The tanking shortage reasons

[Zplinter]

As a Tank (pld) I rarely do roulette, duty finder, etc.
See I have this thing called a "Free Company." They ask me to tank things for them, they understand if it is my first time on a fight and do not act like an 8 year with tourettes. They understand that lag and other unexpected things happen not just to me, but to others in the group. If we wipe once or twice none of the rage quit the duty. We all get on either mumble or razor so that we can communicate easily in the fight.
In EVERY MMO I have ever played the first and most important mission/quest/job/etc is to find a guild/corp/clan/fleet/FC that I am comfortable with and is comfortable with me. It does not even matter what role I am in, all that matters is the company I keep.

In the end there is no "x" shortage is a good Free Company.

[PArcher]

In the end there is no "x" shortage is a good Free Company.

Just as a note: if they're asking you to tank a lot, so much that you don't have time to solo...it means that there are few tanks in your FC...

And if you're only tanking for your FC...guess what? You're part of the tanking shortage problem...

[sylin]

reason 1, too many immature players who complain or /rage quit if the tank makes a single mistake, ie no one can learn to be a tank without getting yelled at all the time, usually by people who play thier class even less well.
2 only 2 options, Ive played a DK in vanguard, that tank was fun and exhausting to play, these tanks arent near as fun whilst leveling up (at 50 once thier more fleshed out maybe they are more enjoyable)

Give me some decent tanking options, and make the game 18+ and Ill tank all day long.

Seriously the only issue is the immature player base, I pretty much try to stay inside my FC for everything, I dont play games to babysit, and teach brats how to properly interact with other humans.

Once Sam comes out tho Ill check it out, would love a magic based tank, as it stands I just dont find the current class selection "fun"

[givemeraptors]

A beginner tank's opinion:

I love duty finder for Ultima HM. It's sooo funny looking at people running around in total confusion at Ifrit stage and getting run over by Ifrit. Worth repair costs. The only thing I like in df tanking though.

Ugh. No one even bothers to explain that fight to new people (even if they announce they're new!!) and it is definitely not a fight you want to do blind.

[Jitenshazuki]

Ugh. No one even bothers to explain that fight to new people (even if they announce they're new!!) and it is definitely not a fight you want to do blind.

First I tried to give hints about optimal healer placement, about aoe heal precasting at least on fixed pattern tank purges (after p2 outer-inner plumes, after p3 eruptions), about simple ways to avoid damage on p1-p3... People either ignored me or started raging. So I decided to stop explaining stuff and get some dark joy from a string of wipes until the champ of aoe eating rage quits...

[Miska]

Some good reasons were posted on here about the shortage of tanks. And yes I agree with a lot of reasons why. But, there are many reasons, and quite frankly, there is no simple solution.

I have been playing tank classes now for about 10years or so, and I have seen many different ways of tanking, and truly, a lot of them are just the same. It is how they are handled is what makes a Tank. But that is another point.

Just from what I have seen in this game since launch, has me not wanting to tank in this game. Some of the problems I have had and still having at times are:

1) People complain at the tank. Well we all know that tanking is a thankless job, and I don't expect people to be 100% friendly towards me, I would like it as much as I would hate it.
- People who complain at the tank, have never played a tank and don't realize just how dependant we are on others. We rely on DPS to kill things for us, and Healers to Heal us. But that works all ways. DPS would die without a tank, simply because the healer would be struggling to keep up. Healer would die because healing threat could and will out-threat DPS making them target #2 after the tank. This is to be..... expected.
- Complaints vary. Everyone has good and bad days, when a Good Tank is having a bad day, it makes the instance run really bad. But if you can bare with it and bite your tongue, it will get smoother.

2) Healers. Now I am going to touch on Healers, because it is important and one of our major Fallbacks. If the Healer is having a bad day, regardless what the tank does, we will drop, eventually. And us tanks know that keeping Healers happy makes us happy. So when we notice that our pocket healer, or even a healer we have played with multiple times, is having a bad day, we are asking the Healer in private 'we can stop if you want' and we will cater to healers over DPS. A happy healer is a happy tank. It is the vicious circle we have to deal with.

3) Tanking is Boring. To many, yes. To me, DPS is boring and Healing is... meh... I would rather Heal than DPS. And that is a personal choice. How do we make tanking more fun? Add a Ranged Tank class? SWToR did that, and although it was refreshing for some of the time, it was still the exact same. It truly wasn't Ranged Tanking. At times it was, but you had to get close to use certain abilities (Such as the Bounty Hunter Flame Twirl) whatever it was called.

