GC's latest blog, Active Mitigation Playstyle

#1 - Aug. 16, 2011, 9:13 p.m.

Ghostcrawler's latest blog entry laid out some new threat mechanics, which I'm not sure I agree with, but will have to suck up.. But it also touched on the Dev's interest in making the current Blood style of tanking (consuming resources for mitigation) into the "homogenization" for all tanks, by which they mean to have all tanks monitoring resources to maintain their survivability.

I am one of the VERY few Blood DK's who are actually attempting HM FL progression, and it SUCKS. I've been one of the best DK tanks on my realm since pre-ICC, and now I'm one of the only ones. Stroll along the Tanking or DK forums, and you see re-rolls or re-specs every single day from the Blood tree to something else, simply because it is entirely too hard to play correctly(Read: what dev's consider fun) while progressing through HM content. Blood DK's have vanished from this world, if you look at progressing guilds.

This playstyle, if transferred to all other tanks in some form or another, will inevitably lead to even less tanks roaming the LFD, Trade chat tanks selling Q's will be a thing of the past, and overall the tank population will go down.

I agree with the populace that tanking has gotten "harder" this x-pac, and the Blood tree is the hardest of them all. If you homogenize the tank specs to be anywhere near similar to Blood in its current state, you will effectively make tanks a thing of the past, and the PvE segment of this game will be unreachable for even more of your customer base.

My 2c

Daxxarri

Community Manager

#28 - Aug. 17, 2011, 1:25 a.m.

Right now it's tough for DK tanks because they're the only ones on anything resembling an active mitigation model. The one active mitigation guy is going to look like he's working harder than the passive mitigation guys because, in a lot of ways, he is. If all tanks had worked this way from the start, it would be the norm, and nobody would be worried about jumping onto that model.

We've already established that threat isn't making for very compelling encounter design, and removing it offers us the ability to get creative with some of the mechanics that we're using; both in encounter and class design. In a world with no threat management, and no active mitigation, that doesn't leave a lot for tanks to do though. We think that making tanking more active, and focusing that activity around mitigation (which feels immediately useful) will generate some very rewarding gameplay. We want the act of tanking to be engaging, interesting and fun. We think the path forward will offer more of that for all the tanking classes.

Also, I've seen a number of references to making tanking easier in this thread and elsewhere. "Easier" isn't really the goal. The goal is to discard a mechanic which we don't think is working particularly well anymore, and replace it with something more focused and interesting. Doing so should also have the effect of allowing tanks who aren't as geared still do their job when grouped with players who outgear (or even outlevel them a bit). They'll still be responsible for doing a good job, but their absolute ability to hold the attention of the boss won't be a factor; their ability to play well and mitigate damage will be.

We're aware of player concerns about Blood tanking, and we'll work to ensure that Blood tanking will continue to be viable and effective into the future. On that note, we're interested in addressing some of the concerns that have been expressed about the spec (potentially as soon as the next major patch), though we want to accomplish that goal without sacrificing what sets the spec apart and makes it interesting.