Since it exists almost solely for Death Knights, Paladins, and Warriors (only Plate comes in a Tanking flavor), turning other classes into Tanks means a heavy dependence on gimmicks, much like Bear Druids. For those who don't know, Bear Druids currently prefer Agility/Mastery gear in every slot. Some might get more benefit from Tanking off pieces (Rings, Trinkets, etc.) but it's only for specific (and seemingly temporary) situations.
My current list of fourth spec ideas would leave every Leather, Mail, and Plate class with a Tanking spec. At what point would Blizzard have to add Tanking Leather/Mail? Or, at what point would Blizzard have to remove Tanking Plate? Not being a fan of more itemization, the second question is the one I've been dwelling over most. Considering that Spirit gear for Healers is becoming less relevant as the Cataclysm expansion advances, I'm left scratching my head wondering why three classes have the sole expectation of carrying an entire second set of gear (I'm not touching PVP armor only because everybody is expected to use Resilience gear).
Removing Tank Plate
Furthering the above point, my current list of fourth spec ideas would leave World of Warcraft with three Plate Tank classes and five Gimmick Tank classes. As such, my focus has been revolving around standardizing Tanking gear while reducing itemization requirements. The easiest way to do this is to remove Tanking gear that is Armor-specific, which is just Tank Plate, and moving all Tanking gear focus to off-pieces: Neck, Back, Rings, Trinkets, Main Hand, Off Hand, Ranged/Relic. That would be nine slots with Tanking gear and eight slots without.
For the eight armor-specific slots, Tanks would wear DPS gear. This would have two benefits, the first being that this itemization requirement is already well covered. The second benefit is that Tank damage would scale directly and parallel to DPS damage - a function currently handled by Vengeance. Note that I'm not suggesting Vengeance would be obsolete. I'm not entirely convinced my suggestion would successfully replace it, in fact. My experience with Vengeance is limited due to my play schedule, so I'm hesitant to make any real statements on the matter.
Tanking Off-Pieces
As mentioned earlier, Bear Druids currently use DPS Leather and, due to mechanics, don't rely much on Tanking off-pieces. Why would they care about them after such a change? Bear Druids largely don't care about Tanking off-pieces because they don't have Agility - Tanking gear is strictly Strength, which is virtually a Plate-class-only stat. Existing Tanking gear would need to be retooled for universal use if they're ever to see widespread acceptance outside of Death Knights, Paladins, and Warriors. Two ways to accomplish this is to have the primary stat change depending on what class possesses it (Strength, Agility, or Intellect) or to turn the primary stat into another Tanking stat (like Armor).
The problem I have with the first way - a changing primary DPS stat - is that it seems rather tacky and difficult to convey to newer players. I'm sure it could be "done right", but I have no idea how. The main benefit of this approach is that it keeps Tanking specs closer in damage to DPS specs.
The problem I have with the second way - another Tanking stat - is that it leaves Tanks with roughly half the damage stats of a DPS spec. This is where I think Vengeance could still see some use, by bringing Tanks somewhere between 50% and 100% of DPS over the course of the fight. I believe Armor is the most likely candidate for this stat, although Tanking off-pieces with Armor were killed quite some time ago due to their synergy with Armor-scaling talents and abilities. This seems easy enough to fix, however, by having scaling talents and abilities like Toughness changed to only affect Cloth, Leather, Mail, and/or Plate (Bear Form already does this). Another problem is that Back gear is considered both an off-piece and Cloth, although it would be simple enough to just remove the Cloth categorization and make it a legitimate off-piece.
Summary
- Remove Tanking Plate armor
- Have Tanks use DPS Plate instead.
- Replace Strength on Tanking off-pieces (Neck, Rings, etc.) with Armor.
- Change all Armor-scaling abilities to only scale from Cloth, Leather, Mail, Plate.
- Turn Back gear into legitimate off-pieces instead of "Cloth".
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