As a matter of fact, the quote was "Jesus Christ, the world has run out of tanks!", and it was from Dalaran /trade channel on Sunday. It was one of those instances I almost responded that "no, the ones available just are not good enough for you", but decided to silence myself.
The next two lines came almost immediately after the first one. "LF 1 tank 1 healer TOC10 normal. Must have gear, experience and DBM.", and last "Tank LF guild doing lots of HC's".
I had to rub my eyes and post these to the guild channel. Caused a silence for a while, only a lol to the first one.
Jesus Christ, the world has run out of tanks!
LF 1 tank 1 healer TOC10 normal. Must have gear, experience and DBM
Tank LF guild doing lots of HC's
What a combination showing the appreciation for tanks. Out of tanks I just commented about: the ones who are available in /trade or LFG tool are not geared enough to cut the need of the 'free market'. The LF TOC10 shows the reason why: the requirements for the free tanks are high (free market tank for TOC10 man? Sure). And the third is the desperation of such a tank to get good enough gear to enter either raiding or fulfill the free market requirements.
And because no tank is masochist enough to be only a freebooter, they are most certainly in a guild and doing their best in a controlled environment rather than PUGging the free market dailies or requests.
Like it's been commented all over the blogosphere, the most crucial parts of a 5 man group are the healer and tank: if the healer is inadequate, the tank will die, causing a wipe. If the tank is inadequate, the healer will die, causing a wipe. But what brings imbalance to this is the fact that not all tanks or dps are equal: hybrids can ease the pain of the healer if they want to, healing whenever the urgency calls. Druids and paladins can do it for themselves and others, DK's to themselves. So the crucial part of a party is the tank, and the worst cards are in the hand of the warrior tank.
Warrior tank is a damage sucking toolbox of interrupt utilities. Enraged regeneration is a once in a fight cooldown heal which is actually the panic button when everything else fails. Warrior tanks cannot heal others, they are best in sucking the damage and staying put.
So why the heck is it so hard for a warrior tank to come up with a group? Because the first question that you encounter is "What is your def?" or "How much HP?". And if they are below what is considered good, you're out and some other class get's the spot due to their other abilities. As if the HP matters if your def is too low...
People are so fixed with the idea that a tank must have 540 def at the cap. It's not so: 535 is the cap in heroics, in normal even this is too much! And the progression is normal 5 man, heroic 5 man, others, I think. Now ToC 5 has ruined the progression and everyone and their cousins are 'farming ToC' and even to the normal 5 man Trial of the Champion they request def cap!
Players at the cap have confused the actual requirements for the game with the requirements of the highest level of the game, raiding. Due to the fact that people are always seeking the route of least resistance, they are looking for the easy way to the best gear.
Example: Laiskajaakko has tanked ToC5, successfully. In one group the healer somehow 'forgot' to heal, or was himself inadequately geared and the group wiped. Who was to blame? The tank as he didn't have proper gems (mind you, I had all +STA gems then and 512 def, no problem). The next wipe with inadequate heals: The tank was lacking aggro (generated steady (!) 3.5k all the time, the first dps came around 1.5k...) and so on. I left the group after the Black Knight fell and didn't get a single piece of gear. Maybe some experience on dealing with poor PUG's but that's all.
That was just the tip of an iceberg: Gundrak. Normal instance, first pull. Laiskajaakko was the only capped toon in, charged to the first three snakes. In comes the hunter's pet -bear- and pulls two of the three. Being on aggressive, this bear starts to follow the retreating mobs and pulls several adds. Which I get to keep from the squishies.
Wipe.
The result of the wtf round was that even though the hunter's pet pulled the aggro, it was tank who's fault the wipe was. Round two. The hunter enters the instance and his pet aggroes immedieately. Tanks fault.
I quit the group there.
Tanks are always to blame. Is it any wonder there are no tanks to run instances out of the guild runs?
Guild run: good clean run with everyone looking for their own performance and how to proceed best. No name calling, no bickering, all good advice and learning for the newcomer. And in 5-mans, both normal and heroic, a clean pass even with a slacker like me. No wipes, no regrets.
Would you change that to the PUG abuse?
