Warning: Post 50 and no tank in your group. What to expect.

A common thing being talked about is struggling in classic wow post 50 in instances. Wanted to address the issue why. I’ve done this twice in Vanilla to cap already (previously a hardware multi-boxer 2006-2007 era).


Pre level 50 your team choice, doesn’t really matter too much. While some teams will outperform others in areas, honestly it’s not impactful right now as you can get the job done. This is not a foundation of how the team will perform post 50, don’t get too comfortable.


Post 50, starting with BRD you’re going to learn a little too late as I did back in 2007 what happens if you don’t have a tank class.


Up until this point, Pets, CC and focus fire DPS was enough to get the job done. After 50, what you’re dealing with now is mobs that cleave (biggest issue). While they heal and do other stuff cleave is the main thing to take away with why your life changes after level 50.


Using pets as tanks has worked thus far. However, now due to cleave attacks your pets will take a lot of damage. All pets are naturally on the mob, all taking that cleave damage. Issue is now you will receive healing agro because your pets are just taking so much damage.


Cloth doesn’t make for good tanks. Hunters can’t range DPS close range. Also getting the pets to face the mobs away from your group takes time, while the pets health is ticking down, rapidly.


I ended up changing specs for my Locks for maximum tanking/strong pets. I think that’s when fel guard patch came out and he was pretty strong and shiny and new at the time. There was a slight improvement but nothing to write home about.


Someone asked this so I wanted to add the following. There is a reason you don’t see any post 50 Vanilla/classic videos of instances without a tank. I’m not saying it can’t be done. With the right amount of CC, focus fire and re-positioning you can handle that pull. Problem is you have to rez pets and do that process on a number of pulls. Very inefficient and sure while you or I could complete the instance eventually it would be unrewarding in terms of content and to be fair, painful to watch. Unless the mobs are green to you.


The next team I rolled a tank and 4 shamans for this reason. While I missed playing my locks I can tell you it was night in day by comparison. Having that tank made life so much easier. I could perform and accomplish pretty much anything I set my mind too. Having agro control is everything you want it to be.


It’s very easy to play a Paladin tank. Requires two buttons, Judgement and Seal. Done. All you need guys. Yes, there are plenty more things a Paladin tank can do. But at maximum laziness/underutilized as a foundation, just two button pressed will change your instance life forever.


I know, I know, you want to PVP!!!! Guess what everyone focuses on first? Yep the leader, the tank. Works in your favor. This is classic, there isn't arena to worry about here. At best there might be a warlock out there with almost 5k HP. Know how fast just 3 DPS can output 5k damage? Let alone what else you got in your team. The sacrifice is worth it if you intend to run a lot of instances. If not, it’s cool. For leveling purposes without a tank post 50, just focus on the instance areas where the mobs are green. You’ll dps them down faster and won’t lose out on too much efficiency.

Good luck and have fun out there.

From everything I have read, Paladins make great multibox tanks but eventually Warriors surpass them. How evident is that? I am early on in my multibox career. I am thinking of doing the traditional WPMMM group or War/Pal/3xMage. I even contemplated Bear, 4xHunter. Not sure if that is even any where near feasible. But I know there have been people on here that have hit 60 with their PMMMM and PLLLL groups so not so sure.

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Originally Posted by wyrmdb

From everything I have read, Paladins make great multibox tanks but eventually Warriors surpass them.

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Warrior is the go to because for raiding purposes they don't die from crushing blows, where as pally doesn't have a gear set and talnets to prevent that death.

If I was running a melee team, I'd want a warrior tank. Shouts would buff and debuff the mobs hitting the melee team. Caster group? Pally all the way.

I acually have both Warrior and Pally and swapped them out for testing purposes. While Blessing of Kings only gives 10% stat buff, across the entire team boy can I feel it. My caster team is weaker with the warrior. I also find the utility of being able to use blessing of freedom is necessary some times. For just 5 man purposes Pally is great. If you intend to raid later, warrior.

Bear sounds fun! Thinking about doing that on the next team.

Crushing blows are not a consideration in Dungeons so for most dungeon focused groups Paladin has lots of benefits. For some dungeon teams that also PVP the Paladin Tank can turn into a redundant PVP healer which can really help viability. If you want to have a Raid Tank then I agree Warrior is best.

I would not do a Bear unless you are fine with regular size pulls as Paladins and Warriors are better for AoE/large pulls. If you are going to be doing regular pulls and dungeon boss fights Bears can be great.

Not many boxers at all will be main tanking raids so crushing blows dont really matter much when considering tanks, but warriors do take significantly much less damage even in 5mans than paladins and that relieves a lot of stress on your healer. Though, paladins have so much more utility like salvation, resurrection, sacrifice wipe protection, healing spec for pvp, ect, you really really want at least 1 in your group either healing or tanking.

Priest are great for aoe healing but when you gear up a bit i think pally is the optimal choice. I find priests to be great non tank healers, but they just dont match up to a decent geared pally when healing tanks. Every alliance trinity group should run a pally healer imo.