A Tankless Job

[Ashkendor]

The facts are straight forward: Playing DPS requires 0 skill and less awareness. I have played many games with lackluster players pushing decent numbers by following someones DPS guide and gear list. The majority of these players are dumb as rocks and really lost their edge when new content was released; because no one was spoon-feeding how to adapt. The sheer exertion it takes to memorize the information, positioning, timing, timers, etc. as a Tank (and occasionally healers) is so high, that it does limit interest. It's a responsibility role at it's core, and I have found myself spending my time online queuing for randoms as I level up to start gearing out and have nearly instant commencements because of it.

In the end, I chose Tank because I wish to drive my game play; and not wait for someone else to consider, possibly somewhere down the line, standing up and taking the same action. You should thank your Tank and Healers because they are sacrificing fun play, so you can enjoy it.

The things you listed there don't apply to all DPS. A DPS with zero awareness of his positioning and what's going on around him is simply a bad player. It gimps his damage, it makes him take hits that he could easily dodge, and it makes him a burden to the rest of the party. The thing is, there's bad players in every role. I'm a tank main myself (i99 PLD) but I do have reasonably well geared WHM/SCH and DRG. I've seen it from all sides and no, DPS is not just about hitting stuff mindlessly till it's dead. Hard DPS checks mean that you have to know your rotation; you have to know what to hit and when. If an add gets on the healer, I try to pull it off of them with my DRG, or at least stun and kill it so that they don't die. I try to stun annoying AoE abilities. There's many ways to be a good DPS.

Honestly, in a lot of the endgame content the tank (specifically the main tank) has it very easy. You stand there, you keep aggro, and you play punching bag. Titan HM is a great example of this. There's an "In Depth Tanking Guide" to Titan HM floating around on somewhere that consists of "Just stand there" as a response for basically every one of his actions. On the whole, that isn't entirely inaccurate. A lot of the time you DO just stand there. I don't think tank is any more difficult to play well than any other role; it simply has a lot of responsibility attached to it like healer does. Most of my problems that I have as a tank come from dealing with idiots (I'm looking at you, CT tank wars...), but you get that no matter what class you play; it's hardly specific to the tanking role.

Personally, I enjoy tanking and I don't see it as sacrificing my fun. I see it as a chance to work together with people that enjoy the other roles in the game so that we can explore and clear content in a cooperative way.

[Solrak]

Honestly, in a lot of the endgame content the tank (specifically the main tank) has it very easy. You stand there, you keep aggro, and you play punching bag. Titan HM is a great example of this. There's an "In Depth Tanking Guide" to Titan HM floating around on somewhere that consists of "Just stand there" as a response for ....

I'm not going to be that dramatic to say that dps requires 0 skill... No... There are good dps and bad dps too, as you can find good tanks and bad tanks... The thing for me is that if a dps fails... Party has a very high chance of survival. If a tank or a healer fails, that chance is reduced to almost 0%. That my friend, it's a big responsibility that many ppl is afraid of taking.

And what are you telling about the tank just stands there is very far from the truth!! Yeah... Titan hard mode is like that... But any other primal, coil and endgame thing depends on tank position and adaptation to survivability...

[Ashkendor]

And what are you telling about the tank just stands there is very far from the truth!! Yeah... Titan hard mode is like that... But any other primal, coil and endgame thing depends on tank position and adaptation to survivability...

I'm talking specifically about your MT. Typically most of the burden falls on your OT for things like picking up adds and stunning annoying abilities. Ifrit HM - just stand there. Ramuh HM - Just stand there. Bone Dragon - just stand there. King Behemoth - just stand there. Caduceus - just stand there. There's a lot of things that simply require you to keep the mob still, avoid floor candy of various flavors, and pop the occasional cooldown while the OT (if you have one), DPS and healers do their thing. We all have our roles. :3

Am I saying tanking takes zero skill? Of course not. It's just not as hard as most people think, and to say that DPS requires no skill by comparison (as the person I was replying to did) is dead wrong.

[Lasha]

The thing for me is that if a dps fails... Party has a very high chance of survival. If a tank or a healer fails, that chance is reduced to almost 0%. That my friend, it's a big responsibility that many ppl is afraid of taking.

