Why Don’t You Tank Poll

[Derio]

I dont know. Healing is more stressful IMO. Because if the tank dies then the blame instantly goes to the healer(s). Especially in 24 man content.

[Jijifli]

I'm too fast so my 'squishy' tank is too much for the healer, or I'm too slow and don't take any damage, making others want me to go bigger.

I get SO many mixed messages as a tank I actually don't know if I'm a good or bad tank. When I DO bother, I'll usually be told how much of a squishy sponge I am, or how I'm super duper tanky (Got both in Skalla's massive pull before second boss, did nothing different between them.) I also tend to get faster runs if I heal or dps it.

[Tsumdere]

I also tend to get faster runs if I heal or dps it.

This. Once I got over tank-xiety I had, the real turn off was how BAD other players are. If I don't play healer, all I get are heal-only healers who lose their mind when you ask them nicely to DPS (I just stop using CDs if they do that). If I don't play DPS, all I get are RDMs who hardcast Veraero and melee who say AoE is too hard.
And then people wonder why there is no tanks in DF.

[Fredco191]

Tanking is WAY less stressful for me than healing.

[AppleJinx]

Too scared of run into incompetent healers that can't keep me alive for pulling wall to wall in end game dungeons so I guess this belongs in the stressful camp

[ErryK]

I just can't be bothered with it. It is boring, but that isn't my problem. It's not stressful either, it's just... you have healers who just don't know what they're doing. So I find myself playing healer more often than tank.

[Selova]

Been warming up to it lately, but I rest firmly in the camp of "too stressful"
Constantly scared that I'm not pulling "enough". Or too much, or not holding mobs as well as I should, and so on, and so on, which stresses me out.

The fear and stress that people feel from tanking is alleviated through practice. As someone that avoided tanking for over 10 years in WoW due to these very reasons, I decided to leave my comfort zone when i started playing FFXIV 2 years ago and after a bit of practice, reading tanking guides and familiarizing myself with mechanics It honestly was rather easy and fun.

I think the issue is that people don't want to have to leave their comfort zone or what they are used to and obviously don't want to deal with stress from all the tank horror stories of everyone blaming them in groups for every single mistake and honestly I can't blame them.

Then on top of all this you add to the fact that tanks for a lot of people just aren't engaging to play, I don't personally agree since I love playing my Warrior but I can understand. There is also the fact that tanks are responsible for setting the pace for the group, making decisions on whether or not your healer can handle doing bigger pulls vs smaller pulls, having to make snap decisions on what mitigations you need to pop if you have a new healer ect.


The cons for a lot of people outweight the pros and they just aren't comfortable with more responsibility than they are used to. Playing tanks in MMO's has always been the least popular role and regardless of how fun they make them to play, the added responsibility of playing that role just isn't appealing to people no matter how you slice it. Cheers.

[AphraelAmarantha]

No "because I am terribad" option?

In all seriousness, I don't tank because I am super super super bad at it in other games and lets just say that it would be better to to kick me if I ever played tank in this game (which would be never lol). I am far more comfortable DPSing but discovered my true calling is healing and I actually like healing, I find it very relaxing and I don't worry so much about trying to have super high dps. That doesn't mean I'm not dpsing as a healer but I like healing much better.

[Tridus]

Too busy healing.

[Ferth]

I've got War and paladin both at 70. I don't take them into anything but expert roulettes because I don't need/want tomes. I'd level DRK too but since Stormblood it feels really weird to play and I don't enjoy it.