Why Don’t You Tank Poll

[Zojha]

The more important thing is however the importance of the class, people a willing to respect that one tank after 20 minutes of que much more than a healer or dps. The role itself is pure altruistic[...]

That's what people like to believe, but...

What would happen if there weren't people who insisted on playing and having tanks? There'd be no audience for the role, no point to include it and the games would simply not have tanks in the first place and everyone else would get faster queues for it.

Tanks and healers are ironically very selfish roles. Those 20 minute queues happen because the content was tuned to specifically require them and thus everyone else needs to wait on them to show up instead of being able to go without them. And that's not a necessity, both of these roles could be very easily removed from a group by simply lowering the un-avoidable damage mobs do, either generally on a per instance basis. It's as easy as giving everyone a powered echo buff when they're not there, solo instances do that all the time. But then people wouldn't be forced to take these roles with them.
That means other people needlessly wait because these two roles hold everyone else up and waste everyone elses time for their own sake. To add insult to injury, they get enough DPS to viably replace the DPS role in all but high end group content, so they 'can' go without DPS if they so wish, but not the other way around.

Mind you, that's the roles themselves, not necessarily their players. The players of these roles typically rather think of themselves as selfless. It's a fact however that the audience for these roles is the reason other people have to wait in the first place, as they are the reason these roles were made and groups were forced to take them. And asking to be respected for making thousands of people wait every day just so you can live out your protector fantasy every once in a while is a bit of a stretch.

I mean, don't get me wrong - Every player deserves a modicum of human respect by default. But I wouldn't expect preferential treatment, if anyone deserves such, it's the DPS that endure the status quo without lashing out.

That all said: I personally don't tank because I just plain don't enjoy it; the gameplay is fairly boring to me, heavy armor not my thing, the limelight not for me and whenever I do it, I have to think of the sacrificial throwaway summons I use in other games to do the tanking job and feel meh for filling the same purpose. I still get the jobs up to max for completion sake, but I just leave them there until the next expansion makes me play them again.

[CYBEReris]

I tank decently often, but it's usually with friends. Why use tank queues with random players I probably won't see again when I can queue with people who are either accountable or permissive of goofing off together?

[The_Profezzor87]

I only tank for friends.

[Chronons]

snip

You bring up some interesting points, but I will have to disagree with what you perceive as an objective truth.

Once you move beyond the "basic" requirements for tanking some content the only way to get better is through efficiency. Thats true for all games of this model. In FFXIV efficiency for tanks means cooldown management and dps. The better you line up cooldowns, the less healing you need. The better your dps, the less healing you need. The game provides measures beyond the basic requirements that allow you to improve yourself and the party as a whole. To pretend like tanking in FFXIV fails bc you dont particularly like these measures of efficiency is absurd, its purely your opinion.

Also I have to disagree that playing a dps at a high level is somehow leaps and bounds harder than playing a tank. Its just not, imo. Tanks need to have higher situational awareness, manage defensive and offensive cooldowns, tank specific mechanics, raid mechanics, and to maximize dps. DPS have to have lower situational awareness, manage offensive cooldowns, raid mechanics, and to maximize dps. If you think that the extra complication in dps rotations is enough to eclipse all the other responsibilities that tanks have, your entitled to that opinion. However, there is no evidence to suggest that is true. Most opinions, and the evidence we do have seem to suggest the opposite.

[The_NPC]

while I can Tank (PLD ilv330) I haven't in about a several weeks as I have no interest atm & have totally stoped using it in any raid (8 or 24-man) unlike before were I had the shear goal to be OT... as my past with 24-mans has shown me dedicated OT's that actually do that job is rare, not uber-rare just low.

Things most Profesional Tanks know:
-Loot locations
-Loot tables
-Trash Mob mechanic's & placement
-Boss mechanic's & Placement
-their CD timers
-their teams CD timers (& probably when they should be used)
-Quantium & molecular Theory (j/k)

[RyuDragnier]

Definitely too stressful. It's odd, I can do healer just fine without problems (I get more mad than stressed), but tank I get far too stressed out.