That's not because tanking requires any special skill. Its because of the trinity mechanic where tanks have a button that says "ignore the guy killing me and bash my skull in for no reason". I'm still learning to tank but its about the same as playing my DPS properly; just easier in some fights by nature of doing nothing but standing around instead of running rotations while avoiding AOE.

[Aloreal]

-SNIP-

Actually as i see it a tank is the one that needs to either know all the fights beforehand, at least an idea of an idea by video or be really able to pick it up fast as they go.

the main point why people do not pick up a tank is the responsibility behind it, not the complexity of it. As soon as you pick it up you are given a position to pick up everything and make it work.

Look at raid guilds even in different games. the leader is usually a tank, charismatic and a good leader either by natural or by learning it as he went.

that and the fact that dps have better looking attacks and draws the vain people to it most of the times.

granted that in ff most of the fights are mechanics based and once someone learns the main way to do it its usually a breeze and that takes part of the responsibility off the tank

[Enyeto]

The things you listed there don't apply to all DPS. A DPS with zero awareness of his positioning...

Thank you for standing up for the <1%. They do need that justification, which I thought I made clear earlier. Not every dps is like my statement, but the vast majority wait for the top 1% to trickle down information. Of the rest, you can count on 60%-70% not truly understanding the role and how to adjust/adapt. And that will always remain the majority. But dps, vs. healing or tanking is fundamentally easier, with less responsibility.

You may have chosen tank for the wrong reasons and end up bitter in the end...

Thank you for your concern, but I do enjoy tanking. As my personal preference I don't want to tank my entire gaming career. I'd like to play the stabber instead of the stabee for a while, without having grueling queue times and always LF Tank / LF Heals

[Ashkendor]

But dps, vs. healing or tanking is fundamentally easier, with less responsibility.

No argument there. I DPS when I don't feel like having the responsibility of tanking or healing.

Or when there's a bonus for queueing DPS in a roulette. :3

Thank you for your concern, but I do enjoy tanking. As my personal preference I don't want to tank my entire gaming career. I'd like to play the stabber instead of the stabee for a while, without having grueling queue times and always LF Tank / LF Heals

Find a tank buddy. That's the best way especially now that expert/high level roulettes are doable in party.

I agree DPS queues are ridiculous - I did FATE grind from 1-50 on my DRG.

[Enyeto]

No argument there. I DPS when I don't feel like having the responsibility of tanking or healing... I agree DPS queues are ridiculous - I did FATE grind from 1-50 on my DRG.

I think we're definitely in agreement here. I wanted to play DRG also, since Lancer is still my highest class until tonight. In Rift, when you queued for dungeons you would be able to select the roles you are capable of filling. (i.e. If I had a tank build, a healer build and a dps build, I could select all 3 options to queue for.) In this game, you have to 'lock' the role you are queuing with. It would be a nice addition at lv.50 to push all experience gained into a secondary class of your selection, or evenly distribute to all lower than lv50 classes you have initiated.

[VWintons]

I've been playing MRD/WAR since I started back in April and I love it. I don't understand where these ideas of stress and boredom are coming from. Burning through trash mobs does get old, but finding ways to maximize DPS (AoE spam large pulls, optimizing rotations) while holding hate or recovering from/dealing with bad players mistakes/ignorance can keep it interesting.

The real fun is in tanking the endgame boss fights. I don't watch the strategy videos and just learn the fights by trial and error with my FC/pugs. It is VERY satisfying when a group successfully executes your strategy and makes progress in a fight. When you finally have it all figured out and actually clear it, you really feel like you've accomplished something and helped other people accomplish something too.

[Ashkendor]

I've been playing MRD/WAR since I started back in April and I love it. I don't understand where these ideas of stress and boredom are coming from. Burning through trash mobs does get old, but finding ways to maximize DPS (AoE spam large pulls, optimizing rotations) while holding hate or recovering from/dealing with bad players mistakes/ignorance can keep it interesting.

The real fun is in tanking the endgame boss fights. I don't watch the strategy videos and just learn the fights by trial and error with my FC/pugs. It is VERY satisfying when a group successfully executes your strategy and makes progress in a fight. When you finally have it all figured out and actually clear it, you really feel like you've accomplished something and helped other people accomplish something too.

YES. So much this. All of it.

I love brand-new content cause then I get to explore it with my FC with no expectations at all. ^^