Does tanking carry more responsibility than most?

[ZeroX686]

My first post here, and I have been a tank in this game since beta.

I don't personally find tanking to be 'easy' by all means, but.....

I ran across this post on reddit:

http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/commen...tank_shortage/

And there are spots in here that sort of make me question if tanking is really as hard as everyone makes it out to be.

For example, a few people are under the opinion that tanking is the 'easiest', and carries the least amount of responsibility in the group. That currently, tanks have been unfairly given the of responsibility 'unfairly'. But even then, its still not as 'difficult' as DPS jobs.

What do you think? Do you think being a tank role has alot more 'perceived' pressure on it than actually exists? Or is it really that difficult?

[JeTaisNoobie]

My opinion is that it's the easiest job around, ONLY AFTER you learn the fight and the team is entirely comfortable with your positioning and skill rotation.

When learning the fight, it's difficult in the sense you're not sure where to position the boss or what buffs to pop to fully utilise each buff's potential to mitigate just enough of the damage you are about to receive. Once that is over, and after several more successful runs, it will be the easiest job in the world; you could even fall asleep on the job and still get away with it.

[Axlle10]

i agree with jetaisnoobie, it really is an easy to master class. you just need to always be open minded and take those "you suck cause you didnt do it this way" remarks as a chance to grow. never hurts to try something new out. im still getting people that have never seen a tank do the best tanking method in copperbell mines HM and they applaud me for telling them and teaching them how to do it. now i have had a few that say "omg, why did you do that its so much easier in the middle" lots will belittle you, lots will hate you, but when that duty completed comes up you will bask in the glories of gold and women! it takes a calm headed person to be a great tank. thinking clearly in those stressful situations is the best thing you can do.

Speaking from a healer standpoint it really is an almost easier job than tanking on MOST fights. From a dps standpoint, i mean come on, dps is so incredibly easy in MOST fights as well. Every class has their job to to do. Bards/monks need to silence, tanks need to rotate CDs correctly, healers need to preheal massive damage spikes and remove debuffs. the list goes on and on for stressful situations.

tl;dr- all classes have their stressful situations. IMHO: tanking is no more stressful than dpsing or healing. certain bosses have different party checks, its up to those who are checked to figure out what to do in those situations and for the party members to help them succeed.

[Squa]

i agree with jetaisnoobie,

then why is there always a tanking shortage?

[JeTaisNoobie]

then why is there always a tanking shortage?

Read onto the following part of the paragraph and you can infer why.

[Aureliami]

Skilled played find tanking boring because when they tank everything goes perfectly. Mobs are always under control, damage is mitigated well to make healing easy, and it turns everything in a mundane snoozefest.

Bad players find tanking difficult and frustrating because when they tank everything goes to hell. Mobs run around and assassinate people, they don't manage their cooldowns well so they take huge spikes of damage making the healers work overtime.

That's why both skilled and bad players tend to stay away from tanking.

If DPS is bad nobody really notices, it just makes boss fights take longer and make healers work a bit harder but runs are still smooth even if DPS is bad(all 8 man content can be done with 7 people in this game)

If Healers are bad usually you don't notice. Healing is extremely easy in this game(good healers spend 80% of the time in 4 person dungeons DPSing, only needing to heal 20% of the time) and all 8 person endgame content can be done with 1 healer, yet most groups do it with 2 healers so 1 healer can be carried.

Bad tanks are instantly noticed because having 1 bad tank makes everything go to hell.

[Revya]

I agree with jetaisnoobie, it really is an easy to master class. you just need to always be open minded and take those "you suck cause you didnt do it this way" remarks as a chance to grow. never hurts to try something new out.

This might be the most common thing why people don't like to tank. As they are often more open to bad comments then most, as they are standing in front of everyone.

im still getting people that have never seen a tank do the best tanking method in copperbell mines HM and they applaud me for telling them and teaching them how to do it.

Now this got me interrested. What is the best way to tank copperbell mines HM??

it takes a calm headed person to be a great tank. thinking clearly in those stressful situations is the best thing you can do.

I think this is the greatest asset you can have as a Tank class. Calm minded in the most stressful situations.

Now as for the original post... I love tanking and i love Healing. I find them both challenging and fun to master. But the reason many don't want to do this job is simply because they are often just unsure of them self and a little afraid to try.

So encouraging FC members and your common stranger during you Daily Roulette does go along way to help new tank's to emerge.

[JeTaisNoobie]

If Healers are bad usually you don't notice. Healing is extremely easy in this game(good healers spend 80% of the time in 4 person dungeons DPSing, only needing to heal 20% of the time) and all 8 person endgame content can be done with 1 healer, yet most groups do it with 2 healers so 1 healer can be carried.

We can solo heal t1-t5? That's frigging amazing!

[Revya]

If Healers are bad usually you don't notice. Healing is extremely easy in this game(good healers spend 80% of the time in 4 person dungeons DPSing, only needing to heal 20% of the time) and all 8 person endgame content can be done with 1 healer, yet most groups do it with 2 healers so 1 healer can be carried.

Bad tanks are instantly noticed because having 1 bad tank makes everything go to hell.

This right here can kill a new tank joy to even try again. As when you do Healing and Damage you generate higher then usual Enmity and in turn make it even harder for the new tank to even improve.

And I would never recommend a Healer to do Damage while in a group with all new people. If your in a pre-made full 4-man group go ahead because then everyone knows how to handle it before hand.

[Synestra]

Now this got me interrested. What is the best way to tank copperbell mines HM??

Likevise, assuming we are talking lastboss only good places where to tank him is either middle or next to add spawn location. Middle makes it easier to healer to heal i guess but tanking near add spawn reduces party DMG when you can stun those adds, only done that place 2-3 times so dont really know any nifty tricks in there.

What comes to tanking itself i find it pretty easy thing to do in this game compared for tanking TERA, only classes that i would give "hard to master" title is SCH and MNK when pumping maximum performance out of those classes. Sure tanks has some small tricks in their sleeves when it comes to playing full potential but those wont take long to grasp.