The toxicity starting to happen.

[VictorTheed]

You're on drugs, and I know how u got em to.

You met the Pain Pill Princess while attempting to go idle in Idyleshire and next thing you know you've been taken through the Methamorphasis.

Here's a donation of 3 gil towards your recovery, GL my friend, I love u plz beat this.

[MsMisato]

OH It wasn't stone. It was way before that. Like it's before manor. So very early on.

Toto Rak dungeon or what ever its called has that cutscene right before the boss.

[Allegor]

Nobody's belittling or judging anyone. Tanking in casual content is literally just "turn on tank stance, hit your AoE buttons, cycle through defensive cooldowns." If you can hit a button every 2.5 seconds and keep a cooldown up then you will be fine. People make it harder on themselves than it needs to be by doing dumb stuff like single-targeting trash packs and even trying to pull with shield lob in dungeons where mobs appear out of nowhere and immediately aggro the closest person. Seriously all you need to do is run up to the mobs and hit them with your AoE button, really simple and easy, no need for "tanxiety".

See, I'm in agreement in that it's easy and people should be encouraged to try it out and get better, but the problem is the "this is so easy you should feel ashamed of yourself" attitude, because that's literally what happens to many people and what drives them away. My first run ever as a tank was a dumpster fire because I had the misfortune of having a 'go go go' DPS that even tried to kick me even though I said I was new, and despite that I kept leveling - others may have ditched the role then and there. That is the same kind of player that gets annoyed for having 20 min queues and has the audacity to wonder why there's tank shortage.

[ForteNightshade]

Ohh I don't know...let's see....

-new to dungeon
-new to role
-new to the game as a whole
-tanxiety
-undergeared
-getting used to new skills/rotation/keybinds
-'thin skin' aka, praying the other party members aren't jerks
-testing how the other party members perform

heck, even all of the above at once is an option. Tanking in itself may be mechanically easy, but clearly the great majority of players aren't willing to do it, more often than not, out of fear of the other players, not the content itself.

First and foremost, you are not "new to the role" passed level 50. By that point, you'll have access to nearly all your defensive CDs. Now I can see being a little apprehensive at 50 or even at the beginning of a dungeon but that first pull really should tell you how little mobs actually do. At the very least, you should be open to experimenting with larger pulls throughout the 50 dungeons. Tanxiety is just an excuse, especially at the higher levels. I'm sorry but saying you're not comfortable pulling two packs in a Shadowbringers dungeon means you aren't ready to tank above 70. Go back to the earlier dungeons and practice more. This is actually what irks me more than anything. A lack of willingness to try. Saying you're not comfortable yet is perfectly fine. But then don't jump into Hero's Gauntlet and get upset when the DPS and Healer want big pulls or even pull for you (they'll survive on their own. That's how pitiful most of the damage is). Either being open to trying to branch outside your comfort zone or stick to the 50-60 dungeons until you are.

Undergear and keybinds aren't a good excuse. The game all but gift wraps you gear on a silver platter. If you're far enough behind that six mobs is in any way threatening, you're purposely neglected to gear your character—which often means you're just being lazy. Likewise, you shouldn't be adjusting keybinds and macros in a dungeon. Go practice on a target dummy before queuing. That being said, by 50—which was the range I had been referring to—you should already know where things like Rampant, Vengeance are. You'll have had them for 42 and 12 levels, respectively.

Test pulls typically are two packs. A single pulls deals so little damage you could let the DPS tank instead and the healer would still barely notice save the occasional dungeon. Even if you're testing the outgoing damage, pulling three mobs just isn't worthwhile. As for being thin skinned. You're more likely to have players complain or outright pull for you if you single pull than if you attempt a mass pull, wipe and slow down from there.

I don't disagree players are afraid but the person I initially quoted implied tank was remotely complex when it isn't. That, in and of itself, is part of the problem. People making tanking out to be extremely difficult. Nevertheless, the reason it's under-populated is largely because DPS jobs are built to be more engaging.

[Vahlnir]

There has always been toxic people in this game. With time and popularity comes a more diverse player base, which generally means more jerks. That's just the way it goes.

[Varilyon]

Oh boy, hunttrains are toxic. The slower or the faster they are, the more people insult each other and advertise new hardware.

The first immense increase in toxicity was in the Release of 2.0 (ARR). People didnt need each other anymore, because you can always exchange partymembers easily.
It really felt like the community changed.

[RagingStallion]

Pulling wall to wall isn't hard all you have to do is tell the healer not to DPS and only heal you otherwise you'll sit down and not do anything forcing them to find a new tank (which takes a long time).

[Kleeya]

First and foremost, you are not "new to the role" passed level 50.

Actually, with jump potions or by having leveling first a dps and then begin a GNB, you can totally be new to tanking at lvl 60 or 70.

[Satarn]

I DESPISE healers that want to pretend they know how to tank.

That's a funny attitude to have, in a game that allows - and encourages - to level and play every single job on one character. Chances are that "healer" has years of experience tanking everything from dungeons to Ultimates, over some cocky nooblet PLD with one tank leveled. Chances are they're really a tank main. Chances are the rando PLD is the one who knows jack-all about tanking, regardless of it being the job they just happened to be currently running a dungeon on.

[Aelin_Ashryver]

I mean.. I leveled both healers and tanks.. I know how to tank also? o.0 Can do content quite happily on both ^^