing, but it was magnitudes faster and more rewarding than trying to build my own group to do these non-80 instances. The story changed when I hit level 80. There are many more level 80 players than there are leveling players in any 10 level range, and there are many more level 80s using the Dungeon Finder tool than low leveled players. This is partially due to the excellent reward of 2 Emblems of Frost for the first random heroic completed each day. Players looking to earn Emblems of Triumph often complete subsequent random heroics, as they award an additional 2 Emblems of Triumph to the 3-5 Emblems of Triumph already dropping in dungeons. Having experienced the 10-20 minute queue as DPS class (Rogue) for some weeks, there was no way I would be queuing as a DPS on my Death Knight and waiting needlessly. In fact, because I had been tanking for the last few levels, I had no DPS gear. If I wanted to DPS, I would play my geared Rogue. The Dungeon Finder tool does a good job of excluding dungeons that a player does not have good enough gear to attempt. As a fresh 80, I was unable to queue for (or be placed into) the harder heroics, and in the majority of the groups, all of the other players are very well geared with tier 9 (or better) gear. A lot of the times I would receive responses like:

• "I have more health than the tank lawl"
• "omg get better gear"
• "Are you defense capped? Its a requirement to tank heroics."
• [Player leaves party]

It is no worry to me if someone leaves. The LFG system places new healers or DPS into the group instantly, and most players don't want to wait 15 minutes to attempt another dungeon. At first I pulled at a decent pace, keeping an eye on the healers mana, but as I got better gear, I pulled more and more and faster and faster. With a well geared and talented healer, its no trouble at all to tank heroics in subpar gear. The kicker for me was when players flamed me and told me I should get better gear, especially to the defense cap, before attempting to tank heroics. Do you know how much gear it takes to reach the defense cap if you can't get gear from heroics, and subsequently Emblems? It is a lot of work. My options were:

1. Tanking regular instances, dealing with undergeared players, not receiving emblems for my time invested, and replacing this gear upon tanking heroics.
2. DPSing (poorly since I lack gear) in random heroics, for which I would have to wait 20 minutes for per dungeon, and have to deal with loot drama if a tank wanted tanking gear that dropped.
3. Jumping right in to tanking heroics with overgeared players and grinding out tier 9 from Emblems of Triumph while obtaining better gear from the heroics.

To me the choice was obvious. I enchanted and gemmed my gear with care to reach the defense cap as quickly as possible, which made it possible to tank raids and gave me some leeway on my healer's gear and skill. The only downside is dealing with the M&S complaining about my completely logical decision. The claim that there are strict requirements for tanking is completely player imposed and not a game mechanic. In fact, the incentive of an instant queue driving me and other new tanks to tank is exactly what drives down the queue time for the DPS and healers. The philosophy that it is somehow impolite or inconvenient to be a new and undergeared tank using the LFG tool intrinsically limits the number of tanks beginning to tank heroics, encourages potential tanks to DPS, and worsens the queue. Would you prefer a 10 minute queue and a 20 minute dungeon run or a 30 minute queue and a 15 minute dungeon run? Not only is the former more fun, its also less time for the exact same reward. To be fair, the tanks performance is a larger proportion of the groups success than any other role, and I looked at "low-hanging fruit" to upgrade my gear, such as iLvl 213-219 from normal Trial of the Champion or Forge of Souls. Unfortunately, the queue for these instances is non-instant, even long, as a tank, as so few players do regular instances at level 80. It has less players and less geared players to choose from and creates "worse" groups. For one Trial of the Champion run, my Death Knight tank was grouped with 3 Death Knight DPS, all of whom rolled against be for tanking gear. I came out of the instance with no gear and spent a long time in there with undergeared players after waiting in a long queue. The incentive just isn't there when compared with tanking heroics. I'm not the only one who thinks this way. The official WoW Twitter account featured a thread on the WoW Europe forums called "Don't Spank the Tank" with some suggestions and commentary:

Many people have been asking questions regarding the shortage in tanks. Therefore I have decided to make a short "guide" on what "prevents" people from tanking/scares tanks away, and how we ALL can work on the solution (in other words increase the number of people who are willing to tank) , or at least decrease the number of tanks that we scare away. "Low" gear and hitpoints : Nobody starts off in full epic gear, and most instances do not require it either. Still the tank gets made fun of when he/she has some blue gear. Instead of flaming the tank, help out a little if you think the tank may have some trouble staying alive. - If you are a full epic and experienced healer, you should have no trouble to keep up a lower geared tank. - Dps with some healing abilities can throw in a heal as well if needed ( don't look at your dps meters, not important). - Use abilities to lower the damage caused by the mobs. - Use crowd control. "Gogogogogogogogogogogogogo": This actually enrages basicly every tank, it's pushing and annoying, and could easily be replaced by: "I'm ready " or "Pull when you are ready". - If you want your tank to accidentaly let you die, use gogogogo. - If not, just use a more friendly way to let the tank know you want to move on. - Give the tank some time to get ready, find out what is the best way to pull the mobs, regain mana/rage etc. - Keep in mind that the Tank might be waiting for the healer to be on full mana. - Don't pull. And by that I really mean, don't pull. If you're out of luck, the tank and healer will just let you die.

The Dungeon Finder does a fantastic job of matching players who might need gear from heroics (like my Death Knight) with those with the gear, skill, and knowledge to teach and help them. I am a very knowledgeable WoW player and was quick to pick up on the intricacies of tanking. Don't make assumptions, and consider the best personal decision before leaving a group or going off on a tank. Its easy to be rude and emotional, as you will probably never see the players in your group again (and if you do probably won't remember them), but it is worth your time to be intelligent and thoughtful about your decisions.