Tanking is a thankless job...

[Lisaara]

Alright here goes...

I was on Atramedes, my worgen warrior. Her main spec is Fury, her offspec is Prot. Now she's not geared for prot. She's geared fury. I have no prot gear even in the bank cause I didn't plan to get any of that silly stuff for her til cata dungeons.

I got randomed into RFK. Alright, no sweat. I know this crappy dungeon inside and out. Our tank was a bear. Sadly, this tank was fail. I'd give them 5 seconds to get aggro then one cleave....I pull ALL of it. -.-; This kept happening. Let's note the bear was also trying to pull 10 mobs at a time. Now some tanks like DKs and pallies can do this but bears....not so much...least not easily. Bears, in my experience, can do 5 tops, maybe 6...but thats at level 85. Low levels, you dont wanna pull that much as a bear. So anywho, I must've pissed off the bear cause I ended up going Def and tanking most of it cause the healer was getting pummeled and I was protecting the healer. The two hunters we had weren't being much help cause they were a tad trigger happy. Bear eventually left in the middle of a pull. There goes the first tank.

Re-que, we get a pally. He was cool. He knew what he was doing. 5 minutes into it again, he says he has to go. There goes tank 2.

So again, we re-que...and wait.....and wait.....tanks declining.....so finally I said screw it. Switched to prot spec and def stance and threw something together. Mind you, without a shield, I dont have a lot to work with and it....sucks. So I say I'll tank until we get a proper one, so we can try to get through this as quickly as possible. first few pulls were shaky cause..again....I was stuck with trigger happy huntards......so I told them to give me a moment before killing anything. I need a few seconds to get aggro, yanno? They just say okay but they were still causing a few problems but I digress.

Long story short, while I wasn't a perfect tank, I got us through it to the very end without anyone dying or any wipes or any kind. Overall, I think I did a decent job for someone that didnt have the proper gear or wasnt 100% sure how to tank on a warrior. I apologized to them for the sloppiness but was proud we got through it.

Guess what?

They just turned in their quests, stared at me, then left. No thanks or anything. I was just sitting there like....really? After all that? I mean I know I wasn't perfect but....we made it through and to me, in my eyes, thats a feat for someone whos never tanked on a warrior and wasnt geared right and wasn't qued for that role. I didn't have to volunteer to tank til we got one(which we never did). I could've just left them there for another hour waiting for a damned tank. But no, I was nice and took up the role anyway.

Your welcome, little pricks. May karma rip your colon out with it's sharp teeth. >/

(EDIT NOTE: I don't hate these people. When I typed this, I had just gotten out of the dungeon and was extremely agitated at them.)

[Tsiya]

Some people just don't understand. Grats on your first tanking job!

[Lisaara]

Some people just don't understand. Grats on your first tanking job!

Seriously. I had a general respect for tanks/heals cause it's a had role to fill. But damn this opened my eyes more than ever. No wonder people hate tanking/healing. People are just downright bastards....

Thanks. <3 I wish I could've done a better job but...se la vi.

[Felidire]

At least you had the initiative to take matters (and someone else's role) into your own hands. Sad, but if you want something done right in that game, then more often than not you need to do it yourself. >.>; Doesn't even need to be a thank you, a simple "gj tanking," "fury tank ftw! XD," or even a lame "good grp" would suffice.

and yeah, druids are half-assed AoE tanks at lower levels. When they get Swipe/Thrash it's a lot easier. Wonder if he was even using [Glyph of Maul].. =/

[Lisaara]

At least you had the initiative to take matters (and someone else's role) into your own hands. Sad, but if you want something done right in that game, then more often than not you need to do it yourself. >.>; Doesn't even need to be a thank you, a simple "gj tanking," "fury tank ftw! XD," or even a lame "good grp" would suffice.

and yeah, druids are half-assed AoE tanks at lower levels. When they get Swipe/Thrash it's a lot easier. Wonder if he was even using [Glyph of Maul].. =/

Yeah. That would've sufficed. Just...throw me a bone or something! D: Anything!

No, the derpbear didn't have ANY glyphs. ._.; So when I said he was terribad....I wasn't kidding. and yeah, I kinda figured cause bears have so very little to work with at lower levels. I dont think you get swipe til like 40 or 45 right?

[Ashaine]

I ran into this same situation with my DK once. Thankfully I did get at least one thank you at the end. I fully agree though, tanking is the most thankless job and it's one of the reasons I ceased doing so after BC. Healing however, is a very close second. I don't even want to get started on the hell I've put up with as a paladin healer...

