Why no one tanks...

[Rex]

Tanks are treated horribly in this game. So many self entitled kids that run in and face pull everything, you pick it all up, use all your defensive cooldowns and die cause the DPS is auto attacking.

Then said DPS complains for 30 minutes about the tank being bad, and gets you kicked from the party.

Let me share my story with you,

First time tanking in CT. Been in CT many times but not as a tank. I know what to do, but it's different when you're actually trying to do it. The other tank I was with pulled the valefor (I forget their actual names...you know..the two dragons and elementals right at the beginning) to the "wrong" spot. I put that in quotes because the placement wasn't horrible. Mostly wiped the Alliance.

Here's why the alliance wiped...snowball effect:

1. Whitemages refused to readjust their position to this different tanking style. So they were hit with everything because the dragon was facing them. Keep in mind, the tail was still facing away from the alliance so it was all completely doable because all the whms had to do was sidestep to a different spot.

2. DPS die because they also didn't move.

3. Tank die because whms are dead.

4. When the tank died, I provoked and tried to pull to the normal spot to salvage this fight. But because of where I was initially standing, the dragon turned and immediately used tail drive on 70% of the Alliance.

5. I die.

6. Fortunately, the remaining members alive killed it.

7. The main tank gets endless hate and foul talk for the next 10 minutes because of one little slip up. Somehow I was included in it and I wasn't even main tank.

The whms could have easily just re-positioned themselves and everything would have been fine. Instead, we get "Oh it's one of these runs" "Wow your tanks suck A" "F*cking idiots" etc etc.

Rest of the CT run? we're the team killing everything and "winning" the Atomos and Vassago fights. Main tanked Behemoth and Acheron. Nobody says a word.

In fact, team C kept screwing up their Atomos fight. But nobody bothered them because it was THEIR party member. me: "Nobody's going to talk down to them right? Just us? Our tank made a simple mistake and the world ends. This guy screws up the Atomos fight twice and nobody says a word?"


No reply. They continued to support that team, "It's okay, no big deal"

They stopped hate talking us because we led the rest of the run. We just had a small, simple little error that could have easily been avoided had our whms just MOVED instead of saying "that's not where you do it, so we're not moving."

Not even a "sorry for blowing up for no reason."

Not even a "GOOD BYE!" That's one of my worst pet peeves. Just say {Take Care.} Anything. anything to acknowledge that yes, we're people too. Not just some NPC. Be polite for Hydaelyn's sake. You take time out of your precious run to hate talk, but you can't press four buttons to say {Take Care.} all it is is, T, A, K, tab, {Take Care.} wow, that was tough. I swear, some people must develop some kind of psychological disorder with the amount of abuse they get from disgusting gamers like this.

There are a lot of people in this game that have really bad attitudes. I mean really. There's no respect or politeness. At least in the American crowd. And sometimes I really wish I could speak Japanese because something tells me they're really polite over on their servers.

This community has too many ragers, or as people say "elitist" but I don't think that's the right word. They're just "gimme gimme now" and "I only one shot things, I'd rather take the 30 minute penalty than die once." We're human beings. Every run can't be perfect. People mess up sometimes. Don't play an MMO if you expect everything to always go smooth. Elitist isn't the right term. It's more like arrogant. "Feeling entitled" also works.

So I say, don't be afraid to tank. Do some research if it's an important fight, see what you should do, then go in and give it a shot. Let everyone know ahead of time that you're new and that you did some research. That leaves no room for them to be complete jerks. After all, it's just a game.

Something my father always told me (but with nicer words in quotes... ):

There's two types of "jerks" in this world, Terminal, and Situational. We're all situational "jerks" But some people are terminal. Meaning they'll always be that way and there's nothing you can do about it. So all you can do is laugh at them and move along.