do people hate tanking?

when i am in a dungeon and our tank decides to leave or dc it takes a long time for another one to appear

It's not so much people hate it. It's that they hate being in the lead, especially with strangers.
It could be they're too timid, or it could be that they're so great they don't want to trust a random group of strangers to keep up with them.

Even I main a tank, but if I'm using DF I'll probably be queuing as a healer. Since I know I won't slow down a faster paced tank.

Compared to DPS and healers, there aren't a lot of tanks in the game. This could be because people just don't like tanking, because of the responsibility that comes with being a tank, or simply because they don't like the tank classes. I personally don't mind tanking but I'd definitely rather heal or DPS so I'd never queue as a tank unless a friend needed me to or I was extremely bored.

Most people just don't want the responsibility of being the leader of the group.

Also most people just want to kill things mindlessly.

I wouldn't say ppl hate it. Its just a lot harder than the other roles. Don't get me wrong there's gonna be like 5 posts after this one going "its not hard if you know what you're doing blah blah"

But the point is that tanks have to think and actually know their roles. Otherwise dungeons go to hell. Healers have it easy and DPS have it easiest. If a DPs sucks all that happens is the dungeon goes slowly. If a tank syckd you're done for

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Originally Posted by heynowjose

I wouldn't say ppl hate it. Its just a lot harder than the other roles. Don't get me wrong there's gonna be like 5 posts after this one going "its not hard if you know what you're doing blah blah"

But the point is that tanks have to think and actually know their roles. Otherwise dungeons go to hell. Healers have it easy and DPS have it easiest. If a DPs sucks all that happens is the dungeon goes slowly. If a tank syckd you're done for

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While most agree with you, I'd refrain from saying it's harder as opposed to just higher responsibility placed when picking up tanking.

I like the idea of tanking, and the classes, but a lot of people don't respect tanks in DF.

I think tanking is fun, the reason why i dont queue as a tank much because of being criticized too much for not pulling enough. I usually take it easy at first to see what the healer can handle first but trigger happy dps sometimes cant wait that long lol

Definetly can agree Tanking has a higher Failure display rate than DPS/Healer, if u suck (or are undergeared enouf) someone other than u has arrgo which is u'r roles job to make sure doesn't happen (healers that suck are displayed by not DPS'ng outa boardum & natural mid-low HP bars of team, DPS that suck are show as slow mob kills & possibly dead due to not dodging) But part is are Tanks the leader of the team: Nope but it is implied they are by game mechanics "Theres no "I" in team but there's a "we" in weapons."

Thou yes being a "Tank" class can be annoying/hard with all that "high failure display rate" & possible crap teams which is the probable reason u don't see them in DF often (also for some reason the game puts Tanks in full start teams even if in-prog was checked a lot, same goes for healers)

Probably the biggest problem tanks face is their teammates. Many DF people will completely go crazy if a tank doesn't do exactly what they want, or makes a small mistake, isn't doing DPS-level DPS, etc. So many are turned off from tanking early on.

I'm primarily a healer, but I also tank. And I've found it to be far more stressful, and normally queue into things as a healer. When healing, I typically don't care what our party composition is, how large or small you pull, etc. The only thing I care about is keeping the party alive and contributing to DPS if I think mobs are dying too slowly.

But tanking is a very different story. You have to consider not only your party composition, but their gear and skill level as well, and plan accordingly. And God forbid you get a party that starts to pull things you know the party isn't capable of handling, or a healer than only tosses out occasional Cure Is when you're at 30% HP. Tanks may lead a party, but they're very much at the mercy of that party as well.

And as for in-progress duties, well, it's assumed that a tank left for a good reason. Any time I queue in-progress as a healer, I instantly regret it. I only do it as a tank if I want a little more chaos in my life.

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Originally Posted by heynowjose

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It's not really harder. In fact, all three roles in FFXIV are pretty brain-dead easy compared to other MMOs.

The reason people don't like tanking (or healing to a lesser degree) is because their primary job isn't killing things. It comes down to human psychology. Tanks and healers prioritize the party over the enemy, while DPS prioritize the enemy over the party. Because of this, there's little satisfaction from the lack of "big numbers" that you see in DPS jobs. People generally WANT to kill things. They play games to do this because it's the most taboo of the three roles IRL. Healing is essentially doctor simulator 2.0 and tanking is playing as a brick wall. They aren't as exotic to people as slaughtering things for a living.

