A lot of people dont like to play Tank -

[RopeDrink]

Swerving back on-topic, I'm wary of tanking and don't find it nearly as engaging as Healing, despite almost everyone I know (who actively main-tanks) claiming it is probably the least stressful of the roles. DPS is what I go for when I want to comfort-play, given our responsibility is so clear-cut and little (outside of dealing damage) can be held within our control. Healing, however, requires you to be equally mindful of both yourself and everyone in the team, mechanically and positionally. It is very reactive as well as proactive, hence requiring quite a bit of attention on things that don't always include your own character. I don't buy this 'it makes sense from a story-PoV that the WarOfLight is a Tank' drivel given you cannot have a functioning trinity without all three roles present. You need damage to kill the target. You need classes to keep enemy attention. You need classes to keep people alive.

They are all as important as each-other, given the removal of any of those factors pretty much renders the team-effectiveness down considerably (typically to impossible), so no, it doesn't make sense that the WarOfLight is a specific class, especially not when enforced by the fact said character(s) can play whatever they want.

Anyone who thinks one role is more important than the rest are looking at a particularly small picture. You could debate small aspects of that point, but let's not pretend like Tanks are uber-special and everyone else is a less-important pleb hoping to live in their shadow.

[RopeDrink]

In WOW I...

Welcome to "Not-WoW", a game with different mechanics, communities, expectations and requirements. Please leave your WoW experience at the door, like I do as a 12 year WoW player who has Tanked, Healed and DPS'd across all iterations of WoW and during all of their own mechanics, community expectations and requirements. Both being trinity-MMORPGs doesn't magically make them identical.

[Ash_]

I'm finding myself tanking less and less as DRK as time goes on since SB landed. I used to enjoy leading the flow of things in dungeons, and back in HW I started tanking Ex trials for the first time. Pairing with random JP tanks on Sophia was really engaging and enjoyable.

Now though? I don't bother tanking trials because there is no longer the satisfaction in doing so as DRK. It wasn't just the skills from the class that were gutted; my enthusiasm was gutted too.

Now levelling my long dormant alt PLD class to see if I can find the spark in tanking again. So far: not really feeling it.

Curious thing to note; in HW you could somehow tell if someone was enjoying tanking even if a word was never said. It's difficult to describe, but now it feels like every tank I get in whatever content I'm doing completely lacks energy.

[Aniond]

Welcome to "Not-WoW", a game with different mechanics, communities, expectations and requirements. Please leave your WoW experience at the door, like I do as a 12 year WoW player who has Tanked, Healed and DPS'd across all iterations of WoW and during all of their own mechanics, community expectations and requirements. Both being trinity-MMORPGs doesn't magically make them identical.

I answered your question to why people dont like to Tank. I made a refrence to wow. I left wow years ago. I started here around the end of 2.0. I haven't looked back at wow. All I am saying is people are use to things a certain way. Sometimes you can't teach a dog a new trick...

[Zojha]

Anyone who thinks one role is more important than the rest are looking at a particularly small picture.

Mhm... I'd argue otherwise. The fact that the trinity is not in fact built on three equal pillars shows in the fact that both more healing and more tanking than necessary is useless, whereas more damage isn't. Moreover, healing/tanking tools are largely limited to healers/tanks, whereas DPS tools are given away to everyone - Literally because they need them to function solo. Furthermore, neither tanks nor healers can function without enemy damage dealers, whereas damage dealers can work fine without enemy tanks/healers.

Personally, I think it is very obvious that damage is of supreme importance. Tanking and healing are derived from damage dealers - They are mitigating/undoing the damage enemy damage dealers do and would lose their purpose without damage dealers. Damage dealers on the other hand can exist without tanks/healers, they only rely on health as a mechanic to function. Most bosses actually are just hyper cranked up damage dealers with no mitigation or healing, they simply got a lot of health.

And that leads to one common tanking gripe: Since tanking is a secondary role, tanking demands are artificial, which means they are only useful in a limited quantity and since that quantity is low in order to make the role accessible, you end up playing a lot like a DPS anyway. Your entire optimization process is revolving around how to minimize your core role in favor of more DPS without dying in the process. Why not just play a real DPS right away?

My own reasons for not playing tank are somewhat different, though. For one, I simply don't like going in first and getting bashed on. For another, in solo games, tanks are usually the most disposable units you have under your control and I never felt that to be a very appealing fantasy. If possible, it's either mindless undead slaves or the least liked character that's given the role. So for me, the fact that I am half a DPS actually makes tanks rather more bearable to me in this game and the more DPS, the merrier, but I naturally still prefer full DPS.

[DRKoftheAzure]

At this point tanks are pretty much glorified DPS that take more hits...

[MagiusNecros]

At this point tanks are pretty much glorified DPS that take more hits...