[bounddreamer]

I'm a tank main. I love to tank. But right now I'm burned out on tanking duty finder. I've gotten my battle bear and my battle lion. I started doing daily roulettes on DRK for my battle panther and got up to 100 out of 300 before I just...stopped.

During those 100 runs I encountered the good, the bad, the indifferent, and the ugly. I got PTSD from Doma Castle after multiple healers in different runs let me die on the first pull after cycling appropriately through cooldowns (including Living Dead). I stuck with groups I should have dropped just so they could clear their instance, and did it without getting a word of thanks. I went through multiple Lakshmi parties that would drop after one or two clears, and co tanks who volunteered to OT, having me MT, only to fail in keeping second hate and letting a dps explode a Chanchala over half the party.

After a while you just get tired. So I put my sword down for a while. I'll probably pick it back up in 4.2.

[Reinha]

Tanks - higher situational awareness, defensive cooldowns, tank specific mechanics.

DPS - lower situational awareness.

I don't think that's an accurate representation of what it is like to play dps compared to a tank. Only in easier content can dps get away with not paying attention to the situation and possibly dying from it.

Tanks need to have situational awareness to know where party members are in relation to the boss, where enemies spawn, what enmity is like and how/when to handle tank mechanics. But in the same manner dps need situational awareness to offer MP/TP and raises, to position themselves in relation to the boss (tanks don't need to worry about positionals + safe casting spots), to start attacking adds as soon as they spawn, to manage their own enmity and to handle mechanics which never target a tank. Tanks do need to plan their defensive cooldowns but I think that's what compensates for the simpler rotation.

[Chronons]

snip

I mean sure, I could fill up a page of the real differences between the responsibilities of a tank vs. a dps. No one would read it though.

I only mean that tanks have to have all of the situational awareness that a dps does and then some. Hence higher vs lower. None of the things you mentioned are things tanks dont also have to do. Except for the dps specific abilities you mentioned (refresh/raise/tpstuff). However those are not as needed at a high level of play, and tanks have raid wide defensive cooldowns that I would cite as filling a similar role of "responsibilities".

When is the last time the BLM was worried that the SAM just popped Meiyko Shisui and the boss' flank is positioned in an AOE? A high skill tank would recognize and work with their SAM to ensure they got the most kenki out of their cooldown. (via cover/re-positioning mob/whatever - its just an example) Is BLM's more complicated rotation harder than being able to do these kinds of things on the fly as a tank? *shrugs*

[D_C]

Ah’ve tanked in MMOs fer years an’ years. It’s easily my favorite role in a general sense. But in XIV it’s far and away my least favorite ta the point I don’t do it ‘less a friend needs help.

Why? Here’s my anecdote. Playin’ a dungeon, tankin’ stuff. Maybe at around half health ah’ll Clemency. After a few pulls the healer asks why I’m usin’ it...Seems self evident.

But at that point it all comes crashin’ down on me how broken the whole system is. In pretty much any other game a heal with the potency an’ availability o’ Clemency would be seen as overpowered as hell. But here, it ain’t. Healin’ is super broken to a ridiculous degree, group survivability is all on them. Threat’s piss easy so no satisfaction there either. My job is ta pull an’ DPS efficiently. That’s it.

Fights last too long an’ cooldowns ‘re generally not effective enough ta experiment with pulls, nor do tanks really get interestin’ CC or utility options ta play with in that regard. Interrupts an’ stuns aren’t a big part of pull to pull play. Dungeon design is so linear it don’t matter anyways because you rately get ta go out of the invisible bounds ta skip trash mobs.

Raidin’ is 0 fun because it’s more about knowin’ a fight so preordained it’s practically on a script, with a cooldown rotation an’ everythin’. Not reactive, just the usual autoswings, red stuff an’ tank busters. Though to be fair I ain’t done any raidin’ this expansion. But considerin’ how much everythin’ else changes between expansions, an’ the trials I have seen...Yeah. Gonna go ‘head an’ say I ain’t missin’ much.