The surge in the FPS genre over the past 15 years lends evidence to this. People enjoy killing things on screen because it fulfills the primal urge that is most restricted in life. MMOs are no different in offering the same kind of outlet. There's fewer people in the world who have a superior control over their primal desires that they derive more satisfaction from tanking than from killing

But tanks are simply DPS with a few extra damage mitigation skills, and healers are simply DPS with a few cures we no longer have to throw out.

The pressure on mechanics mess ups is much harder on tanks than any other class. Also agree with what others said about tanks being the leaders, some people feel better at DPS or healer roles because they can perform at better levels as those classes and don't want to be leaders. The gameplay is different between the three archetypes and slightly varies between the classes in archetypes. Being the first to die might also be a factor although the tanks usually fall off as last thanks to all the mitigation they have but at lower levels it will be the tank who's getting the floor mopped with usually.

For me this is the first game that I play a tank and healer class and I can say that I enjoy healing (SCH and WHM [in progress]) but halfway tanking (GLD -> transition and time till getting Shield Oath) was the most painful experience I've had in this game as a tank. I see more and more people raising their voice about current state of tanking in the game and the direction of the voices seems to be the Paladin with the Shield Oath culprit coming late at level 40. Brayflox, Qarn and Stone Vigil can be a challenge to a beginner tank.

From my personal experience, tanking is harder to get into at the start than the other two roles. You don't get your tanking stance until much later, and as such tanking early dungeons is a stressful nightmare.

It doesn't help if the player is new to tanking or new to mmo's as the stress from low level tanking is made worse when they get bad-mouthed from other players.

Tanking is a more important role, arguably its even more important than even healing.. It's a lot of pressure, and a lot of stress, and that combined with the difficulty of tanking early on leads most people to just play a different role.

The problem with tanking is not the difficulty itself. It is the responsability. The Tank lead the fight. Sometimes you found DPS that demand you big pulls, even if you are not confortable, and you're forced to do it, and if you say no, they say "you suck I want a rush, is the rule for all dungons blablabla". When a party fails, they point the tank or healer almost all the time. Tanking can be stressful, because you are under presion all the time. You lead, but you cannot know if you are doing it right, and sometine a guy bitch you because you're too slow (or to quick). A mob can be dragged by a DPS because you didn't pay attention, and even if you recover the aggro, people asumes that you're bad tank. A lot of people doesn't know that even if you're tanking in the good way, some mobs/bosses can target other players for a AoE or any other skill, and they asume that tank "lost" aggro, when that's not true. Resulting in a bitching to the tank. If someone dies, people asumes it was tank fault because a mob maybe hit the DPS/Healer. There is a lot of factors.

Also, some people simply don't want lead the fight, and prefer other roles.

I love to tank. I hate people expecting perfecting in an instance i have not done that often and especially one i have never done and get chewed a new one for derping something i had no clue how to deal with because videos are one thing but i don't learn til i get in there and fug up once or twice.

It's pretty easy to figure out why people don't want to tank. Pay attention to how people treat tanks. The smallest mistake, and they're subjected to honestly harmful abuse. And when you're new, mistakes are easy to make. Those queue times you're complaining about? It's because whatever tanks managed to make it that far have given up on playing with randoms because of the toxic atmosphere, and have started playing with trusted friends. So, the community only has itself to blame for the scarcity of tanks.

There are also other factors. MMO players are timid by nature, so they don't want to assume a leadership position. Tanking is also hard to learn, easy to master, which is the least fun design possible. And there's little difference in throughput between a good tank and a great tank. You either get to the end alive, or you don't. Little in-between.
It's just not fun or satisfying. I enjoy shrugging off the blows of a dozen enemies or going toe to toe against a creature ten times my size, but not everyone does. And I honestly think having a tank role is detrimental to the MMO genre as a whole.

