On tanks and other specs and Quel’delar

As I posted yesterday, the patch 3.3 PTR revealed a bunch of cool stuff yesterday including the four Quel’delar blades plus the three maces that you can get by completing the Quel’delar quest chain. Looking at all seven weapons you’ll realize that not all specs are accommodated but all classes can use at least one of them. If you happen to be one of the unlucky specs then too bad for you. The most glaring thing isn’t that all specs aren’t accommodated. I mean sure Elemental Shamans and Boomkin Druids don’t have a weapon that perfectly fits their spec but there’s a healing mace out there that they could opt to use. There isn’t even a dagger for those dagger rogues out there but rogues can use either the attack power mace or one of the Quel’delars. The most glaring thing is that Tanks have pretty much been given the shaft.

Perhaps the only Tank that can use one of these weapons is the Death Knight tank. They use two handers for tanking anyway so this isn’t that big a deal for them. The bigger issue is that every other tank doesn’t get to share with the fun. If you’re a tank, you’ll be doing the Quel’delar quest chain for your off spec and that’s just sad. CM Bornakk has this to say about the situation:

We don’t feel there is a need for it? We aimed to make sure that every class had something to gain from the Quel’Delar series, but that doesn’t mean every spec of every class. Could a tank use the one handed dps version of Quel’Delar? Yes, it may give them more threat. Is this ideal for surviving while tanking? No, but there are other items available for that. Source

I somehow feel what Bornakk is trying to say. If the Argent Tournament rewards don’t even include a proper healing mace for holy pallies and resto shammies then we probably shouldn’t expect better for the Quel’delar. Sure the seven weapons seem to be very accommodating. It’s just that having something this epic and leaving out a whole role doesn’t leave a good taste in my mouth. Even the Argent Tournament rewards, lacking a bit in coverage for specs, managed to get a tanking Axe out. So while Bornakk has a point, it still feels like a whole bunch of bull excrement to me.