One tank fights

[Lieris]

It's looking like 4 out of 7 bosses in Dragon Soul are one tank fights (Madness of Deathwing is too unfinished to judge). Firelands had 3 out of 7 bosses as one tank fights. How does your guild handle this situation and how do you feel about it?

I tank every fight for my group (I am expected to so I am bottom of the pecking order for off spec gear) but it saddens me that my co-tank is having to DPS almost as often as he tanks. Some of the most enjoyable fights in Cata have involved tanks working in tandem (Ragnaros P4 is really good for this) and it's a pity such fights feel so infrequent.

It makes me wonder how new tanks are supposed to break into the raiding game with raid spots so scarce and the additional expectation that they have to DPS well also.

[Levantine]

We just have the druid go kitty, but I guess we lucked out since he actually enjoys being a cat quite a bit. The whole thing seems like a self fulfilling prophecy to me. There's a lack of willing tanks so blizzard designs around a single primary tank so there's fewer tanks in the pool so the lack of main tanks increases so blizzard is forced to keep making encounters with single tanks.

[Kerriodos]

We only ever single-tanked Majordomo this tier. We only run a two tank roster since both our tanks have 98%+ attendance (others are capable if needed, but are mainspec DPS); I tanked Heroic Domo during progression due to Ardent Defender and after that we swapped in and out until we had our gear. Now we actually argue over who gets to sit, since it's a nice break from being in on every fight.

I imagine any fights in Dragon Soul will go similarly. Who ever is best suited for the role based on class mechanics will tank it for progression while the other sits. Later, we'll either switch it up or get the second person in as DPS and feed them their gear quickly so we don't need to worry about bringing them in each week.

I can understand guilds that run a 3 tank roster, since it's somewhat rare to find two tanks who can make it to nearly every raid (we've each missed maybe one raid all expansion), but when we did it in T11 it was immensely frustrating for all involved. I can only imagine a wealth of single-tank fights would exacerbate that quite a bit.

[laterna]

We carry a 2xProt paladin setup, I carry prot/retri, and my co-tank carries prot/holy

Although in all honesty, we both have raid ready alts (I carry a holy/disco priest, and he has a shaman/fury warrior/holy priest/arcane mage/frost dk)

In either way, we just work with it by having either one of us get on a character that is beneficial for our raid team.

Sorry if the anwser doesn't help you, we're a hardcore-ish bunch but this is how we handle 1 tank fights really, by either brining in an extra healer (choice between shaman,priest,paladin healers all geared with 391 ilvl items) or an extra dps (retri paladin, fury warrior, ele shaman, shadowpriest, mage, dk)

It helps to have geared alts, and if you have 7/7 hc cleared as a guild, you get to have tons of a free time to gear up/lvl up alts really, especially if you clear firelands on wendsday then run 4xruns with alts/socials all doing 6/7hc for items

[Timbalcrash]

We run a four tank rooster at the moment which was a five tank rooster during t11.
We try to even out tank participation as fair as possible and two tank most of the encounters with exception of majordomus with 6/7 hm 25 at the moment.
Nevertheless the tanks have to sit a lot.
So the outlook of a majority of one tank fights does not have us dancing in the streets.

[bldavis]

We just have the druid go kitty, but I guess we lucked out since he actually enjoys being a cat quite a bit.

dangit you beat me to it lev!

and i love being kitty so ami gets to tank and i get to take a break from my big bear ass

[Sagara]

Same, I got three sets of gear, and I spec according to needs before we start the raid.

[Thrornir]

Sorry, maybe it's a difference in heroic I've not gotten to, but I can't think of a third one-tank boss unless you're referring to Alysrazor. (Other 1-tank fights I can think of are Lord Rhyolith and Majordomo)

Like Laterna, we have 2 prot pally maintanks, a druid who has bear offspec and a warrior who's mainspec tank but normally raids with us as DPS, so we do have some possibility to mix and match. Generally we won't class swap, so if a fight needs more heals my cotank goes heals, if it needs more DPS I break out the hammer and start beating things as ret.

[Worldie]

I usually DPS on 1 tank fights, I enjoy a break from tanking every now and then. I still find 1 tank fights very annoying, no surprise there's less and less tanks around.

[Fetzie]

We single tank Rhyolith, Baleroc and Majordomo heroic (10 man). Our warrior really likes going fury so he goes dps on those bosses.

[bldavis]

Amirya solo tanks Baleroc and Domo
and i get to be a kitty

[Treck]

4/7 beeing onetank fights?
Murchok is not a one tank fight as you need someone to taunt off to clear debuffs.
Both the faceless bosses are singletank fights. Even tho we dont really know how the debuff might work on heroic with the slime guy.
Ultraxion is not a singletank fight.
Gunship is not a single tank fight. Dont think both debuffs reset between the waves if you solotank both adds (unless they die instantly) also your not gonna be able to tank the boss with sunder armor not dropping off when the boss has about 90vengeance.
And while spine is doable with one tank (on normal) im not sure its going to stay the same when it goes live, especially not for heroic.
That means 2, maybe 3 might be singletank fights. Dunno where you got the 4th one from.
I would think they would wanna aim for all fights beeing 2tank fights with the lfr finder coming up, not always the 2nd tank will have an offspecc.

[KysenMurrin]

Blizzard have said the only fight in Firelands they actually designed as 1-tank was Majordomo Staghelm, but most people do single tank 3 of them. So even when they do try to make it for both tanks it doesn't always work out. I doubt they've deliberately made a large portion of Dragon Soul single-tank.

[Lieris]

4/7 beeing onetank fights?
Murchok is not a one tank fight as you need someone to taunt off to clear debuffs.
Both the faceless bosses are singletank fights. Even tho we dont really know how the debuff might work on heroic with the slime guy.
Ultraxion is not a singletank fight.
Gunship is not a single tank fight. Dont think both debuffs reset between the waves if you solotank both adds (unless they die instantly) also your not gonna be able to tank the boss with sunder armor not dropping off when the boss has about 90vengeance.
And while spine is doable with one tank (on normal) im not sure its going to stay the same when it goes live, especially not for heroic.
That means 2, maybe 3 might be singletank fights. Dunno where you got the 4th one from.
I would think they would wanna aim for all fights beeing 2tank fights with the lfr finder coming up, not always the 2nd tank will have an offspecc.

Hagara, Vor'sahj, Zon'ozz. Ultraxion read to me like a one tank fight.

We've finally managed to get our group copied to the PTR, hopefully it isn't too laggy on Sunday night.

[Lieris]

Blizzard have said the only fight in Firelands they actually designed as 1-tank was Majordomo Staghelm, but most people do single tank 3 of them. So even when they do try to make it for both tanks it doesn't always work out. I doubt they've deliberately made a large portion of Dragon Soul single-tank.

If that's the case then they aren't very bright. There's no benefit to a second tank for Rhyolith and Baleroc would be impossible to meet the DPS requirements with two tanks.