How is it like being a DPS?

[Karilyn]

lol
You take avoidable damage as a tank and you die and wipe the raid.

I've played a tank for 12 years across multiple games; that whole "Oh no it's so scary the boss is attacking me, I have to be so much tougher than everyone else" bullshit isn't going to work on me like it does on a lot of DPSers. I know that bullshit, I used to play that line too. But the reality is, the most recent boss I'm aware of in any MMO that was a serious test of tank survivability was Brutallus, 6 fucking years ago. Blizzard's Wrath of the Lich King ushered in an era of easy tanking, and every other MMO has crumpled before Blizzard's design philosophy regarding tanks, including FF14 (My god threat is so piss easy, why is threat so piss easy?).

But about FF14 specifically:

On most fights, avoidable damage as a tank is surprisingly eatable due to having A LOT more HP, dodge, and defense, and tanks receiving priority healing. You're the only player who has Adloquium cast on you (and usually the only player with Regan too; don't forget, Regan is 3 times stronger than Medica II's HoT), so you get a shield twice as large as anyone else, and that's without Adloquium critting, and that shield is further affected by your higher damage reduction.

It also doesn't hurt that you take less damage from unavoidable damage. I just grabbed a video from Youtube of Titan Extreme healed by Double White Mages to use as a benchmark:

Titan's Ultimate: Earthen Fury
No Scholar, No Shields, No Damage Reduction Buffs on any player

Class      | MaxHP -> CurHP = Damage = HP Loss
----------------------------------------------
White Mage |  4395 ->  978  =  3417  =  77.8%
Paladin    |  6883 -> 4713  =  2170  =  31.5%
Warrior    |  8818 -> 6091  =  2727  =  30.9%
White Mage |  4627 -> 1381  =  3246  =  70.2%
Black Mage |  4337 -> 1414  =  3165  =  73.0%
Bard       |  5105 -> 1536  =  3691  =  72.3%
Dragoon    |  5014 -> 1402  =  3702  =  72.5%
Monk       |  4828 -> 1489  =  3339  =  69.2%

And take a wild guess who was the only player in the raid with Regan on her?

I mean damn, the Tanks could've taken a theoretical three fucking simultanious Ultimates without dying. The next most durable character in that raid would've been sitting at -5189HP (-107.5% HP). The least durable character at -5856HP (-133.2% HP). Every other character would've died TWICE before the tanks died even once.

And all this STILL comes into play before factoring in Regan, Adloquium, and having a dedicated healer 90% of the time to babysit you.

And that sorta ridiculous damage reduction applies to tanks eating avoidable damage too. Most bosses in this game do NOT melee remotely close to hard enough to make most avoidable damage the same sorta threat to a tank that it is to DPSers. The only avoidable damage that'll insta-fuck you as a tank is the same avoidable damage that will insta-fuck DPS (lolLandslide)

If you still don't believe me, consider this: The prevailing strategy on Titan Extreme is that if a Bomb Boulder spawns on top of the tank, that SHE SHOULD SIT THERE AND EAT IT. BECAUSE THE TANK CAN EAT IT WITHOUT RISK OF DEATH AND NOBODY ELSE CAN.

You take avoidable damage as a dps, you run around and get healed after a second or two, while the healers and tanks are praying you can manage to avoid another avoidable aoe within that 2 second window.

And if you didnt, here's a res. There's only 2 more left now.

/provoke

DISCLAIMER: As I am a tank of 12 years, not a healer of 12 years (and additional disclaimer: I'm kinda awful at healing), I'm less confident on this specific subject, but I'll tackle it anyway... If I'm wrong a healer can correct me.

*takes a deep breath* Here we go!

In case you were unaware, to heal a DPS who took avoidable damage, you usually have to not heal someone else. On a fight like Titan you can use an AOE heal because the arena is small and players are stacked. On other fights players spread out or run around more which means the healer may be forced to use a single target heal. Nothing like 2 DPS on opposites sides of an Arena taking damage, the tank needing healing too, and unavoidable damage is coming in 3-4 seconds.

And if you didnt, here's a res. There's only 2 more left now.

This attitude is toxic and the reason behind 90% of wipes in PUGs. DPSers dropping like flies is unacceptable. It's stressful to healers. It takes healing away from players who aren't dying. Healers might have to wait for a gap in damage to Raise, resulting in a substancial DPS loss. And after you're raised, you STILL have to be healed back up, further taking healing away from other players who need it.

And in case you didn't notice, you can Swiftcast-Raise tanks too, and if a tank DOES die, guess who's getting priority Raise without delay while the other tank Provokes the boss? (Okay shit like that doesn't work on fights where both tanks are tanking different things, but that's beside the point). Healers don't wait for a gap in damage to Raise a Tank like they do to Raise a DPS.

There's a reason why so many DPSers are so fucking horrible. Because statements like yours are giving players permission to be bad, excusing their poor behavior, saying it doesn't matter. Then people wonder why they can't find DPS that doesn't suck. The first step to improving the DPS population is shattering the myth that DPSing is so easy and doesn't matter WTF you do as long as you're a warm body. Because it was true back in Everquest or Molten Core, but it isn't fucking true anymore, and all you have to do is go wipe in PUGs for an hour and count the number of wipes which were caused by shitty DPS, and the falsehood of the myth becomes as plain as day.

There's a reason I bolded and underlined this statement:

DPSing is probably the hardest role in this game, unless the DPSers are playing their role as if it was the easiest role in the game, in which case Healing becomes the hardest role in the game.
Whether healing is harder or easier than DPSing seems to come down almost exclusively to whether or not the DPSers are taking their job seriously.