I'm a carebear so I didn't really care much for pvp, though I was on a pvp server for reasons I speculated about that proved false until after I was already committed in my guild (the honor system didn't come out to begin with and I knew it was coming so... yeah)
ANYWAY, pvp in vanilla was better for those who weren't hardcore pvpers. The whole pvp-set mentality is bad, adding resilience to it just made every reason why it was bad more prounounced. Back in Vanilla, if you had T2 raid gear, you OMGWTFPWNT people in blues, like you should, even if they were wearing blues that were more itemized towards pvp than pve (though that didn't mean much back then aside from maybe 10 more stam on a piece..maybe).
Nowdays you can be in full top-end raid gear, and if you get jumped by some scrub in ENTRY level pvp gear, you STILL get omgwtfpwnt assuming you aren't that character's bane-class, or that they aren't total nimrods. This made self-defense against a ganker when you aren't intending to pvp virtually impossible against a skilled ganker, etc. Quite annoying. PVP specs are *SO* much more different than pve specs too, moreso than they used to be I mean. Back in vanilla, blizzard really didn't have a really good plan towards what each spec would be like, and what they expected players to spend their points on, so many specs weren't quite so dramatic towards min/maxing towards pvp and pve like they are now. Speccing nowdays is more fun for some classes in the sense that almost every tree is viable for something, so some classes have more variety. But it's bad for t he classes that already had good variety. I have a rogue alt, and the number of actually GOOD spec options in vanilla for rogue were nearly limitless, there were like FIVE that didn't even use 31 point talents (and more than DID), nowdays blizzard practically MAKES you pick those end talents, thus really restricting the number of "free" points each player has to spend to like... 10 (in most cases).
I still think things have improved overall though...
anyway I hated blackwing lair for numerous reasons. I already said I hated the atmosphere. Being a main tank for that place stunk too. I mean, kiting as a tank just isn't fun, especially w hen your success doesn't even depend on your own kiting ability so much as relying on the rest of the raid TO NOT SNARE/SLOW GODDAMNIT! Vael stunk because I was guaranteed dead in 30 seconds or whatever it was for his 3rd timebomb thing. Broodlord (was that his name? I forget) was ok, his mortal strike really made me crap my pants if I was too cheap for a flask of titans that run though (those weren't so cheap back then you know, they are a given these days, but back then they costed an arm and a leg. Being a prot warrior isn't exactly the best gold-farming class to boot, especially since you already blew thousands on your flipping fire resist set! And maybe another several grand on your nature resist set for AQ.. mara gear just doesn't cut it for huhu who nails you for physical damage AND nature if you're the tank).
Firemaw...Well, let's see. a dragon spamming fire in front, I get to look at his toenail pretty much, behind I was against a wall, so I basically saw nothing but black the whole time, along with the flashes of red and such. As for what I did, pretty much nothing but gather threat, no challenge or movement or anything. Just get ready to taunt if the offtank didn't taunt enough wingbuffets. Ebonmaw was virtually the same thing, except taunt off other tanks when they get a debuff. Flamegor was the same thing, except you shout "WTF HUNTARDS" on vent when the boss didn't get tranqshotted shortly after a beserk.
Don't even get me started on those trash pulls. They were all annoying without actually being challenging as a tank.
Chromaggus would be kinda fun if he wasn't so damn long. I mean nef was long too yes, but at least he had alot of variety during the fight.. Chrommaggus was the same damn thing for like 20 mins straight. yawn.
Nef was indeed fun though...Unless it was warrior call, 9k shadowflames were not fun. Newbie priest during the priest call also wasn't very fun...Nothing really made me crap my pants like that did. Though seeing 30 huhu debuffs would have been if I didn't expect to die.. My guild only downed her like 4 times, so I just accepted losing to her >=P. Probably would have been much easier if we didn't have our secondary Nature resist tank gquit or something like 4 times in a row.
Yeah, my first character was actually a paladin. It's just comparing them from that time... to now...
Especially Retadins, those guys went from the laughing stock of the game to one of the most powerful classes in the game. And in raids, those guys can cause the group to do so much more damage...
While Shaman went the exact opposite route.
UGH, the pally/shammy debate. Pallies were only significantly better than shammies when your tank didn't know how to threat. Salv wasn't needed if the tank DID know how. I admit most didn't. I remember when we got our first threat meter running back during aq. I'd be surprised if anybody was even close to HALF of that...Excluding fights with wing buffets of course. I imagine salv would be extremely helpful for broodlord and ony for that reason.
Strangly enough, the only thing I could never really tank well that everyone else had little trouble with were those molten giants. They would always knockback punt me like 5X more than the other tanks. It was so annoying. They were tauntable though so it never really caused any problems. But it was still annoying watching my threat get chopped in half or whatever like 6 times before the other guy got his halved once...consistently. For that reason I actually preffered destroyers.
INB4 Dorf priest fear ward qq.. I never had a dorf priest in Vanilla, even if I did. It wouldn't have made a difference, not only did I, but pretty much every tank in the guild knew how2.
