I’m currently leveling my character by following my usual strategy of doing the campaign while keeping Timewalking (TW) active in the background. I was running as DPS and ended up in a what seems like a booster lobby; everyone’s levels are between 40 and 75, except for the tank who is a level 11 warrior, mostly decked out in heirloom gear of item level 20. This tank kept dying repeatedly, so I tried to help by giving them my soulstone. That’s when I noticed they were in Fury spec instead of the typical tank spec. After dying for the fifth time, the tank commented about the ‘scaling,’ and I pointed out that being in DPS spec as a tank is a bit concerning. The healer, who’s at level 75, replied that my observation wasn’t the problem, but didn’t elaborate. Now I’m stuck wondering if I’m missing something or if there are deeper issues at play here. Am I wrong to think a tank should be in tank spec?
3 Answers
The tank doesn’t seem to be twinking effectively. For instance, my level 11 Fury warrior twink has never died in a Timewalking dungeon thanks to properly gearing with life steal. If he was doing it right, he should have managed to stay alive without needing heals, even on tougher pulls. Sounds like this tank just isn’t prepared for the challenge!
Yep, gearing matters a lot in these dungeons. I’ve seen a lot of tanks fail just because they think stacking heirlooms alone is enough!
Fury warriors usually aim for speedruns in TW dungeons and can manage okay, but they’re not ideal tanks. The scaling in Cataclysm-specific Timewalking can make things tricky—you might end up with one-shots from certain enemies if you’re not cautious, like the plague bringers in Lost City. Sounds like that’s what the healer was hinting at.
Yeah, I think we might have been in that zone during our run!
It sounds like the tank wasn’t properly geared for a twink Fury setup. That’s likely what the healer meant when they said that’s not the problem. A tank should ideally be in tank spec for better survivability, but Fury warriors can sometimes solo dungeons if they’re well-played. Still, they typically shouldn’t queue as a tank in those cases unless they know the scaling mechanics inside and out.
That makes more sense now. I was thinking the same thing!
Exactly, it’s a classic case of derping around without understanding the mechanics.