The Tanking Fuss

With the easier leveling and the dual speccing, it seems that more and more people are making tank alts and healer alts.  And that's great, because they enjoy it and start adjusting to all the variety of situations that they learn to react to.  How to pick up that extra group of mobs the runner pulled, how to manage mana as a healer in case of a emergency, how to yell at the failkin that keeps using knockback to push the mobs out of your consecrate and then pull aggro...(cough). 

It's all swell, well, it's a little too swell because now all the pugs are taking it for granted.  At least they are on my server.  And this isn't just horde side, it's happening on alliance side as well.  One of the last things I saw on alliance trade chat was "lf tank stocks g2g."  I wanted to go on my lowbie paladin, which happened to be ret at the time.  The reply was that I wasn't a tank spec and therefore they wern't going to invite me.  Seriously?  When did we start needed prot tanks for stockades?  A mage can tank stockades if the group will just dps fast enough.  Stockades can even be done without a main healer, it'll just go a bit slower and isn't recommended that's all. 

Warriors and Paladins

I see so many warriors and paladins that still don't carry around a sword and board.  What is their problem?  I'm fury I can't tank.  I'm arms I can't tank.  I don't have a 1H nor a shield, I can't tank.  I'm dps spec I can't tank.  I can't tank I can't tank I can't tank.  Well too bad, because you can.  you can tank everything until you reach Northerend.  Your weapon skill is low?  Trust me deary, you can maintain aggro on the first few pulls with things like consecrate, judgements, thunderclap, and sunders while you level your weapon skill.  If you're a fury warrior you already have the weapon skill.  There's always green shields around, and the first few quests in hellfire have a nice green shield as well.  Get one, and stick it in your bags and keep it there.

Now you might check out my alts and say,  "well you have dual spec and have some nice gems and enchants for your alts, I don't want to have to do that."  Not so fast.  You don't know me very well do you?  I happened to have leveled an alliance warrior to 70 and that warrior didn't have the luxury of nice items and dual specs.  In fact, that warrior leveled as arms and still tanked all the way up to sethekk halls.  She tanked with arms gear as well, and there was nothing "too hard" about it.  You don't have a good sword to tank in outlands?  Go sneak into Mara with the princess quest deary.  My warrior tanked all the way up to sethekk halls with the Thrash Blade until someone in my group gave me a better green they had picked up.  Pugs dropped their jaws when they found out I was in regular dps gear and tanking so well with a level 45 weapon.  Egf was tanking as ret on her paladin up to Mana Tombs before she decided to try out prot leveling just for fun. 

It's do-able, it's not hard, and it's not boring.  In fact, it's more fun as a warrior because when your dpsing at a low level in instances, you don't generate enough rage to do a lot of pewpew damage anyway.  Tanks always seem to be in the top two in lowbie instances from doing aoe damage and smacking the silly mobs in the face to make them angry.  So even if you're looking to top damage meters, tanking is the way to go. 

Point being, if you are capable of tanking, then stop with the excuses.  You go tank that shit.  It's easy as hell and everyone in the group will thank you for it.  Your group will find another dps in no time, and will start the instance and get it over with.  Do you realize how many warriors and paladins sit in LFG wasting their time because they can't find a tank?  Hmm I wonder why?  You force shadowpriests to heal and expect druids to tank all the time.  Yet you think you shouldn't have to and that you can't tank because you're fury or ret?  Wake up honey, you know you can do it now so stop being an ass.  It's nice if there's a prot alt around but you should at least have the decency to step it up and offer to tank when there isn't a decked out alt. 

I can't tank because im not prot my ass.

Now go tank and make me proud.  No more of this fuss.

ps. Druids, Death Knights

Death Knights, I don't even want to have to say a word.  You're capable of tanking in EVERY spec you have, plus you don't need a shield, so no excuses.  Stfu and tank.  There's enough dk's everywhere in outlands, we're all sick of seing them, and the last thing we need is "im dps i can't tank." 

