Is Tanking Boring?

[Iromi]

DRK tanking was a blast for me in HW, then when SB came out they redid it in a way that I found boring. So for now...yes, its boring for me..on DRK only. I haven't tried the other 2 tanks since SB changes.

[Katie_Kitty]

I don't think that tanking is boring at all, and I don't think that "just make staying alive and/or keeping aggro harder" is the answer for people who dislike tanking. In fact, I would argue that people who think this are simply missing the point.

I probably do more tanking than anything else because I have fun with it. I enjoy pulling packs of mobs, bringing them together, and burning them down. I enjoy having the enemy's attention while mitigating damage and dishing out as much as I can. That doesn't mean I want my role to be nothing more than a meatshield for the party. I don't want the expectation to be "just stay alive and take all the damage." I like the expectations as they are now - Get in there, face them head on, and dish out as much damage as you can without failing the basic responsibilities of staying alive and keeping hate.

Could tank classes benefit from more complex rotations? Maybe, if it's done in a way that doesn't significantly increase the risk of tunnel vision. I wouldn't want a tank that plays like a bard, for example, because tanks already have enough stuff to keep an eye on as it is. Generally, though, I believe that the "tank rotation is too simple" complaint is a bit overblown (with the exception of Warrior). I've played nearly every class at max level and the DPS rotations are generally not that much more complicated, and that doesn't even take into consideration all the other things tanks have to deal with such as positioning, enmity, mitigation, and general raid awareness.

Overall, for me, the role that is most relaxing and chill is DPS, not tank. When I play DPS, I can just relax and hang out and focus on hitting my rotation to do damage. Tanking is a role of responsibility and one that demands a lot from the player whereas DPS is just "hit these buttons in this order and pay the minimum amount of attention required to ensure you don't mess up mechanics".

[Kalise]

all the other things tanks have to deal with such as positioning, enmity, mitigation, and general raid awareness.

That implies that these are things that Tanks actually need to do...

Enmity is pretty much a non-factor, it's just a case of mash your highest damage rotation in DPS stance and have everyone else de-taunt.

Mitigation is just "Use X button when boss uses Y ability at the predetermined time"

Positioning, is relevant occasionally, but there are a number of times when the boss just positions itself.

With mechanics, often actually having Tanks deal with fewer mechanics, since people who design bosses tend to make it so that DPS and Healers get targeted by crap that forces them to do stuff, while Tanks are often just sat there whacking away at the boss with maybe a cone attack to sidestep here and there.

It's a far cry from some of the great iterations of tanks from MMO's. Where things happened such as consistent high damage throughout a fight, meaning that a tank would have to continually space out their defensive CD's well to mitigate damage (Often weaving them between healer CD's) but ensuring that for the Tankbuster skills they had a potent enough CD available. Where threat was an actual thing that Tanks were in control of, where they'd try and optimize how much they used their major threat generators vs their DPS skills (Because while maximizing DPS was still important, it didn't happen to coincide with dealing adequate threat). Where tanks were constantly having to move bosses and adds in a fight and so the best Tanks could excel by moving as little as possible to deal with mechanics and minimize DPS loss from casters having to move.

As it stands now, Tanking in FFXIV is essentially just like playing a DPS, only you've swapped your DPS cooldowns for defensive ones. A lot of the time it's just sit there, follow the boss and maximize your DPS rotations. Maybe you boost your threat on pull with tank stance and an enmity combo before just going full DPS to mitigate high frontload classes. But otherwise, it's mostly just DPS stance, DPS combo, maximize usage of DPS cooldowns.

[Katie_Kitty]

words

Just because it's not difficult to maintain hate doesn't mean it's not something the tank has to keep an eye on. Believe it or not, enemies aren't just naturally attracted to the tank by default like people such as yourself would have us believe. Getting and keeping aggro requires intentional action on the part of the tank, so yes it is something the tank has to do. You're also completely downplaying the importance of mitigation, positioning, and general awareness for tanks. If a tank just parks her butt down in one spot and that spot is no longer safe for anyone to be, guess what happens? Yep, anyone who needs to attack from melee range stays right in the danger zone and takes the hit. So yes those are absolutely things that a good tank needs to take into consideration. DPS need to consider them as well, but they are ultimately only responsible for themselves, nobody else. Which goes right along with my point that tanks are a role of responsibility and DPS are just all about chilling and hanging out and pressing buttons.

