Why Call to Arms will work

I've come around. Jinxed Thoughts describes a scenario that will play out over and over once Call to Arms is in place:

There are a couple of features that I am looking forward to a little extra in this patch, for example I intend to start burning through instances like there was no tomorrow (aliens attacking?) with my dk, maybe even my warrior, due to the new Call to Arms. I like tanking - I just need a little more incentive to stand the douchy pugs. Maybe this will be enough, we'll see

I previously pointed out that players already have a tremendous incentive to enter dungeons as a tank, so if they are going in as dps nonetheless then no reasonable cash bonus is going to change it. However, I overlooked that there's another source of tanks than people who would otherwise have queued as dps. Alts!

Warcraft is an alt-friendly game, and many people create alts once they have their main character maxed out, for some definition of "max". When people decide what to do with their time, they choose between things like daily quests, taking an alt into a dungeon, playing the auction house, working on achievements, and so on. Call to Arms will tip the scales of that decision toward running dungeons as a tank, and the scales there are already pretty balanced.

I predict we will see a lot more tanks in the dungeon finder. We'll also see a lot fewer people doing dailies, participating in battlegrounds, and all the other things people would otherwise spend their time on. That's really all fine with me. I find dungeons the best part of WoW. It's not a very good PVP game, but it's a wicked cool multi-player PVE game, and nowhere do you see more multi-player PVE goodness than in dungeons and raids.

Getting more tanks into the Dungeon Finder

Blizzard just announced that they are adding Call to Arms as a way to entice more tanks into the dungeon finder.

To be eligible for the additional rewards you must solo queue for a random level-85 Heroic in the role that is currently being Called to Arms, and complete the dungeon by killing the final boss. Every time you hit these requirements (there is no daily limit) you'll receive a goodie bag that will contain some gold, a chance at a rare gem, a chance at a flask/elixir (determined by spec), a good chance of receiving a non-combat pet (including cross faction pets), and a very rare chance at receiving a mount.

By the way, I disagree with the premise that the current queue times for dps are crazy. They are long, but they aren't crazy long. So long as you have something else to do (quest, gather, dailies, ...), the queue times are just right to give you a pleasant alternation between two kinds of activity.

Nonetheless, shorter queues would be better. What can be done?

I suspect Call to Arms won't make much of a difference. Already, tanks can queue instantly, so they have a very strong enticement to queue as a tank instead of as a healer or dps. The additional benefit of getting gold out of it is swamped by the benefits they already have.

A better angle, though one much more difficult to implement, is to make it less onerous to tank. This can be hard to do, because tanking is much more demanding than the other roles.

One possible solution would be to lower the gear requirements for tanking in heroics. Make the mobs hit less hard, so that characters can queue for heroics with less fear of wiping the group. As the game is balanced right now, tanks that meet the minimum ilvl requirement are fairly squishy. Some might say this is making the game too easy on tanks, but if we are seeing tanks not sign up or heroics, the game must already be fairly hard for them. A nice thing about this solution is that it only affects heroics. As far as I know there is no shortage of tanks for raids.

Another possibility would be to make tanking rotations even simpler, or at least, make a simpler rotation be sufficient. I find that when tanking with a new class, there's a tanking equivalent to grid lock where you get so focused on your threat rotation that you lose track of where all the mobs are. If tanks had a couple of fewer buttons to worry about, then they'd find it easier to focus on all the other things tanks do. This strategy, granted, can easily backfire. Many complained in Wrath that tanking many fights was terribly boring, and that's why Cataclysm tanks have so much more to do.

A third possibility, and not something they can implement immediately, is to reduce the ratio of tanks that are needed for a group. Why not have 8-man dungeons with one tank and one healer?

Overall, it's a tricky problem. As usual, it's gratifying to see that Blizzard is thinking about these game design problems instead of just raking in their dough. I don't think Call to Arms will solve the tanking shortage in Dungeon Finder, but it's a simple thing that is easy to try.

UPDATE: Jar on Rank 4 Healing Touch takes up the same question.

Why are tankers not around?

