Why not just make everyone a DPS?

[Dante_V]

The tanks job is to hold aggro on enemies > mitigate as much damage possible being received from those enemies > maximize damage output while doing the first two.

All of these things are indeed the tanks job. Some of the tank jobs do some of these things better than others. Tanks that refuse to do these things by limiting themselves to imaginary "role restrictions" are just limiting their contribution to the team. A good player will try and maximize their output in favor of the team in every way possible. At the end of the day efficiently clearing content is everyone's job. Those who are refusing to give their all to this end are holding the team back. This isn't just applied to tanks.

[Sapphidia]

The tanks job is to hold aggro on enemies > mitigate as much damage possible being received from those enemies > maximize damage output while doing the first two.

This is the point. This is what it SHOULD be. But it isnt. Right now it's:

Hold aggro on enemies -> get just enough gear/cooldowns to not die in 1 second -> maximise DPS output -> mitigate as much damage as possible after the first conditions are met.

The focus is vastly different in practise. Right now as soon as your health levels and general mitigation is -just enough- to survive an encounter, tanks are expected to focus 100% on improving their DPS rather than improving their survivability. I'm sure for a lot of players this is really fun, and it's certainly great to feel like you're doing your best for your group. But for others, this subtle change in focus is making the class feel somewhat different to what was signed up for.

[HoodRat]

So many bads in here.

[Yorumi]

Those who are refusing to give their all to this end are holding the team back. This isn't just applied to tanks.

I don't think anyone is really refusing it's just they don't like this type of design where a tank basically just feels like a dps that happens to have the mob's attention. Almost everything about reducing damage is passive or is just press cooldown when you see big cast bar. Look at the converse, imagine raids were designed so that dps classes had to build for mitigation, and had to use a more defensive stance for 80% of the fight. I think dps would be rightly saying "I didn't sign up to tank I signed up to dps." People can call me a role purist but I think the design of content should be such that each role focuses on maximizing it's role. Dps should maximize dps, healers should maximize healing, and tanks should maximize mitigation.

[Sapphidia]

Those who are refusing to give their all to this end are holding the team back. This isn't just applied to tanks.

Yeah, this particular argument isnt about refusing to give their all. As a Paladin main, I bought pentamelded jewellery, I run HQ Drac Str pots every raid, I coordinate with my healers for when it's fine to sword oath on faust/oppressor/whatever to crank out the extra damage, I do everything I can to try and compensate for the fact that as a Paladin I'll be putting less damage on the field than a Warrior. I can't remember the last time I had to remotely think about optimising my tanking ability in Alex Savage other than just knowing what cooldown rotation to use.

It's not about refusing to give their all. It's about feeling that the focus of minmaxing and theorycraft for tanks in 3.0 is entirely weighted on optimising DPS output and that just isnt as fun for -some- people as optimising mitigation/tankiness. It's a "feel" thing, and it's the kind of thng that's making players like me consider swapping roles because tanking just feels so different to how it did in 2.5, even though the new abilities we got technically made the classes more fun and interactive.

Tanking feels different in focus now, and something about it feels "off" compared to previous content.

[Dante_V]

I wasn't addressing this to any particular class and wasn't addressing the limitation of any particular class. Obv a Pally doesn't put out the dps of the other two but this is the trade off in particular for that class. The tanking meta as dps focused has more to do with them dropping the savage raid with a higher ilvl in mind and therefore requiring more team dps. The content can still be cleared with a pally but is easier with a tank that can output more dps. There is more of an emphasis on dps for tanks currently but this will only be until people gear up further. Personally I like the emphasis on dps as a tank more than not. The tanking in this game is painfully boring without some other element just do to the nature of the way we interact with enemies. Some people may like it tho so it's different for everyone. I found tanking in 2.0 to be painfully boring outside of trying to single tank things as a war or brand new content when we were still undergeared.

[Yorumi]

The tanking in this game is painfully boring without some other element just do to the nature of the way we interact with enemies. Some people may like it tho so it's different for everyone.

The argument that tanking is boring really only says that tanks in this game are very poorly designed. It's probably too late now but to me the solution is more interesting tanking, more active mitigation rather than passive, fewer fixed rotations and something to actually think about, not just make tanks like dps. If the only way we can have fun is by becoming a dps it makes one question why we all became tanks in the first place.