The Tanking Position In Wow

By Author: sedgsed
Total Articles: 90
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We all know that the tanking position in WoW can be stressful at times, even if it's just that nibbling feeling at the back of our minds. However, it seems that this job is getting tougher and tougher while at the same time reaping little rewards. On the Lightbringer realm (alliance side) for example, the tanks are all in hiding in the top raiding guilds and it's not often you managed to obtain one for a PuG run of a raid or heroic instance.
Even the heroic daily is struggling to find enough tanks to go around as the realm is flooded by DPS classes. Essentially speaking, once you find a tank for a run you have a guaranteed group in minutes if not seconds. Otherwise you could be waiting hours for any kind of successful group to form. So why is this happening in Wrath so much? Where did all the tanks go and why?
One of the key features of a tank is to gain aggro on mobs so that other classes don't get hurt. A good tank knows how to keep aggro on these mobs whether it is one mob or twenty mobs. However, tanks are getting an increasing strain on their aggro abilities thanks to the Well Geared Noob phenomenon that is ...
... sweeping across the realms.
The well geared noob is becoming an increasingly more frequent occurrence in WoW as Blizzard have made it easier for players to obtain endgame raiding level gear without actually raiding at all. This means many people jump into raids and instances without knowing how to play their class or what they are supposed to do (even though they often think they know it all). A Well Geared Noob can sabotage even the most skilled and well geared tanks efforts to gain aggro on mobs.
Each class has their own way of reducing their aggro to avoid pulling mobs from the tanks but these days other classes simply blame the tank if they lose aggro. The mechanics of aggro and each class are supposed to work together in harmony but many DPS classes especially fail to use these abilities properly and then blame the tank when they are killed by a mob. Many people fail to realise that tanking requires help from everyone and not just the tank.