Jinked Thoughts says because it is hard. It's a great article about the social side of tanking in pugs. Yes, in pugs -- where else are you going to learn?

I've heard plenty of people who've tried to tank, complain about how difficult it is. Actually I don't think I've ever heard someone say "wow, this was fun!" the first time they do it. One could really wonder why people keep at it at all. It's difficult not only skillwise, but because you ultimately are fighting not only the mobs, but against your own group as well.

In addition to the social issue, there are real technical challenges. For example:

• Tanks have to understand the dungeon mechanics so that they can mark targets and choose pulls. In theory someone else can do it, and I've even seen a few groups where it went that way, but most of the time everyone stands around waiting for the tank to decide what to do. As a result, tanks have to understand all the patrolling groups and all of the enemy mob abilities, and what mobs are linked to each other. The other players just come along for the ride.
  
• During a fight, tanks have to be aware of more things than the other players. In addition to things all player have to watch, like which abilities are on cooldown and where the fires are that need avoiding, they have to know where all the mobs are, whether a CC has broken, whether a new add has wandered into the fight, whether the healer has aggro, how threat is looking on all the mobs, and what level the tank's own health bar is at.
  
• Tanks take care of more issues than other players. In addition to maintaining their threat rotation, they have to taunt mobs, trigger defensive cooldowns, keep an eye on ranged mobs, play line-of-sight games, switch targets to mobs where threat is decaying, and position and reposition mobs.
  
• Tank death is less forgiving than other players dying. If a healer dies halfway through, many encounters can be survived by a tank blowing all their cooldowns. If a dps dies, it really doesn't matter. If the tank dies, though, the monster had better be very close to dead or it's a wipe.
  

I like tanking, but it was a lot to think about the first few times I tried. For anyone wanting to try it, be sure to try easier content first. One way to do that is to start a new character and level by tanking dungeons. Blizzard has balanced low-level dungeons to be rather forgiving, probably because they assume that the players in them might be playing their first toon. Another way to make a dungeon easy-mode is to switch roles with a max-level toon, but to first gear them up before doing so. Use excess justice points to get some tank gear, and then jump into some normal, non-random dungeons.

Normals dungeons are for learning?

Icedragon writes:

I’m fine with newbies when they’re in normal instances. Some people prefer questing all the way to the level cap, which isn’t a bad thing. You’re new to the dungeon? Use your map and ask questions if you don’t understand a mob pack or boss strategy. Communicate with your group. For the most part the newbies I meet are open to learning how things work, and some are even nervous about their performance. I’m a regular poster in the Newbie forum and it’s satisfying to help someone out.

It is a pretty theory that people should practice in normal dungeons and then go do heroic dungeons. However, it doesn't work in practice. I've tried getting people to crowd control in normals, and they complain it is too slow. They're not wrong, either. If it weren't for the aspect of trying to practice for heroics, there really wouldn't be much point in crowd controlling in most normals fights.

As a result, the only way to practice the new things you need for heroics--crowd control, damage reduction--is to actually run heroics. As such, I don't see a way for Icedragon to attain a mythical world where other random people he meets through the Dungeon Finder are going to know as much about Warcraft as he does. Everyone starts out not knowing, and then mostly learns from doing it rather than reading about it, and since they are all in one pool, they are just going to be a lot of groups that mix old hands with hopeful newbies. Personally, I kind of like that mix in general.

The closest thing to a good answer I can come up with is to drop the valor-point bonus for running daily random heroic dungeons. The valor point bonus was initially put in so that people will have a reason to run heroics after they outgear them. However, it's not needed any longer. Meanwhile, the heroic dungeons are clogged up with people who totally outgear them. If they dropped the valor-point bonus, then the only people in heroic dungeons would be people who have some heroic gear but are hoping for a little more. Groups would have a consistent gear level, and they'd also have a more consistent level of newbiness. The feel would be more like with levelling dungeons, where three out of the five have no idea and the other two are levelling alts and can contribute a lot of pointers.

Kill the healer?

Icedragon has a fun post up on handling trash packs in Cataclysm. We're back to Vanilla and BC days, where crowd control and single-targeting are important. I love that these are back in the game.

