Why do you tank ?

I've seen a lot of tank friends make the switch to DPS main when SB dropped, and few that have stuck with tanking despite the changes.
So, if you're still tanking what kept you around? what was it about tanking that initially interested you?

I'm not a tank main, but I would assume they just like tanking more than anything, regardless of Job changes.

I fell in love with Tanking on City of Heroes. It was the first MMO I played where tanking was not about someone pulling one critter, and the tank doing all they could to keep the critter angry at them. I fell in love with being the one guy that could get herds of enemies hitting me and laugh back at them. I didn't care that I kill slowly.

That being said: Variety is the spice of life. With just 3 tanks, eventually I too get bored. I plan to level up every tank to 70, but in this game, if I want variety, it's all about DPS.

I tanked all of 2.0 and 3.0 since release on console. I only played tank because SAM wasn't available and I prefer playing sword characters. Was praying to the Twelve for SAM in 3.0, re-rolled PLD for DRK. Was praying for SAM in 4.0, and i'm no longer a tank. If SAM hadn't have come I would have stayed tank despite the changes, and I still enjoy playing my tanks. The changes are not quite as great as people make them out to be and once we seen a balance patch or two I think the discrepancies between tank jobs will largely go away.

Easy answer: No one in my static wanted to switch to tank so I can play DPS as well as tank queues being amazing with dungeons etc. so they're easy to level.

Less easy answer: I still enjoy tanking thematically. Being the one that leads the party (somewhat) and being the only person not wimpy enough to take mobs head on has always appealed to me. Also I like a challenge and with everyone saying that DRK and WAR suck now, it makes me want to play them to the fullest and prove them wrong...even though I'm leveling all 3 (DRK/WAR 70, PLD 61 atm).

I like the PLD archetype, and being able to control the flow of an instance. Also, I don't trust randoms. So, I take a role with lots of responsibility so that I don't give that responsibility to a Hufflepuff and watch us all burn. Also queue times.

Lots of reasons that lead me to tanking, but have nothing to do with tanking itself.

High hp numbers and fast queues. Mostly fast queues though.

1) I like being the first one to run at the giant bad guy. I like being the one who stands in giant bad guy's face the entire fight. I like the concept of "get behind me, I got this." I like tanking.

2) /agree Kali-ka, and I too want to prove all the "WAR sucks now" people wrong.

3) I like instant queues.

4) Nobody in my real life meta wanted to tank, and I tanked in WoW, Rift, AO and SW:TOR.

I fell in love with tanking way back when FFXI was first launched State side. I have been a tank in WoW, Rift, SWTOR, and many others. On FFXIV I was PLD until HW hit and then found my true love DRK. After a year or so break, I came back to FFXIV and found tanking...lackluster? I am considering dps this expansion because quite frankly somehow SE made it feel less rewarding and mind numbing. My DRK is only lvl 64 so I am taking all the way regardless then seeing how the cards fall.

Because Greatsword and instant queues.

I tank because I like playing DRK, the aesthetic drew me in. I love me some giant swords and no other class brought that, so i instantly changed my main class to it once i got it and haven't looked back.

I always play a tanky role who can heal himself and survive by himself. Here I like manage the party and take the good choices to win. It oblige me to be at 100% everytime and never surrender to win. If i do an error, i know i got to learn fastly how not ot repeat it and improve myself.

Otherwise, i'm not naive. I can't do alone all the game. So i hope ppl can think and do correct choices also. :)

I switched from War main to Drg main back in 3.0 due to the way that content was designed. If I was expected to do as much damage as a dps to clear, I figured I might as well main a dps and actually be able to roll on the gear I need. I still got all the tanks to 60 and tanked occasionally for friends/queue times, but other than that I was a Drg main. After getting frustrated with "the Son" raids, I quit playing altogether. After they made the str/vit adjustments I briefly came back to the game and wanted to go back to tanking, but they were so far behind on gear (and I had all str accessories) I couldn't even meet the ilvl for stuff. Quit playing again until the expansion - only to come back and find there are still problems with tank gear and damage calculations lol

For the mean time, I'm going to stick to tanking. I, like some others, enjoy being the beefiest party member, being the rock solid tank healers don't have to worry about dropping like a fly, or dps don't have to worry about pulling off of, or other tanks don't have to worry about having voke wars with. Not sure if I'm going to get back into being any sort of hardcore raider. Definitely not if I'm going to be judged solely on my dps compared to another tank that's exploiting an oversight regarding locked accessories >.>

There's just something about being the tank, I can't quite put my finger on it, that feels more rewarding than the other jobs. Even if they are generally underappreciated by the rest of the community.

Despite having only played Warrior so far ever since I started FFXIV, tanking wasn't actually my initial plan.

I started this game as a Thaumaturge, hoping to become a Black Mage. As soon as a I realized I was going to be spamming Fire Fire Fire Blizzard Fire Fire Fire repeatedly, I tried finding another DPS class. None of them seemed appealing to me, and so I just rolled an entirely new character and decided to try Warrior out, and ended up liking the way they felt.

