A PSA to all upset tank players

[Pori_Dessu]

Considering that now tanking includes a moderate level of challenge that actually pertains to the role of tanking, instead of being a ridiculous breeze like it was before, I would say that the "fun factor" has improved dramatically.

So don't worry dear DPS and healers, you have my shield.

As a now RDM main I appreciate the fact that there are people that actually enjoy the borefast that is maintaining aggro in this game. As an Ex-DRK main I cry tears of blood inside...

[Abriael]

As a now RDM main I appreciate the fact that there are people that actually enjoy the borefast that is maintaining aggro in this game.

It was a borefest before. It isn't now, exactly for the reasons why some people are complaining.

Before stormblood the *only* challenge of tanking in the game was edging a little bit more DPS, which has nothing to do with tanking. Now the challenge (moderate, mind you) is actually tanking. I'd say that's good design.

[IzumiOgata]

Read his thing, go on

That's the thing I've been trying to tell everyone here, tanks were never really supposed to be mechanically interesting jobs (at least while MTing), the most interesting part about tanking is that we have the most control over party-wide mechanics. Like healers, most of the time their mechanics are really simple, the big pull for them is the situational difficulty, not the mechanical one, healer DPS is basically pressing a single button over and over again, tanks are a bit more mechanically intensive, but not that much, exactly because they need time for situational awareness, unlike DPS. Hell, sometimes I get bored of playing tank so I just spend a few days playing my BRD to wind down.

TL;DR: Healers and tanks are not mechanically intensive jobs, they are awareness/situational intensive ones, if you want mechanically intensive jobs DPS are way more fun.

[YitharV2]

TL;DR: Healers and tanks are not mechanically intensive jobs, they are awareness/situational intensive ones, if you want mechanically intensive jobs DPS are way more fun.

Yeah, I'm just sitting here missing tanking in TERA because it was quite mechanically intensive with needing to actively mitigate attacks fairly often (sometimes every 3s, 10s, etc.). My view is that SE wants to keep them simple though.

I mainly play tank or healer just because that's what my FC needs. But every now then I hop on my MNK, since that's what I'm trying to main.

[Lewtskie]

TL;DR: Healers and tanks are not mechanically intensive jobs, they are awareness/situational intensive ones, if you want mechanically intensive jobs DPS are way more fun.

I'll openly admit here my main interest is in the mechanics of a fight itself, so I actually like my Job's mechanics to be as straight-forward and to-the-point as possible, with plenty of wiggle room and adaptability. DPS with long combo chains or upkeeps always bothered me, and the exception to that was MNK because it had plenty of said wiggle room, otherwise BRD was essentially my main for the longest time. Getting over my issues with people while tanking in the past, I do like the beat of tanking. I like it when I can put more focus on the thing I'm looking at more.

[IzumiOgata]

Yeah, I'm just sitting here missing tanking in TERA because it was quite mechanically intensive with needing to actively mitigate attacks fairly often (sometimes every 3s, 10s, etc.). My view is that SE wants to keep them simple though.

I mainly play tank or healer just because that's what my FC needs. But every now then I hop on my MNK, since that's what I'm trying to main.

I had some 2k hours of play time on TERA before coming over (shame EME fell into the p2w business model), mained a brawler, and oh boy did I love that feel with perfect blocks. If you want to relive a bit of that feeling, try playing PLD and popping Sheltron before every big hit, it can be quite satisfying!

[Pori_Dessu]

It was a borefest before. It isn't now, exactly for the reasons why some people are complaining.

Before stormblood the *only* challenge of tanking in the game was edging a little bit more DPS, which has nothing to do with tanking. Now the challenge (moderate, mind you) is actually tanking. I'd say that's good design.

Yeah, because spamming Hard Slash-Spinning Slash-Power Slash-Unleashed (And repeat as necessary) is quite the challenge... But as I said, each with it's own...

TL;DR: Healers and tanks are not mechanically intensive jobs, they are awareness/situational intensive ones, if you want mechanically intensive jobs DPS are way more fun.

And that's exactly why we can't even get a fourth of our player base to play tanks/healers. Most people play games to feel engaged, if what you're playing is not entertaining, it's not engaging. Why does 2/3 roles have to be mechanically simple, and not only 1 (If you enjoy anime, I'd recommend watching Log Horizon for an idea of how I'd like party play to work in games, btw). And I'm not here asking for complex rotations like SAM or NIN, I'm asking for a more engaging mitigation system, more choices when building aggro, and more reasons to do a combo over the other. I don't want to spend hours on a training dummy as I do with every DPS job I wanna play, I'm asking for something that won't bore the hell out of me when I'm running a dungeon for the hundredth time and all I do is spam one combo and one skill, and do mechanics by muscle memory.

[YitharV2]

I had some 2k hours of play time on TERA before coming over (shame EME fell into the p2w business model), mained a brawler, and oh boy did I love that feel with perfect blocks. If you want to relive a bit of that feeling, try playing PLD and popping Sheltron before every big hit, it can be quite satisfying!

Eh, I feel like Inner Beast can be compared to Shelltron, and it isn't quite the same feeling, because bosses aren't engaging enough.

[IzumiOgata]

Read it!

There's never going to be a balanced population in any MMO, it's just a pipe dream. And the fact that you find the actual tanking boring is the reason you're maining a DPS and not a tank (at least now). DPS are for people that want to tackle the content and push their damage to a maximum. Tanks are for people that want to be the shield of their party, their protection. And healers are for people that want to support their allies so that they can do their roles without fear. That's the trinity system that this MMO and many others use. It's good to be able to cover a bit of everything with a single class, but none should stray too much from their core. WAR did during HW, it did so much damage that it could forget about it's tanking skills for most of the game, the same happened to DRK, to a lesser degree. People want the perks of tanking (fast Qs, survivability,) but don't want to have to eat up their downsides (responsabilities, low damage).

[Pori_Dessu]

There's never going to be a balanced population in any MMO, it's just a pipe dream. And the fact that you find the actual tanking boring is the reason you're maining a DPS and not a tank (at least now). DPS are for people that want to tackle the content and push their damage to a maximum. Tanks are for people that want to be the shield of their party, their protection. And healers are for people that want to support their allies so that they can do their roles without fear. That's the trinity system that this MMO and many others use. It's good to be able to cover a bit of everything with a single class, but none should stray too much from their core. WAR did during HW, it did so much damage that it could forget about it's tanking skills for most of the game, the same happened to DRK, to a lesser degree. People want the perks of tanking (fast Qs, survivability,) but don't want to have to eat up their downsides (responsabilities, low damage).

I actually enjoy being the shield of the party, as even when I played Ragnarok Online (Which doesn't quite have the trinity, mostly because there's no "aggro" system in that game) I played as a full VIT Paladin, and in League of Legends which isn't even a MMORPG I play tanky characters as well. But I don't enjoy being a leader, as you claimed it's one of the main roles of a tank (And never have been, since I have self-esteem issues and all that chemical depression related stuff), and I don't enjoy extremely simple play styles as well. I like the responsibility of "tanking" (Not leading, as I already said, I don't believe the two are the same thing), as I feel like I'm actually working for the party. And I don't believe I'm the only one like that.
As for the lack of balanced population, is just like server issues: The fact that there's isn't a MMORPG that don't suffer from this, does not mean devs (and players) should not try to achieve better results on the issues. This is just conformism.