A Failed Experiment
I wrote last week about how I was going to try leveling my paladin as prot. This didn’t last very long, sadly. I admit defeat.
The mechanics of tanking are still interesting to me, and I’m a little disappointed that things didn’t work out.
My problem isn’t tanking itself, but what you have to put up with as a tank in the LFG tool. It only took one bad run to make me realize that I’m just not cut out for it. I know there are idiots out there – I’ve seen them before. But for some reason when I’m tanking these behaviors really get to me. In this case, we had a fantastic idiot mage who decided that it was his job to pull for me – and continued to do so when asked to stop. Then he spammed recount, and bragged about his amazing dps (yes, as a mage you WILL have high dps on AOE fights. Duh.) He insulted my dps as a tank (obviously he didn’t know what the point of a tank was), then he insulted Jardal’s dps. At that point I was just fed up, and initiated my first vote-to-kick ever. It didn’t pass.
I left. I know that the others just wanted to get through the instance, and they found it easy to ignore the idiot. I understand that mentality. I couldn’t ignore it though – I guess I take things too personally. I was stressed out enough trying to tank an instance I’ve never run at-level, trying to remember my abilities and hold aggro. The idiot just pushed me over the edge.
When the game stops being fun, its time to try something else. So I’m going to go back to Ret, and will probably try my hand at Holy when I get to 40. Maybe if she ever gets to a point where there are guildies at her level, I’ll consider tanking for them. I’m just not going back to that LFG tool as a tank. I know some would argue I shouldn’t let one bad experience ruin it for me. That’s a nice sentiment, but I realize that the bad experience is going to happen again eventually. The stress it caused is just not worth it.
I wonder how many other people have been discouraged from tanking by similar incidents?
I wasn’t discouraged as a tank that way, but rather as every class I play. I ran a few pugs during BC and swore off them for good. It doesn’t matter if it’s one bad experience or 100, when the fun is reduced, it’s not worth it.
I don’t care how shiny they made the LFG tool, and (I hope you’re sitting) I don’t care if I never get a perky pug puppy pet, nothing will make me pug.
*Gasp*, a pet that even Jess is not willing to grind for?
I’ve had much better experiences doing LFG as a DPS, especiallly at 80. It tends to be silent facerolling through the instance. I suppose that is a bit less fun than doing it with friends, but at least its not miserable. I often wonder though, if its really worth the risk.
The really low level instances tend to be a strange experience at the best of times. I remember tanking and healing Shadowfang Keep on a shadow priest at one point because the rest of the group had no clue as to party mechanics.
LFD isn’t too bad at max level. You hear all the horror stories, but they’re really not typical. Before 80 is another story, but low level PuGs have always been more or less a nightmare.
Tanking as a shadow priest? Yikes!
I rarely did a PUG while leveling prior to the new tool – it was just too much work to get a group together. I think that the tool only further enables people who are clueless about party mechanics to find a group. A lot of those people probably never make it to 80. The instances at 80 are also a lot less forgiving – if a mage pulls elites purposely without a tank, he’ll probably die.
I’ll put the tanking dreams on the back-burner for now and reconsider them when the pally is at least 70.
Yikes! I want to start tanking with my level 40 druid, now that she can dual-spec. I hope I didn’t blow 1k . . .
You can always heal or have two DPS specs
Also, you might have thicker skin than me, or just get lucky with your groups.
I’m really sorry to hear about that, Kae. I will say that we might be able to get some guildies at or around that level in with you.
I think you’ll find that being able to know and trust your team mates makes all the difference in the world.
My first time tanking UP, I had a healer who started off by saying “sry if I suck guyz.” After throwing minimal heals during the first two pulls (I had to use Frenzied Regen + Surv Instincts on the trash) he criticized me for using Agi + Stam as a bear, told me that my BOA shoulders wouldn’t let me tank anything after lvl 60, and dropped group saying “this gay bear sucks.” Next thing I knew I was alone in the instance.
I was amazed at how much this bothered me and made me question whether or not I really had thick enough skin to tank. I knew he was wrong, but it still affected my confidence as a player.
Epilogue: I jumped back in LFD, deciding that the only way to get better was to practice. UP popped, we went in, and sailed through with no deaths.
I leveled my Paladin as Prot all the way to 80, didn’t do many instances beyond lvl 20, but enjoyed being able to take down things several levels higher than me without dying. Perhaps a little more slowly than might have been possible, but it worked for me. Once I hit 80, I gave Retribution another try and have grown to like it, spend my time as DPS largely because I don’t want to put up with crap in pugs because of how I’d tank, which would be slow and easy. I do have dual spec and I’m slowly getting my tanking gear, but plan on doing a lot of practice with guildies before doing a pug. Mainly want to be available as tank for my guild as it delves into raiding. Miss being prot sometimes, but I sure do miss Divine Storm when I’m in the prot spec.
I tried to tank for …maybe the third time or so on my DK, this is the first time at max level. So I went in to a normal dungeon (UP), they were halfway through, I caught up and started tanking. I think I was doing ok – but every time I stopped to watch pats and things, to work out who and where to pull, someone would nag me ‘gogogogogo’. Different people, not just the same one over and over. I marked kill targets once and was abused for wasting time. (I wanted the healers dead first. Sue me.)
It wasn’t very encouraging
I’m dreading the idea of trying to tank a heroic. Maybe – probably – I just won’t bother.
My druid actually hit 44 today, as a hybrid tank/dps spec. Now while I love tanking on my druid, I also hate the pugs. People that constantly pull, people that hit things before I can even consider taunting, healers that don’t heal, I got really fed up with it just like yourself.