Tanking for me is about being the part of the party that controls the enemies and environment to facilitate success. Healers on the other hand, control the party's ability to keep doing what they're doing. Their interaction is pivotal, and is why I still feel that a tank is a tank if it needs to create opportunities to do more damage or speed things up. It's not just "defensive cooldowns" or "blue icon DPS", it's all about that interaction.
What I've seen in Stormblood is that for some tanks and healers, those aspects of control have been stripped away, or even worse, actively counter eachother (such as Blackest Night usage and Holy stuns/strong shields as one example). The feeling of coordination is diminished, and hence I myself feel much more uncomfortable playing as a tank, and do empathize with those who have given it a rest for now.

Control issues.

Same reason I started tanking. I'm in a static and no one else wants to do it. Plus I've been doing it for them for so long that I'm comfortable in the role now.

I wanted to get out of my comfort zones in ARR since I can do every job in one character.

Then I kept leveling up War so I have one max level job of each role for end-game.

The Good:
I like being the first one into the room - everyone is polite and waits for you to go first :)
It's fun going up to the bad guy, telling them their ugly and smacking them on the head. I don't have to worry as much about some of the mechanics & other stuff that happens. The boss is my focus and the DPS worry about that stuff.
I get the big HP with big swords and axes.
The short queue times are nice.
I like the DRK story line - its the most interesting one I've done so far.

The Bad:
Hey - I'm the first one in the room. BUT I don't always know the way. I have not memorized all 60 plus dungeons, trials and raids.

I am fan of pld archtype and I mean real pld archtype which is a knight that uses white magic and not the lame class we had in ARR that was basically a plain knight. If the archtype is captured right (which it finally is in SB) I'd play if it was tank or dps.

I am a fan of instant queues.

I enjoy tanking, I find it fun regardless what anyone says. While, I do want to try out the new classes, and other classes (I off heal time to time on AST), I just feel the most comfortable as a tank. And those queue times for DPS, amiright? While being a tank, I've gotten spoiled with fast queues, so when I try to play a DPS I get bored of waiting for the queue to a dungeon. -cough-

To push myself and to be as effective as can be to support my group. I want to be strong enough to almost take no damage so my healers are free to DPS, I want to have unshakeable enmity so the DPS can let loose and still dont have to fear grabbing hate, and I want to push my own performance to the point where I actively contribute to a faster clear for my team.

To me, this kind of optimization feels incredibly rewarding and fullfilling. It might be superficial, yes, but its what I enjoy.

Also, to those that want to play WAR to try to disprove the "WAR now sucks train":
No one is saying that you cant learn to enjoy the current WAR, or that you are unable to contribute in a good way to your team. The issue is that many gameplay changes negatively affected the previous core gameplay of WAR, and the fact that WARs objective performance is, compared to the other two tanks, more lackluster. Speaking as someone who played WAR with a passion since 2.4, its incredibly sad that almost everything I loved about my class is now pretty much gone.

During my wow days I used to be scared of tanking and played only dps classes. Because at first I didn't like the concept of a bunch of monsters beating your face in. As I continue to play over the years I eventually got tired of only playing dps classes and wanted to switch up. Albeit I was still nervous of playing the role I had to man up. With the help of some websites and and some of my guildmates. I eventually ended up being one of my guild's main tanks. I Eventually quit wow and tried other mmos and found this one since I love final fantasy (started with 10). I still have a ways to go in this game but I will try my best not to disappoint.

switched from sch main to war main in 3.0 cuz i was tired of wearing dresses as a healer. but fell in love with the overall damage war brung to the table. loved being able to take hits and deal hits that 95% of the time i did more damage then the all the dps in a farm pug (still did big dps in raid). doing more then what your roll entails is such a great feeling to know you helped your team (even if its a carry) get shit done and done faster and more efficiently. now im off to get arthritis spamming fell cleaves all day and get laughed at by my pld MT. ugh.

I like being in control of the boss. I want to put him where I want and I like that they just keep trying but can't kill me. I also love the synergy between two tanks and sharing cooldowns, it the most fun part of this game for me being able to work with someone else to accomplish a goal instead of just being a dps worrying about myself. And this game has the best tanking in any game I've ever play because once you figure it out you can do insane amounts of dps and still be extremely tanky.

Instant queues for myself and my friends; also because I spent time getting the Dark Knight anima, so I am going to use it. Also, playing as one helps me in sending in feedback so SE can improve the state of tanking.

Instant queue times. Tank still feels bad since I know the healer is carrying my ass no matter what I do.

I like the attention being the "leader" of the group gives me.

I don't trust other tanks to do it for me.

I tanke in like every MMO i played, it was just my thing. LEading the Party and being the protective Guy everyone needs to trust in. But with SB, tanks are so unfun that i switched to main DPS (SAM ofc) I hoped so Much Sam would be a Tank.. but no...

I've always taken a leader role in group activities my whole life, and Tank is generally the default leader of groups in MMOs. That's how I started tanking.

