Are Tanks an impairment to fun?

Recently I've had quite a few experiences with running a dungeon without a tank.

At first a desperate and a futile effort, the experience of not waiting and challenging that dungeon with whatever team is available grew in me from something undesired to "the true way to play this game".

In all times, the impression of the players involved was no less than positive, why, actually it was better than the normal experience.

Be it "interesting run" from a Ninja, or "it's kinda fun to play without a tank :P" from that White Mage, or the constant planning of impossible encounters by that Astrologian, that then follows with a good job in every sub boss.

The thrill of a newfound challenge, the use of all your skills to beat the unlikely.
Have you ever went through a similar experience? Am I and my team partners mad?
Share me your stories about how that Tank DCing made your day.

I like it when teammates die yes.

It's only fun because it's out of the ordinary. Don't get me wrong, I have a blast when it happens, but having to run dungeons without a tank is slow, and I don't want my roulettes taking that long on a regular basis.

This is the entire design philosophy of Palace of the Dead

I mean having a good tank vs a bad tanks makes the world of a difference i've seen tanks that just use their threat combo, don't pop CDs, don't use their toolkit (i.e Maim, Darkside, etc) then you're gonna have a bad miserable time. Now if you have a tank that uses their toolkit, DPSing out of stance and cycling cool downs then yes it's a very fun class that can pump out dmg vs lazy DPS that can't even break over 1k.

Palace of the Dead is the exception as you can just go with 4 DPS or 3 DPS and a healer or 2 DPS 2 healers etc, which i'm glad because it makes it really fun and not dependent on the tank to pull and tank everything and put them in the leadership role. Tanks don't define groups people do with communication the only thing that sucks in PotD is that people want to clear every friggen floor even when you hit lvl 60 but that's another discussion for another time.

It depends on the dungeon and also the caliber of the players within the group. It is doable without a tank, but if there are players not pulling their weight, it becomes more painful than anything.

I would not say it is more fun to do it without a tank, but it is refreshing or unique in a sense. If it becomes a constant, I believe we would run into more negative opinions than positive.

What you're experiencing is the thrill of something that can actually kill you but isn't a ball bustingly hard raid. It's a rarity in FFXIV since they make every dungeon for that dude who stopped playing last year and just came back 80 ilvls below current and with a messed up hotbar but he wants to jump right back into the fray.

No. Without a tank dungeons become really annoying to run because of interruptions as casters/healers, no positionals as melee, and enemies running all over the place. I'd never choose to do anything except PotD 1-20 without a tank.

I ran the leveling roulette the other day with premade group of friends and when we got in we noticed that due some last minute communication hiccup we ended there on healer + 3 dps. Since we got halatali it was fun and doable, yes. And I wouldn't mind doing it on purpose on occasion just to get the thrill of, as pointed earlier in this thread, having something different and actually challenging. But that also takes a group where people are on top of their game and have the werewithal to use the abilities on their hands to overcome the lack of designed threat holder. As a norm for DF it would become very frustrating very soon. I've already seen parties in Palace of Death that want to wipe as soon as they see the group is "malformed" on their opinion. Then again I've had some of the funnier runs with unconvential group setup.

In short, running with whatever group setup can be fun when chosen to do so. But it shouldn't be implemented as a norm for people who just want to get things done.

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Are Tanks an impairment to fun?

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As one who enjoys tanking, not at all.

But from a DPS/healer perspective . . . Can't live with them, can't live without them. Running with sucky tanks isn't much fun, but then again having to spray n' pray because one isn't around is not my idea of fun either. :\