Tanking has many things that make it fun to me but also many things that make it stressful. In normal dungeons as a tank the first few runs are fun but after a while it just becommes stale, especially when everything just gets AoEed down. Boring.
In Raids you never know what kind of tank you get paired with, is it one you can communicate with? Does he want to tank swap? Does he know what he's doing? Do I even know what I'm doing?
My last point is (and that's the reason I don't do roulette with tank) that you have to know what is going on at any moment at any time or everything might go downhill vVERY fast. You can't remember the mechanic of this fight that you haven't done in a few months? You have to.
Still my gear priority will probably always be Tanks>WHM>Whatever DPS job I've taken fancy to at the moment (BRD?).

I hate tanking with strangers.

Unless it's an emergency or something I will never tank by myself; I'll always have at least one friend with me.

Fine! I'll give OP the straight answer. YES, people hate tanking.

There's a lot of grey area, but ignore all that.

I don't like tanking with strangers and don't trust random healers.

Tanking just isn't for everyone. Some can't handle the stress while others don't like the added responsibility.

I have zero tanking experience in this game, and I came into it wanting to try it after how much fun I had tanking in XI. Then I quickly learned that it is done very differently in XIV. I almost immediately became intimidated by what they have to do. I don't think I would be very good at it, and in all honesty, it pushed me even further into my healer role.

However, I will say that if it does appeal to me in the future, I won't stray off DF to group. If anything, I think the more instances and varying situations you tank in, the better you're going to get at it. It's important to know how to react when things go wrong, because even the best of us make mistakes. My experience with DF in these early levels often has players who take a couple of rounds of trash mobs to 'sync' up. After that, it's all good. I suppose a good tank, being that the group moves at his/her pace, will allow this happen before big pulls.

tl:dr? Heavy is the body that wears the armor

I'd recommend anyone new to tanking trying drk first. You can gear it at lv 30 right away with grand CO. gear, so being undergeared isn't an issue, plus with grit on and unleash being so strong it has very strong agro/hate in dungeons.

I recently started to main PLD again and have never really found it stressful. I like that I control the pace and rarely have issues in DF. Whenever someone pulls on their own though they get to tank it. :o

Maybe because I had to learn by myself using DF.

I did just that. Then started doing fates to learn the job before I rush into a duty... Now I'm a 55 DRK without ever going into a duty (well solo'd through Sastasha). I kinda wish Hall of the Novice was out back then because I learned a lot about tanking from that. I think the only thing that would get me to tank is SAM because I was main SAM on FFXI (if anyone from SE is reading this don't make it a tank).

Like others have said, I don't like the responsibility of tanking. But I will jump in when a healer or even a dps mage is attacked (especially since I'm a NIN). That's that FFXI SAM in me.

Depends on the person. I personally do hate tanking, I find it dreadfully boring. There are those that love it though. *shrug*

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Originally Posted by Drkdays

Tanking just isn't for everyone. Some can't handle the stress while others don't like the added responsibility.

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And some just find it boring ;)

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Originally Posted by Genaxx

I recently started to main PLD again and have never really found it stressful. I like that I control the pace and rarely have issues in DF. Whenever someone pulls on their own though they get to tank it. :o

Maybe because I had to learn by myself using DF.

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Try to avoid that "if you pull you tank it" mentality. The best tanks are the patient ones who swallow their annoyance and plow on. Part of being a good tank is being able to take a hit from your party as well as from the mobs.

I find tanking boring.

The only reason I still tank is because I farm low level roulette for gil and I find crafting/gathering even more boring. I have to make money somehow though.

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Originally Posted by Drkdays

Try to avoid that "if you pull you tank it" mentality. The best tanks are the patient ones who swallow their annoyance and plow on. Part of being a good tank is being able to take a hit from your party as well as from the mobs.

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Be careful with that mindset. Before you know it, you'll have people walking all over you as a tank.

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Originally Posted by Drkdays

Try to avoid that "if you pull you tank it" mentality. The best tanks are the patient ones who swallow their annoyance and plow on. Part of being a good tank is being able to take a hit from your party as well as from the mobs.

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That is true, but as tank (and I'm one with a VERY high patience), I can tell you how annoy is having a DPS pulling on purpose to force you tank, because "you're not being quick enough". If you tank it, it is like say "yes, please, keep pulling shit" and I don't want that. It is hard, what should I do? Should I let the DPS do whatever they want because they aren't patient? Why should be the tank the one who had to swallow?

