Resto Druid Changes in Cata

This is going to be really short. I miss my old resto druid. The look, the spell priority, everything. Still bummed that I can't look like a tree at all times. Thats all.

Tanks: A Sad Trend

Patch 4.2 had just come to live servers when my friend capped his warlock alt at 85. Because of the new gear available through justice points, he was able to get his toon into heroics in a very short time. With me on my restoration shaman and him on the warlock, we began to run some random heroics. He needed the gear on his lock, and I needed valor points for the new teir 12 gear. We were randomly placed into Heroic: Halls of Origination, which was great because there were many bosses available and the instance is incredibly easy to heal for a shaman in ilvl 359 gear.

The instance started out normal, CCers were CCing the right targets, the tank had decent aggro, and the DPS was ok. However, when we got to the first boss, the tank stopped for a minute and said, "Lock, pull out ur other pet. Leave him on the boss so that he can interrupt when we get the levers." My friend and I both ignored this demand because this boss didn't really pose any challenge.

After a few minutes of waiting, he demanded that my friend pull out the other pet. This time, however, we did not ignore him. My friend told him that the fight was very simple and that multiple members of the group could interrupt. The tank then demanded that the pet be pulled out for a third time. And again, my friend protested, but stayed respectful.

The next thing we witnessed was something that many people experience far too often in Cataclysm. The tank said, "Good luck then," charged in, pulled the boss, then left the group.

Fortunately, I was able to keep the melee dpser alive (he had aggro) while another tank was added into the group with the random queue. We actually made it through the boss with very little trouble, but what happened there was not an isolated incident.

Tanks have become very demanding and controlling in recent months.

Tanks need to be confident in their abilities as a "meat shield." If the tank fails to hold aggro, or pop cooldowns at the right time, then the group may wipe. In fact, back in Wrath of the Lich King, one of the main traits that we looked for in a tank was confidence. When a tank isn't confident, they don't tend to have as much control of the situation. When there is trouble, they panic, pop the wrong CDs, and they can't process the situation properly.

 Confidence really goes a long way for a tank. However, the downside to confidence is arrogance. Tanks can become too cocky or too sure of their abilities. When this happens, they pull more than they can handle, gear and aggro-wise, and they can stress the healer out.

The main problem with tanks that are arrogant is that they tend to see the party as completely reliant on that particular tank. They think that they are the reason that success is possible and only if it is done in the way that they do it.

In the past few weeks, I have seen tanks demand :
    -a fight be approached their way, and ONLY their way
    - a dpser or healer leave because of a missing enchant/gem
    -healers drink when they are told to drink
    -all members stay behind at all times, even if we have cleared all the trash

Unfortunately, these seem to pop up on a regular basis. And when they dont get their way, they leave, but usually not until they pull some mob or boss.

This seems like trend to me. There is always the possibility that I just have had bad luck with random pugs. But I doubt it.