Yep. And not a single individual can convince me otherwise. Especially with the meta going for the Tank without Tank stance mantra.

[ObsidianFire]

The hardest thing about tanking for me is finding a time to practice tanking. I've found that more then all the other roles, tanking requires the most in-game practice time. Stuff like what HP threshold do you need CDs, how high can you let everyone else's aggro get and still be holding it yourself, enemy placement, etc. can't really be learned by watching a guide. Tanks have to learn that by doing it (and often failing at doing it) so they can get a feel for how their role works. And so that the next time, they'll know what to do.

The only problem is, most other people in the game aren't willing to give newbie tanks the time to be well... newbie tanks. Try to go slow because you've never tanked a dungeon before (or the last time you tanke it you screwed up)? Everyone else wants to go faster even though you know you can't take three pulls at once. Try to learn CD management on old trials you know the healer can heal you through so long as you don't mess up mechanics? They start complaining about not being able to DPS as much as they would like.

Granted, I have had runs where the other party members are willing to let me go at my own pace and figure stuff out and those are the runs I actually learn things in. But most of time I get runs where party members think I'm going too slow and pull extra mobs on purpose. Even though I know I have no CDs left and what they just did will result in a wipe. As for Trials... lol, no. Unless you're tanking when they first came out, you're better off avoiding those as a tank until the next expansion. Then at least you won't have to worry about dying as much if you're CD usage is wrong. You've probably learned how it's supposed to be positioned already from when you cleared it as a DPS/Healer at least.

[TouchandFeel]

SNIP

This stuff is not really as complicated and difficult as you, and many others, make it out to be.
A lot of tanking concepts can be learned by watching/reading guides, both job and content. Of course you will still need to get hands on practice to get the "feel" for it all, but that is true of any job and any role.

Stuff like what HP threshold do you need CDs

Using defensive cooldowns as a tank isn't about "HP thresholds" for when you pop them. If you are using them reactively and waiting until you are running low on HP, you are already using them too late.
Defensive cooldowns in this game are planned mostly ahead of time and cycled to fit to what the content you are tackling is.

In dungeons you formulate a general "pull plan" where you map out what and how big of pulls you will be doing. You then match defensive cooldowns to the difficulty and size of the different pulls. For example, you are starting off a dungeon run with a big pull, which is often the case, you would then allot your more powerful/longer recast ability (Sentinel/Vengeance/Shadow Wall) to that pull.
When you have completed the pull and are now tanking the group of mobs, you pop the biggest of the cooldowns that you have planned for the pull right at the beginning. This is when you will have the most mobs on you and will be taking the most damage, so you want to front-load your biggest defense to counter it.
As the fight goes on you then cycle in your other weaker defensive cooldowns as needed, progressing from stronger to weaker since as the fight goes on more of the enemies will be killed off and therefore you will be taking less damage and need less defense.

For boss fights, you just pre-plan your cooldowns to match to the phase/mechanic cycles of the boss and make sure you have a cooldown available to be used to catch any tank-busters. All the tank jobs have good defensive abilities that are designed for and really shine for countering tank-busters and these tend to have short durations but short recast times, making them ideal for using against hard-hitting single attacks.

how high can you let everyone else's aggro get and still be holding it yourself

Just watch the aggro "meter" shapes next to the enemy names in enemy list. If everything's green, your aggro is good. Yellow means someone has is creeping up on aggro but is still a bit behind you. If someone is showing orange that means they are getting close to overtaking you on aggro for that enemy. If anyone is red, it means they have top aggro on that enemy.

On top of that there is also a meter/bar at the bottom of the job icon for each member in the party list. This shows the aggro for each player on the enemy you currently have targeted. This provides a more exact display of where each party member is on aggro. If anyone is getting close to having that meter fill up (asides from you of course) then they are getting close to overtaking you in aggro.

enemy placement

General rule is to group up the enemies between you and the rest of your party, that way any directional aoes are aimed at you and away from the group and so all the enemies backs are pointed at the dps making positionals easier for them. You normally do this by moving through/passed the enemies you are engaging and then turning around you are then facing them. They should now be sandwiched between you and your group. Easy peasy.

As far as specific "where to pull to" or "where to tank the boss/enemies", that will depend on the content.
For most dungeon pulls it tends to be flexible and once you grabbed the last group for the pull, just put them all behind you and flip around.
For bosses it depends on their mechanics which you can learn from a guide or just learning the fight same as any job. Most of the time though if you don't know where to tank they boss, just tank it in the center of the arena, watch what the boss is doing and adjust as necessary.

[ObsidianFire]

Here's the problem: there's a big difference between knowing all that your head and actually being able to do it.

Currently, I find the game is pretty toxic to people who are trying to be able to do it. Tanking is an all or nothing game at the moment.

Healing and DPS get a lot more leeway from other players and so more people play them.