Why Don’t You Tank Poll

[Reinha]

Little impact, dependent, easy-mode

I actually agree with this part of your post, but the funny thing is that it's exactly what got me into to tanking (well the tank mounts too I guess). A tank controls the pace, pull size and positioning. In a raid the first two are removed so all there is to do is position the boss, do your own thing (simple damage rotation + cooldowns) and let others do the heavy lifting because their jobs are capable of it. You can even survive some mistakes with mechanics when other roles would drop to the ground for doing the same. And so the role that takes the most focus in dungeons ends up being the easiest in raids.

As someone who is not very great at this game, I think tanking is very forgiving and would welcome everyone to try it. The difficulty curve is smooth apart from the early levels without a tank stance. The bare minimum is a little higher than that of dps or healers but if you aim above that it feels very relaxed in most content. As a bonus you get a lot of commendations, especially if you run like there's a train to catch at the last boss.

[Javey]

I actually agree with this, but the funny thing is that it's exactly what got me into to tanking (well the tank mounts too I guess). A tank controls the pace, pull size and positioning.

In my experience, I'm only able to control those things about 80% of the time. I play healer and dps but I seem to always get really odd parties when I tank.

It's not the job that sucks IMO, it's how I'm treated at times. I know I shouldn't let one bad apple spoil the bunch but failed parties are just soo upsetting.

[bswpayton]

To me if I wana be good at something its gona be tanking or healing, being a top dps in this game is just not easy at all, maintaining 4500 , 5000 , dps at the highest level is just not an easy task. Tanking just feels way more fun, when I dps in a dungeon not only do I have to be subject to the tanks small baby pulls after I already waited like 30 mins to get in the dungeon to begin with.

As a tank I control the pace in the dungeon if I want the dungeon to be done in 20 mins or l ess I do the pulls to get it done. If I go in as a dps Im subject to whatever the current tank wants to do which nine times out of ten pull each add they see one by one thus making the dungeon take 30 mins when it could of been done in a much quicker pace. Also as mention before maintaining whats consider good dps is actually not easy in this game, and Im sure many people that think tanking is stressful are prob not even meeting the bare minimum of what their main should be pulling. I just guess its something Ill never understand, why people dont like tanking.

[mooferz]

I have zero leadership skills and have the direction sense of a mule. Have you seen me in Haukke Manor? Absolute disaster.

[Bahati]

I'm scared to death of tanking! At least as a healer I know how to compensate for disaster and how to fix it if I mess up for some reason. I can't even manage PLD with my boyfriend walking me through it a million times and being there to watch him flawlessly ace packs of mobs while we all go hard DPSing things to the ground. When I try to do it there's mobs running away from me like cows busted free of a pasture. It's not pretty.

[Kaethra]

Decided to let the poll run a few days to see how much of a swing it goes. Seems that its settled on about 3 out of 4 people believe tanking is too stressful. For me this is kinda weird when I take a first glance at the results.

Reason being is the tanking role seems pretty straight forward. You usually have a threat 123 rotation and an alternate debuff/mana gen/dot applying whatever rotation. After that is some defensive CDs and some other utility that changes from tank to tank job. To put it simply.. a little simpler than DPS.

So what about the application of those abilities? The tank usually handles the boss and positions it. And after that not much other than rotating through abilities as needed. Stunning off some attacks, using a cd to mitigate a TB. And mechanics? Well.. majority are cone attacks and melees have a much easier time of dodging them then ranged. And usually the tank ignores most mechanics as they are directed at the healer and dps to either dodge or contend with. Or a simple partywide one like on Yojimbo where you collect money on the ground.

But that leaves one other aspect. Pulling and Positioning. The tank is expected to pull and is expected to position the mobs so they can be dealt with by the party. Everyone's watching, everyone's judging... you're in the spotlight. If you mess up, its no doubt, you were at fault and everyone sees it. Even little mistakes.. they add up.. they make people utter 'bad tank' under their breaths. You can't hear them, they don't type it.. but you know they said it.

I figure this is what it is because I feel a sort of unease tanking a dungeon I haven't tanked before. A dungeon that SHOULD be routine but it isn't because I need to learn how the pulls interact and move as I grab them. Then have to figure out where to put them because your memory goes the crap when 3-9+ mobs are beating on you and you've made a 180 so now the dungeon looks different than it did as a DPS. All that piles on for a little bit of stress.

I assume this is the issue most have. But for me, it quickly elates once I've done a dungeon at least once or twice. But when I started playing MMOs.. in Everquest I played a Ranger and Necromancer during Velious/Luclin (before PoP). As a ranger your pulling ability outdoors was pretty good. Not as good as a decently CHA'd Enchanter, but you could give them a break. For indoors, splitting some mobs required a necro and Feign Death (or a Monk if you had one). Needless to say.. you did NOT send in a Warrior to pull, they'd get trounced. A group of mobs in EQ was enough to wipe a party, so you had to split the groups. That required a effective puller role to be filled. Tanks weren't expected to do this. Paladins and Shadowknights.. could.. but not as well as their non-hybrid versions.