4) Tank is the Leader of the Party. Yes and No. When I fell behind in Content, a healer was teaching me the instance. Although I had a lot of experience as a tank, there are some things I just do because of Habit, like Turning the boss away from the group. That is one of the first things a tank learns. Others come with experience. Yes we need to be at the front of the party, but some DPS likes to think they are "Leroy Jenkins" and they tend to complain to the tank and healer that they died. Well, stay behind the tank next time.

5) Tank and Healer Relationship. Yes, I will go here. Many Tanks and Many Healers have a long-term relationship with each other. No this isn't dating or marriage, but to most people, that is how it seems like. You know a Tank and Healer have a good relationship when they Argue about how the Tank Died, and yet they both continue on as if the argument never happened. I can pull a short clip from WoW, my healer friend and I were in a raid, it was a new raid guild, new server, and after a wipe we pulled out the combat logs and started arguing about how I died which lead to the raid being wiped. Everyone in the guild was convinced at that point, that we were dating. It was how we spoke to each other and how we handled the second round. We made progress between her and I. So, if you ever see your tank stop, and move towards the healer, you know the Healer needs to go AFK maybe isn't ready. The Healer is our partner in Crime. So where the healer goes, the tank goes. Where the Tank goes, the Healer Goes. Respect the Healer/Tank Relationship.

6) Tanking is too geared dependant. Yes it is. A poorly geared tank will not survive. However when Leveling, gear is not a HUGE importance. Keeping items updated within 5-9 levels of your current level is acceptable for the tank. As long as some items are near the tank level, with maybe 2-3 pieces being near the 7-8 levels below, but make sure those are the jewelry and not the actual armor pieces. Gear is important at End-Game Content. That is where the tank is looking to maximize Health, Dodge/Parry, Block, accuracy and everything else.

7) Dealing with bad players. Tanks have a motto, or at least we should "DPS are more replaceable than Healers" which is true. There are a lot of DPS out there, and yes you are easily replaced. Do we like replacing people? Not in general. But if we have too, you are just a number to us. For the most part. If the Tank vote-to-kick a DPS who is lacking in all aspects, or is being rude we don't want to deal with it, if you agree then vote yes, if not, well if the tank really does feel like it is getting out of hand, we will drop, leaving you with another 1+ hour wait time for a tank, and by that time, we found a new group and are running an instance again. It's not hard to be nice to the tank. We are there are take the abuse for the party, not from the party. So at least you can say "Hi" to the party, dont need to be specific, and just be friendly. Treat others the way you want to be treated and that tank will be happy. So will everyone else. But dealing with bad players is hard enough. So if the tank drops because he feels the party is not helping him in dealing with the bad players, then it is truly not the tank's fault. As much as you want to blame him/her.

To sum it up, there is not way to fix tanking. Range tanking won't cut it. You can give a tank 583million buttons and it won't be fun still. Complex yes, but not more fun. You can make tanking push 2 buttons and never have to worry about threat. I will be asleep before I even get out of town. Just saying. Melee is too mainstream, but range tanking is not. To create a Range Tank, you need fights that will have to cater to Range Tanking and not melee tanking. Which will force groups to make sure they have a range tank. Which can cause balance issues.

It is one of those things where, if the problems of tanking could be solved, would end in the destruction of the universe. And we wouldn't want that now yes?

[randomrope]

Just as a note: if they're asking you to tank a lot, so much that you don't have time to solo...it means that there are few tanks in your FC...

And if you're only tanking for your FC...guess what? You're part of the tanking shortage problem...

This is one of the most selfish posts I've seen in a long time. Good thing you love the way your Drg af/myth armor looks, cause it isn't making your que any shorter. Oh and guess what. Those FC members that Zplinter is playing with isn't taking up your DF spot for DPS. So that one tank is putting you 4 people further in the que. Maybe you should thank him rather than being a child.

[Hitokirinomad]

Ugh. No one even bothers to explain that fight to new people (even if they announce they're new!!) and it is definitely not a fight you want to do blind.

I pointed out in a DF the other day that the ONLY mechanic you should not have seen by the time you get to Ultima HM is the orbs. Every single other mechanic is in Prae except Ifrit Dash, which considering I never see anybody in Ultima HM w/o a Relic...you've seen. People then tried to argue with me that lasers and ships aren't in Prae (they are). Then someone said 'well you can eat every single mechanic in Prae and live'. I had no response, because I try not to get hit with stuff as a matter of course, and the fact that you don't know HOW to dodge the Ultima HM mechanics because you never learned in Prae is ultimately why I don't like this community.

[Anienai]

because you never learned in Prae is ultimately why I don't like this community.

Sad face...sad face...sad face.

[Zplinter]

Nope I have plenty of time to do what ever needs doing.
And guess what... my FC treats me nicely, explain to me WHY I want to be treated poorly by some random person?