Druids, I don't care if you think you're the worlds best kitty cat because unfortunately you arn't.  Kitty dps is shit until you have decent gear and know what you're doing at 80 and even then it's hard.  In lowbie instances the mobs die to fast for you to put up half your dots, and most everything is aoe pulls and you can't swipe as well in cat as you can in bear can ya?  You don't need a sword and board either and you have it all easy, so suck it up and tank.  Wha?  You're moonkin?  A moonkin picked up some feral gear and tanked BRD for me last night just fine, so I don't want to hear it.  In fact, his treants helped too.  It was fun to see a moonkin tanking in bear with his treants swirling about him.  It's the new trend guys, go bear instead of that ugly moonkin form ( and new bear and kitty looks are coming out too )  and get your treants to help you tank.

　Yesterday, my rogue Sunstreak had the opportunity to go on a Mara run.  It seems, running into a bad pug doesn't put me off for a very long time.  And besides, I had never been to Mara on my rogue.  And to top it off, I had a series of Korean drama shows to watch while running it.  When you're enjoying a movie or a tv show while playing wow, even the most boring tasks go by faster than you'd imagine.  It can even make a reforming the group bearable.  But anyway, I'm doing my dps slicing up the mob's backs.  And the moonkin in the group constantly is using knockback on the group of mobs; and by constantly I mean every single pull. 

What is it with the Lack of intelligent Moonkin Players?

　I first must say, our group composition was Tank, 2 Melee dps, Moonkin, and the Healer.  2/3 of our dps was melee dps.  The tank is also a melee, so we have a total of three melee in our group.  Let me illustrate the effects of a knockback.  First, the tank grabs a group of mobs and tries to grab initial aggro.  Then the moonkin uses his knockback.  Mobs go flying back.  Tank has to rush and try to group the mobs up again for AOE and aggro holding issues.  Melee's attacks and rotations have been interrupted, they also have to chase after the mobs and try to get behind the mob as the tank tries to reposition them.  Half the time the group behind them pull as well, so tank has to frantically get aggro on those mobs.  Healer is running out of mana as the tank recieves increased damage. 
　I understand that the knockback spell is cool and that the moonkins are used to having it in their rotations.  But honestly, is it that hard to use their brains?  The reason they have knockback is to push mobs away so they can cast without getting hit, correct?  But in this case, we have a tank already.  "It does nice damage too," really?  You would do more damage if you just used your hurricane aoe spell instead of having to do your silly knockback and wait for the tank to group them all up so you can hurricane after waiting that long.  Is it really that sensible to use knockbacks when three people in your group are melee?  Some people like to argue that melee should be able to run after mobs and such and that it's not a big deal.  But see, Mara is a long instance.  And most of the groups I see do both orange, purple, and go further into inner Mara.  And when the instance is that long, getting through packs of mobs as quickly as possible is good not only because it saves time, but because when instances get long and take more time, people start leaving.  And besides, running ofter a mob now and then is different than having to go after the mobs every single damn pull. 

Don't encourage Stupidity

　Why didn't you ask him to stop?  Oh I did.  But the healer decided to stand up for the moonkin, because "I have a moonkin too, and I like that spell it's cool."  You can spam your cool spell in a reasonable setting as much as you'd like.  But when you're spamming knockbacks at packs of mob so that the tank and all the melee have to go running after them, that's just flat out annoying.
　Birds of a feather flock together, I get it.  But really, if you like being a moonkin and see other moonkins doing just plain stupid annoying things, don't encourage it.  It makes the whole moonkin race look bad.  Of all the moonkins I have run across, I have seen two sensible ones that knew what they were doing.  One who was a pve raider in one of the top raiding guilds of the server, and one who was in the 2000 bracket in arena.  The rest of the moonkins and the not-so-little moonkins that are leveling, seemed to not understand what they were doing.

What comes to mind when you think about Druids?

Dancing bears, painted wings..

