Leveling the Cataclysm Tank

I've been playing my baby druid recently as a bear tank (just hit level 29). It has got me thinking about the changes to the leveling game with Cataclysm, with a particular focus on tanking.

Now if you are completely avoiding all news of the up and coming expansion you might want to stop reading now, however I'll only be making brief mention of a couple of mechanic changes. If you don't want to then watch this video instead.



Infinite mana for the young ones...
Ghostcrawler, in response to some changes, mentioned that mages will lose their conjure food and water spells till level 40 when they will get a combined food and water one. The idea being that before level 40 you're not going to need to eat or drink. This should greatly improve the leveling game by reducing the down time.

Now I must admit I haven't had to play a character that had to stop for mana for a long while. The regen mechanics have already been improved and two out of my three level 80 characters had replenishment while leveling in addition to mana return methods. The other two I've played recently were rage based (well energy in cat form for my druid). But if I look into the dim dark past I do remember having to drink regularly when playing my mage and warlock (before I started drain tanking).

From the questing perspective what they have already done to the level 1 to 15 experience should scale out to higher levels. What I'll be interested in seeing is how this applies to the instances. Will healing and dpsing in instances not require mana breaks. Should that be the case - will it be a rude introduction at level 40 or will it be a gradual change.

Side effects?
Not caring about mana from the start could have some negative side effects. End game instances have been teaching us some bad habits already. Panzercow was lamenting this on twitter and in a recent post where the tank completely ignored the cries from the healer for mana before going on and pulling and wiping. My response was that the abundance of mana and the limited need for healing in the current heroics means that as a tank I have gotten out of the habit of regularly checking the healer's mana. I will generally do it before a boss but that is the limit of it. However the healing required and thus mana required for the trash while leveling can require drinking more often. I need to get back into the habit!

The other bad habit that I've been noticing more now I'm tanking at a low level is the impatience of the dps to start before I've established aggro. AOE tanking is the name of the game yet at the low levels you don't have all the tools you need to be as effective. Yet the dps have and use their AOE attacks. I don't remember having similar issues when leveling my warrior back in vanilla because there was the standard maxim "wait for x sunders" that the dps knew and understood. Additionally the just AOE everything mentality was not there. Ghostcrawler says they want to move away from that mindset but will it apply to the old dungeons as well? I don't see it changing except via a change in the toolsets to negatively impact the AOE tanking game even at low levels thereby enforcing focused fire and crowd control.
For now we have to be AOE tanks at all levels.

I don't see red
In tanking on my bear I have returned to swearing regularly at, and about, rage. I rarely have enough for 1 swipe and enrage's one minute cooldown is a long time to wait! It means I'm having to run into packs of mobs hoping to get hit and hit enough that I can get a swipe off before the dps start aoeing everything. Thankfully I have a taunt and faerie fire hits like a truck and almost works like a taunt. However I'm starting to think I might need to spec into resto to get furor already so I can powershift and start with some rage, as for bears at least, that seems to be the limiting factor.


I keep looking forward to getting charge to help with the initial rage issues before I remember that it doesn't generate rage like the warrior version. I'm starting to notice some other differences too. Most notably with relation to rage one thing that you can do as a warrior to make your rage generation smoother is to use a faster weapon. Bears don't have the option as the swing speed is set by bear form. I'm really noticing the 2.2 second swing speed at the start of the fight as I wait for rage to come in.

All the rage issues make me wonder if the changes for rage normalization coming in Cataclysm will actually help at lower levels. Even with big sets of mobs hitting on me I'm usually waiting for rage before I can do more. I'll have to examine my combat logs but I don't imagine I'm dodging too much given my current levels of dodge. I'm not specced into survival talents unless they also have some benefit to cat form so I'm also not losing out on rage from that either but the mobs have not been a threat to me - I just don't seem to be taking that much damage.

I've only died twice. The first was because we didn't clear the other rooms before taking on Dexteran Ward in the Stockades and got feared into the other rooms. The second time I ran into a room and started pulling and all the dps went AWOL and the mobs kept pulling others as they ran away and eventually the healer ran out of mana.

