I still remember every lock getting giddy over MoP beta because of the beta changes to Demo giving it the option to tank. Too bad it never made it out of beta.
@@fish3977 and there we see how great the potential was. They took a spec Idea and made a whole class out of it. Well they maybe removed the thing that made the spec unique being the range. But they tryed.
@@sadarot I could see it making a return as a leeching tank that uses summoned demons as batteries but it might be a bit too high concept to actually be functional
Yeah, there's quite a few more raids where Warlocks tank. As a warlock, my guild got our server first for Kael'Thas with me tanking Grand Astromancer Capernian. I also tanked one of the Eredar Twins in Sunwell, and the others you mentioned.
I remember me (Hpala) and a warlock tanking one horseman each on Naxx (WotLK). Beacon of Light helped keep both of us alive while the raid cleared the first 2 horsemen. As someone who has never tanked for a raid, that was panic-inducing.
I hated pugging Oculus but honestly the mechanic with the dragon was interesting it was just such a pain in the ass to try to describe to every new player how to play the dragons
Great memories tanking leotheras and illidan as a warlock (the blood prince council too), it was even fun to get the resistance gear to be able to tank them. I remember tanked one of the adds of kaelthas (the astromancer) back in the day as well, since it did a shit ton of fire damage and the nether armor of the warlock procs where more reliable than a mage. and if my memorie serves me well the illidari council in BT also needed a mage tank at some point. Great raids great memories.
Another one in the vein of the Maulgar fight was Illidari Council - Nethermancer Zhevor was pretty much the same as the Maulgar mage tank part of the encounter.
Can we please get a petition going to bring back Warlock Tanking?! Though I never played prior to Mists of Pandaria, I absolutely loved the Glyph of Demon Hunting. I know it wasn't meant to make a Warlock an ACTUAL tank, but it was damn near close enough! Some of the most fun I had that expansion when playing as a Warlock were while using that Glyph! MAKE A TANK SPEC FOR WARLOCKS BLIZZARD!
Surprised Sartharion 3 drakes alive being tanked by voidwalkers not brought up. Plus in TBC adds on Morogrim tanked by a holy pally spamming healing with threat aura
This video seems like's it's going where tanks were intended to be different than the typical tank. So Sarth3D with a VW wouldn't be here because that one was totally unintended (and nerfed). I too loved Sarth3D with a VW. And I remember doing dual spec Prot/Holy on my paladin in ICC when my guild lead was like "I think I'll have my hunter pet tank Sindragosa" and it actually worked out due to the mechanics. I swapped to Holy and kept up and it was a blast.
Mage tanking in Gruul's Lair was probably the most fun I've ever had playing WoW. Such a great idea, I feel like that would be harder to pull off now with all the balancing.
As an Enhancement Shaman I often find myself getting meleed by dungeon and raid bosses because of the high threat that we deal. I also miss old Rockbiter Weapon and Unleash Elements that gave us the tools to actually tank with the high threat weapon buff and a taunt. Some day ... we will be tanks again
@@Finnecable Few "elemental" tropes are more cool than when you add Rock and Thunder. Imagine a spec based around Earth/Rock shit, charged with lightning. Oh my god I'm hard already
I could see that spec relying on fusing the Elementals of Earth (and Fire) onto the player as additional armor that grants a lot more defensive power but making him slower and immune against knockback like a real tank should.
Whilst they moved away from having other classes needed / useful to directly tank a boss, there are other more recent fights that involved a dps taking a more tanky role. ones that come to mind are: Frost mages (or another dps that could do it) on Mythic Guldan in NH, tanking the nightorb in final phase. Rogues (or others) tanking stars on mythic Garrosh ranged dps on Restless Cabal (kind of lol) Then there were a bunch of other BC bosses people did weird tanking stuff, like Eredar twins, Kaelthas, and maybe more? I kinda wish we had more fights that let people shake up roles, having stuff to offtank or kite (like on Garrosh or Guldan) or being able to do weird role stuff like Warlock tanking in MoP (F for Sparkguzz) or the 4 dps MDI runs back in legion. (Just skimming the comments people said Rogues on Netherspite and Mother Shirrazzah in BT, not sure if these are correct, but would go with the clear theme of blizz, whether intentionally or not, having lots of weird tanking mechanics.)