[Lisaara]

I ran into this same situation with my DK once. Thankfully I did get at least one thank you at the end. I fully agree though, tanking is the most thankless job and it's one of the reasons I ceased doing so after BC. Healing however, is a very close second. I don't even want to get started on the hell I've put up with as a paladin healer...

*huggles*

And holy pallies are getting nerfed....again....in 4.2....cause somehow you all are more OP than the other healing classes(I call bullcrap on that and I'm not even a pally).

[Worba]

Well, as a fellow sometimes-tank, my heart goes out to you (although, my druid easily tanks 5-6 at a time at level 37, and he has no heirlooms...).

But they weren't abusive at least, and honestly that's usually about as good as it gets in the current LFG mill.

Anyway - GOOD JOB! Finishing wipe-free as offspec is certainly praiseworthy.

[Comett]

Totally get you there! Though the druid thing made me giggle. Druids are actually reasonable aoe tanks at the moment (watch us get nerfed). But anyway elitism aside --

YES. I feel your pain! Though to be honest some tanks give as good as they get. I was soooo sick of horrible tanks, having just levelled my shammy up as resto from 8-85 through dungeoneering. I mean they get this idea in their head that just because they can click the little "tank" icon, they're allowed to treat everyone else in the party like shit, ninja items "because it's for my offspec" (ninja, this is, when someone else needs it for their ms), and in short act like complete jerks. And they get away with it because no one will kick them as they don't want to wait for another tank.

Is it really that hard to say "hello " as you enter a dungeon, pull at an effective pace which relates to the quality/gear of the group, ask if they want a full run or boss skips, and clear up the air before boss fights that require some co-ordination - and then say "thanks for the run" before you bail?

I tanked on my druid in a random heroic today for the first time in a while (as I said, I was sick of shitty rude tanks). My druid is like... 356 or something ilvl avoidance geared so she has no threat issues and is very simple to heal. I get a perfectly pleasant group, note that the healer is a little undergeared so I'm sure to pop cooldowns whenever I can. I let the healer get mana and when the time came asked if they wanted a full clear or not (it was SFK also, btw). One of the dps asked for a full clear, so I said sure, and like... the entire mood of the run totally changed. It was amazing. The healer went from srs bsns stand-still-and-heal to jumping, running around, doing a little bit of dps etc (just generally a more relaxed attitude) ... simply because I actually tried to be friendly and pleasant. At the end of the run I thanked everyone and a dps gave me a very nice "thank you!!" in return. ... It cheered me up as I'd been in a grumpy mood prior and I honestly felt like I'd earned the satchel I got.

WoW is so, so much nicer when you're a pleasant and happy participant. Really. In the past week I've had some ninja jerk from my server (actually, tbh, their whole guild is pretty shit - I've met a few rude assholes from their guild so far, not impressed), tanks who pull ruthlessly without waiting for mana, tanks who need on OS items that are other people's MS, tanks who bail mid-pull or just up and leave the group for absolutely no reason without saying a thing, tanks who initiate vote kicks on random party members again for no good reason... I had a druid tank the other day downright abuse me for my lame shadow dps (sure it was lame, but they were the only pug in a guild run ... for a reason, my guildies were helping me lol).

i mean like. sorry for my tangent XDD but I agree with you. tanking is a bothersome job, it's really quite stressful tbh and very thankless. but it sucks when 95% of tanks have a chip on their shoulder or think they're superior. I feel like saying "just -- off and i'll let my turtle tank, tyvm "

[bluddy]

I did one tank dungeon on my druid at lvl 15, no heirlooms. i said it was my first time tanking etc. *mind you i was feral specced and the healer was specced shadow* and this really nooby huntard starts pullin packs of 10mobs and then complains he dies. i tried to explain him i aint got no tanking aoe skills yet and that besides that the tank should always pull. in the end they kicked me and not that lame huntard or the shadow priest healer who did nothing but dpsing.. since then i have never tanked again..

[Ardawen]

i had to tank around lvl 72 for the first time so i went a bit slowly and i had said it was a first time tanking, one of the group got annoyed about the speed, but the others yelled at him, before he could complain too much and after the fight most of them said thank you and that i did very good for a first time tank, so that was realy cool.

[Worba]

I did one tank dungeon on my druid at lvl 15, no heirlooms. i said it was my first time tanking etc. *mind you i was feral specced and the healer was specced shadow* and this really nooby huntard starts pullin packs of 10mobs and then complains he dies. i tried to explain him i aint got no tanking aoe skills yet and that besides that the tank should always pull. in the end they kicked me and not that lame huntard or the shadow priest healer who did nothing but dpsing.. since then i have never tanked again..

Don't let those idiots get you down bluddy - there are barely any tank spells available at lvl 15, it sounds like they were noobs expecting to be carried by an heirloom twink... and frankly if they're gonna kick you (for whatever reason), who do you think is going to find a new group first, you or them?

