Tank and heal shortage

[Squa]

I have been thinking about this tank healer shortage for a awhile now, and it dawned on me

2 tanking class
WAR
PLD

5 DPS class
BRD DRG MNK SMN BLM

2 Healing class
WHM SCH

So it seems like a balanced group should be 9 (instead of the current 8). However, since it is 4/8, the ratio of 1-2-1 is broken (should be 1-2.5-1), which leaves a .5 DPS class without a job per 4 man dungeon.


This seems pretty small, and it is, since DPS queue times may have 5-10x tank/healer times and can't be accounted for simply on a numerical basis for the classes.

[eschaton]

The tank shortage is becoming more serious as it influences all queues. The game could benefit from making people want to tank more. Maybe give them more shiny armor pieces

[Squa]

Further elaborating on the issue, that the Arcanist class is the only class to branch out into Jobs, SMN/SCH, this also makes it more desirable for people to major in first, since it gives the most benefit for least work. The solution I think is to make a new tanking class next. Could probably make it just as a cross current class for simplicity, but having 3 tanks now would help balance the ratio I believe for a lot of dungeon queue inbalances.

(simply making a tank exclusive mount wont solve this problem!!)

[DannyNobuser]

even if there is more dps classes than hlr or tank regardless you could have a 100 dps to 2 hlrs and tanks they still wont tank or heal if they don't want to. So that's not a logical assumption

[Seig345]

I do what I can about the healer shortage when I play, seeing as whm is my favorite job/role to play X)

Once I've gotten my daily roulette bonuses, I usually queue up a few extra times, and I always queue with in-progress checked. Unfortunately, when I tried to exclusively level Gld/Pld up to get it to level cap so I could help as a tank, it was just too nerve wracking and I wound up not playing at all for a week or two straight... Until people can learn to chill (especially on the non end-game dungeons, yeesh!) I'm more likely to stick with my comfort job as Healer.

At least my preferred role is one of the needed ones, I suppose? (I've never seen the role-in-need be anything but Tank though...)

[Sheer]

I normally play PLD, but right now I've started a MNK because my three friends want to make a four man team, and my friend wanted the tank role. So if it's any comfort, I assure you I'll be rolling tank in duty roulette to satisfy my desire to tank.

The main issue is that not as many people want to tank/heal as there are people who just want to hit things. There's nothing that can be done to solve that. Just encourage the tanks/healers you run into if they're having a rough time, and thank the healers/tanks if they do a good job. Encouragement and positive reinforcement will go a long way, especially considering most ex-tanks/healers I've seen on forums (especially back around when the game was released) talked about how they left the role because they were tired of being harassed for little mistakes or things that weren't even their fault to begin with.

[Grey_Cain]

To overcome the imbalance, DPS players would need to switch over to tanking. The second barrier to that currently, after player attitudes, is effort. There are only two tanks coming from two sources, and players that are already DPS would have to stop contributing to their DPS in order to begin raising a tank.

So the simplest solution is to, like Scholar, make the second job on one or two DPS into a tank. Lancer is in a good position, as they already get heavier armor sets than Pugilist or Archer. Regardless of the base class, any potential tank job that comes from a DPS class just needs a few enmity generation abilities, which could even combo off of the presently useless-to-cross-class Savage Blade and Skull Sunder (and combos would be an expectation for any Pugilist tank job).

By reducing the effort that someone has to go through to get into a tank job, more people will be inclined to give it a shot. I would expect far more people would go for a second job than would be willing to raise another class from 1-50, anyway. I believe it worked for healers, as I see quite a lot of Scholars taking up healer spots in PF, which also fill almost as fast as DPS spots do.

[Doo]

There are issues that makes tanking in ffxiv worst than other mmos.

Some fights are extremely boring - I.E Titan HM

Fail groups makes tanking unbearable - I.E Garuda EX- having to grab adds, spiny, dodge slipstream over and over again.

PLD- Spam halone combo over and over again.

Support roles have a bigger effect on how well the group does - Too much added DPS check that prevents tank/healer combo to shine.

Add that with having to know the fight 100 percent or most likely to get raged at and it's just bad.

[myahele]

I wouldn't call dps lazy. I main as a whm, but after a while I kinda get bored. So I then level up my smn. I will admit that its alot more fun and takes alot of pressure off of you. Old habits die hard and I find myself healing if I have the time or rezing members. I also sure to dodge.

On futufe patches and expansions they need to make new tank classes or jobs. The game is only a few months old and there's already a tank shortage? That's not good! I can see some people leaving the game due to long wait times combined with vote abandoned. Dps already wait 30m+

[Lyrinn]

I've been leveling DPS classes for the achievements lately, and coming from a healer, it's not right to call DPS classes lazy - it simply requires a different kind of concentration. You have to watch your DoT timers, upcoming cooldowns, and have situational awareness (AoEs, adds, special triggers/mechanics). Certainly the least responsibility though.