Old School vs. New School what did you prefer?

[Tendo]

I think if I were of level in classic or TBC, I would have had a hard time stance dancing, but I'm sure I would've gotten the hang of it. Being 80 has forced me to adapt and learn how to tank and it threw it all at me at once, and I've been able to handle myself (much thanks to TankSpot!) and am now a competent tank. I know there's room for improvement (I charge with warbringer rather than intervene, etc, things I could do better).

But for what being a warrior tank means right now, I'm really enjoying it. Leveling 65-80 post patch 3.0 was a breeze compared to getting to 65 as prot before. This is my first and only toon at level cap, and it's about time. Now I know how much fun endgame is for me, and can't wait to start raiding!

New school is in session, and I'm in class early, brown-nosing the teachers!

[GROGtheNailer]

I have to say as well...i love heroic throw too.

I really do enjoy many of the new talents and the big numbers.

Using these new talents, a tank can pull non-stop sets of mobs and hold everything.

CC is not required in any current instance though, can get away with no kill order, can hold four, five, six mobs...and healer can keep you up. Rinse lather and repeat the whole way through. Blizzard dumbed down the teamwork aspect, and we have some talents/game skills that is not required any more.

We have some fun new talents but not the challenge to really show them off, to show off skills....tanks just rush through an instance as fast they can now a days.

One thing i'm worried about is healing. I have noticed the numbers dwindling overall. Anyone else seeing this?

[Gorgamesh]

Old school yea...
Didn't really enjoy those tickling shield slams and devastates much, not that I had any problems with tanking on my warrior but those numbers totally put me off from prot tree.

But I really wanted to tank and so I decided that upon Wotlk release I will be rerolling a tanking DK, and so here I am ;p.

As for AoE tanking i enjoy it much - no cc = no hassle, less time on the pulls, more time for doing something else, can;t say i really miss that. No more LF DPS/CC (hai shammies, retadins) on lfg ANY DPS class will do .

[Muffin Man]

Blizzard dumbed down the teamwork aspect, and we have some talents/game skills that is not required any more.

I think you would be surprised how much of the no marking comes from intelligent dps either tank assisting or main assisting each other (I've really fallen in love with hunters in LK, so I guess Northrend is hell and it's frozen over).

Factor Shockwave and Heroic Throw in here as well.

Heroic throw is so great. Pulling casters in the old days, I felt like a little kid who broke someone's window. Throw and race for cover!

[Horacio]

The utter lack for need of CC is......hard to say. I know not every tank can do what stud tanks can. I have people I respect complain to me that so and so can hold aggro on his shadow and what not. Single target is pretty simple but AoE tanking, for a warrior at least takes alot of skill (in the sense I know warriors, not dissing other classes, so unclench pallys and DKs)

I have this argument with a friend of mine who is also a prot warrior. And its true, tanks we know faceroll through heroics. Now, they don't mow them down like others do but I still feel the sting of running a heroic 46 times for leather belts, abyss shards, and badges whilst they struggle through them with CC and wipe recovery, and back up healing to "/g [Red Sword of Courage] OMG Woot!"

Meh, such is life. The content is accessible but a good tank can prove their skill. A case can be made for that skill being necassary or not. My Naxx raid does ok and I've been grinding hard on my DPS to improve but, at the expense of sounding like an arrogant prick, we've gotten alot further than we probably should with the skill and firepower we have. We just have a handful of solid players that boost the lower output folks.

And for the love of God, they can't dance. Heigan as utter carnage. We killed him after 8 tries and essentially 5 manned him after the first dance phase.

Where was I? Oh yes....I like the new tanking style. I miss some of the old school stuff but really, a memorized sequence of buttons isn't fun. Having a wider range of tools and requiring some thought on when to use them is. Man, I love the BV trinket from Heroic VH.....pop that and SB and put a hurtin on someone. Dropping a 10K hammer on Noth is teh secks.

[Kahmal]

Its not just the Multi pulling factor. Honestly thats not really a class issue as it is as much of an instance tuning issue. BC once Kara geared Heroics seemed like standard mode, some considered them too easy with few exceptions. Now there just jokes. More badgez plz.


MAIN TANKING has lost its epic feel to me. With the crushing blow mechanic gone I no longer have that nerve racking feeling staying on point for the unlucky Crushing blow and react to it quickly. Now despite the short cooldowns I generally just save Shield Wall and Last Stand for enrage/frenzies.

Tanking bosses like Gruul and Tidewalker use to make you crap your pants do to the fear of a deadly crushing blow. Priority was staying alive, shield block! thunderclap! demo shout! trinkets! DONT FUCK UP! I tanked Patchwerk and I dont worry much at all, if I die it's a healing issue or slip up, I generally didn't have much to do with it. I worried more about DPS then keeping up Thunder Clap. I'm here to tank not DPS (though out dpsing scrubs never gets old)

Personally I find healing fights like Patchwerk a lot funner. I get that same edgy feeling I used to get when I tanked, so much more responsiblity with a lot at stake. Sadly healing is unbearable unless the encounters are challenging for us to me. I can't imagine healing Naxx till the next xpac.

[GROGtheNailer]

I really do have to stop bitching about if it's challenging or not. To many newer tanks it is and I just need to get over it and shut my trap.

One thing that has helped me is doing a lot more pugs, they are motivated and their exitement is refreshing.

[Angry Grimace]

People in the 4% or so that actually got into Black Temple liked the exclusivity, I'm sure, but I personally appreciate that Blizzard made the gun fun for everyone, even if at the perceived expense of that 4% of players.

[Lightmgl]

Cider is completely correct that a skilled tank still shows over a nonskilled tank. The differences may seem cosmetic early on but they become apparent as your DPS gears up.

Being quick on taunts and charges is just as important as ever. TPS is a big issue too as the 5k of a decent tank vs the 7k of a good tank makes the difference between some classes in our raids pulling aggro or not now. AoE TPS becomes very very impotant with skilled DPSers and is still our weakpoint as warriors. Aiming shockwave is also very important and takes some getting used to. Even little things like juggling stuns properly and knowing when to use your cooldowns can make the difference between tanks living and dying (though not very often cause healing is pretty beefy now). In fact to me I find the changes to healing to make my job more boring then anything else. When you're getting spammed for 14k every 1.5 seconds and have 1300 tick lifeblooms on you its really hard to die even if you try.

The removal of crushing blows is very nice and completely necessary. If they want monsters to throw big hits just give them specials. Don't throw in a mechanic that completely unbalances the different tanks. Shields could use some more oomph now that they are gone though. Everyone always goes "Oh shields are so strong" when they really aren't. They are incredibly useful early on and much less useful (other then the shield block ability) in the end.

Still bummed that theres nothing major focused on our abilities like spell reflect but I guess that is partly due to the "Anyone can tank anything" mentality. If they make a power that needs spell reflect you totally screw over the other 3 tanks. They'll just need to find new mechanics that make us think in new ways.

[Worldie]

This is what I like the most. It seems like I move a lot more than I did pre 3.0. Tanking feels much more active and less reactive than it used to. I feel like I'm on the offensive now, which is great fun.

You can actually do very funny things if you combine the 3 charges.

The old "shockwave, Intervene aoers, shout at them, charge back" is something i've done multiple times and really enjoyed, but it's nothing if you can charge - intercept - charge mobs