In the two weeks since its launch, World of Warcraft: Legion Remix has been a huge hit. While plenty of players are still making their way through the campaign and Heroic dungeons, hardcore fans are slamming their faces into the hardest content in the game. Some World of Warcraft players have been able to capitalize on the Infinite Power scaling of Legion Remix to push Mythic Keystone dungeons of over +100.
Unfortunately, there is a fact these impressive Legion Remix feats have highlighted: tanks are totally broken. Most teams pushing Mythic+ Keystone dungeons consist primarily of tanks, as most DPS specializations struggle to survive at that high of a level, and few healers can put out the required damage. Blizzard has implemented buffs to help alleviate these problems, but it seems like the six World of Warcraft classes who can play the tank role will continue to win out for the foreseeable future.
How to Level Up Fast in WoW Legion Remix
To level up faster in Legion Remix, players can manipulate their Infinite Research offerings, complete zone stories, and turn on Heroic World Tier.
Legion Remix Exposes a Major Flaw in WoW Class Design
How Tanks are Dominating World of Warcraft: Legion Remix Right Now
During Legion Remix Phase 1, a group of Chinese players consisting of Erxi, Lhfs, Ruancool, Addhh, and Feifei were able to clear the Black Rook Hold dungeon at a Mythic +113 difficulty after capping out their Infinite Power in World of Warcraft: Legion Remix. The team consisted of a Protection Paladin, Protection Warrior, Vengeance Demon Hunter – all tank specs – along with two Unholy Death Knight DPS. While no other groups have come close to topping their achievement yet, one thing is shared with all other high keys: the parties consist primarily of tanks, without a healer in sight.
Out of the 39 World of Warcraft specializations (40 with the release of Devourer Demon Hunter in Midnight), only 6 are tanks: Blood Death Knight, Vengeance Demon Hunter, Guardian Druid, Protection Paladin, Brewmaster Monk, and Protection Warrior.
This is because, with infinite scaling, most hazards are more liable to one-shot characters, leaving no chance for a healer to do their job. Additionally, with limited damage options, healer classes are dead weight, and while DPS can put out stellar parses, their lower survivability makes most specs a liability.
Luckily, World of Warcraft saw this problem, and has tried to address it. In one of its hotfixes for WoW: Legion Remix Phase 2's launch on October 21, Blizzard added new buffs in Mythic+ dungeons that increase health, damage, and healing done by DPS and healers, while reducing their damage taken:
- Gift of Eternus: Slayer – Eternus grants damage dealers 10% increased damage done, 100% increased health, and 33% decreased damage taken.
- Gift of Eternus: Savior – Eternus grants healers 10% increased damage done, 10% increased healing and absorbs, 100% increased health, and 33% decreased damage taken.
- Gift of Eternus: Protector – Eternus grants tanks 10% increased healing received from other players.
That said, this may not be enough to end the tank role’s stranglehold on the Legion Remix arms race. Even with functionally unlimited scaling, these flat percentage buffs will most likely not let healers or most DPS keep up with their tanking counterparts. It’s too soon to say how these changes will affect the meta, but bigger swings might need to be made in order to make these other classes in World of Warcraft: Legion Remix competitive.
This World of Warcraft Problem Isn’t Restricted to Legion Remix
Sadly, the state of affairs in Legion Remix is an exaggerated example of a problem found elsewhere in World of Warcraft. Even in retail, skilled teams are able to clear lower Mythic+ keys without healers, and tanking in open world and solo content is safer and more efficient than most other specs. While healers and DPS are both optional in some content, tanks are always required for high-end encounters.
Of course, Midnight is making some huge changes to every class in WoW. Unfortunately, these adjustments are focused on combating button bloat and class complexity, rather than the discrepancy between roles. Though their rotations may change, tanks will undoubtedly remain king in Midnight as well.
The dominion of the tank role is endemic to the Holy Trinity. From Overwatch 2 to Final Fantasy 14, almost every game that uses the three-role classification system of tanks, supports, and DPS always struggles with tank balance. WoW was one of the games that codified the Holy Trinity concept, so it will likely never be able to escape this problem for as long as the MMO exists.
- Released
- August 26, 2024
- Base Game
- World of Warcraft
- Developer(s)
- Blizzard
- Publisher(s)
- Blizzard