I don't know if there are enough examples to make a video on "clever use of game mechanics" for tanking, like using a voidwalker on Sartharion+3 drakes, a rogue with 100% avoidance on Grull, Mother Shaz and Illidan (no magic damage to soak), a hunter pet on heroic Sindragosa (90% aoe avoidance, which is most of the damage).
Hiruma, you also missed one of the later expansion bosses, garalon, the boss required 2 tanks to soak a big cleave, but you could use rogues with glyphed feint to reduce the cleave damage to tolerable levels, allowing for no tanking as the boss just chased whoever had the phereomone debuff. It was not a boss that strictly required dps to tank the boss, but could be done without much hassle, to the point it made it easier for raids to go 8dps2heal in 10man heroic.
No mention of Restless Cabal from CoS? It wasn't required to have a ranged tank for it, but Warlocks with Demon Skin were our go-to for Zaxasj the Speaker. I honestly can't recall the specific reason as to why, though. I was just there to be a normal tank and remember us normal tanks only taunt swapping for Fa'Thuul the Feared.
I used to "tank" the Emperor's Strength enemies on heroic Will of the Emperor as a feral druid. Could be done as any melee as they didn't melee their target and instead they did an aoe slam at your location that you just had to move out of. I'd tank/dps them until the raid had cleared higher priority targets and then they'd switch to join me.
Also worthy of mention is the short period of time during WotLK where Voidwalker tanking was a thing for certain fights. I remember beating Sartha3D 25 or 10 that way. I was in all frost resist gear due to it having the highest stamina and that stat double dipping into the pet's HP, which meant Zag'zazt could have up to ~80k hp early Wrath. Also it was a way to cheese Iron Council Hardest Mode where the big one (what's his name?) put a death timer on the tank, and so you just lost a Voidwalker instead of your tank for the first occurence of that ability.
I feel like the warlock tank should have been given an honorable mention for MoP as well. If you took the glyph Dark Apotheosis it gave you a special transformation as a warlock to become physically more tanky and changed a few abilities to allow better threat gain as well. No joke, on my server there were legit warlocks decked out in late game tank trinkets/rings/necklaces/back pieces and sometimes weapons to push their tank stats even higher. It was niche for the expansion and was removed not long after, but man... it was SO much damn fun using that glyph and having the extra tankiness on top of already being hard to kill with as much survivability as we had during that expansion.
I actually warlock tanked the Shade of Aran back when it was current content. I can't for the life of me remember why we did it that way, but it's what we did.
High King was FAMED for tanks that weren't tanking class. You NEEDED a Mage, Warlock, and either a Boomkin or a pair of hunters to tank three of the boss mobs during that fight. It was one of the funnest fights and I loved it so much. Even though I played DPS warrior at the time. I thought it was incredibly unique and very interesting overall.
You should have mentioned that in early BC, Akama could maintank the entire phase 1 alone, no need for anyone to do anything but watch him Kill illidan.
I remember tanking the Howling fjord dungeon as combat subtlety hybrid rogue in early WotLK. Was alot of fun and easier than one would think. Combat was quite tanky compared to the other specs already cause of high parry alot high weapon dmg/cleave ability. And sub talent increasing dodge and parry. one hand sword and one dagger, had macro to swap hands to do ambush or backstab to retake aggro if needed. I didn't take much more damage than a regular tank and dodging is 0 dmg but I consumed SO MUCH thistle tea. It got quite expensive so we didn't even try for any of the other dungeons.
2 more fights where I tanked as warlock: 1. Mount Hyjal tanking frost wyrms (I know, technically not a boss tanking) 2. Mimiron (both normal and DO NOT PUSH THE BUTTON MODE) Tanking Aerial command unit in full defense build with talents. Second one was my favorite, I liked it more than tanking Illidan or Twin Emperrors because it involved much more than just standing in one spot casting searing pain and few defensives
Oh I remember Illidan as a tank, but we needed to switch from our warlocks to my beastmaster because they were not able to get up to my aggro. And since he was immune to feign death this was our way to go.
