The Final Reason on why we have more DPS than Tanks or Healers

[Ririta]

The real reason is (Harsh Version):

Both Tanks and Healers are artificial roles with no point nor purpose. They are forced into the group via un-avoidable damage and are only ever as useful as they are mandatory. That's also why they end up becoming DPS as soon as Mitigation/Healing requirements are met - They are innately useless. That's also why they need Damage abilities for solo play - Because they are useless at their core. Damage is what matters, all that matters. And people subconsciously pick on, hence they prefer playing DPS.

DPS are forced into the genre with bloated HP pools in enemies and artificial "deal x damage or wipe" mechanics. Just see all those discussions that sparked during Gordias and DPS checks - one of the most common reasons for DPS checks is that "or else people would go with only tanks and healers".

In fact, I'd say that the genre would be more interesting without DPS. Tanks relies on healers, healers relies on tanks, there's an obvious synergy there. DPS? You have no way nor/or need to help tanks or healers, you just do your own thing like in a single player game.

[Shurrikhan]

DPS are forced into the genre with bloated HP pools in enemies and artificial "deal x damage or wipe" mechanics. Just see all those discussions that sparked during Gordias and DPS checks - one of the most common reasons for DPS checks is that "or else people would go with only tanks and healers".

In fact, I'd say that the genre would be more interesting without DPS. Tanks relies on healers, healers relies on tanks, there's an obvious synergy there. DPS? You have no way nor/or need to help tanks or healers, you just do your own thing like in a single player game.

As a Dragoon or BLM, maybe. Otherwise, no more so than a tank, depending on the fight...

It's not as if the options are that much more involved for tanks or healers. As a Monk I routinely grab and gather adds if the OT dies, and when still able as a Summoner I'd then tri-bind them to free up the Monk and avoid damage entirely while rezzing said OT, such that the Monk can debuff the boss's magic damage before the would-be wipe cast because dps is running slow with the OT dead and Mantra us all before the DoT would kill us, etc... Tanks get Provoke to call attention from one target if they continue attacking it, and the rarely effective Cover and costly Clemency for all of one of those tank jobs.

Wouldn't it make more sense to just try to create more overlap and cross responsibility, rather than pick a category as being the best, leave it barebone, and scrap the rest despite their frequently near-equal merits? >.>

[Ririta]

Wouldn't it make more sense to just try to create more overlap and cross responsibility, rather than pick a category as being the best, leave it barebone, and scrap the rest despite their frequently near-equal merits? >.>

Yes, I agree. I didn't mean to offend. Sadly MMORPGs are removing the DPS' responsability in groups more and more. Crowd management, aggro management, buffs and debuffs, spell interrupption all used to fall on the backs of DPS. Simple things that helped their healers and tanks, but nowadays are forgotten in favor of pure damage.

[Lesan]

DPS are forced into the genre with bloated HP pools in enemies and artificial "deal x damage or wipe" mechanics. Just see all those discussions that sparked during Gordias and DPS checks - one of the most common reasons for DPS checks is that "or else people would go with only tanks and healers".

In fact, I'd say that the genre would be more interesting without DPS. Tanks relies on healers, healers relies on tanks, there's an obvious synergy there. DPS? You have no way nor/or need to help tanks or healers, you just do your own thing like in a single player game.

Thats why back when I played The Secret World, the game made clear what they expect people to bring. To unlock the highest difficulty mode, a tank had to bring selfheal and stuns, to interrupt boss skills. The healer had to heal, and bring a debuff cleanse. And the DPS had to bring an ability to purge buffs from the boss.

[Zojha]

DPS are forced into the genre with bloated HP pools in enemies and artificial "deal x damage or wipe" mechanics.

Do you think so?

Let's remove DPS, aka damage dealers from the game then. This means that you also remove damage from the game, as anything that is able to deal damage is a damage-dealer and we just removed those from the game. Let's see what happens.

