Impending Tank Shortage in WotLK?

Allot of good and interesting information has been circulated by now about Death Knights and the new WoW expansion for WotLK. Everyone probably heard it all by now and if you haven't well you probably been in a cave the last few days. I've read quite a bit of the details and about Death Knights, their abilities and their role as a Anti Magic Parry Tank. So not dwelling on it much since expansion is still a bit away. But I've being thinking of something and the question is: Will their be a Tank Shortage going into WotLK?

Now I'm not quite sure. But its interesting to contemplate how it will affect the tank dilemma that some realms face as well as some guilds may face as well. I for one if I'm still playing the game will absolutely roll a Death Knight (DK) but I'll level my Paladin first to 80. I'll see some content and then get my DK rolling in my off time. That's is certain. But its not for the usual reasons of most people why I specifically will roll a DK and level one up. The thing is I'm a "Dedicated Tank" and I love what I do and the role I play in the game in how I play the game. How many people are dedicated to what they do in WoW in the classes they play even though they play various classes. Especially when it comes to the tanking classes which at times can be seen as a Job with stress in itself and few people want the role as a Job despite how fun and visible it may seem.

But DK's to me seems to be and interesting class that appeals to me because well its a tanking class and what I personally love to play is a tank. I have the skills and experience as a tank which helps transition in playing another tanking class. But yes it will take time to master playing a new class as well as figuring out how to play the class properly. The Theoycraftying of such a new class can be interesting in itself though I myself don't write about Theorycraft. However it doesn't mean I wont try to figure out stuff as well as others like myself and most good tanks do and try to come to some conclusion on the best way to do something with a new class.

Playing a new class can be fun and interesting for all the new mechanics of the class. It is possible that most casuals playing WoW would probably roll a DK to see what all the hype is all about and maybe either love DK's or just go back to playing and leveling up to 80 and gearing their usual class they like to play when they get tired of their new DK.

However will their be effects at the level cap when a game that has a perceived short supply or tanks is all of a sudden now in short supply? As some tanks start raising their DK's and start leveling them and figuring out how to play them properly its possible. The people that play tanks are there but leveling up their the new class. They probably will be effects as people start looking for tanks to tank their new WotLK Instances, Heroics and Raids. Now I sure don't think all tanks going to be leveling DK's at the same time. But I'm sure a lot of good tanks going to be preoccupied at some point like leveling an Alt but just doing it with a DK that starts at lvl 55. DK does sound cool.... so far. But I'm sure their will be some effect of available tanks on various server realms and in guilds. Imagine that one tank in a guild that's a good dedicated tank who others want to tank their instance but he's busy raising his DK to the level while learning how to play it properly vs tanking your new instance.

Same can said of my own friends as well who like me to tank 5 man stuff for them. Its one less good tank available to tank stuff with the new content when I'm too busy leveling my own DK. And since none of my friends will probably know his name its safe to say I'll probably be leveling up in peace without all the whispers to come tank some new WotLK content. Is it safe to say their will be and impact to the number of tanks around? I'm not certain but its possible. Of course everyone will have a DK, but not everyone will know how to play a DK as yet or for a while properly. Though it will be nice to be in a Instance to have a DK in group and see how they perform most people will probably stick to what they know works with tanks initially with either a Druid, Warrior or Paladin.

Its nothing against the new DK's but people have to learn how to play them first to gain acceptance as new tanks in tanking instances. Either way its possible that at the level cap in WotLK at some point their can be a short supply of good available tanks for tanking new content for at least some duration of time while the expansion is still new in content with allot of new DK's as inexperienced tanks and players that are used to tanking as a whole try out the new class of DK's and leveled up them up. It may level out eventually over time with the expansion but it could be possible at the beginning phase of the new expansion content.


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