Why Tanks Have the Best View in the Game and other Summertime Musings

It’s an established truth that tanks have the most boring view in the game. I’ll quote the grumpy but worth-a-read blogger The Gray Place, who wrote a why-tanking-is-boring post a couple of days ago.

“When I was tanking I never even got to see any artwork in the actual instances. I’d always have this huge boss’s ankles in my face or if I was lucky his crotch.”

Talking about grumpy – have you noticed that all good tanks have a bit of grumpiness in them. It’s like a natural law. Maybe that’s why I so often end up in the roll of a victim whenever I try tanking on my baby druid, being yelled at with an impatient “go-go-go”. I’m probably just not grumpy enough to get some respect. WTB grumpiness.

And why am I suddenly talking about the benefits of being grumpy? Well, as you see this is another Friday night post, where I give myself the freedom to jump even more freely in my thoughts than normally. I blame the bartender. She must have poured something strong in my glass. Oh, wait, I’m the bartender…

The best view
Anyway. Back on topic: I was talking about the view from a tank perspective.

Regardless of all the feet, legs, crouches and wall-like surfaces a tank will put his eyes on,, I would say that it isn’t entirely true that their view always is the worst. As a matter of fact they get to see a lot of stuff that a squishy dps class will never see. In fact there are moments when they even get the best view in the game.

I realized this as I finally came around to make a nostalgic run through Karazhan this week as we called the main raid for the night a bit earlier than planned. It must have been almost 2 years since the last time I ran Karazhan. And maybe that was about how long time I needed to recover from the overdose I got back in time in the days of badge farming.

Now the disgust had suddenly been replaced with longing, expectations and nostalgia, and the return to the old castle was even more enjoyable than I had imagined as I took initiative to the run.

Even if we flew through the instance, aoe:ing all the trash and killing the bosses in a matter of seconds, I also managed to take some time to just look around and actually see the instance, paying attention to the details, like all the paintings on the walls, the sculptures, the books on the floor, the flights of stairs going in all directions. Especially in comparison to Wrath instances like ToC, Karazhan was absolutely amazing and stunningly beautiful in it’s design.

So what has this got to do with the tank view? Well, for the first time I was able to see some of those places the way that our tanks always saw it. Do you remember the hall with all the dancers that you did on your way to Monroe? I never saw it until now.. I spent all my time staring into those stairs, waiting for the tanks to come running back with a bunch of hostile dancers to aoe down. But I never saw anything of the dance activity.

And suddenly I understood how privileged tanks are, always arriving first to a spot, always facing the bosses eye to eye without any other player disturbing the view (apart from sneaky rogues, but they’re almost invisible anyway.)

By always going in the front, you sometimes get to see stuff that no one else will see. Another example from Karazhan is the room where Curator stands. As a squishy mage I always waited patiently for the tank to go into the hall of the Curator, grab one of those elementals and their electrical fish and bring it out to me. I never saw the view of an entire hall full of elementals – not until this run, two years later.

Summertime musings
It’s the end of the week and how has it been? Well, I think I could say that it’s been a week of lightness and sadness at the same time. I suppose it’s a little bit like a school class going for their summer vacation, knowing that a lot of your classmates won’t be there when school starts again in the end of August. There will be a school class, alright, but it won’t be exactly the same as it was.

We’re a little gentler than normally, a little more lighthearted (not that we normally are that horribly harsh, but the atmosphere is definitely a little bit extra soft). The sun is low on the horizon, the shadows are getting longer and the light is warm, gentle and a bit tired. As we had a horrible wipe on Sindragosa due to some really silly mistakes this Thursday run, there wasn’t the slightest sign of annoyance in the air. We’re a family about to change and we want to enjoy our last hours together as much as possible.

It’s summertime. And sure I can cry for some new content, but at the same time it’s also kind of relaxing to let go of a little of my worst progression ambitions. Don’t misunderstand me – raiding is still fun. But if it doesn’t happen, I’m just as happy merrily exploring and getting lost in Maraudon with a friend, as I did the other night.

The living is easy. And in my garden, the blackbird is calling on me to get outside and just enjoy the out-of Azeroth life. Cataclysm can wait a while longer. I don’t mind.

Cheers all! May you get a lovely weekend!