*crystal ball mode*
Everyone stays at full HP forever. Tanks cannot mitigate any damage since there are no enemy DPS anymore, healers cannot heal anything since there is no damage to undo anymore and aggro doesn't matter because nobody takes damage anyway, as all damage dealers and thus damage has been removed. Since you have no damage either, every enemy is invincible.

Congratulations, you broke the game. Got any more bright ideas?

Wanna know what really forces DPS into the game? Health. Because damage is a means to reduce health. And without damage, both tanks and healers break. Everything irreparably breaks. Damage dealers are a necessity. In contrast, you can remove tanks and healers and only need to adjust a few numbers, because only health and damage matter. Both of these roles exist for no sake but their own. They are superfluous. And because they are superfluous, they are ditched for DPS whenever possible, aka the DPS meta.

It's the cold, harsh truth of the trinity. People crack it up to far more than it really is.

[Ririta]

Let's remove DPS, aka damage dealers from the game then. This means that you also remove damage from the game, as anything that is able to deal damage is a damage-dealer and we just removed those from the game. Let's see what happens.

Please don't bend the meaning of the term for the sake of an argument, "DPS" as a role is clearly defined in the genre and this game. And has been for over a decade.

And honestly, Guild Wars 2 already spoke so much on what happens when you remove tanks and healers. If you want a clusterfuck with zero strategy or teamwork, then removing tanks and healers is the way to go.

[Allyrion]

Do you think so?

Let's remove DPS, aka damage dealers from the game then. This means that you also remove damage from the game, as anything that is able to deal damage is a damage-dealer and we just removed those from the game. Let's see what happens.

*crystal ball mode*
Everyone stays at full HP forever. Tanks cannot mitigate any damage since there are no enemy DPS anymore, healers cannot heal anything since there is no damage to undo anymore and aggro doesn't matter because nobody takes damage anyway, as all damage dealers and thus damage has been removed. Since you have no damage either, every enemy is invincible.

Congratulations, you broke the game. Got any more bright ideas?

Wanna know what really forces DPS into the game? Health. Because damage is a means to reduce health. And without damage, both tanks and healers break. Everything irreparably breaks. Damage dealers are a necessity. In contrast, you can remove tanks and healers and only need to adjust a few numbers, because only health and damage matter. Both of these roles exist for no sake but their own. They are superfluous. And because they are superfluous, they are ditched for DPS whenever possible, aka the DPS meta.

It's the cold, harsh truth of the trinity. People crack it up to far more than it really is.

Wow, that is a ridiculous rant.
There is a point in there, but it soaked in hyperbole and misconstruing terms to make an argument.

The trinity design is simple. Yes, damage is how you finish a fight because of health, while healing and tanking is how you survive so that you can keep doing damage. Both parties have that ever important resource (health) and the enemies goal is to take yours before you take theirs. It's like saying in something like football that the whole back field and referee are pointless because all you need to win is to score enough goals.

Damage is your offense, it's how you finish the fight but without defense, it's meaningless. The only option to remove defense is to make all damage completely avoidable. That's just as broken as a game without real dps.

What you're right about is that defense only needs to matter to the point you can finish the fight through damage. But that's the basis of design. In other games, I've seen people stack healers and tanks when dps checks weren't strict and enemy damage was heavy. That resulted in slower but guaranteed clears because you were basically invincible and the enemy would go down eventually. Slow and steady was popular at the start of this game at times too, but the Meta shifted (as it tends do).

The only reason we have a dps meta is because encounters aren't that taxing on healing and tanking. Also both kits lack the intricacy of mechanics that dps have which is one of the actual reasons they're unpopular. WAR is kind of the exception since it has a more active mitigation kit.

Lastly, I'd jump on the bandwagon of looking at GW2's lack of roles to show how mindless only dps combat is. Even they backed out of that design pretty quick.

It doesn't need to be Tank-Healer-DD, but team based combat should have some role based tactics. This game chose the tried-and-true Trinity that's pretty safe, so we just need to work with that.