I prefer the advertisement. This time I tank, but stop doing that or I will vote kick thet guy or simply let him die. It is not fair you're tanking and a DPS foce you to tank more beacuse he want go quicker.

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Originally Posted by Drkdays

Try to avoid that "if you pull you tank it" mentality. The best tanks are the patient ones who swallow their annoyance and plow on. Part of being a good tank is being able to take a hit from your party as well as from the mobs.

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Nope, I get that accidents happen and people pull by mistake by walking too close or having their back to a mob that comes into range but the people that run ahead and pull or run off to add more mobs to a group im tanking is not ok.

If they want to do that then they should queue as tank.

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Originally Posted by Adire

Be careful with that mindset. Before you know it, you'll have people walking all over you as a tank.

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It isn't about letting people "walk over you" it's about doing the role you set out to do even when your party is working against you. They pull more? You tank harder and show them who the boss is. They try to steal your aggro? Take it back and laugh maniacally at how tiny their members are! If you're a tank you should be there to be the biggest badass you can be. Out-tank them, out-DPS them, out-heal them and then laugh atop the corpses of your enemies!

I think the only acceptable form of "you pull you tank" is if you do it in a hilarious manner like if you let them headless chicken for a bit and pick everything up when they're about to die or something. At that point you're both doing your role and firing warning shots. Just gotta make sure it doesn't backfire cause that can be kinda awkward.

Of course it's a case by case situation. Pulling on purpose simply to be annoying should never be tolerated, but more often it's either impatience on their part or simple ignorance. The death penalty should not be the first response. Also getting repeatedly walked all over isn't even a possibility. How often has anyone come across the same person twice in DF. As I said, if it's purposeful harrasment I'll be the first person to initaite a kick, but as an adult I can tell the difference between trolls and mistakes.

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Originally Posted by KoroushSensei

do people hate tanking?

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Nope I dont but I hate stupid DDs that dont do enough DPS and cant watchout for their own feets which are a more stress factor for healer...

I leveled up all my jobs and I like tanking the best I don't really care much for dpsing or healing. Not being able to take a lead role and letting someone else do it just isn't fun for me. Almost always play tanks in mmos, i never liked dps that much because following a guy around hitting stuff from behind doesn't seem fun at all. I like to fight stuff head on which is what a tank does.

the only time people annoy me by pulling is when i don't have enough tp to handle the pull. i'm as much of a dps as they are and it drives me nuts when i can't do damage because they didn't give me those few seconds.

should be the same for anyone really. if you can tank and play your job as you normally would, really no point in being annoyed or being a babby about it. if you're standing around with full tp as a tank and are slow enough that your dps are able to pull, i'd ask what you're doing.

If you pull it you can bet you're gonna tank it, just like if I'm healing, if you don't even try to avoid AoEs you won't be ressed till the fight is over.

An organized group of 3 works better than a party of 4 with a wild card that keeps disrupting everyone. Keeping those people alive is a waste of time and resources.

I've never encountered a scenario where a DPS pulled more, nor have I witnessed it while playing another role, this seems like a rare occurrence found only in bad apples. If anything, I feel like other people are too busy single targeting the 3+ packs I pulled and wasting my gosh darn efforts.

One of the few points I dislike about the tanking aspect of the tank role: UNDERUTILIZED EFFORTS! GAH!

If people are off put by the misconceived notion that tanks 'don't do mad deeps' then perhaps the role name should be changed to FRONTLINES.

That way it's alot more vague and people won't assume dumb things like: 'tank is only meant to soak damage, dealing damage is someone else's job!'

I personally enjoy tanking when its for friends or FC members but the randoms can add stress. I don't really even bother tanking or doing DF for fights I have never done as a DPS or healer first just cus they can be evil. However I also follow the mentality of "you pull it, you tank it". If it is an accident then no worry I'll grab it but if I see a DPS deliberately running ahead and pulling more, well enjoy your impending doom cus it is on you. The tank sets the pace, if they are not comfortable pulling more (or in some cases you see the healer just can't) don't try to force it cus all you do is make the run longer should we wipe anyway.