Does tanking carry more responsibility than most?

[Maku]

If you try to run by to kill the healer or the mage, the tank grabs you as you run by and holds you so that his allies can kill you.

Just pictured a Lala tank jumping and grabbing onto Titans Leg to stop him. Such an adorable image.

Tanking in FFXIV (in my opinion of course) is by far the easiest of the three. Healer is the hardest because you have to compensate the most for others mistakes. For me Hardest = most fun. DPS is second hardest but really other than Healer I don't find DPS or Tank hard and even then healing isn't hard with an on the ball party. DPS gets second because they have to watch their enmity, mostly do to the tank being less geared then them. Tanks have it the easiest. There is a set rotation for max enmity and if you do that and the DPS are watching their enmity you are doing your job. Tanks jobs became a little more complex with the addition of EX primals and tank switching but even then I think tanking is the easiest job.

The above being said Healers and Tanks have far higher pressure to perform cause their mistakes are so easily noticed and if someone dies it is "always" one of our faults. But even with the higher pressure tanking is still a breeze and thus boring.

The boring play style matched with the crazy pressure is why there is a tank shortage. Healers on the other hand have the same if not slightly higher pressure to perform but the healer's job is also fun (for some, myself included) and thus the shortage of healers that was originally seen is now gone (at least on my server and in my DF group).

[ashwich]

tanking is easy, but tanking carry a lot of responsibility. those are 2 separate things. typically when tank screws up someone dies, could be tank/healer in most cases. sometimes dps. so depends on the situation it could mean more or less a wipe. that's a lot of responsibility.

[Elkya95]

I gotta admit that when I started the game I did choose Gladiator because it looked pretty and wasn't prepared for people assuming that I would be the leader, so it usually went to the DPS or a Healer to lead. Because of that I don't think they actually do carry more responsibility, it should rather fall on the person who's done the instance before and sure if everyone's new THEN it can fall on the tank by default since they run in first anyway.
I did stop tanking for a while after feeling the pressure and me being new, this is my first MMO and all that, but I still had to lead sometimes on my bard while leveling, simply because I had done it before. Now I am comfortable leading, but really it falls to the person who's cleared it in my opinion.

(err sorry if it's clunky and hard to understand what I write >.> )

[Umero]

No pressure playing in JP server. I have no idea what they are talking about when we fail. I guess the pressure only comes from how civilized and educated people are within the party.

[Marxam]

Yes.
/10char

[WowSuchName]

My main is tank and recently start playing healer, I must say healing does really carry more responsibilities.

- If tank make mistake, healer has to pick it up
- If healer make mistake, healer has to pick it up
- If DPS make mistake(s), healer has to pick it up.....

After playing Tank, the enjoyment is you take full control of the situation such as pace, positioning and damage mit and etc.
But after playing healer, I felt that I take zero control of the situation my performance is base on how other people perform (you can't really be pro solo heal in team of bad players that die/raise every 30 secs). At most, I can do is top-up people HP as soon as possible and hope no one make silly mistake.

[inkuzen]

- If tank make mistake, healer has to pick it up
- If healer make mistake, healer has to pick it up
- If DPS make mistake(s), healer has to pick it up.....

This is true, I main Tank. For funzies I went around doing some healing and if you look away for a second its like "OH... the tank is dead... darn..." After trying a few other roles, I've gained a new appreciation for tanking. DPS I feel kind of bored and felt like I don't have enough control of what's going on, really wasn't sure I was doing much. As a Healer I got angry at DPS that ran around pulling things and tanks that didn't hold aggro enough then the moments of "He's dying, but I got... why is that guy dying now, oh great they're all dying... now I'm dead." But as a tank I feel much more at home.

Marking things, taking damage, trying to mitigate as efficiently as possible to take stress off the healer, pulling in the the things that I should be, making sure we're on the same page so I know what if I'm pulling adds or not on certain bosses. I like watching the area around us while keeping tabs on the enmity bars and positioning the mobs the best way possible. Tanking is awesome.

[saber_alter]

- If tank make mistake, healer has to pick it up
- If healer make mistake, healer has to pick it up
- If DPS make mistake(s), healer has to pick it up.....

sure it's the healers job to make sure nothing unintentionally goes to hell...but the tank has the mobs attention...hmm...

*starts rotating AK boss*

[Ceodore]

Hardest to easier jobs: Healer, Tank, DPS. If any one doesn't understand this, then they are seriously mistaken. By far, healing is the hardest and most stressful job in this game. Healers have to constantly make up for the mistakes of others, and when a group fails, it truly is rarely the healer's fault, but healers constantly get blamed. And for the record, I am a tank. And I will never proclaim to have the hardest job. However, to even humor the idea of DPS having it tough is a joke. They rarely have much responsibility besides throwing out all their oomph into attacks. Yeah, there are some tactics that require them to do this and that. But it pales in comparison to healing or tanking. If a DPS cries that I moved a mob to get out of an AOE so I take some less damage and make it easier on my healer to heal, then they can shove it. good DPS are a dime a dozen. A tank's first priority should be, and for me is, the healers. Without them, the group doesn't have a chance.

[Kuroyasha]

They rarely have much responsibility besides throwing out all their oomph into attacks. Yeah, there are some tactics that require them to do this and that. But it pales in comparison to healing or tanking.

And if they dont throw that "oomph" into attacks then the grp doesnt get a win. That means keeping up a rotation despite any and all mechanics of any battle. For top DPS that means keeping up the IDEAL rotation despite any and all mechanics. That's not something to scoff at. Id say one would notice the diff between a grp of A-ranked dps, B-ranked dps, C-ranked, or a mix of the above. Just the same as with tanking or healing.

Really all three are important. Tank cant ease the job of healers with CDs/dodging? Wipe. DPS cant keep up dps rotation while dodging? Wipe. Heal cant heal while dodging? wipe. Thats really all it is lol. I've done all 3 roles in endgame(coil/ex primals). They all matter just the same, just diff responsibilties, diff ways to show e-peen. IMO.

Non-related note: I think it's hilarious blowing people up in Ifrit. The reactions are just pure gold. When I was first learning as healer it would give me some great laughs.