Needless to say.. I have experience pulling. I even did it in early WoW when double trapping was a thing pre-BC. I played a hunter and did very well at pulling. So much of my MMOing, I've done pretty decently at the pulling role. There is no pulling role in FFXIV. There's no need for one. Each group of mobs is designed to be taken down by a group easily. That and there is no mechanism for splitting pulls anyway.

So it helps to let the tanks pull so they get the initial threat. Been that way since 2014 and will be that way in 2020. Unfortunately it does nothing to help the population of the tank role as many players I feel are uncomfortable with tanking. Or more specifically pulling and positioning. I'm not sure if there is a way to fix this without major changes to dungeons. Personally I think groups should be more challenging. Needing abilities such as Sleep, Repose, and snares and roots to avoid excessive group damage. This would put more responsibility of group survival on the DPS classes. But I dunno if we'd ever see an ability to split groups of mobs. Without that, tanks will always have the 'stressful' time of pulling and positioning.

Doubtful due to the current design philosophy. As we're able to pull more and more groups, not less with every expansion. If they didn't have arbitrary barriers and scripted events in dungeons. Players would easily pull boss to boss and complete the dungeon in 3 pulls.

[Kaonis]

I was pretty much always stuck in the tank role since 2.0 and finally got out of it in SB (though may have to go back next raid tier sadly).

I was already annoyed with tanking, but SB kind of tipped me over the edge for several reasons. One of the foremost was the completely killing of accessories for tanks after they changed our damage from a mix of VIT/STR back to just STR. It was a 2 steps back moment after finally addressing an issue tanks had. Followed by one of the most nonsensical reasonings for doing it making me lose any faith this team understands what they are doing with tanks.

Tenacity was also pretty underwhelming considering it was supposed to be the fix to the very long issue of parry.

Beyond the SB mishaps, the core gameplay of tanks is bad. The focus on DPS is annoying. If I wanted to DPS I would just DPS (and presently am). Doing EX and savage as a tank is also annoying as you usually have to deal with all the mechanics everyone else does, plus tank specific mechanics too. And wiping over and over really gets draining in a fight. I also think I would go insane if I had to progress through even a single boss again that forces you to tank swap. Its a boring and highly overused mechanic they jam in just to justify 2 tanks.

The main point though is all together tanking has too many issues to be fun and the devs have inspired no confidence in me that they know how to develop tanks pushes me away from tanking.

[ChaoticCrimson]

I'll admit, I've been nervous to even try tanking. Therefore I can't really say if it's really as stressful as I suspect it might be. I do, however, want to try leveling DRK someday because I hear the story for the job quests is amazing. When that time comes, I suppose we'll see how it goes for me.

[SaitoHikari]

Tank requires that you actually know the content that you are doing.

It requires you to set the pace.
It requires you to understand party composition.
It requires that you have better gear for survival.
It requires you to know positioning.
It requires a more than basic understanding of mechanics.
It requires you to know tank swaps.

I'm sure there is more requirements this is just off the top of my head.

Why do I say "requires"? Because if and any time you don't do/know any and all of these things you will INSTANTLY hear about it. Never mind if you asked for advice.

Pretty much this. As I've said before in similar threads in the past, tanking dungeons usually means you're fighting your party rather than the actual content itself. And THAT is usually what drives people away from the role.

[Kacho_Nacho]

Wanted to take a break from it and be a healer for awhile. After a bit, I decided to give gladiator/paladin a whirl, it's fun but I keep running into players trying to hurry things along by running ahead and pulling. This immediately puts me into a catch-22. Because if I save them, the damage dealers keep pulling, and if I don't or I can't save them, that makes me a "baddie."

I also run into players who think tanking is super easy.

It's a monkey role for your weakest players.

It's a role that when isn't done right is big trouble for everyone else but is so easy to do that you fail to comprehend how other people cannot do it. But because the role itself is so braindead easy there is no real satisfaction from excelling at it and being good at it means having to be bad at it ironically(no tank stance). Then you become a easy mode DPS with very easy to execute responsibilities and you have a role that is very unsatisfying to play.

Not to mention the fact that excelling in the offensive part requires your team to not be selfish dirtbags and help you attain your max potential. So along with being a unsatisfying monkey role, it is a DEPENDENT unsatisfying monkey role.

Finally, your impact as a tank is considerably less than the other roles meaning you have much little ability to carry the team in the event that you're stuck with other monkeys or that you matter the least in a competent team.

Little impact, dependent, easy-mode, hard requirement leashed dog role.

See what I mean? Instead of being respected for taking it on the chin for the team, you get patronized. "Easy monkey mode for weakest players." Sheesh!

Anyhow, I enjoy tanking but it's the role I most want to do with a set of friends instead of strangers.