Shower thought...There is no shortage of tanks.

[KisaiTenshi]

My "secondary" job is PLD, and I very rarely do anything with it in the duty finder. I will sometimes join leveling dungeons, but nothing else. I have it because there are other people who I play with who like me to tank.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people in the duty finder who are very demanding of tanks and healers. They want them to pull more mobs or do more DPS, and then they also get the blame whenever any of those demands go wrong. I and many others don't want to play with them.

I won't requeue more than once for most of the roulettes. I'll requeue for the Trial roulette before I will requeue for any of the others.

The Trials always seem to be Ifrit Hard, Titan Hard or Ramuh Hard. Nothing else. Occasionally something else like The Chimera or Hydra pops up because someone wants to do the Relic Reborn Quest, but when you select those from the Duty Finder, it is literately the longest wait (Hydra took a good 20 minutes, and I was doing this on Paladin.) As I said elsewhere, the shortage of Tanks appears to apply only to the Dungeons. There is a shortage of Healers for Trials, and there is a shortage of DPS for raids. I've tried to queue for HW raids several times before and after SB's launch and it can take nearly an hour to get any of HW's raids, mostly waiting for DPS. The healer slots tend to be the first filled for raids.

[Galgarion]

Oh, there's a tank shortage all right. A shortage of tanks willing to put up with Duty finder. I had four jerk groups in a row yesterday. No fun. No fun at all.

[Furious]

As a paladin tank main, I was just thinking, all through ARR, HW, and now SB, people have talked of the 'shortage' of tanks. The general census for the time I've been playing (since beta) have always shown about a 25%, 25%, 50% (tank/healer/dps) distribution. Even HW didn't change this much, as those that tank tend to keep tanking, while those that were dps but tried tanking often go back to dps. What I think the issue is, isn't a shortage of tanks, but a shortage of tanks willing to tank for DF parties.

I thought of this last night as friends asked me to do leveling and then 50/60 roulette. If they hadn't asked, and I hadn't had them there to accompany me, I never would've done the roulettes regardless of the rewards just b/c I hate dealing with the random nature of PUGs. Sure, some are good (most of them), and some are bad (a few), but the really bad ones tend to stick with people and make the whole experience just ick.

So, when people are talking about there being a shortage of tanks - look at your FC or LS, and you will probably see many with tanks leveled, but who never DF with them while being more than willing to run things with you. Not much for it, however, since no one can change the nature of DF unless everyone (tanks, healers, and dps) make an effort to understand each other and understand that regardless of role, everyone is a person who has different comfort zones and such, but is still a human behind the character you see on your screen ^^

There is a shortage of tanks/healers queuing for duty finder. The distribution and willingness of the tank/healer population in general has little to no bearing on this fact. Nobody cares if there are 2 tanks for every 1 dps of those tanks don't queue for duty finder.

[OriWhitedeer]

I main DRK and I am a dungeon junkie. That being said, I can only stomach doing a few dungeons in a row before needing break, unless I'm farming something or doing roulettes with friends. So this only covers a few hours at a time, with tons of players still needing tanks in queues. So I agree that there isn't really a shortage of people who tank, but rather a shortage of people who tank in DF for not only the reasons mentioned, but the fact that even dungeon junkies like me need breaks, leaving many players hurting for tanks for their groups.

[BlastHardcheese]

Last time I played a Tank (lvl 51) in the DF: I had a DPS sit down after the first trash pack because he didn't like my pull size and deemed me "a low skill r****d."

Yeah no, I'll stick to friends/FC if I ever go back to leveling a Tank.

[Shurrikhan]

Honestly, I'd rather go into a shitty DF as a healer or especially a tank (and from there, especially a 64+ PLD). At least then I can be sure that survival is being taken care of along with a good portion of DPS (often more than the "DPS", unless I'm healing for a tank who won't use CDs).

[Vespar]

There are two reasons I dont main tank.
1. It is boring to me.
2. I hate the attitudes of those I get partied with in DF...who think I should pull more or less, faster, slower, use this rotation or stance, etc. (Trust me happens alot)

In regards to #2, Tanks in DF just cant win. They seem to always be at the whim of the other classes. "Do this", no "Do that", You should do X,Y,Z because "I" prefer it that way.
So really its two-fold why I dont play tanks but mostly its the attitude of the players who seem to wanna dictate how I play my class (regardless of how well I hold hate, etc.)
Can't say I encounter this much in PF as a tank, but in DF its rampant as all hell.

[AdventZero]

I think the problem with tank shortages has to do with the fractured opinions on what a tank should do.

Do I tank stance the whole run? Stance dance? Or DPS stance the whole run?

Should I have STR gear on the right side? Or VIT gear?

Should I pull 1 group, 2 groups, or everything I can get?

What kind of Materia should I use? What stat should I stack?

Then you add personal job things on top of that.

What's the best rotation start for PLD, Should I start with FoF and melee ws, or Req. and HS spamming?

Should I cast 5 holy spirits, or just 4? Normally I need to dodge an AoE before the 5th one, so is it better to take a hit for DPS, or lose DPS to dodge an AoE?

I can't speak for all other tanks, but knowing that something so simple as casting one less holy spirit then I'm able to could be enough to trigger someone makes me a lot less willing to throw my self to the wolves of the Duty Finder.

[GDFletcher]

I will only DF on my PLD if I am with my preferred healer and a DPS I can trust. Again this problem isn't down to "lack of Tanks" it is a case of lack of trust in the player base as an general

[Vespar]

I think the problem with tank shortages has to do with the fractured opinions on what a tank should do.

Do I tank stance the whole run? Stance dance? Or DPS stance the whole run?

Should I have STR gear on the right side? Or VIT gear?

Should I pull 1 group, 2 groups, or everything I can get?

What kind of Materia should I use? What stat should I stack?

Then you add personal job things on top of that.

What's the best rotation start for PLD, Should I start with FoF and melee ws, or Req. and HS spamming?

Should I cast 5 holy spirits, or just 4? Normally I need to dodge an AoE before the 5th one, so is it better to take a hit for DPS, or lose DPS to dodge an AoE?

I can't speak for all other tanks, but knowing that something so simple as casting one less holy spirit then I'm able to could be enough to trigger someone makes me a lot less willing to throw my self to the wolves of the Duty Finder.

Pretty much summed up what I meant in my post.