Two Things – WLK and Tanking
First, let me echo the sentiment of a guildie…perhaps the most exciting part about WLK, Northrend, and leveling to 80 is fast approaching! NO MORE KARAZHAN! Now, here’s to hoping we don’t get stuck farming Naxx-10 for a year and a half.
Second, wowpaladin.org has a sort of compilation of Prot Paladin discussion from Ghostcrawler up here. Apparently, there is some concern that Blessing of Sanctuary is empowering Warriors to be better than Paladins at tanking. An informational side-note, Blessing of Sanctuary was changed to restore Mana, Rage, or Runic Power to the recipient upon dodging, parrying, or blocking an attack, in addition to reducing incoming damage by 3%. I don’t know which aspect of it is making warriors “better” tanks, or if it’s both, even, but Ghostcrawler (the dev who’s seemingly endlessly writing on the class forums about changes in the beta and 3.0) is assuaging concerns, saying that most the theorycrafting is relying on assumptions about approximate uptime of things like warrior Shield Block and the RNG factor in Critical Block, and can’t quite be exact.
An interesting note in the discussion is about a guild’s tendency to trust one person as a main tank, regardless of that person’s class. I’m sure this is true for most guilds, but ours hasn’t had an actual “main tank” in…months? It’s been a long time. Anyway, it is a rotating affair for us, as I mentioned here…though maybe not so officially rotational. Basically, lots of available tanks, but for the most part it turns out to be who gets stuck with it as opposed to who actually wants to do it. I’m hoping we can get that worked out for WLK where we can take turns or something. It is too easy for us to get burnt out on.
I would postulate that part of the issue, at least for me (well, especially for me) is that our tank alts, being in high demand, will see more playtime. As such, over a number of months, they will gear up way faster than anyone else. This takes those characters to a point where they maybe don’t need any gear from the content they are still running, and we don’t even have any sort of “main tank gets gear first” rule in place…everyone gets the same opportunities at loot in MiM.
But, as I said, gear, while maybe not the best stimulus, is still a driving force for character advancement. Beyond that, you have I believe two things to consider when raiding: the opportunity to participate (including seeing the content) and the opportunity to do things with your friends. Not to downplay the importance of friendship and socializing in an MMO, but it is still easy to get bored doing the same stuff over and over again, especially if you play the same class and don’t advance at all as that class.
Maybe this would get better were we a guild that advanced. However, far too many people do not work hard enough or dedicate themselves to the task at hand, leading to frustration among those that do. I’m sure this is a sentiment that has been echoed throughout the WoW community, and I won’t go so far as to say I’m not guilty of the same attitude from time to time, but apathy is a dangerous force, and I would say it can be contagious. I know it’s why I don’t raid now.
Perhaps in WLK I can look forward to raiding alongside others with respectable levels of competence more often than not.
On the other hand, I am excited regardless. Excited for 10 more levels, new sights, new 5-mans, new abilities, talents. It’s going to be fun! Fun I know I will have. I just hope it lasts!
