Shortage of tanks a myth - thoughts?

[Instrumentality]

So, yeah, the tank shortage is a myth, if you look at how many players have PLD or WAR at 50, but it's very real if you look at how many are willing to regularly insert their head into the noose of Duty Finder.

If every person in the game has both tanks at 50 and fully geared in i130 gear and can play a tank to perfection, but only 15-20% of people ever actually do this, there is a shortage of tanks. It is not enough to simply have the job levelled and geared. You have to be actually doing it everywhere a lot of the time, and as long as people are actively avoiding it there will be a real shortage of tanks regardless of the potential supply of tanks in the game.

[Rhas]

Unfortunately many people I know who play tank and healer roles have become so discouraged that they avoid multi-player content except with good friends, or simply Play DPS or just craft. That is because of the stress of playing the tank (and healer) role. Too many times they have been blamed berated or abused, and too many times forced into an unwanted speed run, or summarily kicked for not speed running. The blame game is probably the chief culprit.

Yeah I *used* to play tank as well. While I may not have tanked a lot on this character, I have tanked more than enough to know that unless I actually know the people I go in with, it's just not going to happen. I am at some point going to level up both the tank jobs further because now they have tied them to DRK when they originally said they wouldn't, but that's neither here nor there.

I have had absolutely horrendous experiences with tanking on my "other" characters to know that when I eventually do take them up just for the skills, it will probably be solo in leves/guilhests and fates. Unless I can get people I actually know and/or trust to have a good time regardless of circumstances in the dungeons go along with

[Kathryn]

As a main tank myself i admit to avoiding DF unless grouped with people i know.

[Kosmos992k]

As a main tank myself i admit to avoiding DF unless grouped with people i know.

What I think many people fail to realize is that tanks are not there simply a a resource for them to use and abuse, we are players just as they are, we want to enjoy the game and play just as much as anyone else. But when tanks are treated as simply a means to an end, a resource...well not to put too fine a point on it, we not only feel the painful disrespect, but also loose any incentive to be helpful for fear of further pain. It's kind of a vicious circle because it really takes a thick skin or a "don't care" attitude to play in DF regularly.

To be clear, I like to be able to sleep at night, so if I'm running into issues in DF group, it's better for me personaly to eat a 30 minute penaltyand drop out, than it is to fight fire with fire, so to speak. As someone else put it, I play to have fun, and relax, when it ceases to be fun, or becomes personally stressful, it's time for me to do something else for a while instead of getting dragged into some needless confrontation.

[Cyrus-Wallace]

As a main tank myself i admit to avoiding DF unless grouped with people i know.

Same, I prefer to heal in DF, I have less responsability and faster queue times than DPS. That's the reason I commendate the tank most of the time, because that person was brave enough to get in DF with some random people. I used to tank in DF a lot, and even if it went... well? maybe? I ended up discussing with a lot of people. To avoid such stress: Healer. I DPS the thingies, I heal the tank, I raise the DRG, everything is fine. I do my thing and the tank controlls the flow of the time as I just sit back and relax.

Sometimes I feel the tanks develop a cocky attitude as a defensive response against people in DF. D:

[Zaft]

As a main tank myself i admit to avoiding DF unless grouped with people i know.

Yeah, that's the thing. If I queue up with randoms, the chances are high that I'll get a bunch of windowlickers who can't pull even 300 DPS. Like, it's one thing if you're undergeared (we've ALL been there, it's not a big deal). But i130 people who do 125 DPS make me physically ill.

[Gamer3427]

I'd also like to say that out of the tanks I do get in the DF, most are just using it to get faster groups. And as such tend to be complete (insert derogatory term here) to anyone they come across, and are focused purely on speed running even if the other players actively tell them that they're new to the run. They're especially brutal to healers that aren't "good enough" too keep them alive when they're pulling groups that are large enough that they do as much damage in two hits as the tanks have total health. My guess is that this is a large part of why so many DPS and Healers are hard on the rare tanks that aren't like that, as most players using the DF will have had more bad experiences with tanks than good ones. This in turn creates the situation that makes people not want to tank in the DF except for those who are just in it for the quick run, and the cycle continues.......

EDIT: I would like to say that I'm just judging this based on my experience, and seeing how people react to tanks in such experience. I heal and DPS mostly, and have only tanked low level Guildhests at the most, so I'm purely talking from a "bystander" perspective.....

[Elladie]

I levelled WAR to 50 and it's geared high enough for most - if not all - of SCOB. I also think playing it is great fun. But I never ever play it except with friends. For all the reasons outlined by the OP. I would rather - *thinks of something so horrible and loathsome, it makes me want to throw up* - eat TWENTY plates of brussel sprouts than do roulettes as a tank. I do run them as a healer, however, and I am also SICK UNTO DEATH of tanks who think a speed-run is mandatory. Even if a) they're not really geared for it b) they can't hold hate on that many mobs c) they can't get out of AOEs for TOFFEE (or cookies) d) they don't seem to realise they can make my job a bit easier by popping a cooldown here and there, and e) the BRD is wearing a lvl 1 ring and only uses Straight Shot and Heavy Shot ( yeah, okay, that last one only happened once).

If a tank asks me if I'm okay with a speedrun, that's an automatic commendation. Not because speedruns are my thing - I'm happy to go slow - but because it demonstrates that there's a player behind all that heavy armour who's actually stopped to think things through.

I know that a lot - if not most - of these tanks are only attempting to do a speedrun because they think that's what's expected of them. But please don't. Just ask. Please. I'd really much rather deal with smaller groups of mobs and fling out some deeps of my own than give myself RSI spamming Physick because your HP plummets in the direction of zero faster than the speed of light!

[VargasVermillion]

Also the act of dealing damage is more engaging to most people.

[Svalitz]

I main PLD and often use the Duty Finder for Expert Roulette dailies.

Since I've been doing it for a while now and I'm pretty overgeared for things I don't get much trouble from PuGs, but the times I have I just don't put up with their crappy attitudes.

I basically just say; Look. I'm here doing my job, we're running things the way I want because I'M the one in charge here, and without me you're screwed. Don't use DF if you want things like Speed Runs or done perfectly. Deal with it.

Only once have I full on left a party because of the bad attitude. Normally it's one person, and telling them to sit down and shut up will work.

And don't even get me started on when BLMs or BRDs attack everything full on- then get mad at you when as tank you aren't ONLY hitting the Flash button 10000x during the run. LEARN TO DO YOUR JOBS in a TEAM environment, not FIRE II barrage until stuff's dead. The intention of the dev team was never for speed runs and OP DPS that just obliterates large packs of mobs. That is players finding loopholes in the design and wanting everything done NOW NOW NOW, rather than at the pace intended