What Is Fun?
Posted 08-16-2008 at 06:03 PM by Satrina
I’ll post this as a blog entry, since it definitely does not follow the spirit of the WotLK: What Is Fun? post. Instead, I’m going to suggest that tanking is not, in fact, fun. You’re probably wondering about my sanity at this point, since I am actually the MT of a raiding guild and all of that. I can see where you’re coming from, but bear with me a moment while I explain why I don't find tanking fun.
The very fact that you can break down tanking to an opimisation problem pushes it out of the realm of fun. “1233 with heroic strike thrown in at 45+ rage” is a formula for success. There’s no skill element, no thinking on the fly. Train your muscle memory to parrot the rotation and you can make the best threat*.
Everyone wearing more or less the same gear as everyone else is nice - for an army. Worse, though, is being at the mercies of the random number generator and being stuck with gear a few tiers back. I am one of the biggest proponents of different gear for different fights you will find. The reality is that tanks can and do succeed on a one size fits all mindset every day, though. The profit for specifically gearing for a given fight ultimately is some lesser amount of time needed to beat a fight for the first time. There are no real consequences for choosing the “wrong” gear, unless you do something drastically wrong.
The number of tanks needed for trash and for bosses varies. How much fun is it to come in as a tank, tank some trash mobs, and then get told to get into DPS gear or heal gear for the boss? Yeah. Not as much of a problem with tanking per se, but it is a problem with being a tank that is just not fun.
Okay, so if I hate tanking so much, why do I do it?
Because while it’s not fun, it is definitely satisfying.
Standing over the fallen foe, knowing that your team held together to get the job done – that’s fun. Knowing you did your job and allowed everyone else to do theirs – satisfying, and it led to the fun.
If Blizzard can find a way to actually make tanking fun to go with that, that’s a winning combination. And it might actually entice people like me to log in outside of raid times.
* Yes, the talent that refreshes your shield slam cooldown is definitely a step in the right direction. Now do more like that!
The very fact that you can break down tanking to an opimisation problem pushes it out of the realm of fun. “1233 with heroic strike thrown in at 45+ rage” is a formula for success. There’s no skill element, no thinking on the fly. Train your muscle memory to parrot the rotation and you can make the best threat*.
Everyone wearing more or less the same gear as everyone else is nice - for an army. Worse, though, is being at the mercies of the random number generator and being stuck with gear a few tiers back. I am one of the biggest proponents of different gear for different fights you will find. The reality is that tanks can and do succeed on a one size fits all mindset every day, though. The profit for specifically gearing for a given fight ultimately is some lesser amount of time needed to beat a fight for the first time. There are no real consequences for choosing the “wrong” gear, unless you do something drastically wrong.
The number of tanks needed for trash and for bosses varies. How much fun is it to come in as a tank, tank some trash mobs, and then get told to get into DPS gear or heal gear for the boss? Yeah. Not as much of a problem with tanking per se, but it is a problem with being a tank that is just not fun.
Okay, so if I hate tanking so much, why do I do it?
Because while it’s not fun, it is definitely satisfying.
Standing over the fallen foe, knowing that your team held together to get the job done – that’s fun. Knowing you did your job and allowed everyone else to do theirs – satisfying, and it led to the fun.
If Blizzard can find a way to actually make tanking fun to go with that, that’s a winning combination. And it might actually entice people like me to log in outside of raid times.
* Yes, the talent that refreshes your shield slam cooldown is definitely a step in the right direction. Now do more like that!
Total Comments 4
Comments
 |  The most fun I've had while tanking was in UBRS. I've enjoyed Heroics and 5-mans as well. However, there were only a very few raid encounters that I genuinely enjoyed, and these were only the ones that had me dealing with multiple mobs rather than just one. Razorgore, 4 Horsemen. Chain pulling anything was fun, too, once the gear was available to do it. Which is to say, I agree.  |
Posted 08-16-2008 at 09:55 PM by Ciderhelm  |
| | >.> Sword and Board also has to be one of the most lackluster 45-50 point talents of all time. But yes, reactionary tanking, that's good. |
Posted 08-17-2008 at 11:13 PM by Finelle  |
| |  I have found myself in an odd position lately in that I do not want to tank and not be in a leadership role for a particular situation because otherwise, I feel like I'm going through the motions. True, once you lock down a solid rotation, so long as you are prepared, there's little deviation from the script. Oh, there are gimmicks here and there that cause you to move around but they are usually pretty basic. Like Cider said, its much easier to find some seperation when there are multiple mobs and a variety of tasks to deal with. Then getting on target, deciding what to do with which mob, reacting to changes becomes a challenege. Is tanking strictly 'fun'? Perhaps not but is DPS any different? I've been raiding on my mage recently in SSC and Hyjal and its really no different. Stack scorch, chain fireballs, renew scorch....rinse/repeat. DPS classes have similar methods to get results as tanks. You apply a repeating sequence of actions to a mob for a desired effect. Healing is quite different. There is alot more choice involved, choosing targets, deciding which spells to use and such. I raided 7 months as a resto druid and while they have a tendency to be pigeon holed into being a LB bot, I pretty much did my own thing. I guess kinda like I do with tanking. I guess in many ways the object in tanking, when you take away the leadership responsibilities and boil it down to a tank and spank is the pursuit of perfection. You gear is what it is when combat starts. You want to be as close on your rotation of skills as possible for the best results. I 'enjoy' tanking. I have a very well geared healer and I can finally say my mage is pretty strong after PvPing my guts out all week for a few new items. Its difficult to point at exactly why other than I have played behind other tanks and I can appreciate what its like to see someone do it differently than I do and not as well. How about this: When you say you're doing something just for fun...."lets do X, just for fun", to me, it connotates a lack of responsibility (not in a bad way)....a recognition that the goal is the activity its self, not the end result. That said, there are a multitude of activities out there that aren't strictly fun but otherwise rewarding. Working in my backyard isn't fun but having a nice retreat is rewarding. Tanking a boss might not be fun but the thrill of victory and the rewards of better gear are exciting. In closing..if it were so simple, if it was all cut an dry and where all a tank did was acquire the next piece and mash the same buttons.....where does this website go, what does it do? There is alot of nuance, maybe unnecassary in many regards but it must be there or we wouldn't have much to talk about. Maybe I don't find tanking fun, per se, but I like it and will continue to do it. |
| Posted 08-18-2008 at 07:56 AM by Horacio |
| | least fun "tanking" moment in my recent history... 3 hours wiping on archimonde while i stood in the middle doing mediocre dps. most fun, an accidental double pull of the trash before shade of akama. ended up tanking 3-4 trash mobs while half the raid (the not dead half...) cleaned up the mess. |
| Posted 08-18-2008 at 01:21 PM by knagh |
Recent Blog Entries by Satrina
- Just A Game (08-31-2008)
- What Is Fun? (08-16-2008)
- Evolve or Die (05-06-2008)
- OMG Content (04-03-2008)
- Raiding: A love-hate relationship (03-10-2008)
