There are dramaz on the internet
There has been an absolutely bile-inducing amount of crap directed at Paladin tanks in recent weeks. It’s gotten to the point where it’s nearly impossible to visit the official tanking forums, let alone the general forums, for fear of being swept away by a tide of QQ and the tantrums of the inconsolable whiners that populate that den of scum and villainy.
The topic du jour is once again tankadin hate, which was on the decline for a while after so many got it out of their system following the debut of Ardent Defender back in the days of Ulduar. At right about the time that DKs were smacked down, Paladins were propped up and for the first time in our long tanking careers we became something akin to the Second Coming. Or something like that. So I’m told.
We also got a nice fat target painted on our backs to go along with AD.
And now as part of the current flow of anti-Paladin sentiment the same old daggers are being drawn, dull as they are. Paladin tanking is so simplistic that only idiots play them. Paladin tanking is easy mode. Paladin tanking requires no skill. So on and so forth.
I mean, it’s obvious that these indictments are derived by the groupthink rage and envy at what is perceived as the top dog tank. Personally, I question how Druids get away unscathed with an even simpler rotation and far greater effective health, but I suppose that neither here not there. I don’t think there’s any merit to channeling dissatisfaction with your class into a hateful broadside against people that are, generally, on the same team. So to speak.
So then these footsoldiers of the aggrieved masses then fan out across the forums and abroad and denigrate us as degenerate facerollers. As evidence they cite how easy it is for us to aoe tank, how our rotation could be (wrongly) mapped to two buttons, and how our automatic second “cooldown” is a crime against nature. They then go roll Paladin alts (because, truly, the world needs more FotMers) and only reinforce their bigotry with the knowledge that a class–whose tanking arsenal was foundationally designed in 2.0 around reflective and area of effect damage–excels at holding more than one mob at a time.
… Holy hell, how did this get past the Sam Spades of the official forums for so long?!
And then of course one of these little pukes comes to this blog and regurgitates the same, tired claptrap that we’re subjected to day in and day out, spices it up with the mellifluousness of a subliterate mouth-breather, and then has the gall to top it off with a winking emoticon, like that somehow turns his bilious dribble into some biting riposte.
Does it bother me, to have to deal with this nonsense from anonymous troll and guildmate alike? Yeah, it does. For once we’re at the top of the heap, legitimately or not, and dammit that cannot stand. Pitchforks in hand, the wailing masses call for our heads, like we personally were the ones that decided that Paladins were due their time in the sun.
Do we need to be balanced against other tanks? Self-evidently, yes. Do we need this garbage hurled at us on a daily basis? No.
I’m sick of it. You seething wretches need to grow the hell up.
Armory Feed
It’s sad that tanks are jealous of one another like that. I for one am welcome our new maintankadin overlords.
Gravity’s last blog ..Unbreakable armour, damage reduction
Well said! I have both a paladin tank and a bear tank and I love the paladin because she has an interesting rotation and breadth of abilities to play. The rotation isn’t any simpler than a dps rotation, being a tank, any tank, requires situational awareness and a strong knowledge of any encounter you face. Why trolls feel like they must tear down the paladin players is beyond me. In progression fights AOE tanking is not the only measure of success and who cares if it’s easy and fun for paladins to tank heroics? They should be cheering that maybe more people will roll tanks and help with the shortage!
Tara’s last blog ..Blood Wing cleared
We’re horrible because… our rotation is fairly simple? Really?
I’ll admit I actually HAVE mapped 969 to two buttons- the whole thing still has individual buttons on my bar because obviously it’s often not optimal, but if the fight permits being able to two-finger it is handy while I watch Grid, the room, and incoming raid damage to see if I need to snag a loose add, slap a Hand on somebody or bubble them, or throw up Divine Guardian. You know, the part that’s really related to TANKING as opposed to DPS that generates threat.
Bears don’t get it because relative to each other bears are rare and paladins are common. My co-tank is a bear and he asserts it’s easy to fall asleep at the wheel, so to speak, if it’s heroic-level content rather than a raid.
LabRat’s last blog ..Be This Guy, Not That Guy
They attack us because they hate our freedoms. Some people stop having fun if people around them start to have fun, and their only joy is in the misery they can inflict on others. In WoW, where in-game griefing has been basically exterminated, the forums are the last bastion for those pitiful souls. That’s why I stopped reading the forums over a year ago, and had no idea this was even an issue until I read your post. Don’t feed the trolls!
Two buttons…that makes me laugh, like Labrat said we have to keep an eye out to cleanse/taunt/bubble etc etc. As for AoE tanking…..who cares about it, it’s trash tanking and most of these QQ posts are made by people who look at paladins in a jealous eye only cos they can’t master their own class. Its a L2P issue….Get over it.
Lol wow! Tanking is harder for pallies than warriors. They don’t even understand, which I wish they did, so they stop bitching at me stopping my attack. Maybe if the stupid priest wouldn’t spam hellfire to the point where her mana bar is replaced with a vaguely orange substance labled unmitigated failure then I wouldn’t have to RD her and “idiocally stop my attack.”
Druids are still ahead of us in terms of EH, and cooldown usage, with a one minute barkskin, plus their functional 4T10 bonus. Not to mention that their block is actually superior to ours on most fights in ICC.
