Gearing up a warrior tank

The good thing about rolling a warrior is that you only have to generally wait a couple of seconds for a random dungeon to pop. This is good in a way because I have been able to gear very quickly now that my warrior is 80. This post doesn't really have any direction, its just going to me talking about tanking.

The first issue that I had to confront was gear. When I just hit 80 I didn't q as tank because at the time I only had around 19k health. So I would Q as dps for instances such as ToC which gives massive upgrades to what I had. For a couple of runs I was pretty much carried as everyone else had gearscroes of around 5k. Most groups didn't complain too much about the fact that I was going dps in tanking gear simply because they were just creaming through the content. It was only when I started Qing as tank that issues began to come up.

Once the entire group fell apart after the healer complained that my health was too low before we killed one mob. Its strange because gearing as a tank is quite easy in terms of getting a lot of randoms popping but a lot of people don't want to run an instance unless the tank has pretty much got all the gear he needs. My best tanking experience was in a random heroic where everyone else in my group was above a 5k gearscore. I was sitting on around 3.4k but it ended up being a very fast smooth run. With all of them saying I was the best warrior tank they had seen, even including tanks with 40k health. As a tank you pretty much live for those moments because there are plenty of other bad experiences.

Just today I was tanking normal ToC and we wiped on the last boss (I'm sitting on 24k health unbuffed) when another Warrior in the group assumes the role of tank because he has better gear. When he changes to his gear he is witting at 38k health...but we still wipe on the boss. It frustrates me no end when people just look at the gear each player has.

My worst experience was in a random instance, when on the last boss our group wipes. I don't say anything about and just run back when the druid healer complains about the wipe blaming it on my terrible 25k health. Another member points out he himself has bad gear, but the healer makes the excuse that she only hit 80 two days ago. (Which I has as well) She then asked hi mto go easy on her for that reason. I piped up saying that if she was making excuses for her gear then she shouldn't complain about mine. (As it happened she had a 3.4k gearscore while mine was sitting at 3.8k...even though I hate GS with a passion) On our next attempt she barely healed me and I died but the rest of the group managed to kill the boss. After the gear had been rolled for the healer left the group, leaving me to run back in.

This was never a problem during the levelling game, and already I feel tired of the GS spam. Its frustrating going from one group of 5k+ GS who say I'm an excellent tank, to a group with lower gearscores who complain about my gear. For the most part the gear grind for a tank isn't a whole lot of fun. Is this considered to be the content that all other MMOs strive to copy in its amount of content and quality of entertainment? I can only hope that once I join a good guild, and no longer need to do so many random instances that the experience will pick up.

3 Comments:

Blackchain said...

I got to say that happened to me a lot in RoM and that did piss me off to no end like on 1st of the boss Origin(idk if u know about it) but cuz my group died 3 times and all the times we died was cuz of the healer or mage not doing there job, the next day i ask do you want to go to origin? they said i didn't have the gear... i never done much in that game cuz of lack of money. Gearing for end game for tanks not that much fun, but someone has to do it. I just hope that does not happen to me in Allods online.

Arthin said...

Now really. I do feel with ya. Someone has to gear as tank, and it's about skill... really.
My paladin friend, loves to tank because he is skilled in it. He got bored to hell dpsing so he went tank.

When you find people that LIKE to tank... really it's not a problem. The GS should be ignored in such cases, as it might be with you. OFcourse you're not going any 10/25's just yet, but you'll probably do just fine 5 mans till you hit 30-33k hp. (I dunno for warriors, but that was the case for my pala friend.)

Good luck Chappo, you'll probably need it.

Anonymous said...

Ah, yes, the gearing up to be a tank dilemma. People bitching about your low health, people bitching about your gear...it really doesn't stop though. My warrior tank is tanking ICC 10 and I still step into a 5 man heroic and get idiots complaining that I'm a warrior, that I'm 'only 37k unubuffed', or that my GS is...hell I don't even know what it is now that I think about it.

GS is stupid. It might give you a very vague idea of what someone is capable of, but the old adage Skill Trumps Gear holds water. If anything, the people who bark the loudest about GS are usually the biggest and dumbest nubs out there.

One of the best players I've had the pleasure of playing with walked into my Ulduar run with a smattering of heroic blues, an couple epics, and two greens. I was really hesitant to bring him along, but we needed bodies so I had no choice. Color me surprised when out dps'd over half the group in his crappy gear. A lot of people felt pretty bad because gear gives you the skills right?

Hell no. This guy has since then rolled two different toons and he rocks them all in mediocre gear. He has skills and is now an officer in my guild where I am frequently using him as an example to disillusioned players who have become gear whorish and lazy. "You're so amazing? Then why is A outdpsing you in heroic gear and badge stuff?" It's pretty damn funny.

To make it even better, he just shrugs at any upgrades he gets with barely an, "oh, well that's nice". He knows that gear is just a means to an end and that he's the one who makes his toons epic--not the other way around. What I wouldn't give to have 25 of him...lol

Keep your chin up. Tanking is rough, especially when you're gearing up. You're going to get blamed for shit all the time but after awhile you learn when it's them and when it's you. Don't be afraid to let idiots die either. They want to pull for you, let them get face punted. Queue as dps too if you're just farming badges. That's what I did because my hate for tanking pugs is friggen epic--I have no patience for them anymore.

The best thing you can do is find a good guild though. Then you'll never have to tank a pug again and you can sit in trade and lol at all the jerks who QQ about where all the tanks have gone.

 
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