Stick with it.

[Rethen]

I've leveled my pally as a tank (slowly, admittedly, over a year or two, so I've had to re-learn how to tank a couple of times), but I'm actually still scared to tank a regular now that I've hit 85 without at least having a friend or two in the party. I mean, I've done what I can to get my gear up without setting foot in dungeons, gem properly, enchant what I know I'm not going to replace quickly, reforge the way I need to, but I've only got around 130K HP while buffed. That's as much as my hunter has in his ilvl354 stuff. >>; Plus, my computer is a POS, so I'm guaranteed to lag at least a few times over the course of most runs. I've been booted for it before on my resto druid, not to mention all the times I've been insta-kicked as soon as I DC on my main.

However, in the two runs I have tried, I've tried my very best to be open about the fact that I haven't been 85 very long, and I've used CC and generally demonstrated that I at least know how to tank, even if I'm new to tanking this content. And in general people have been relatively pleasant in return, I've found. Having a good attitude does help!

[GormanGhaste]

Tanking is definitely a thankless, thankless job. But while it wouldn't have killed them to say good job on a bad situation, it doesn't sound like they were rude. *Expecting* gratitude from other people is a sure recipe for disappointment.

[Kalliope]

I used to heal a two-handed tanking warrior back before the dungeon finder days. It wasn't until Outland that he had to pick up a shield. It was pretty awesome, since he knew what he was doing. <3 warrior tanking; I should level mine.

[Lisaara]

Tanking is definitely a thankless, thankless job. But while it wouldn't have killed them to say good job on a bad situation, it doesn't sound like they were rude. *Expecting* gratitude from other people is a sure recipe for disappointment.

I would've taken some sort of thanks. "good group" or "ty" would've sufficed. Most groups have always said that when I dpsed.

[Nimrod]

It's not just tanking that is a thankless job, but playing competently at all in randoms.

Tanks and healers generally have to be paying attention, and know what they're doing. DPS is piss easy compared to it. True, for the most part tanking and healing IS also easy, as long as the DPS are not being complete muppets.

Unfortunately, most of the time they are being complete muppets.

Been doing a lot of randoms at 85 on my prot pally, recently, for the satchel rewards. I've seen one or two hunters that bother dispelling enrages/flame caster's buffs and the like. About the same number seem to know how to effectively CC, and that one isn't limited to hunters.

Usually if it's one, you can vote out or it's something you can put up with and finish the dungeon with. Two and it makes the run a chore. Three, and I just drop group.

I generally don't give a damn when in the queue on a DPS, mainly due to the time I spent in said queue. Doesn't mean I stop being competent, unless you get people wiping the group through sheer stupidity (or deliberately, even).

[Setanta]

stories like this are why I'm glad I left tanking behind when I left Everquest for WoW back when Vanilla came out. I've done a little tanking here and there on alts (warrior, paladin, and dk) and most of the time I'm left with the reminder why I don't miss tanking full time. I'm really thankful to those people out there that not only enjoy tanking, but actually prefer it. It's always been far too easy to blame a tank or a healer in a raid or dungeon, when 9 out of 10 times the screw up was made by a dps.

Although, I think with the advent of the heirloom gear, it's really skewed some perspectives when people are doing dungeons with alts these days.

[Nick]

I know the pain of having to tank when you really, really don't want to.

More than once, I have had to go emergency bear tank or healy cow (with feral gear, mind you) because either the tank or healer has died. And I tend to do a good job of it, the dps can usually burn down mobs while I half keep aggro off the healer while rounding the mobs up. Oh, something attacking you? Growl, charge, aggro-pulling-move, etc. and it usually lasts for a couple seconds until the last of the mob dies from me spamming buttons.

(The healing, sadly, doesn't go as well as my fail tanking 99.9% of the time.)


It sucks, but its nice to hear "great save" and "way to go" from the occasional completely impressed group.

[Felidire]

It sucks, but its nice to hear "great save" and "way to go" from the occasional completely impressed group.

But impressing/wowing people out just ain't the same as someone who's showing general gratitude. The easily impressed people make me smirk/laugh/shake my head, the ones who are grateful make me smile. I get a lot of "OMG WOW IMPRESSED" comments, a handful of compliments, and if i'm lucky i'll get an actual "thanks" once or twice a month. XP

The only person who's thanked me in the lats month was a respectable hunter pulling 18k dps.
"[Arikon-Bladefist] whispers: ty and nice tanking" - I'll remember that guy's name for quite a while.
(Just out of curiosity, are you allowed to name people when giving someone praise and not saying something bad?)