The Renaissance Man’s last blog ..Blood and Glory in the Crimson Halls.
I play my pala since month before TBC, and I was taning back than and I am tanking now, and I can only say to those whiners one thing: U can faceroll with all tanking classes, but you can only shine as tank when u start using your extra abilities (for pala as example) there are couple of hand spells which if used properly can save the day easily, and all tanking classes have couple of similar spells.
As it seems to me all these talks points to AOE – well, lets face it todays game is much different than vanilla or TBC, in TBC was hard for me to find a group for HCs because “palas cant tank”, than I got spot, make couple of LoS pulls and wooow, “u r super tank, can I add u to friends?”
my point is: all tanking classes can do same, it is just what you do when things go out of control.
besided we r talking pala aoe tanking is OP, I still didnt manage to pull aggro of wandering group like warriors can.
so, yes our dps in AOE pulls are OP, but arent boss fights which counts in progression?
on a side note: I have frost DK as an alt which is grinding daily HCs for frosts to buy primordial, and I can assure you pala tanking was never so easy as DK (talent D&D for 15 secs CD and than put it down on group, run in, use HB, sleep, go to next group.
@honorshammer
29 January 2010 at 10:31 am #
The Warriors won’t stop complaining until they are back on top. We should enjoy our time at the top dog tank. It won’t last.
@Anafielle
29 January 2010 at 11:46 am #
You are quite a writer. A pretty amazing one. I wish everyone vented in such an aesthetically pleasing manner. I know that’s not the reaction you were going for, but it’s the one I had :P
On topic-
There are frankly too many people in the world whose first reaction to something that hurts or angers them is to lash out and attack someone else. It’s a damn sight easier to flame someone else than to improve your own play, and in a viscious way it vents their frustration.
Sure, it’s our time in the sun, like you put it. I don’t think any of us have a problem with legitament, logical arguments about why pallies are uniquely suited to tank certain kinds of content. What I at least have a problem with is the flaming and self-indulgent whining that makes the official forums such a cesspool. Although I guess I’m glad the trolls have someplace to shit their crap out… I just wish it would stay there instead of seeping out onto Maintankadin and elsewhere.
I’m sorry you had someone troll your blog. =/ And I guess we all just need thick skin these days if we’re going to be engaged in the online wow community, because it’s chock full of little children and selfish whiners who do things like flame and then throw a smiley on the end.
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It does cut both ways though.
I admit the forums are filled with Warriors complaining about Paladin but in a closed atmosphere where Paladin weren’t also responding to every legitimate Warrior post asking for buffs telling them they are noobs who just want to be the god tank of the game and want everyone else to be incapable of tanking again, I don’t think the debate would be so heated.
As it is there are barely any posts of a Warrior legitimately asking for buffs while pointing out the areas where we are obviously lacking (and they are MANY) that doesn’t have a Paladin or more rarely a Druid coming in and telling us why those many deficiencies don’t matter and we should shut up and l2p because we just want to be the ONLY tank again… when in fact all we want is to not be (to some degree or another) the worst in basically every measurable area.
If AoE doesn’t matter because its only trash then why NOT buff us where we are lacking?
If DPS doesn’t matter because we’re tanks and not DPS then why NOT buff us relative to the other classes?
Anyway my point is that Paladin aren’t poor innocent bystanders on the forum and they contribute to the chaos as much as Warriors do.
I DO think Paladin are obnoxiously OP when compared to my class but that doesn’t make you noob facerollers. I played a Warlock in vanilla when they were considered a broken joke that was the most complicated class to play in the game and I melted faces with him anyway. Then they added a horror to Death Coil and suddenly we were suddenly OP nub facerollers that took no skill at all.
Anyway point is that class friction on the forum has been fanned by both sides. When DKs were OP Paladin and Warriors were there complaining about it while DKs told us to l2p.. Now the situation has completely reversed and most forum Paladin are fighting against Warrior buffs with every fiber of their being.
But you’re gonna find trolls on the forum.
[...] permission. Read this and other posts at http://honorscode.blogspot.com/ Today my buddy Rhidach was talking about the abuse being thrown Paladins way both in game on the Forums. It’s even infiltrated once great sites like [...]
Effing facerolling paladin noobs….yer OP…yer OP…yer OP.
@Rhidach
1 February 2010 at 3:06 pm #
Get outta mah class, Fal.
I’ve only recently joined the prot-pally ranks. For what it’s worth – tanking has been an absolute joy. Now take this with the following grains of salt:
Grain #1 – I’m only level 59
Grain #2 – I’ve obviously yet to tank raids or anything other than nerfed vanilla WoW 5-man instances.
That said – after having tanked on a warrior at 80 and being a (fairly) regular druid tank, nothing quite *fit* as well as the experience I’ve had as a protection paladin.
AoE threat is much easier to manage. But more than that – the taunts – particularly that lovely 3-mob taunt that can be targeted at the player with aggro vs. the mobs themselves are just a joy to use when things go pear-shaped.
I *really* enjoy tanking on my Pally. That’s huge. That’s something Blizzard should bring to the other tanking classes. Is it too easy? Maybe – I honestly don’t have enough experience with the class to say. But it is *fun* – hell yeah. And that – is what I think matters.
Windpaw’s last blog ..WPL – EPL