So the issues I'm having are all about getting and maintaining aggro which is being caused by a lack of rage. This really does need to be addressed in Cataclysm as I think it is one of the barriers to solving the tank shortage.

Tanking Noobs/The importance of getting it right from the start
If players try out tanking at low levels and find it hard (particularly if they don't get a friendly pug) then they are not likely to return to it later in the game. Additionally, we are likely to see more rerolls of people that are already experienced in dps and healing that want to try tanking with their worgen, goblin, tauren or troll. Providing a positive tanking experience while leveling is critical.

What on the tool belt?
Rage is not the only factor in the low level tanking experience but a lack of tools for tanking is part of it as well. Bears are the exception here because they have the opposite problem currently of not having enough tools at 80. But Paladin tanks do not get a direct attack apart from Judgement until level 60 in Hamer of the Righteous with the other main attack coming at level 75 (Shield of Righteousness). Now that will change with Crusader Strike and Holy Shock becoming baseline which will be a good step forward. Now that Paladins can pull with Hand of Reckoning it might be worth moving the talent points around to move Avenger's Shield down and Hammer of the Righteous up. Alternatively it would be useful to move Shield of Righteousness to be available earlier. This would help Holy paladins too. However I'll keep watching the changes as it might be improved for all those Tauren paladin rerolls depending when Holy Shock becomes available.

However, careful changes to the talent trees would need to be made otherwise the epic feeling of the key talent points could be lost.

Warriors are probably better spaced in terms of getting their tools and might be a good example to follow - I'm just speculating as it has been a while since I leveled my warrior and I leveled and tanked as arms. However I know from Cynwise's recent experience that rage is a still a big problem for leveling warriors too. I never tanked on my paladin while leveling but I imagine starting with the tank full would help there, but at least currently, it is recommend to start down the retribution tree first for real of command rather than going into protection.

Learn when the damage is less
Fixing the problems for low level tanks does need to be a priority as it is the best time to learn the ins and outs without having to worry as much about your party members taking a couple of hits as they will be able to survive. I remember some Deadmines runs where defining who was actually tanking was a bit questionable but it didn't matter. Starting early is a big key to learning and, more importantly, enjoying the tanking game.

Moar maps!
The other thing that could really help, given the expectation of the tank to lead, is to introduce maps for the old instances. Stockades is pretty straightforward but Gnomergan is a nightmare and it isn't anywhere near as complicated as other instances.

Interactive Tutorials
I've also wondered about some sort of tutorial system to give a basic introduction to the different roles in a party in a safe environment. Dungeons and Dragons Online has a tutorial system that introduces you to the game mechanics before starting. They already have the elements in place because they support solo dungeon play with the support of NPCs that party with you with AI. I'm not proposing introducing that mechanic in general as I've experienced it in DDO and Guild Wars, and I didn't enjoy it. However, particularly with the return of the need for crowd control, it could be a useful tool for all roles teaching the important components in some sort of simulated battle. Idealy a tutorial system would not be required because you could learn with guild mates. But I know I had to dive in the deep end and try tanking with a group of random people found by the global LFG channel back in Deadmines - before it got nerfed! If I'm doing something new like that (including the first time I've run an instance) I'll usually tell the group and I like to think people are decent and patient but there are enough stories floating about that I know it isn't always the case.

Visible Threat
The final change I think that needs to be made is to integrate the threat values into the name plates of the default UI in the same manner as Tidy Plates: Threat Plates addon. If you haven't used this addon then, at least for tanking, it is a must! I turn off overlapping plates and with threat plates I can quickly click target mobs i'm losing or have lost threat on. Before this addon existed I would frantically click the name plates of mobs I saw running off and would check who their target was before taunting. We have seen addon functionality being integrated into the default ui in the past (the recently announced chat changes are reminiscent of WIM). I can see Blizzard doing it.



So I'm watching the upcoming changes with some anticipation even though I'm not likely to have another tank to level from scratch again! We'll see - I keep being tempted to level another warrior or paladin!

Do you have any other changes you'd like to see to leveling tanks? Oh and all bear tanking tips highly appreciated!