It isn't easy getting all the attention.
o I rolled a druid and decided to be the big, strong bear that saves four other characters from untimely deaths in dungeons. Oddly, the first thing I noticed was that other players seemed to expect much more of a tank at level 17 than at level 72. Perhaps this is merely a consequence of how less stringent requirements for dungeons at lower levels mean a larger pool of potential tanks, and so one can be replaced with greater ease. An exercise in irony, overall. I am still trying to figure out what exactly a feral druid does to tank.
For tanking at higher levels, the requirements are stricter, leading to fewer available tanks. Perhaps it is because of this that my protection warrior was treated better than the druid, along with the bind-to-account items on the warrior that proved my ownership of a character at maximum level.
Now, it seems that I'll encounter the most ridiculous expectations at level 80. When I last tanked at endgame, it was largely expected that my character have a critical-hit-immune defense rating and appropriate, enchanted equipment. Period. Current baseline standards tend more towards twenty percent more health than before — and that doesn't come without gear. Given the limited supply of competent tanks at that level, I find the extreme requirements as contributing to the scarcity problem.
Those holding tanks to such requirements are not, in my experience, players often referred to as "elitists," who are generally the most experienced with difficult content, and best geared. Given that these players have often engaged in activities where they cannot, in fact, have gear than is any higher than what drops from the content they are involved in, performance becomes more of a criteria than the power of gear. After all, if they completed Naxxramas in rare and level 70 gear, then high-level gear is not necessarily needed.
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