Why are healers more populated than tanks?

[Meillquei]

Tank was the last role I tried because of what has been mentioned in this thread. I was scared of being criticized for making a tiny mistake or tanking something incorrectly. I can imagine tanking is off-putting to new players for the same reasons, especially ones who have never played an MMORPG before. It's harder to lead a group when you are brand new to this game and this genre.

I think with healing, you have a general idea of what to expect, even if you don't know the dungeon, where part of tanking involves knowing the content. So healers definitely have a lot of responsibility, but not to the same degree as the tanks.

Personally, after trying tanking, I found that it is the most rewarding role since it essentially made me realize that I was the one setting myself back with the misplaced fears, and that the majority of this community is actually very nice and forgiving of mistakes.

[KaivaC]

Thank you to all who shared their responses. It was enlightening and definitely resolved this question of mines. Obviously, I have nothing else to actually contribute, but nonetheless, thanks for sharing. Maybe next time, I'll throw up a survey, see how it looks in the form of a poll that extends out to our half-cousins on reddit.

[Elamys]

Also, Disc. Priest is a bit special and unique. I haven't played WoW in some years but I do remember if I had tried to go hard on DPS as a Resto Druid or Holy Priest I would have run out of mana pretty quick and done a whole lot of nothing much.

Holy priest DPS was INSANE in Mists and still really good in Warlords, if you knew what to glyph and talent. By the end of Mists I would go into Siege LFR and top the DPS charts as Holy, to great amusement. Smite was actually mana positive in Warlords, so if I was running on fumes, I would spam that to proc Surge of Light and still put out heals. My raid group for Blackrock Foundry took way too many healers, but still insisted I be Holy, so I would just set up for DPS and do that the entire time. I did most of the first Brawler's Guild as Holy, and Holy's DPS made my challenge mode golds a lot less awful, considering I was doing it on the worst class for them.

It's a bit erroneous to say that WoW has always had DPSing healers outside of maybe a few randos that just always enjoyed it. Eminence Monk was really good for Mists and Warlords but doesn't seem to exist anymore. While Disc has had Atonement since Cataclysm, it was never the core focus of their playstyle and it wasn't until Legion that they decided to actually push it and make it their playstyle. They've struggled with Atonement balance issues since its first incarnation. Healer DPS in WoW outside of these three exceptions (Eminence, Atonement, and a really weirdly set up Holy) has always been kind of mediocre. You still spend almost all of your time actually healing in that game. Not once have I seen a healer get yelled at in that game for not DPSing. It's just not really on the radar there. Challenge Modes were the only time people really worried about it. DPSing healers didn't exist in any serious content until Wrath (some high end guilds had their healers just DPS the first phase of Lich King) and it's still extremely rare today. As you mentioned, most healers would have just been wasting mana because it was that worthless, and while that's not the case today, you're still spending a lot more of your time actually healing. Nobody's really expecting healer DPS there like they do here.

Anyways, back on topic...I don't play tank because I don't like to take the lead. And I'm not always the best at watching cast bars. Knowing when I have to use a cooldown? It's information that I struggle to keep track of.

[KaivaC]

Anyways, back on topic...I don't play tank because I don't like to take the lead. And I'm not always the best at watching cast bars. Knowing when I have to use a cooldown? It's information that I struggle to keep track of.

I hear ya. I didn't really get the fundamentals of tanking until Susano Ex, which was something of a wake-up call for me. I'm not exactly leadership material myself lol, but tanking doesn't bring as much pressure as being a healer or a DPS would. Of the three tanks, DRK is the one that feels most natural to me. Healing isn't too bad for me, but I don't feel engaged enough as a healer to stick with it on a consistent basis.

[Kallistra]

I don't really play healer, so I asked some friends of mine who main healer. They all gave a similar response along the lines of, "I don't feel confident as a tank/I don't like leading." and "I don't trust healers in the Duty Finder enough to play another role."

Interestingly enough, one of them said, "I like healer because the queue times are perfect. It's [usually] not instant unlike the tank queue, but not crazy long like a DPS queue. Just long enough to do a craft or two before diving into battle content and I like that." Which I thought was a unique view worth sharing.

