The other classes
I saw this forum posting a while back and wanted to respond to it here, but never got around to it until WoWInsider brought it up again when their authors ran out of content (the amount of stuff they snag from other blogs for recycling is like whoa. But then, guess I am doing the same right now, doh).
Once upon a time, there were three tanking classes, and each had its distinct advantages and disadvantages, and my personal views about them.
I have played all three classes at some point. My main is prot warrior, my druid was leveled to 70 as feral druid and tanked everything up to Sethekk Halls, my paladin was protection from 50 to 58.
| So what do the classes bring to the table, as that forum posting brings up? Warriors are versatile, the best single-target tanks (at least for some) and have the broadest array of defense skills. Druids are easy to play in comparison, superb against physical bosses and are the best off-tanks because they can just switch to their DPS form when tanking is not needed. Last but not least, we have paladins, who can AoE tank like young gods, especially in 5-mans |
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And it’s all true. With my warrior I feel an amount of tanking versatility that I never had on my druid. On the other hand, I dreamily remember the days of shifting to save the day, and the ease of multi-tanking. I watch The Other Half easily tank content I wouldn’t have dared at her gear level (BM at 69? Nevah! Lord Ahune? You gotta be kidding me!) And I never had to trudge through quests slowly as feral druid. The least experience that I have is with paladins. The 10 levels I tanked? They were awesome. I kinda would love to play a tankadin again. Tanking 5+ mobs to death grinding like that was awesome. I have healed and DPSd on runs with tankadins. Can I say Shattered Halls? Healing was a bit rough, but tankadins are a dream come true for trigger-happy DPSers, with a threat generation I could not possibly match as warrior.
Now, for disadvantages. The forum post clearly states that as prot warrior, you must be a fast typer and use your keyboard like an artist. And you know what? He’s right. Prot warriors are not for clickers, and never have I been more aware of the Global Cooldown, once I seriously started tanking. In instances I often get accused of not responding to party chat, and people are right. I fail at reading party chat. Because I am too freaking busy to watch my action bars so I don’t miss a single GCD. It’s hard work! Yes, prot warrior tanking is more difficult than the counterparts. And yet, no other tanking class makes me feel so engaged and involved as prot warrior tanking does. I have so many freaking options, and I am going to put them to the best use I possibly can. I clearly remember when multi-tanking was the biggest challenge ever. Then I easily handled two, then three, and then I said ‘Screw CC’ in Shattered Halls. Easy? No. Rewarding? Absolutely.
Because I am used to prot warrior tanking, the lack of ‘Oh shit’ buttons would drive me crazy as feral druid. Aside from Frenzied Regeneration, you have absolutely nothing to assist the healers with keeping you alive. No Last Stand, no Shield Wall, no Intimidating Shout. Which doesn’t mean they’re bad (wtb their dodge) but I just feel I have a broader skill base.
As for paladins, I had the option of a respec from healadin to tankadin for my abandoned paladin. Why did I not do it? Not because their tanking isn’t awesome. It is. It is so awesome that I am bitter that my guild doesn’t have a single level 70 tankadin (yet) because the Akil’zon gauntlet, Nightbane, Jan’alai, they all scream tankadin, and they’re really rough fights for us. And still, I just couldn’t respec at the time, because gearing up a paladin to be uncrushable seems like such insane work, so mindbogglingly difficult, that I lost interest right then. Kudos to those of you who’ve done it, but I had geared her perfectly for healing, and couldn’t bear the thought of re-gearing.
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My personal summary: True to my class, protection warrior remains my favorite, based on the challenge and the spectrum of tanking available. However, if you are looking to level a tank and want to go the route of least resistance, go druid. Easy to level, can heal, can DPS, and number one choice as off-tank. If you don’t care about ease of leveling and can tolerate being slow as a snail DPS-wise til about level 35 (when tankadin specs become viable), go paladin. They will love and worship you in 5-mans. Especially mages and warlocks tend to drool when they can spend a whole instance run using Seed of Corruption and Arcane Explosion. |
