Do you ever feel like nobody plays tank?

[kagemitsu]

Lately, I've been noticing a severe lack of tanks for each and every content. The Adventurer in Need for the Roulettes is always Tank, tons of parties are stuck in the Party Finder with 2 empty tank spots, queues take forever because of the lack of tanks.

Is it just my impression or have you noticed it too? It looks like people aren't really inclined to play tank nowadays, and I wonder why. Could it be because the role carries a certain amount of responsibility? Are tanks not fun to play? Is there not enough variety (3 tanks vs a bazillion DPS)?

What do you think?

[Seraphor]

Personally, tanks aren't that fun to play, they either have dull mechanics (PLD) or clunky mechanics (DRK), but I can't speak for WAR.
In addition I don't feel the existing tanks have very compelling identities, which is why I'm hoping for a Blue Mage tank to mix things up. A more interesting identity and hopefully more interesting mechanics.

[Wilford111]

As a tank, in a dungeon, You pretty much decide how much to pull at any given time. You're the first to go into a fight, and it's your job to navigate the rest of the team. You need to constantly be aware of every enemy having hate on you, and if you lose hate on an enemy for one second, you'll get slack from other party members. Tanking can be stressful, and it is a real responsibility. You have at least 3 other people depending on you to do your job right, and if you don't, you're lumped in with all the other "bad tanks" and no one appreciates the fact that you're doing the job no one else wants to do.
So yeah, tanking can be fun, but it's very stressful for a lot of people.

[MistakeNot]

In my experience tanks are quite popular to play - but not popular to play with PUGs.
It is usually not hard to find a tank for a run with only FC members, but few people are willing to sign up as tank for a roulette with random other players.

[Zojha]

It's nothing new, really. This has been a thing in MMOs since... uh... well, since tanks were a thing. Healers generally aren't a very popular thing either. Even in other games (like MOBAs), these archetypes aren't exactly the most popular and FFXIV actually has a surprisingly high active population of them (I have seen worse queues with a 1-1-3 ratio), likely because they play like DPS with a heal/mitigation gimmick.

For me personally, I dislike being the first one in. I don't like getting wailed on and see my HP drop. I don't like heavy armor (i.e. 99% of tank glams) or the vanguard fantasy. It doesn't help that my "tank" in single-player games is always that one character I really don't mind if he dies... over... and over. To top it off, the one Tank that I did enjoy the playstyle and most of the aesthetics of - DRK - Got changed in SB.

But that's just me.

[StouterTaru]

The Adventurer in Need for the Roulettes is always Tank

And yet when I queue up as tank for any leveling content I wait for a healer 95% of the time.

[NorthernLadMSP]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. As long as people keep treating tanks (and healers too) like sh**, people will continue to flock away from the tank role and toward the DPS role.

[Alsbet]

True, then again its my job as a tank to keep aggro so its all good to me.

[ManuelBravo]

Personally, tanks aren't that fun to play, they either have dull mechanics (PLD) or clunky mechanics (DRK), but I can't speak for WAR.
In addition I don't feel the existing tanks have very compelling identities, which is why I'm hoping for a Blue Mage tank to mix things up. A more interesting identity and hopefully more interesting mechanics.

Lol you are correct I mean what kind of person would want to have the responsibility of keeping enmity when DPS don't listen, ignore mechanics, and can't tell the order of numbers. Healers casting during simple pulls and then enmity complain tank can't keep enmity. After all people are too incompetent to take responsibility for their actions and the escape goat is the tank. /em sarcastically speaking

I doubt the BLU mage tank being nothing has been confirmed.

BTW I tank all 3 jobs and if it's actually not dull mechanics that is the problem, is that most tanks think they can tank and don't know how to use all of their actions.

[Dhaid]

Lol you are correct I mean what kind of person would want to have the responsibility of keeping enmity when DPS...

You're forgetting, this is a problem at all levels of play. Guildheists and Leveling roulettes are constantly tank in need, and those are obviously not complicated.

The only time I've consistently seen healer/DPS in need is alliance raids, which need plenty of dps to fill those slots yet only 3 tanks.

People play dps more since they like to, and considering how mindless low level tanking can be I can see how people are driven away.