Tanks in World of Warcraft are tired of being insulted constantly. They give up – and the waiting times increase.
Those who want to see the difficult “Mythic+” dungeons from the inside in World of Warcraft need a tank by their side – ideally one who at least knows roughly what they are doing.
However, some in the WoW community seem to have particularly short fuses and explode at the slightest problems. Usually, it’s the tank who gets the criticism or hate. This, however, is also the reason why tanks are becoming increasingly rare.
Tank is tired of complaints, simply withdraws from it
What do tanks report? In a post in the WoW subreddit, the player TheHelpfulBadger reports on his experiences as a tank. He tried to play as a tank last month but is now throwing in the towel. The reason is the toxic community and all the negative experiences he has accumulated over the past months. He writes:
I had trouble learning a new class, the routes, the tank mechanics, and so on, but I ultimately managed to achieve it at an acceptable level and also complete Mythic +10 without problems.
The whole process was quite fun, although occasionally a bit frustrating.
What was consistently terrible were the teammates. The amount of insults and harassment I received over the last month for being too slow or too fast or not taking exactly the route that others envisioned is just insane. Not to mention the many times when the DPS players pulled instead of me, while I was either waiting 2 seconds for my cooldowns to make the pull easier or wanted to give my healers a few seconds before the boss to regenerate mana.
Someone with thicker skin than I might be able to handle this, but I cannot, and I do not want to spend my limited free time being insulted.
I understand now that the community is exactly the reason for the tank shortage.
That tanking is the most unpopular role in WoW becomes evident time and again. A simple graphic has already impressively shown weeks ago why getting started as a tank is so difficult.
This is how the community discusses: Under the post, there are a lot of comments from other tanks who have had a very similar experience. Most of them seem to have transitioned to only tanking for friends and acquaintances – further increasing the tank shortage:
- „That’s exactly why I love the “giving up keys” feature. I have been tanking on and off since Cataclysm and create explicit “chill” groups, but if someone complains and rages, then screw it, the key is over. I can find a new group in 2 minutes. I’m too old to deal with elitist wannabe MDI dudes.” – Squawnk
- „Tanking for randoms = Terrible
Tanking for friends and guild members = Awesome” – Stevez0r10 - „Yes, that’s also the reason why queues are so long. If you enjoy tanking, you will find friends to play with and soon only play with them, while avoiding random groups like the plague.” – A_Zealous_Retort
However, there are also comments from some tanks who cannot confirm this and wonder how other tanks regularly end up in such negative groups, where insults are thrown around immediately.
- „Where do you find all these people? So many posts and I’ve maybe had one toxic person in 10 runs and that doesn’t even ruin the run.” – Galcitor
Cortyn says: Although I only occasionally tank with my Demon Hunter, I can completely understand the problem. The “negativity bias” also plays a role here – the fact that negative experiences tend to stick in memory much more than neutral or positive ones.
If you had five positive dungeon runs, that memory fades. As soon as you have even one “fool” who escalates in chat and insults as if it were a major cardinal sin not to attack exactly this one group they had wished for. Because some people on the internet type out every insult that comes to mind without restraint, the negative feeling is further amplified.
Therefore, I can well understand if tanks say to themselves: It’s my free time, and I have little desire to be insulted. So they withdraw from it.
What are your experiences as a tank in World of Warcraft? Do you also have recurring problems with toxic players? Or have you transitioned years ago to only tanking for friends and the guild? Let us know in the comments!
Tanking will become significantly easier in Midnight as well – because Blizzard has an idea on how to make dungeon routes easily recognizable.
