I'm learning how to tank on my druid (one raid needs a tank or they can't raid), and I so want the following...
Basic Tank Training: this would be a series of quests you'd be required to do before you queue as tank. You'd get teleported to a series of rooms. First off you'd either be able to talk to an NPC about the basics of tanking as your class (aka, a warrior uses a sword and shield. They use the following abilities to keep the mobs on them (thundershock, whatever else they use), and are in defensive stance. They like mail/plate gear with defense and whatever else warriors like) or skip the intro and jump into the first trial. All basic trials would have a NPC healer to keep you up, and who can pull healing aggro.
First trial: hold a boss mob's attention. You don't have to move. You would have a threat meter and you'd need to get it above a certain point in a certain amount of time.
Second trial: hold a boss's attention while periodically needing to move out of bad stuff.
Third trial: get and hold a trash pack of mobs. First group is all melee, second has a ranged/caster.
Just a very quick intro to tanking. You could always go back and redo any trial, even if you passed. The idea would be that experienced tanks could breeze through these in a few minutes, but that novice tanks would learn stuff.
Intermediate Tank Training:
Similar setup, but now we include NPC DPS. You'd repeat trial 2, then do trial 3 twice, once with suggested crowd control and once where you chose the NPC DPS group and tell them what to cc. Again, all trials can be repeated, so you can really experiment with different group makeups and crowd control options.
My guess would be that Advanced Tank Training would involve trigger-happy dps, tanking cooldowns, and switching tanks. Doing all three questlines would get you something, like a shield vanity pet or the title Tank.
I would kill to have this stuff in game, especially the ability to practice! DPS get target dummies, why can't tanks have practice scenarios?
/sign
ReplyDeleteI'd kill for the ability to practice tanking without having to inflict my personal brand of fail on guildies or the LFG at large.
I completely agree! I wrote a post about it myself two weeks ago;
ReplyDeletehttp://jinxedthought.blogspot.com/2011/02/healers-and-tanks-need-dummies-too.html
There is really no way for healers/tanks to practice their skills outside of dungeons, and considering what an important role it is to get right there really should be :S
Awesome idea! I'd love to see it implemented into the game.
ReplyDelete"First trial: hold a boss mob's attention. You don't have to move. You would have a threat meter and you'd need to get it above a certain point in a certain amount of time."
ReplyDeleteThis is a -fantastic- idea. I'd imagine that the new meters -- as seen on Atramedes and Cho'gall, for example -- could be used effectively for this sort of quest.
One of the big problems with tanking right now is that aggro generation is invisible to players that have not downloaded the right addons. The lack of useful feedback on aggro generation when tanking (the tank is either 'great' or 'fail') and the unimportance of aggro when leveling make it difficult for players to learn when they are doing the right thing. For dps, by contrast, big numbers serve as the necessary feedback for getting better.
I'd really like to see more quests that support players in learning to tank. In the past, there were a few quests that I felt helped players learn a particular role and I'd like to see those brought back. In particular, I'm thinking of three quests:
1) The priest quest for Benediction. This was a triage test, and it was not a pushover even at level 80. If you could keep the refugees alive, you got an epic staff that proved your ability.
2) The hunter quest for Rhok'delar. There were several parts to this one that required the hunter to demonstrate various skills, such as kiting. As with the previous quest, having the bow was evidence of competence.
3) The old warrior quest for berserker stance in The Affray. I think this has been removed, but it was a low level quest that required warriors to be able to find the demo shout button. Not all the quests need to be hard -- there is also a place for ones that verify a player has an essential button on their action bar.
if you do some of the new quest (wich is pretty hard cause you outlvl a zone in 3-4 quests) you learn to get out of the fire. found this out the hard way in eastern plands.
ReplyDelete