Once had dungeonfinder group where the tank bailed on us. It was one of the BfA Kul Tiran dungeons. Anyway, my warlock teammate, using their Voidwalker, and me (Hunter) summoning my Worm were able to tank the next two bosses together before a "real" tank joined our group for the final boss. It was fun!
those are some really awesome mechanics right there! Im Still hoping for a "Tinker" [Class restricted to Goblins, Gnomes, Vulpera and Mecha Gnomes] Tank Specc that allowes the Tinker to hop on to another players back (optional but much more save [depends on the player you jump on to] then standing arround and beeing vulnerable to everything) and summon his Tank-Mech [a remotecontrolled/Mindcontrol/Razuvious-adds like Robot] Other Speccs are: Aoe Healing (basically throwing/shooting Potions or healing Ooze) and meelee channeling, Healer. [imagine it kind of, like: MWs: Refreshing Jade Wind, Summon Jade Serpent Statue, Ring of Peace RSs: Wellspring, Downpour, Healingstream Totem DKs/Discs: Raid Shields Abilities] Ranged/Melee Manipulator/Sabotagier kind of like: Venthyr Priests Mind Games Every Classes Torghast ability to make the enemy take more but deal less damage Ranged taser/shocker like a channeled shamans Lightning bolt/ Chain Lightning
@@Changshu im sorry man but i literally just added more and more to MY OWN IDEA here, so i actually diceded to delete my last post and just threw it in, more reader-friendly! And who are you even to tell people not to just fantazise about their favorite game? (The real Nicola Tesla would spit at your face)
You often used a Moonkin to tank Kiggler the Crazed during High King Maulgar due to his hex. (and I think he' had a nasty close aoe so no bear/kitty tank) and with one moonkin, you didn't need to swap like if you used 2 hunters.
I remember in MoP our go to tank for challenge modes was a demo lock with the glyph that added a second demon form. Allowed you to bring an extra dps without losing too much.
You forgot the time elemental shamans used the fact they carried a shield around, had a threat ability with Frost Shock, and Chain Lightning for group aggro, to tank in the Steamvault. Or was that just me? Honestly, despite maining purely melee since WotLK, that is still the only time I ever tanked and understood what I was supposed to do. Makes me understand why warlocks enjoyed those times so much... not least, because downing the last boss by simply ingoring all the water tank mechanics with, at that point in the crawl through that dungeon, purely ranged DPS was incredibly satisfying.
person from patreon wanted a "top 10 fights non-tanks could tank" so yeah... would have if it was just a video idea made it a history video and done that but yeah. Also i wouldnt call tanking the twin emps offtanking, that is main tanking.
Good times. I also remember the theory that Enhancement Shaman could, on paper, be Off Tanks. They even had a weapon enchantment that helped them with aggro generation and all that.
I also tanked one of the horsemen in naxx10 (wrath), dont remember which, actually I think I switched back n forth between the 2 back ones if I remember correctly. Fun stuff:) great video btw Hiru
There was one guy who posted a video late TBC where he tanked Gruul or Mother Shahraz, which he could achieve due to being evade capped. Which, intently, made him able with his team to 5-man Gruul.
I did tank Illidan back in tbc and was one of the funniest experiences in wow, till this day im still maining lock even though were medium low dps table now
I really miss the tank metamorphosis glyph for warlocks, I think it was only in cata and mop and it was my favorite time as a warlock main. It was also super badass to retain your own appearance but with horns and wings during the form!
Unpopular opinion: Vehicle fights are a fun breather, and if done well, are really cool. Flame Leviathan truly felt like fighting a crazy machine that was way too powerful for us as infantry. Launching your friends in to destroy its crystals, needing a powerful ressource infinitely stacking a DoT...It's so cool and unique. Quite the shame people didn't like it.
As a boomie main from Classic til now (WotLK Classic), I enjoyed tanking Kiggler in Gruul's Lair in TBC. In Naxx 10, my guild has a healer and me swap the auras in the back for Four Horsemen.
We actually played a strategy for garrosh 25hc to only use 2 instead of 3 tanks by having a DPS warrior take the boss for about 8 seconds, to drop the debuff on the main tank. Running 2/2/21 allowed us to skip the 2nd and 3rd intermission.
You forgot one that was unique, and that was tanking Sindragosa in Icecrown using a hunters pet. This was due to if I remember correctly because most of the damage Sindragosa did to tanks was considered AoE. And hunter pets took significantly less damage from AoE. I remember during my raid groups progress in Icecrown this is how we tanked Sindragosa. At least until the tanks were gear up.