[Thoosa]

I had to do my weekly o5s and o6s yesterday as a tank because every party finder was full. Incidentally if you join an extreme or savage group as a tank you almost always get a warm welcome, since there still is a shortage of people who want to tank that content. :P sometimes I feel the responsibility of tanking comforting as I feel like I have more control over the situation (as long as i handle tank busters and swaps ok) and don’t have to worry too much about what everyone else is upto.

I still think in this type of content that healing is the toughest, and it highlights bad healers. As healer, not only do you have to avoid often 1 shot kill mechanics, you have to handle big damage. And often if the healers make a tiny mistake (like dying or missing a heal) the group wipes. Also you are dependent on your co healer not being bad, which if they are, makes the fight that much harder. A good healer in this content is worth a huge amount.

In dungeons and trials I think healing is the easiest - you don’t have to lead the group, the damage isn’t massive, and mechanics aren’t usually complicated and are completely avoidable. You also don’t get complained at for bad dps if the dungeon is taking longer.

Just my thoughts anyway.

[Gemina]

Because the community has painted healers as these overworked slaves who have to keep the big mean DPS tanks and careless DPS alive, which is just a cover story for healers to be AFK for like 15 GCDs before they need to actually heal again which is usually just a Cure II away from being back to AFK. While Tanks get screamed at if the mobs are facing the wrong way, they're pulling too little or too big, or... well you get the idea. Tanks have to do everything that DPS do + Tank responsibilities even when people want to be casuals and refuse to do meta things like drop Tank Stance, it is apparently too stressful for them.

So, they swap to Healer where you can mash Cure 1 and keep Medica II up the entire time and people will commend you despite the fact you did nothing but watch netflix.

Source: I'm a WHM main since launch and my friends who haven't healed think it's difficult or scary but once they try it, they discover I'm doing nothing but reading or watching stuff on my other monitor whilst throwing DoTs and rocks between heals.

At higher level play, healers still have a tremendous amount of downtime and once you understand how powerful your heals are, things that drop tanks or the entire raid to no hp become as simple as 1-3 AoE heals depending on your job and Co-healer's cooperation, it's really sad watching a Cure 3 and Assize top off the raid.

Ok, I am going to accept your post as an exaggeration. If you feel otherwise, then come along with me while I am tanking. I will put you to work, I promise. I suggest you bring your whole healing kit as WHM. You are going to need it if I am tanking.

One thing I love doing as tank is pushing cocky healers like you. As a healer main myself, there is nothing more I enjoy than putting one in their place while tanking to let them know that they are part of the team, not a god.

[alimdia]

Healers only have a more demanding job in very specific savage fights, other than that naaah. Heals are way too overpowered in this game, and the more they add ogcd heals the stronger healers will get because that's more gcds to be spent DPSing.

The only time healing gets harder is if you add an unpredictable element like a dps suddenly eating an aoe he shouldn't right before raid wide aoe, and even then it's likely you have an ogcd heal for that.

[Kaliesto]

^
I can see why Healers have it rough because DPS getting caught up in AOES and such, it is a real nightmare in Savage Raids, some DPS can do some quick healing themselves, and Super Potions these days do help cover up a fraction of the mistake.

Hopefully the healing potions get another higher version soon, probably help healers out more.

[Ilyrian]

Holy priest DPS was INSANE in Mists and still really good in Warlords, if you knew what to glyph and talent. By the end of Mists I would go into Siege LFR and top the DPS charts as Holy, to great amusement.

Have to pick your brains about this. Hyperbole aside ( I mean, even in LFR the DPS in your would have to be dead for you to be at the top as a Holy Priest - unless you literally just mean a few trash DPS aoe spikes?).

What were the spells back then... top of my head - you would have had Halo (with a damage component - either it had it or it was glyphed in?) Smite (single target) Chastise (single target - long cool down) Holy Fire (single target - long cool down) Holy Nova (?)... - what am I missing? I was Shadow during Siege so you'll have to remind me