Quote Originally Posted by Sagittarii View Post
I've played all 3 roles (DPS/Healer/Tank). I can see why DPS is the most popular. You basically just need to look out for yourself and use your toolkit to do as much damage as possible. You usually don't need to manage other party member's HP bars or remove their status ailments. You don't need to keep enemies off them. You usually don't need to worry about raising someone if they get KO'd either. You basically get off easy. That's why I often prefer to play as DPS.
You can play that way, yes, but you won't be very good.
Being Elite DPS is HARD. Not only do you need a really low error count on activating the right spell at the right time, you also need to make a lot of decisions on when to dodge where to minimize movement, when to use personal CDs to soak damage and you need to plan ahead in your DPS CD usage.

Very few people do it, as most content is not designed with that kind of requirements.
But just for the record: the playstyle is there and it can be VERY stressful.
Far more so than running into the mobs, mashing a few AoE buttons to grab threat and after that halfassing around b/c a few unleashes generate so much threat that the mobs die before anyone grabs them from you. Same in the healer camp. I can go in and only heal, being semi AFK 75% of the time b/c no heal is needed.

Ofc elite tanks will tank AND play the DPS game as good as possible, same as elite healers. Both can dish out respectable numbers too.

Bottom line of this rambling: all three roles are actually very hard if you want to play at a high level.