nice article about tanks

[Rextab]

this from massively.
some of this is things I (and others) have expressed on another thread here.
good article about tanks. i too find myself cringing going into a roulette...wondering if i have some maniac in the group.
http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/04...l-fantasy-xiv/

i have never been a slow puller. i pull mobs steady. chain pulls (given everyone has resources high enough to do so). i am not real keen on mass pulls then aoe. i can do it, but not what i enjoy. if everyone plays smart you can clear any dungeon pretty quickly.

[Kitru]

As one of those crazy people that actually *has* one of the tank mounts (I was the second on my server by a *day* /shakefist), I'm actually *glad* that it's locked behind a metric crapton of endgame content. The tank mounts/titles should not be thing that people get by playing tanks as their alts (at least not without playing for a very extended period of time). If the tank achieves were easy to get, people would get them and then stop playing their tank. By requiring a substantial investment in the player, you can be damned sure that, by the time you get your WARbear, you're either maining as a WAR or you play it as an alt job nearly as much as your main job (or you are just *really* committed to getting a mount and don't care about what you're playing to get it).

Gating it behind the real endgame also means that it's not just going to be lolfarmed so that you can get it over a week using pug groups while simultaneously requiring that you actually become a *good* tank (seriously, show me someone who has tanked 200 successful EX primals and coil runs that doesn't know how to play a tank and I'll apologize to everyone I've ever pissed off and never insult anyone ever again).

The devs set up those achievements to get people to actually play tanks as their mains because you're not going to get those achieves unless you do actually play a tank more than a token amount of time and can do so competently.

[Senfei]

Fancy mounts aren't going to make anyone want to play a tank, be they barred behind high lvl content or given out freely at lvl 30. The current mounts are just another way for people that do endgame to show off in Mor Dhana, nothing more. I don't think the devs can do anything in the game's current iteration to really make people want to play tanks more often for all the reasons stated in that article. My solution would be to up the group size to 5/10/30 and leave the extra spots open to DPS, but that's obviously much easier said than done.

[valho]

Well Dev can't really change players attitude and I feels that is the root reason why a lot of players do not want to tank. A new tank getting into a new dungeon and getting insulted, scolded or whatever by other players is not exactly encouraging, he might continue tanking for a few times until he can't take it anymore and quit tanking.

Even as an experience player myself, when I level a tank in dungeons that I have done multiple times as DPS I still can make mistake, do bad pull, etc, but fortunately I am in JP server, so most of the time I get JP party that seldom insult other players openly.

The only time I ever got insulted was by an English player in T4, that tunnel vision so much and blame me for DPS mistakes, it really did piss me off considering the guy was from my ex FC.

By the time I am done with my tanking achievement, I definitely not going to tank for anything else but some roulette and my own static, as much as I enjoy tanking it's not worth doing it in DF.

[Rextab]

what valho said.
it seems, more than most mmos ive played, that dps especially are very critical of tanks. slightest mistake and the YOU SUCK comments start flying. don't pull as fast as they'd like? YOU SUCK. they pay no mind to the fact that the aggro issues usually come from THEM PULLING first (which should never happen), firing off AOEs like crazy on a tank unfamiliar with the content or considerably undergeared compared to them.
i see DPS not keeping their head on a swivel all the time...and get aggro from patrols, when i have my mobs safely pulled. i dont start saying they suck because of any of that.
its the attitude of the community in this game that needs to change.

[ks3v3n]

its the attitude of the community in this game that needs to change.

i'd suggest, get over it or simple ignore those kinda ppl. since its a one time adventure with them, you dont needa bother. next df group got the chance to be different.
ive tanked at every other mmo i played before ff14 arr and i do have to say, its not a ff14 thing ppl are acting like that. such behavior started about 5-6 years ago, LoL/Dota-community invented it (calling ppl noob, or you suck, or what ever that frequently). social medias like fb did their thing to it (everything asap available). of course you'd say its up to us to change that, but you know what: the ship sailed a long time ago. learn to live with it, or die trying.

as for the tanking issue at ff14 arr, i'm with what some others already said:
tank at groups with your friends, fc, ls or static. just ignore the df.

[givemeraptors]

Tanking is only stressful because other players make it stressful. When I run with an excellent group, even when I mess up, or don't know what I'm doing, nice players make it a breezy and fun experience. I still maintain it's not as inherently stressful as people make it out to be.

[RhazeCain]

An interesting article I suppose. I can see why some people might feel that way, but personally I'm the exact opposite of that author. Anything other than tank feels like a letdown.

Yes, there's a lot involved with being a tank. You're a natural leader. Which would you rather be:
- The leader asking others to follow your pace, or stuck behind a possibly bad leader?
- Playing all the various tank duties, or playing "increase my DPS" or "how can I DPS while healing"? Seems boring compared to tank. I play both DPS and healer alts and enjoy them, but it's just ... less.

The mounts are a nothing. They are there for looks only. I have no idea what my progress is toward achieving it. If they made the mount slightly faster than other mounts, or some different reward, then it might matter. Some people care about vanity stuff and some don't.

Three reasonable things I can see done to help this. And have seen done in other MMOs over the years. All require fundamental development shifts however.
- Increase group size. So that tank is expected less than 25%. That way people like me can tank and others can be what they want. Credit Senfei for mentioning this already.
- Offload some of tank responsibility to other roles. For example, crowd control. Currently adds are primarily the tank's responsibility to pick up. Bind, Sleep, and similar are rarely if ever used. Make them useful (preferable to tanking) more commonly.
- Make the positional stuff just slightly less of an "overload". This means like the breath cone attacks that are so commonly aimed at a tank. Small but consistent reduction in frequency -- not a major difference. Balance by increase to other mechanics if necessary, but something that requires less cognitive load on tank.

[Rextab]

Tanking is only stressful because other players make it stressful. When I run with an excellent group, even when I mess up, or don't know what I'm doing, nice players make it a breezy and fun experience. I still maintain it's not as inherently stressful as people make it out to be.

exactly. its not the job itself

[Alazier]

I tank and i enjoy pulling fast, keeping everyone on their toes to get the most out of our group and skills. Its one of the main things i love in this game. People get really excited when they see they just triumphed something they didnt think they would be able to previously.