Actually, it was because our tank in FFXI (when I was playing Monk) sucked really, really bad and I thought to myself "I can do way better than that". So I switched to Warrior to unlock PLD and then mained PLD through Ziliart. I did eventually tire of it and switched to RDM and later Corsair, but I still tanked whenever necessary.

I like playing all roles and always have at least one job I maintain in every role, but I generally enjoy tanking the best as it allows me to lead and control while also keeping party members out of harms way. Instant or near instant queues are pretty nice too. ^_^

Control and responsability basically.

There's a lot of things that bug me while playing dps, but ultimately it'd be pretty easily summarized in the fact that DPS from a strictly gameplay point of view don't really... Matter. If you took out DPS core gameplay wouldn't change at all. While playing a DPS you only rarely if ever have to deal with mechanics, you have no control over the situation and are pretty much relying on your healer to keep you alive and your tank to keep the boss not caring that you exist lest it sneeze on you and you die. Rarely, mostly in raids, DPS mechanics consist of... Kill adds, or maybe stand in this special puddle, or maybe rarely you'll pull a lever because a healer is too busy to deal with it.

There's exceptions of course, and the removal deal could apply to tanks too if boss damage was lowered, but the core point there stands- I'm here to get in a brawl with Titan, not violently carress his love handles and glutes like I'm fighting a dummy with aoes!

Healers have more actual control and a better overall read of the situation, and DPS are hitting harder, but I'm the one who's actually fighting- and our success or failure will largely depend on me and the person healing me more than anything else.

...Which isn't to say anything against people healing or dpsing, I'm doing this part of the work specifically because they can't, or aren't willing to, handle the responsibility as well as I will. It makes everyone's lives easier.

In case you're wondering, being an OT has always driven me nuts too ;u;

This is the first MMO I've ever played. My husband introduced me to CoH before but it never really clicked with me, and Phantasy Star Universe was not, uh... really that kinda game. When I initially played this game, I basically mained Scholar because I couldn't stand the pressure of having to navigate enemies en masse. The very first dungeon I tanked I was nervous as hell and apologizing over and over, and that experience put me off it for months. However after reaching the then level cap of 50, I thought to myself, "Maybe there's something to this." So I asked my husband and FC mates about tanking techniques and decided to give it another try.

I. Loved it.

There's something about having this commanding presence and being the literal center of attention that just rubs my brain the right way, and the close calls and tiers of activities to do make it more fun than just hanging back and managing health bars was for me! Which came as a great relief to my husband, who'd only started tanking because our small FC needed a second one.

So I guess part of it's necessity, part of it is that I just love the feelings and aesthetics. It's just so satisfying.

I do it for the queues. I also wait until the timer almost hits 0 to accept the DF. The dps have already waited 30+ minutes, what's another 40 seconds? XD

Because there are few tanks i trust and play with regularly, and I would rather be the one tanking if they aren't around.

And I've been doing it four years now and gotta keep with the status quo.

Because the PLD archetype has always been my favorite FF job. So my first MMO was FFXI and I played PLD, then I tried Aion and I was a Templar.

Then FFXIV and like many others, I was so disappointed I lasted a whole month, maining Gladiator. I came back when Yoshi-P came over with the promise of relaunching the game, the introduction of jobs (including PLD) and the 7th Umbral Ear storyline, gaining the Legacy Status in the meantime.

I always mained PLD ever since, and at ARR's launch up until HW I had all classes at 50. Then came HW and I concentrated my efforts on having a job of each role, which was PLD, DRG and WHM. My plans for SB are to keep that formula which works wonders for me, but switching DRG for RDM.

Tank is the role that feels the most like it's actually engaging the monster. DPS is fun, but it usually feels like you're fighting the monster's ass.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Brannigan

Tank is the role that feels the most like it's actually engaging the monster. DPS is fun, but it usually feels like you're fighting the monster's ass.

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Essentially how I feel compounded with other ideas. I like to play the brawler/bruiser types. In a theatrical sense, they feel the most like the one that can face down a primal, demon, or an army and survive the onslaught. As a role, I'm indifferent to tanking; every role has its ups and downs and so it doesn't hold sway much more so than DPS(except healer, F that noise). But I like to feel like something brutish, which is why I play WAR. Its the aesthetic and feel. The other two don't much so appeal to me. DRK a little, but def not PLD. I've never cared for the knights in shining armor (unless that glisten was from the fresh coat of blood of their fallen foe :U).

Instant dungeon queues!
I play casually so being able to do the content when I have the time is a key factor for me....Having to wait 40+ min for a duty to pop up wouldnt be very time efficient.... Also, I come from a 10 year wow tanking background, so tanking feels pretty natural to me... Plus I like the aesthetics of the tanking jobs... Dunno whats my favorite tho.. It was warrior until 4.0, now im not sure... Will get them all to 70 eventually....

I like the idea of being the guy who leads the charge, the one who stands between life and death - victory or defeat. I also tend to really get into the game and imagine myself going toe to toe against a boss, alone. I know I have a party to support my nooby self, but it's a different feeling when you're staring death in the face and your buddies are in the back or the sides of the boss. There's also the fact that the party falls if you die. Think of the fate of the world hanging on your shoulders.