Bigger and better incentives for tanks

[Trevalon]

I think the main problem with tanking is that the tank is usually expected to be the "leader" of the group. Most players do not want to be the "Leader" of a group, guild, or whatever else in the MMO. It adds pressure and stress onto something that is supposed to be a recreational activity.

Other people, like myself, love being the leader and that added pressure of making sure whatever dungeon run or Raid runs correctly. I also cannot stand bad tanks and nothing makes me want to play a tank more than being a DPS and playing with a bad tank. I look at it that if I play the tank then at the very least I know that portion of the group is going to run correctly.

This comes from 16 years of playing a tank in pretty much every "mainstream" MMO ever released in the U.S. Market (I would wager at least 30-40 different MMOs).

I really don't think giving incentives will ever convince people to play a tank. It takes a certain type of player to want to play the tank and unfortunately that is a rarer type of player. As an example: WoW has added tons of incentives for tanks over the years and none of them ever worked. They still have as much shortage of tanks today as they ever have.

[ulti_19]

Honestly I think it's more of a preference. In any mmo I play if it doesn't have a sword and shield, I don't play it. I love tanking. But most people prefer killing fast. The grind is faster, the end result is faster, you can kill faster in pvp, in most games as dps. Besides, tanks get a lot of hate in dungeons in this game too, that doesn't make people want to be the leader in a dungeon since you can roll a dps and just silently spam chains without being yelled at ever or not knowing where or what to do in most cases. If a DPS makes a mistake, no one notices for the most part, and all is well, when the tank slips up, all hell breaks loose many times haha.

[HiroSeven]

I tend to agree with the notion that people will shy away from tanking since they are put in a position to lead, perhaps not party leader/strategist or whatever, but to lead their group through the dungeon. It's a negative type of pressure largely and unfortunately, induced by the community in a toxic kind of way. I don't know about others, but for the very few times that I have tanked, I have found that a helpful group that provides reasonable feedback is easier to 'lead' in the way that I've described. Thus, good feedback would be a great incentive; knowing that if I play well I will beat the dungeon, and if I play poorly then I will get some feedback which will allow me to fix my mistakes.

Having said all that, and being totally unrelated, I think a better incentive for tanks might be more playstyles in the form of new classes/jobs. Maybe certain people who like tanking are simply unable to acclimatize to the current jobs/classes we have available. *Hopes for FFXI-style Ninja tank soon*

[myahele]

I'll agree with everybody. Tanks are just default leaders due to the fact that if a dps or hear rushes in they'll quickly die.

That and theres just so much mechanics in a boss fight that rely on tanks leading bosses from x to y spot.

[monknorris]

I main PLD and I hate using duty roulette for just about anything on the bright side of it ive played with some really nice and skilled players but for the most its filled with people who don't know how to use there skills move out of aoes and talk a lot of crap. I feel as they bonus 750 gil or whatever they reward you with now isnt worth the trouble and headache for queing as a tank. I've beaten T5 before I've beaten all 3 EX primals the rewards for EX primals as a tank are borderline crap imo they require a extreme amount of effort to do compared to other classes imo and you have to deal with people playing the blame game/kick when people screw up. I just hope SE can do something to where they can make endgame rewarding enough in some way to make me and other people PUG on there tanks more.

[Kaesara]

I cant actually think of any incentive that would make me want to pug on my paladin solo. I will happly tank coil/primals for my FC i'll even go to CT with my some FC members but puging solo no chance, I would rather heal

[Rath]

Recently started tanking as both glad and war. Did a few roulette and stopped puging. Reason was the healers. Lvl 50 synced and running ahead aggroing. Had this in tamtara and satasha. I let the last one die before leaving duty. This happened on 4 of the 5 dungeons I did on low lvl roulette.

[Naberrie]

I've a level 50 WAR and I rarely use it for roulette, even with the daily tank bonus. The reason is other players. Even if I do everything right, there's always someone who wants to run ahead, pull mobs and get killed only to yell at me for not taking hate. Or healers who just want to nuke and expect me to heal myself (I can be self-sufficient in some dungeons for a while, but in Sastasha I don't exactly have my full package to work with; a cure now and then would be nice). It feels like there's always someone going out of their way to make things as hard as possible for me and then griefing me for not magically fixing things. It's just not worth the annoyance. I'll use it for FC activity with friends, but I'm not going to tolerate PUGs while tanking anymore.

Want more tanks? Stop being *%#^s to tanks.

[Vanguard319]

Had a party yesterday where our tank simply did nothing. he would agro mobs, but he refused to use any weapon skills or hate tools. we tried to talk him into doing his job, but he just ignored us, so the party voted to throw him out after ten minutes of his dickery. I wound up being the main tank for the entire run. (had to respec my pgl with hate tools, but pulled it off.) How's this for incentive: If you plan to play a tank, don't play it half-assed, or no one is going to want to play with you. We have the tools to get rid of freeloaders now, and if you're using duty roulette, there's less likelihood that your party will put up with it.

[Gardes]

I just got into a turn 4 party finder where a tank joined and then asked if can get some brd loot drops since he already has everything he wants except from turn 5. The bard called the tank greedy and left. The tank said that he only asked politely and then left. We waited around but there were multiple turn 4 party finders that only had tank spots left to fill. There were party finders for other turns that are lacking tanks too. We eventually disbanded without ever going in. I've been trying to party find turn 4 for like 3 days now, I think. Always the tank. I have enough gear to tank turn 4 and have tanked a win for t4 (months ago before I turned blm lol) before but I cannot go to it as a tank because I want a chance at the casting leggings (enough experience and outside stories to not trust greed agreement).

At this point I think tanks should get a coil wild card drop exclusive to tanks that replaces all allagan tank drops. A token/parcel that only tanks can roll need on and nobody else can greed on so party finders can't force the tank to share it with. The tank can then exchange it for any loot that matches the turn it drops from. Example: A party finder group finishes turn 4 and 1 standard allagan loot drops and 1 turn 4 tanking parcel. The 2 tanks dice rolls for the parcel and one of them gets it (the other normal drop is for the rest of the party to fight over normally based on agreement). The winning tank then goes to an npc and exchanges it for any loot he wants that is in the turn 4 loot table, be it the tanking gear or any other type.

Sounds too good, maybe? Maybe the tanks should have it that good.