A Look Ahead: Tanking In Cataclysm

[Sariell]

DISCLAIMER: The following is informed speculation, based on the information given at Blizzcon and earlier public statements.

Introduction
Cataclysm is still a ways off, but the changes to tanking mechanics are starting to take shape. This article is intended as an overview of likely changes to tanking in Cataclysm.

The Great Avoidance Nerf
Tank avoidance was nerfed slightly in patch 3.2. At the time, Ghostcrawler stated that a much bigger avoidance nerf was coming. Cataclysm brings this nerf.

The first source of the avoidance nerf is the removal of defense rating as a stat on gear. In addition to the reduction in chance to be crit (which will now be provided by talents), defense provides a large amount of avoidance, around 15% for a tank at the defense "cap" of 540. With defense gone, so will this avoidance.

The second source is avoidance from talents. Warriors, for example, get 5% dodge and 5% parry from talents. These will likely be gone with the talent changes.

Finally, there are ways Blizzard can decrease avoidance further if needed. At 85, how much avoidance is gained from agility, dodge rating, and parry rating, as well as the severity of the diminishing returns curves on these stats, is still unknown.

Mastery
In compensation for losing most passive talents, characters will gain mastery bonuses. There are 3 mastery bonuses, 2 of which should be the same for all tanks: a reduction in damage taken and an increase in health. The damage reduction from mastery for a tank seems to be around 20%, though the exact number is unknown.

The third mastery bonus varies by class. The only one seen at Blizzcon was the Paladin one, which increases block amount. This stat (and only this stat) is also increased by the mastery stat on gear,

Druids and DKs do not have a dedicated tanking tree. How they will gain mastery tanking bonuses is unknown at this point; there are several ways this could be done.

Block
Block is currently an odd stat. It does almost nothing against raid bosses, but it can prevent all damage from softer-hitting mobs. As a result, raiding Warriors and Paladins avoid gear with block, while at the same time Paladins, who can block all the time, can easily run Heroics without a healer. In Cataclysm, both of these extremes will be going away. You'll no longer be able to block every attack or block all of an attack. But in return you'll block much more of a raid boss's attack, since you'll now block a percentage of it instead of a static amount. As a result, things which increase block amount (such as Mastery for Paladins) or block chance will be desired by raiding tanks.

Path of the Titans
Tanks will gain additional mitigation from the Path of the Titans. A first-slot glyph in the Path of Golganneth was previewed which reduces physical damage taken by 4%. There was also a weak cooldown for the second glyph slot, though that might only affect players other than the caster.

Given that there are six paths and Golganneth is not solely a tanking path, it seems like that several paths will be attractive to tanks. This may help create tank niches which are not dependent on the player's class.

Itemization
Defense and block value will be gone, while mastery will be added. Gone will be a large number of items which tanks do not want because they have too much block. This will also allow items with stats such as the following:

+75 Strength
+100 Stamina
Equip: Improves hit rating by 30.
Equip: Improves mastery by 50.

Such an item would be desirable to both DPS classes, as mastery will increase their DPS, and tank classes, as mastery will decrease damage taken.

While there will still be lots of dedicated tanking gear, the existence of this dual-use gear will increase the chance that bosses will drop gear tanks can use.

Conclusion: The Big Picture
In Cataclysm tanks will take damage more consistently due to lower avoidance and higher mitigation. This will hopefully reduce the focus on Effective Health (Stamina and armor, basically), which has been far too important in WoTLK tanking.

There has been a trend toward tank homogenization in WoTLK, with the threat, mitigation, avoidance, and cooldowns of the tank classes getting closer to each other. This has upset many people who don't want to see tanks different only in flavor. In Cataclysm, the main differences between tanks will likely not be due to class but instead due to which Path of the Titans the tank has chosen. Thus instead of a guild looking for a Death Knight tank to do a certain hardmode, they might instead look for a Path of Khaz'Goroth tank of any class. This means that if a tank's choice makes him or her weak for some content, he or she will not have to reroll but merely respec.

Itemization should be more fun in Cataclysm, with fewer undesirable items and no need to wear inferior items to hit the defense soft cap.

It's still early, of course, and things will change. But it seems now the Blizzard has listened to player concerns and is making significant improvements to tanking.
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Sariell lvl 80 Holy Priest 450 Tailor/Chanter
Daemontia lvl 80 Destro Lock 450 Herb/Tran
Inglix lvl 80 Unholy DK 450 Mine/BS
Sandiel lvl 80 Rogue 450 Mine/JC

[Zonaka]

Here is something I found about tanking in Cat, it is from Bliz themselves......

"Without a defense stat there should not be a huge gear requirement to tank 5-player dungeons. It would be ideal if say an Arms warrior could go Defensive Stance, maybe use a shield, and be able to fill the tank role in any normal dungeon or even the easier heroics.

You will still likely need a Prot-spec warrior (or the equivalent of other classes) to MT actual raids. "
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Z

[Calinthor]

That's a misleading starting sentence.

"Here is something I found about tanking in Cat, it is from Bliz themselves......"

I was expecting to read something about tanking as a Cat instead of a Bear.
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"I am the Seeker. I am the Stalker. I am the Storm."

[Zonaka]

Well, based on what they said, about non-tanking spec being able to tank, a cat MIGHT be able to tank as well, so it was not that misleading... lol
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Z