I still think they should give Warlocks a tank spec, based around the old Dark Apotheosis from Mists as well as the LockTank follower from WoD, Aeda Brightdawn. Could even give them a grimoire of sacrifice like ability that let them sacrifice different demon pets for different buffs like physical damage taken reduction, magic damage taken reduction, resistance to loss of control effects, etc. There's plenty of other spec ideas that would be neat to see as well: Shaman tank spec based on Earth - then they'd have 1 spec per element, and it would be a nice call-back to the old pre-WoD Rockbiter Weapon, giving bonus threat and reducing damage taken. Healer Mage spec based on reversing time and such, like how Chromie did in that scenario in Legion. Int Spellcaster DPS Paladin spec based on the Scarlet Crusade maybe? Ranged Physical DPS Rogue based around thrown weapons. Would be nice to have an additional ranged physical dps spec other than Hunters, and would be a call-back to both the Thrown Weapons slot, and to Shuriken Toss back when it let Rogues convert their auto attacks into ranged shuriken throws for a short duration. Also, totally feel like Classic Four Horsemen should've been on here, even though they required "normal" tanks, the fight required _8_ instead of the typical _1-2_ .
Pandemonius was a bit strange, in that I assembled a full set of green armor "of shadow resist" much of which was cloth. I had to convince quite a few people in PUGs I knew what I was doing but I didn't need much healing.
This is a specific kind of question, but I love the gentle piano music you use in the background of your videos. Do you mind if I ask who the artist is or source? Keep up the good work!
I remember back in Vanilla and TBC there was some talk about feral druid offtanks who would „dps“ in cat when offtanking wasn‘t needed... I guess since everything but warriors wasn‘t really considered a full-on tank (at least in Vanilla) this would also be kind of a special case, although I don‘t know which if any fights heavily involved this scenario
Regarding the Blood Prince Council, there was the easy alternative of playing a DK, and saving your Frost runes for the nuclei, since it applied a dot, and while in Frost Presence it also dealt a fuck-ton of threat. you just had to make sure you were dealing with it far away from where the other two bosses were being fought, or at least tell people not to use AOE as not to pull the nuclei away. Meanwhile you'd be constantly hitting the boss with blood/heart strike, and death/scourge strike. But then again DKs were strong in general, so...
This. Frost DK tank was especially good at it due to their stacking elemental resistance talent (acclimation) and better ranged threat tools, but even blood (which was far more common) did the job well.
Back when WoW was more old-school MMO where classes had more flavor and before homogenization had taken over. I liked there being unusual tanks as part of that, even if 90% of the time it was Warlocks. Hell, when they briefly had that Warlock tanking functional Glyph, most Locks seemed to love the idea, and to this day, I don't know why they didn't just go with it and let Demonology be a tanking spec, or add a tanking spec at some point (like when they gave Druid's a 4th spec). They said at the time it was because some Demo Locks wanted to stay dps, but they ignored that when they swapped the DK specs so Blood was tanking and the others were dps. Lock tanking, honestly, would be a really unique take on tanking that you don't see in MMOs - a clothie/caster tanking, even if using Demon form (kinda like Druids in Bear form) just isn't a thing you see, but is very cool conceptually. To this day I don't know why they were so adamantly against it. Granted, with Demon Hunters, they kinda filled in that niche some, but DH's are still melee classes at the end of the day, not casters. And certainly not casters with a pet.
I thought the Twin Emperors physical damage immune guy was tanked by a warrior who just spammed Demoralizing Shout, though I wouldn't bet money on that being a viable strategy. It's just something I remember.
it was possible but the dude would then spam arcane blast which dealt a lot of damage, and knocked back, it also dealt high shadow damage, something the warlcoks soaked better then tanks. it was DOABLE with a normal tank, but it was far better to use a lock.
On TBC warlocks also tanked Grand Astromancer Capernian(Kael'Thas fight, Tempest Keep) and Grand Warlock Alythess(Eredar Twins, Sunwell Plateau). Tanked em all. :)
Arcane mage: The tank no one asked for. Not even the mage. But boy does it tests a tanks threat levels. I've become an unwarranted mage tank many times throughout the years and now I demand it be a spec.