I knew, going in 4.2 I was playing the subpar class when it came to tanking. Death knights were at the bottom of the lists all during 4.1 and I saw no reason for things to change in Firelands. Even from my own experiences I knew something to be wrong. I had to put in extra effort all the time just to reach similar performances to other tanks. Even then my survivability would be shaky sometimes because of simple fight mechanics.
I don’t like quoting from guilds like Paragorn but today I will
Synti’s : “There’s some fights where a DK tank is excellent. On average they’re probably the worst tank, though. Add in the fact that our healers are not familiar with healing DK tanks and just fret about the fluctuation in health, we’re not gonna start using them even in the fights where the spec would excel.
Any kind of fight where you’d tank adds is absolutely horrible though. Only place for a DK tank is tanking some raid boss, preferably one that hits amazingly hard but with large intervals. Perhaps with some added magic damage. But single target tanking nevertheless.”
I cannot say I disagree with the above.
Let me get something straight, DKs can do the job and I proved it no later than last week by successfully tanking Beth’tilac. But, and that’s the big point, having someone from another class being as equally skilled as I am would be a better option.
So today, the raid leadership approached me to talk about my survivability in progression raids, a discussion I felt was coming for a long time and one wich I’m actually surprised didn’t come sooner. I’m taking too much damage, it’s simple as that.
It’s not because of skill, it’s not because I don’t know what I’m doing, it’s pretty much because of the class I play and the mechanics involved.
And this is what sucks so much about this, sure I could tell the healers to adapt their style to fit me and I could tell the dps to hurry up and we could adapt whole raid strategies around my being there. But it doesn’t feel right, why should an entire raid change to make up for a single class flaws… doesn’t sound right.
It can be done, it’s been done but the fact of the matter remains that of all the Ragnaros kills, DK tanks make for a very very low percentage. That when you remove individual player skill from the equation, other classes are easier to heal and keep alive. Dk is a sub par choice and I have to live with that…
… it sucks big time…
If you are wondering about the post title it’s because as I was researching this to make sure my hunches were not just hunches but also had some facts to them, this is what reading the various forums and boards felt like. Lots of Dk tanks who love to tank but who are finding out that it’s becoming and increasing problem.
Today I join my voice with them…
PS: Happy post tomorrow! I promess!
Your guild is just doing normal modes though right? It really doesn’t matter which tank you use there unless your gear and/or healers are absolutely horrid and need every advantage they can get.
Now for harder content such as heroic modes this tank disparity is certainly an issue…
Yeah, we’re doing normal modes but we also come from t11 normal modes. Also, whenever you’re facing a new encounter every bit helps at first. While I have no worries that after a few times the healers and raid adjust, it’s during those progression fights that the disparity becomes telling.
Guess I better push my Pally through those last 5 levels. Or figure out how to tank with my druid again.
Ugh. I enjoy DK tanking, and while we do fine for what we do (heroics), I’d rather helpful than a hindrance.