Tanking

[Grinde]

Full disclosure, I've never once logged into WoW. Ever.

Curious, as most stuff I see says that warriors are the tanks, and paladins, druids, shaman can tank but generally have other group roles (paladin heal, etc).

But... Is it possible to spec to tank in any of these classes and actually JUST be a tank? I'm a big fan of picking something and sticking with it (although I understand that you may level in one spec and end game in another). I just don't want to be constantly changing specs, and I want to know if I can tank as a class other than warrior.

[Garfunkel]

You can tank to end game 5-mans as druid or as a paladin. Shamans can't really tank, though it certainly looks like Blizzard originally intended them to be able to do so, to properly mirror paladins.

For 40-man raiding, warriors will be the main tanks but a druid can off-tank some encounters at least. There's a pretty big thread in the Druid sub-forum about druid tanking so do check it out.

[Grinde]

Druid tanking huh? Interesting. Coming from EQ, a druid is a squishy caster. So different hahah.

[holkan]

Think of it in terms like this since you played everquest. Paladin tanks / druids tanks here are the shadow knight / paladins on everquest. They can tank 5man / leveling content fine and can even tank some raid content albiet worse then warriors. Just like how on everquest they used warriors because of defensive disc / more hp.

[Grinde]

Think of it in terms like this since you played everquest. Paladin tanks / druids tanks here are the shadow knight / paladins on everquest. They can tank 5man / leveling content fine and can even tank some raid content albiet worse then warriors. Just like how on everquest they used warriors because of defensive disc / more hp.

That definitely helps out quite a bit.

Here's my conundrum:

I really am only interested in tanking for the moment (once I experience the game, that could obviously change). Warrior seems like a great class, but I like to be a unique snowflake and there seems to be millions of warriors (almost literally).

Druids, as I've read, take a LOT of gearing to be good at tanking (and if I ever did make it to raiding, which I highly doubt, but just in case) I'd be asked to heal. Eh.

There's a EQ/p99 guild that I'll likely join here, and they're horde, so that kills the paladin thing...

So, how could I still be a unique snowflake and be a warrior?

Oh, and since you seem to be familiar with EQ, what's the speed of leveling like here vs. there?

[Nordius]

If you want to be a important tank during raids, you should role warrior, every other tank class on vanilla can be just off-tank. Night Elf for Alliance, Troll/Tauren for Horde

[Theloras]

A Paladin aoe tanking makes 40man raid gauntlets a breeze in BWL and AQ40 plus spider packs in Naxxramas.

Once BWL is released here, the gauntlet before Broodlord Lashlayer and then goblin packs afterwards will be super easy with a Paladin aoe tanking them (especially if they have Force Reactive Disc for their shield) as the raid nukes them down.

Not to mention Drakonid add spawns during phase 1 and then phase 3 Undead Constructs for the Nefarian fight.

[Armilus]

So, how could I still be a unique snowflake and be a warrior?

You can't. Arms spec is for PvP, Fury is for PvE damage and Prot is for tanking. There is no special snowflake spec for warriors.

In general 'special snowflake' is synonymous with 'pretty much useless' in vanilla wow. The only class/spec combos that are rare are the useless ones.

If you main concern is tanking, I would avoid paladin anyway. They have some serious problems with their talents (many activate when you are crit, except tanks gear to avoid being crit) and they have to stop to drink after every pull.

I think your best bet to be a unique snowflake is feral druid. You probably won't ever get a raid spot but they are great for 5man and 10man tanking. Their biggest flaw is that just isn't enough gear available to them in the first 2 tiers of raids. In strictly pre-raid gear, feral druids are probably better than warriors in terms of health pool and damage mitigation but warriors quickly get way better gear in MC.

[Theloras]

So, how could I still be a unique snowflake and be a warrior?

If you main concern is tanking, I would avoid paladin anyway. They have some serious problems with their talents (many activate when you are crit, except tanks gear to avoid being crit) and they have to stop to drink after every pull.

This is wrong on so many levels - Paladins are the best are tanks in Vanilla and you don't need to be crush capped to do that especially if you have Force Reactive Disc and the Redoubt talent.

LOL at having to drink after every pull as well...

[Rhinzual30]

So, how could I still be a unique snowflake and be a warrior?

If you main concern is tanking, I would avoid paladin anyway. They have some serious problems with their talents (many activate when you are crit, except tanks gear to avoid being crit) and they have to stop to drink after every pull.

This is wrong on so many levels - Paladins are the best are tanks in Vanilla and you don't need to be crush capped to do that especially if you have Force Reactive Disc and the Redoubt talent.

LOL at having to drink after every pull as well...

Paladins have mana issues if a fight drags on too long. At 60, Prot Warriors will be using a fast dagger to spam HS to keep building threat while making sure Sunder is re-applied constantly. Sure a Paladin can survive a lot, but those Crushing Blows are always a threat, unless you use a specific tool made by an engineer, and then it's still not enough to beat a prot-specced warrior's threat. Know why Paladins can't tank (which is more than just surviving attacks, that's a meatshield, it's also holding aggro very easily)? It's because Shamans can't be the MT in raids/dungeons.

Paladins are the Alliance version of Shamans, aka the buff-bitch who tosses out the occasional heal. Back in Vanilla, the developers had roles that were defined in their own minds, and if you wanted to MT a raid, you were gonna be a Protection-specced Warrior. It's also why I love being a Protection-spec warrior on the Horde, I won't have to worry nearly as much about other classes going for the armor. Other warriors if it's Pre-BiS/BiS, yeah I understand that, but Shamans will be using Mail armor, not Plate.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... ?sle=true#

Redoubt only triggers after being the victim of a critical hit, not something a Prot warrior has to worry about, and something the healers don't have to worry about either.

That Force Reactive Disk is nice for trash with the aoe threat I'll admit, but I'd never want to use a shield that might break during a boss fight, too much reliance on RNG not wanting to bend you over at the wrong time.

It's only in TBC and later when the talents. gear, and such were tweaked to where hybrid classes weren't pigeon-holed into specific roles. Vanilla is narrow and demands certain class specs to fulfill certain roles because at that time, that's what the developers envisioned, even if it didn't make a lick of sense in retrospect.