Does tanking carry more responsibility than most?

[Menae]

Tanking doesn't really carry more responsibility than any other job. It's just most NOTICEABLE. If a DPS uses the wrong ability, with a few exceptions in the late game, it's hard to tell. If a healer uses the wrong heal, the tank might die or it might be confused with the tank taking some big damage. If the tank loses hate, well, it's pretty obvious.

Without a tank, the group can't survive the boss damage. Without a healer, the tank (and thus, the group) can't survive the boss damage. Without DPS, the group can't kill the boss and it either takes forever or the group wipes to attrition/enrages/more opportunity for mistakes. That's why they call it the trinity folks; 'cuz you need all three.

[Wadoka]

...That's why they call it the trinity folks; 'cuz you need all three.

But we only need the three roles, because that's the way people have been designing MMOs since... shucks, UO? I can't remember. The concept of Tank didn't exist prior to. It wasn't there in the old text-based games, it wasn't there in the original Neverwinter Nights on AOL, it wasn't there in tabletop Dungeons and Dragons.

Philosophically I disagree with this "Holy Trinity" because it has soooo many issues - starting with, if you're fighting an intelligent enemy, it doesn't matter how many flashes or "hate-generating" attacks or taunts you throw out... an intelligent enemy is ALWAYS going to kill the Healer first, come what may, if they identify a Healer amongst the attackers. Or, if they have a certain level of another kind of experience... "I smell... bat guano. And sulfur. HOLY CRAP GET THE MAGE! MAGE MAGE MAGE KILL IIIITTT...!"

Heh. Another day for that discussion