Growing tanks in WoW, tanking is hard... and your just a tool

Maybe I imagine that I could help change the course of the design in WOW via a blog and a small audience.



Don't really care, but it is nice to imagin it could happen.  Mainly, I blog, play and make lots of gold because they all amuse and entertain me at some level.

So... Why is there a tank shortage...
Dont get your feelings hurt, stop when you dont like reading this post...

---No compettion/No Glory (your just a tool)
Do the tanks ever link the meter for "damage taken" or "healing recieved"?  Who is normally first to get kudos for something.. either amazing dps to beat the enrage timer, or the interupter that got it done?  When do the tanks get aplauded...
---No training to do it, and is very subjective (others judge you how good a tool you are)  To level you kill things.  See my old post Building quests and encounters to train the player base for more on this...
---Mechanics are complex (you have to be the tool and the master craftsman) Sure, stack your stats, have the gear and you are now a shiny tool... You have to have them close, then maintain agro, not turn your back, use your cooldown, effectively pull and group and silence and interupt, handle casters with LOS, position the mobs for your group, your strat... you are the center hub for the merry-go-round...  the pivot, while it all spins around you everyone else (the dps) are having fun and your just the tool to keep it spinning.
---Stats are complex (the features and stats you need are not a single focus, but more of a balance) DPS, every spec has a clear priority... pretty much healers do to... sorta..  but tanks, there are to many if.. then... situations... more health, more mastery, more w/e... different for a rounded tank, a casual tank, a heroic mode tank etc... You can always have some measure of success w/ stam stacking... if you are not then a mana sponge.. so where is the balance?   different on every tank healer team...   DPS always want more stat X and if you can't get X, then get more Y, and if that fails get more Z...  tanks... not so much....
---You are a leader in a leader postion by puttin on your shield (going blood pres, or bear too)  People are often and frequently averse to leadership roles and responsibilities...   many reasons, IMO its just the way it is.  But it surely impacts the number of tanks because that is added stress to a game if you are looked to to be a leader and dont want to be.
---You are never taught in game how to tank... read the post linked above...  but basically, quest says "KILL wabbits..."  and you learn to kill,  but they are mean wabbits and hit back... you learn the need to be healed.. and then bandage, eat, or cast a spell.  When did you learn how it works to take less damage and make everyone possible hate you the most while doing the least amount of damage?  So you learn very much how to DPS, and you learn very much how to heal (neither one do you have to learn well... but you learn)  but never do you learn to take less damage and make more threat and position mobs and group them and... and... and...
---You are never taught in game how NOT to tank... you dont want to walk backwards... its slow... right.. well as a tank, not the case... did you learn this because of something in the game?  I guess getting dazed does to a point, but you dont know that you can not parry and block if the target is behind you... and the dozens of other tip and tricks..  when do you "PULL" the mobs to you and when do you "pull" via a charge t-clap.  When do you use silence, misdirect, tricks, LoS???  Your stuck to figure out these mechanics on your own, you are never taught them. that I recall.
---Gimicks and tricks and the just silly stuff you could get away with leveling do not work as the stakes are raised.  Bad tanks, while leveling can overpull, and make a million mistakes... they will frequently live and so will the DPS... because if they dont get or lose agro the dps can solo the one mob chasing them in most cases...  Very few dps can consistently solo a trash mob in heroics...

So.. to Blizzard, the need to grow tanks is not in the Call to arms...  It is in quest and acheivement developement that engages players to learn those mechanics... in bite sized morsels that can be repeated and redone...  A repeatable or daily vehicle quest... with timers and achievements for doing it right... 
-----Achievements for
--15 of 15 interupts on timed kill where you have to maintain your damage output or fail (and achieves for less than 15 too..)
--Correct dps rotation, vehicle has 3 buttons and priorities... you have to get it right to get the kill in time for achievements at times of super fast, fast, good, more practice, good start.  try again...
--Taking less damage, by holding agro and facing mobs to you (the vehicle has 95% dodge from the front, and 95% spell reflect from the front...)
ideas for days on how to do this, but a series of dailies anyone could go do, and get the achievement to show what kind of player they might really be, rather than the ilvl...


Even if this did not grow more tanks, it would grow smarter DPS that would begin to understand what tanks are doing, and be less of the forces working hard to undo everthing the tank is trying to do...