I tanked from 15-44,. now I do not queue as a tank unless I know my healer. It sucks, and it makes me sad, but I’d rather be a sad kitty than want to murder another hunter with their pet on aggressive.
Oddly enough I am doing the same experiment now.
I have a Druid that I leveled specificly to run with family from across the country as a dedicated 5 man. We decided to get them all to level 20, spec for our roles, and then only play them when we could all be together.
I leveled from 16 to 19 the other day as a bear tank (who will be the healer for the dedicated group) and for the most part had a great time.
This made up my mind to level a tank up using instances. Since I am planning a Druid in the expansion (Worgen looks fun) I decided on a Pally for the project.
I made level 10 last night, still poking my way through those last few levels till I can access the LFG. But I am already Prot.
0/1/0, but Prot nonetheless.
I hope my project has a better ending.
Pingback: It’s about class, in more ways than one « Dechion's Place | January 13, 2010 at 9:42 am
[...] Peer pressure can be a bitch. Just look at how Kaylynn started off planning to learn tanking as she leveled, and after getting treated like crap by her peers gave up on it. [...]
best way to learn how to tank with a paladin is to AoE grind mobs, or additionally wait until you get more agro tools in your arsenal. At low levels its harder to tank when your dps are loaded with BoA gear as they often ‘steal’ aggro. This isnt a fault of the tank and is infact their own over zealous behaviour for wanting to ‘top’ the dps meter.
Anyway chin up and dont give in so easy, once you have the tools and skills Paladin tanking is both fun and rewarding
I don’t DPS much these days — I heal and tank on my pally (leveled her as prot, but mostly heal on her these days) as well as heal on my priestess and heal/tank on my druid — but I have to ask, don’t you have bad experiences with other players whilst on your rogue?
Doing low level instances has been pretty painful for a while now, sadly, which is why I generally just skip them unless I want to level someone as resto/holy. You have the newbies who think they know it all, the jerk whose main is the leetness (probably not, but they think so and never stop telling you) so they should be in charge, and a depressing number of people who just want to be carried and can’t be bothered to try.
Added to that, no one has much of a toolset to work with and nowhere does that show as much as with the tank — although mana management (or the lack of tools thereof) as a lower level healer… *shudder*. It’s hard to hold agro and your dpsers are rarely going to do anything to make that any easier.
At eighty tanking and healing are a whole ‘nother game, they really are. As a pally, holding agro is rarely, if ever, an issue. Healing as a pally, well that takes some getting used to (at least it did for me, coming from priestess and tree healing), but you can heal most heroics in starter gear without much issue (for tanking or healing as a pally I recommend going JC, starting out those trinkets are a godsend).
I won’t say you never take grief as a tank or healer (moreso as a healer, though you also get more praise) at eighty, I’d be lying if I did, but you do learn to deal with it. As you say, it’s a game and if it’s not fun then there’s always right-click/leave group.
There’s plenty of jerks out there, sadly, egomaniac tanks who pull the entire instance before the rest of the party spawns, DPSers who try and tell everyone how to do their job, healers who are really DPSers but want faster queue times, you will see it all. But then you will in any role, and as a healer or tank you’re the backbone, the group needs you way more then you need it. And the fact is that most people, and most groups, are fine, they’re just there to run the instance and get their badges. A lot of them are even surprisingly nice
.
Level as ret, give yourself time for the bad taste of that run to fade, then maybe when you get closer to endgame think about giving healing or tanking a try. Both roles can be very rewarding, for the right personality types way more so then DPSing.
Thanks Myria! I do love healing on my 80 resto shammy, so I know that can be rewarding. There are still plenty of jerks at 80, but I’ve found the majority of groups to be ok. Perhaps this experience bothered me due to a lack of confidence. I was excited to play a new role, and was prevented from doing my job. The tank is supposed to have control of the situation, and I wasn’t able to get it, not due to a lack of skills but due to another person’s rudeness. It also doesn’t help that low-level dungeons don’t “need” a tank as much as heroics do (as long as you have a competent healer). If that mage had pulled a pack of elites in a heroic he would have been dead quite fast.
I seem to always end up in the low level dungeons with a bunch of 13 year olds (or people who act as if they are).
My fiance has a paladin tank, and as with any class, the rotation at 80 seems far more interesting, and you have a lot of great tools to work with. I’ll probably try tanking again when the paladin is closer to 80, especially if I can find a guild group to go with me. In general I prefer to play with friends – I like to know that the people in my party are a part of my team and will at least try to play their role well (plus its a lot more fun). PUGs in LFG are just a means to an end (emblems).
I have a few lower lvl toons, 44 druid (healer) 46 hunter 46 mage and 30 shammy (healer). I am going to try and go to 80 with the shammy only through LFD as much as possible. I have and 80 priest, I use the LFD alot with the priest. I consider myself a competent healer so for the most part the runs havent been to bad. I have an 80 DK that I would like to gear up for tanking but the thing I have run into is that I have good gear for DPS the tanking gear I have is not that good, ( I am just under the armour cap), so if I go in as tank so I can roll need on the tank gear, I get critiszed for not being well enough geared, and if I go in as a dps role when I ask if I can roll need on the tank gear, I get “you are dps you dont need tank gear” I say I am trying to get better tanking gear they say then come in as a tank. Um definately a Catch 22 moment. /sigh. All in all I have had a good LFD experience.
Pingback: Apparently I Have Trouble Making Up My Mind « Azure Shadows | January 18, 2010 at 10:12 am
[...] So… you know how I wrote about learning to tank on my baby paladin, and then a few days later gave up due to the poisonous jerks I encountered in LFG? Well it turns out that I’m a bit of a [...]