What else should I add?

Click to see Druid Brainstorming!

　I was thinking about druids and it brought up the question: human form?  cow form?  As is well known, the druid is a class with a variety of forms to shift into.  Bear form, cat form, tree form.. just to name a few.  Commonly when the druid is shifted out, the term 'human form' is brought up.  Now, I ask you why that might be? 
　First of all, humans are not capable of being druids.  There are only two races that can be a druid; the Night Elves and the Tauren.  Besides the fact that they stand on two feet, there is nothing human about them.  Do you refer to undead warlocks or undead warriors as human in human form?  No.  Do you refer to silly gnomes and dwarves in their original form after noggenfogger or devious delights worn off as human form?  No. 
　Why then, are we tauren and night elves, and especially tauren (Since we're not even alliance!  How dare they accuse us of being a form of the opposing faction name!) referred to as being in Human form, when we're just standing around minding our own business?!  I mean, you humans may think it's not nice to call someone a cow, but we are!  We even have the moooos to prove it.  Have you even taken the time to hear us moo?  We have quite nice voices you know.  The only times you'll catch me in actual human form is when I'm helping out Thrall and Arthus in the Caverns of Time.  And that's only because it's not optional. 

Why do YOU say that I'm in Human form? 

Savings Account
Loveaholic has gone from 4269 to 3574g.  Why the sudden dip?  Well, I gave in and got Rubymelon her dual spec.  Why?  A druid tank in Mara basically told me that I wasn't healing, and that he knew the instance better than I did.  Was it true? 

When in Mara, whatever you do, DONT make this dumb mistake
No.  First of all, the druid didn't even know what lvl Mara was for.  Second, he didn't know which way to go.  Third, he was running around in circles going the wrong way.  Fourth, he stood like an idiot in the green slime.  It's common sense to run out of mobs that are doing a LOT of damage to you.  It's also common sense to run out if you're health is dropping a lot.  Morever, if the healer tells you that you need to KITE the mobs, and if you had just died from the very EXACT SAME SLIMES 5minutes ago, you don't run in and stay there like an idiot.  Add to that, Rubymelon was healing as shadow, and was drinking almost every pull because he decides he can pull and chain pull 2-3 packs of mobs (not a pack with 2-3. but 2-3 packs with 2-3 mobs each)  all at the same time.  Not only that, Ruby had to chug mana pots for the first time ever.  She burned through stacks of mana pots.  Now Ruby was sitting at the left road drinking to get mana, and the druid tank goes over to the right road and pulls a pack of slimes.  Let me add to this, that all our three dps were warriors, aka melee.  So the entire group starts dropping and I have to make healing decisions.  I decide to heal the warrior that knew to stay out for most the time and try to kite the best he could.  He was also the only other person that survived the previous group of slimes.  Only one other warrior learned to kite that second slime pull.  And the druid was like, really? heal?  As a matter of fact, I was midheal when he dropped down to zero.  So I res everyone up, and drinking to refill my mana, but it's going slow.  I politely ask the druid, May I have an innervate please. And then he leaves, saying, that I don't heal but ask for an innervate, and that I should sober up.  And to think, that the previous ZF run and the Mara run, I hadn't complained once about his over-ego pulls.  I had healed as best as could as shadow and he hadn't died a single time other than to the slimes.  Which was in fact his own fault.  And then of course he ignores me, before I can answer back. 

Tank Ignorance
With the increase of alts leveling as Holy/Resto, the expectancy of healing capable classes, even down to the stupid/rude/ignorant players, has gone up.  Mana regeneration until now hasn't helped either.  Tanks don't stop to check the healer's mana pool.  Tanks arn't aware of the mana regen of their healer.  Every healer has different gear, different spec, different class that effects healing capacities and regen capacities.  Blaming the healer for something that is obviously your mistake is simply not acceptable.  Especially, if the healer specifically warns you that specific mobs are to be kited since they cannot be healed through.