A tank's career

This week on Tank Talk I'd like to step outside the technical aspects of being a tank and focus more on the psychosocial side of things. In particular I want to look at what happens when a tank is introduced into a tanking corps of a new guild, how to keep current tanks around, and how to deal with all those old tanks that have been in the guild forever.

I like to look at there being mainly fives stages of a tank's life within a guild: Recruitment, Applicant, Raider, Senior Tank, and Mentor. Let's take a look at each of these and see how people in various stages can help usher a new tank into a guild's tanking corps while keeping the old tanks around and happy. Since this is a long subject, today I'll cover the recruitment and applicant stages in a tank's life, with the raider, senior tank, and mentor stages coming in the second installment tomorrow.

http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/07/03/tank-talk-building-and-keeping-your-tanking-corps-part-i/

Part 2 of this article:

The Raider Tank

Once a tank has proven themselves beyond a doubt that they are capable of handling the tanking needs of the guild, they are ready to become a raider. A raider to me generally requires less direction and input than applicants in order to do their job correctly and efficiently.

However it does not mean that a raider still doesn't need leadership and a gentle helping hand. As was previously outlined, the best way for this helping hand to assert itself is through the class lead. The raider level tank will already know that the class lead is the person to go to for information about the raid and strategies, so it's a natural progression for the class lead to assume the long term responsibilities of helping the tank progress in their tanking career.

One big difference from a class lead helping an applicant tank and a raider tank is that for the applicant tank, the class lead will probably want to assume more of a "Go over here and kite Illidan's flames along this path." While with a raider tank the class lead should take more of a conversational approach to strategies and direction, "From my understanding of the fight, the best way to kite Illidan's flame is along this path, what do you think?" When the class lead approach a raider level tank in this fashion it not only shows that you value their input (which you should), but that they have a chance to present dissenting opinions.

Some may question why this approach can't be used with applicant tanks. There really isn't any reason it can't be. If the applicant tank has sufficiently impressed upon you and others their ability to handle themselves according to the guild's needs, then it's definitely worth having a conversation or two (dozen) about strategies. However if my experience in WoW leadership positions has taught me anything, it has taught me that not everyone know how to setup and integrally plan an encounter. Running into a tank that, while they might have a good understanding of the class mechanics and what not, cannot see beyond their own class and job, can take valuable time away from the whole raid while you learn about their views (or lack there of). While these conversations can generally be had outside of raid time, it is important that they do not happen very often (or at all) during everyone else's time.

http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/07/04/tank-talk-building-and-keeping-your-tanking-corps-part-ii/