Tank shortage is going to get worse.

[RightMSJ]

Don't worry everyone. Both warrior and paladin are equally amazing at accepting raises. It will be fine.

[ispano]

yes, combos will help build emnity on the target you are currently attacking , so does provoke.. but you can't keep the other mobs off party not using flash if they are not asleep. Flash is highly useful and needed.

Provoke does not. Provoke only puts you at the enmity of the person who has current aggro +1, if you already have the target it does nothing for you but waste a CD.

[Moirear]

I dunno.

DPS is a "loathed" role; gets complained about more than they ever get thanked if their performance is anything but flawless. (Even if flawless, usually gets no credit.) On top of that, way too many people are so quick to babble how DPS players are brainless, that playing DPS requires no skill, that you can do fine without decent DPS. You're lucky if the healer doesn't develop tunnel vision and forget to heal anybody but the tank or the tank doesn't forget that enmity needs to be maintained, then everybody ends up looking at you funny if you drop dead as if it's your fault when they made a mistake. And God forbid you queue 1-2 hours in the duty finder only to land in a lousy group of thankless jerks.

Playing DPS is a thankless role in this game. Personally, I've switched to playing healer or tank and it's a lot more fun. When people catch on to this, we'll have more tanks and healers than worth it and good luck getting new DPS.

(Maybe a bit exaggerating and not 100% serious, but you know there's some truth in there.)

[Appleh4x]

I dunno.

DPS is a "loathed" role; ...

DPS has less responsibility than any other role and there are twice as many of them per duty. I also see them praised more in fast runs than any other type so i don't see what on earth you're talking about with them being "thankless." It really is kind of a brainless role in this game because we don't have party skillchains and such like in XI. The entirety of responsibility for DPS in this game boils down to: have enough gear for the content you are attempting, and throw out that limit break (at times people will tell you.)

[Inosaska]

Then as you say this is the issue, things need to change as we are having a serious shortage of them at lower levels.

The mechanics just aren't working at least at lower areas, Tanks usually leave after one or two wipes.

We had 10 wipes in one dungeon due to everybody messing up (mostly DPS) even the tank did once mess up.. after the tank left we were screwed but when i went to the mender after the run it cost me a measly 300 gil so what exactly are people so upset about with a wipe now and then, its not the gil repairs.. no one is perfect.

Never in all my years in MMO's have i met so many quitters/haters in dungeons and most of them are tanks sorry to say, and no i never touched WoW thank god.

In WoW I played a Paladin Tank and I can tell you its very easy to tank in that game to point that you can chat with others in your guild while playing the game. This game offers a challenge to tanking and because its not easy so many people just stay away from it compared to DPS which is easy to play and healing in this game is easy too. The only role that is challenging is tanking but that's because its to easy to lose hate on the monsters in this game which is the opposite in WoW. Tanking needs to be made easier if it wants to attract more players.

Just watch the start at how fast the tank grabs everything and holds it like nothing. Also that UI you're looking at that has timers and everything telling you when it happens is called Deadly Boss mods which basically makes everything really easy and believe me the developers better be prepared for it when it comes to FFXIV ARR when they release add-ons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSeVCw3hVgQ

[Genesiser]

From what I've experienced, tanking in this game is pretty easy in terms of holding aggro and I'm not sure how people have a hard time with it. Granted, I am not level 50 playing with people that have 20+ item level lead over me; but I kept hearing how hard it was so I decided to give it a go. Heck, even tonight when in that level 32 dungeon the blm was just spamming his aoe spells and I wasn't losing aggro. All I have to do is run in, heavy swing, flash, maim, over power a few times, and then use my threat combo while tabbing through the enemies during it to spread the high threat moves throughout.

The only thing I can think of is people are using the wrong combos. I.E. a pally using the mp regeneration combo expecting it to build more threat because the last move does more damage. Or maybe a warrior doing the maim combo over and over instead of the headsplitter combos because it gives you a buff... But, from what I've seen if you use your high threat combos/moves, maintaining aggro is very simple in this game. I am curious to see how it changes when I get the self heal combo at 36, but considering I always have such a huge lead in threat with all the enemies over the others in the group, I doubt it will be much of a problem.

[UrbanLucrece]

Tanking in this game is ten times easier than tanking in FFXI. Good thing in FFXI though was if DD or DoM pulled hate they usually died in 1-2 hits and learned from that to not go all out from start so the tank could build hate.

[Solanthus]

From what I've experienced, tanking in this game is pretty easy in terms of holding aggro and I'm not sure how people have a hard time with it. Granted, I am not level 50 playing with people that have 20+ item level lead over me; but I kept hearing how hard it was so I decided to give it a go. Heck, even tonight when in that level 32 dungeon the blm was just spamming his aoe spells and I wasn't losing aggro. All I have to do is run in, heavy swing, flash, maim, over power a few times, and then use my threat combo while tabbing through the enemies during it to spread the high threat moves throughout..

You are correct in that for the most part, holding aggression is usually very easy pre-50 (speaking from a Warrior perspective). In a lot of cases, you can do nothing and walk away from the keyboard with a good enough lead and come back 30 seconds later and still have a good amount of enmity.

But the problem comes up that post-50 there is a much greater difference in both gear levels, and skill unlocks. As long as your gear (and especially weapon) is still roughly equal or not too far behind, you'll still hold enmity without too much trouble as long as you're on the ball. The enmity issue though is when you have people in your party with relic +1 and you're still using say, an Ifrit weapon. Then it becomes quite a bit more challenging.

As an example, the team I run with regularly for Keep has all relic +1. The black mage can throw one of their spells and it could take 3+ tomahawks to get equal enmity (I watched the enmity meter as we pulled it). The bard can unload on target, and a full 3-strike using the enmity combo may still not be enough to retake. I'm not blaming them, its my own responsibility to upgrade my gear and it just means I have to work much much harder to keep control of the fight.

But enter duty finder with random strangers, and if you have mismatches like that it can easily cause issues. People who are very well geared, compared with people who may only have average gear. As comparison in the above, I have 4 darklight accessories, darklight gauntlets/belt, everything else hoplite. If my comrades above went into duty finder with random tanks and went all-out, it would be chaos and there might be nothing the tank could do. Fortunately, they wouldn't do that (But others might). If the tank is not well geared enough given the other team-mates gear, then proper enmity control can become a big problem. Communication in duty finder groups is critical.

[Zoeila]

im starting to hate shield oath with a burning passion and only use it now with enemies that hit like trucks. for some bizzare reason despite the tool tips it is WAY easier to hold hate with sword oath than with shield oath. oh and get rid of the stupid -20% dmg output on shield oath.