One part of Warcraft strategy lore I am not so sure about, however:

For pretty much any pull, you should follow the High Kill Order. It’s also known as the “Things That Suck to Tank” order.

Healers > Summoners > Gimmicks > Mages/Warlocks > Rogues > Warriors

Killing the healers is so ingrained that whenever the Straw Hat Pirates raid leaders tell us to attack a pack, they always call out over Vent, "Kill the healers!". Okay, they do this as much to annoy the healers in our own raid as anything, but still.

One part I'll agree on is that killing the healers first is the fastest way to dispense with a trash pack. The longer the healer is alive, the more damage must be healed through. Also, in general, ending the fight sooner has big advantages for survivability. Longer fights drain the healer mana and provide opportunities for everyone to slip up and get gibbed by some mechanic or another in the fight.

I started changing my mind about the "kill the healers" strategy, though, when Halls of Reflection came out in Lich King. In Halls of Reflection, there are several waves of 3-5 enemies attacking. The common wisdom for this instance is to first kill the healers, who are named, conveniently enough, priests. Yet, I've both tanked and healed this instance, and let me tell you: the priests aren't particularly annoying! What's annoying is that mage casting fireballs, that hunter casting frost traps, and that rogue that is blitting around and poisoning everyone.

I've come around to thinking that if you are having trouble surviving a trash pack, then you should kill a squishy, high-dps target in preference to a healer. Because the healer is alive, it will take longer to kill that high-dps target. However, once that first target is dead, you have significantly less incoming damage, and the fight becomes much more manageable. It's a more reliable way to get through a trash pack, though not a very common one.

To be sure, there are still times I'd favor prioritizing the healer. If you have enough gear that you aren't bothering with crowd control, then sure, kill the healer first so as to end the fight sooner. Also, as always, follow what the raid leader chooses. It's more important to single target *some* mob than to single target the ideal one.

Healing and tanking in PUGs

Jinked thoughts has a good write on it. On healers:

One thing I really love about being a healer is that whatever happens, I'll probably have it under control.

I've come to the same conclusion. I enjoy dpsing, and I enjoy tanking. However, on harder content, I want to be healing. When stuff goes wrong, I feel like there's something I can do about it.

On tanks:

They do all the work (especially in lowbie groups where the tank often does 50% of all the damage) and never get any recognition or love for it. One mistake and you'll have a choir of crying babies in your group.

Tanks work a lot harder than anyone else in the group. Holding aggro and using cooldowns is a second-by-second decision process, and you never know how it's going to go. Moreover, outside of raids, they usually end up guiding the party through the dungeon from pull to pull. Yet, as soon as anything goes wrong, the tank gets all manner of hate. It's a fun role if you feel like thinking a little bit, but you better thicken your skin. You're going to get flamed.

Notice one role missing? Dps. Dps is sweet and easy, and there's hardly anything to say. Just sit back and nuke whatever mobs the tank has pulled. Use whatever bizarre rotations you like; unless it's progression content, you'll still win.

The best of PUGs, the worst of PUGs

Traxy of I Like Pancakes has a great article up on the foibles, let us say, that a tank faces in a random LFD pug. Beruthiel of Falling Leaves and Wings has a similar article up, but that one describing the downright abuse that tanks often get, despite doing everything right. Beruthiel's post gives a strong suggestion about why tanks are scarce in the LFD tool.

I have tanked a few LFD runs, and I see a lot of what Traxy and Beruthiel describe. I've been flamed for using resilience to get uncrittable (when that worked), and I've been flamed for taking the Pit of Saron gauntlet in three pulls instead of two. It's usually something where there's a common way to do things, and then another way that is sometimes better but that isn't as well known to the player base.

On the flip side, I keep coming back for more. A lot of the fun of Warcraft is that it's multi-player. If you can let the jerks just go their way, you meet a lot of other people who make it fun.

If you feel the same way, you'll love Pugging Pally. It posted the above two articles as guest articles, and it has a steady stream of posts that "look on the light side of LFG".