Do DPS sometimes get targeted by stuff that doesn't target tanks? Sure, but there are also mechanics for tanks that don't target DPS. Overall, those mechanics are in the minority, and that means tanks don't get to just stand around and do nothing because most things DPS have to deal with tanks have to deal with as well.

[Adventica6]

Want to know what's more boring ? waiting in que for 30 mins as a dps for current content dungeons/raids etc, that alone forced people who would normally not play tanks, to tank.

Tanking boring, well that's up to you to decide.

[Kabooa]

I've played nearly every class at max level and the DPS rotations are generally not that much more complicated, and that doesn't even take into consideration all the other things tanks have to deal with such as positioning, enmity, mitigation, and general raid awareness. .

Have you played them effectively at max level?

Because even the easiest DPS rotation is harder than the hardest tank rotation.

[RopeDrink]

Meh, 'boring' is relative. For every "Tanking is Boring" person, there's another saying the same about Healing or [Insert DPS Here]. I personally like tanking (it being my secondary role), but not as much as Healing on my WHM, which is rightly considered the most basic of the existing healer trio. Different strokes for different Moogles, folks. At least you're in a game where you can swap on a whim rather than having to log between multiple different characters like the majority of alternatives.

I tank in WoW and various other MMO's and it really isn't much different. Same goes for Healing. Aside from flavour, it always tends to have the same fundamental principles that skew the overall picture (with rare exceptions).

[Nedkel]

Tanks are interesting in their own way to play, they cant have complicated rotations for damage, because you will end up with either unbalanced over powered tanks to cover those who cant catch the gameplay or end up with tanks that only minority will be able to use it and make it reliable. I dont see samurai-like tank in the game anytime soon, its not the design that will fit this role.
Tanks have other jobs to do than to focus entirely on the rotations, if you want interesting gameplay from the class itself you may want to consider dps instead.
Still you have to focus on doing as much damage as possible, but also keep in mind your support abilities, pace of the fight, the executing mechanics exclusive for your role, manage defensive cds and healing abilities, its a totally different pair of boots than the DPS, so the gameplay is different. It could be boring in raids once you know all of the mechanics and could execute them on the fly, but you cant help nothing about it, because thats the way it is, in any other mmorpg game tanks in raids are even more boring than in FFXIV since this game has interesting and diverse raids.
Tanks has it different in dungeons also, you are the leader of the group, you leash the mobs, you tanks them, you calculate the pace, place and the limits of your team to get the dungeon going, tank in dungeon is way more interesting role to play than in raids, same goes to the alliance raids and stuff that doesnt only focus on 1 boss fight.
Tank is boring only for two kinds of people.
The ones that does one and same raids only, and the ones who just tank and doesnt care about anything more.

[Mortex]

Tanking gets boring the more you do the same fight (knowing what Cooldown u use when and in what situations). The only really change is when you try to optimize your own dps as a tank ( like using for example delirium as drk with blood weapon when the boss is immune in the next 5 seconds). For me the most fresh and back then in some cases frustrating fight that had that whas omega 12 savage, were the boss targets either the main Aggro player or the 2 in list, as a war you have with pld cover all the cds you need but if you get the marker as pld you needed to have gauge back then to block the attack or the boss would kill you. That became obsolete with better gear

[GoofballRat]

Unlike many in this thread, I don't find tanking boring in this game. WoW has 1s GCD and as a veteran of that game I had to adjust to the FFXIC 2,5sec GCD, meaning I can't just spam buttons in pulls but have to time things right. It's easy, makes it a bit harder when you're used to things being different, but yeah.

Some rare times when somebody is still in cutscenes other non-tanks decide to pull, which makes my day just slightly more interesting. And then there's undergeared healers forcing me to cycle CDs when I otherwise wouldn't need to, or pulling extra packs for whatever reason. I guess to veterans all these things are boring but not to me.

I get it that things will get more boring the better you know your class and the encounters in that particular role. That why I've learned that variety is king. In WoW early days I was all about tanking for a year or two, but the more I played the more I understood that variety is the best way to avoid boredom and keep the fun.
Some people are more resistant to boredom but everyone has their limit when they start to go in a rut.

edit: Oh yeah, I'd rather have tanks deal respectable damage in this game because there's already games like WoW where tanks are nothing but meatshields with cc and such tricks. Better games be different so everyone has something for them, than to make many clones of one game.