The tanking shortage reasons

[Ooshima]

The other day I was having a chat with some mates in a linkshell. Maybe it's just amongst us (the members of the LS where we farm and sell EM runs), we generally agreed that probably a lot of the players do have a tank at level 50, and the reason why the game seems short of tanks are probably because people don't wanna play tank in a PUG, cos of the many horror tanking experiences due to derp healers and DPSes.

I find players more receptive to go tanking if they know you are good/decent. When I want to play DPS and need a tank, it's way easier to ask for tanks in LS/FC/tanks on friendlist rather than PF lol.

I guess it's just normal.. no one (tanks) would like to go in and die and be subjected to abuse when it's not their fault.

[AmyNeudaiz]

snip

The same can generally be said about any role though. I agree, some fights are intensive on DPS knowing their stuff and performing but IMO it's like that for every role. While you can say which fight is harder on what role, no role is truly "harder" to master if that's what your point is getting at.

[PArcher]

Depends on what you're doing. Fight Turn 4 as MT, Titan EX as a Whm, or Twintania as Sch and tell me again that DPS is the hardest. DPS also have it super easy on any dungeon.

I just have to say, if I want to be lazy doing Titan EX I grab my WHM...definitely easier than DRG or tanking it. Haven't really tried BLM and BRD isn't leveled yet, and can't imagine SCH is too much tougher.


And as someone else said...ranged DPS has it easy, esp BRD and BLM. Melee has a lot of things that make it difficult, from lots of AoEs (Garuda EX loves melee when sisters are around) to idiot tanks who won't keep mobs still or do keep them still but cut off the flank or back (hi AV...). Even healers or ranged pulling random aggro can screw over melee at times.
Whether melee is the hardest, or tanking, or healing just can't be known; they all have their own set of difficulties and things about them that are easy. Ultimately, it comes down to the person trying out each role.

[SpookyGhost]

Fight Turn 4 as MT [...] and tell me again that DPS is the hardest.

Is this a joke or?

[PrincessOfSwords]

Personally, I want to try tanking, but I feel like getting into it as a new tank is very intimidating. Like, the way people's expectations are, you either get an A+ or you fail.

Tanks and Healers don't really get a lot of slack from anyone, but then the thing is, if I play Healer and I'm really skilled at it, I can pull the party through with a bad tank without wiping, it's just hard. If you're a tank and you have a bad healer, you are basically just screwed.

I give the tanks I find in df a lot of credit, I really do. (And I also give ones that say they are new the slack they deserve - I wish more people would).

I don't think the tank situation will change much unless the community as a whole lightens up on them, but that doesn't seem likely to happen, unfortunately.

[Soulburn32]

Turn 4 OT is actually the harder role. I don't see how standing there and getting hit by 2 dreads is somehow considered hard?

[Bardo]

Haven't really tried BLM and BRD isn't leveled yet...

ranged DPS has it easy, esp BRD and BLM

So you haven't played them, but yet you've formed (in your own mind) a valid opinion that they're the easiest...
/brainexplode

[PArcher]

So you haven't played them, but yet you've formed (in your own mind) a valid opinion that they're the easiest...
/brainexplode

On Titan EX? (which if you read, is what I was referencing) Tried BLM once and had no issues myself. The rest of the party...not so much (so many people getting knocked off )

Heck, ran T1-4 as BLM this week. Was so much easier than DRG its not funny. And I've cleared Ifrit EX as BLM a few times so far (no bracelets yet...)

EDIT: And my BRD is almost at 50. Its been just faceroll easy; nearly fallen asleep a few times from boredom

[AmyNeudaiz]

Is this a joke or?

Turn 4 OT is actually the harder role. I don't see how standing there and getting hit by 2 dreads is somehow considered hard?

I mixed that up. Yeah, I meant OT role not MT. I'll correct that


To other replies, what people find easy and not easy is subjective. Just to give some examples, I struggle very much so with tanking and I'm told by many many vet tanks that it's "easy as cake in this game". DPS vets also tell me Mnk is hard to learn but I find to be very easy once you get past the short, artificially steep learning curve.

[kukurumei]

I've done every fight in the game as every role, with the exception of Twintania which I've only done as a Tank. BTW: I only have Monk as DPS so I can only speak for DPS from the perspective of one class

Melee DPS has a low skill floor but a high skill ceiling. The degree of difficulty and effort to punch and kick things is very low. The degree of difficulty to be an exceptional melee DPS and push your DPS to the maximum is much higher. I guarantee you that the number of actions performed, amount of movement, and the number thought processes a really good Monk or Dragoon has to go through over the course of a Titan EX fight is higher than WHM.

A Monk can choose not to put forth this much effort, his DPS output will suffer, and his teammates will probably not even notice and assume he did a good job because he survived the whole fight. However, a good Monk does all the little things knowing that the difference between 220 DPS and 300 DPS could be the difference between winning and losing.

You're right, though. It does depend on what you're doing.

not really. Only twin has a harsh check due to the fact it's an i90 fight. Otherwise your dps needs to be 70-80% to brute force and 50-80% using alternate means to win.

But Melees do suffer a really huge problem not of their own doing, that is Auto-attack being stupidly hard, due to the way SE refuses to fix. A melee's AA will suffer if they are just slightly off facing target or slightly out of attack(but for some reason not skill) range.

And backpedaling is horrible if you choose to target-lock for 100% AA. <---SE refuses to fix this crap.

As a tank it's not easier though. You can't derp as a tank. It's simply being a tank. Just like a Healer can't die. DPS wil get blamed but their mistakes do not always translate to wipes. Tank/healers' do translate to wipe.

Most people just don't want that over their heads.