Shortage of tanks a myth - thoughts?

[nyttyn]

I think it just boils down to a lot of people both not wanting that much responsibility thrust upon them, and being adverse to conflict. The second of which leads them to allow obnoxious party members to kinda walk all over them.

To all would-be tanks, or tanks who are harassed in the DF, I say to you this - remember that you're the hardest role to replace, and if your party members want to give you shit or pull at a rate you yourself are uncomfortable with (within the bounds of reason, obviously if you're only pulling once every two minutes that is way too slow), remind them gently but firmly of the queue time that they will have to go through if they keep it up. That tends to shut people up - followed by voting for a dismiss if need be, and if things are truly dire (which i find extremely rare), simply bowing out (granted, this last one is not a option for people who don't have the time in the day to tank a half hour leave penalty, but there does come a point where you have to ask yourself if you'd be actually enjoying yourself doing something else instead of sitting through a miserable experience).

[sirDarts]

*snip*

Oh hell yeah.
If tanks would communicate to the healer that they are going to multi-pull, that would help a TON!
Sometimes one can have lag, not pay enough attention, or just misunderstand the tank's intention, and heal too early/too late.
In those situations I am really, really, grateful for my "fix the fuckup"-button, aka Lustrate.

[Vanroe]

One of the problems that I've run into with my old guild was that when a new game was released, everyone tried rolling healer or tank for easier queues and to 'help the guild', but then we always ended up with to little dps at endgame. You need far more geared dps than tanks or healers for endgame usually, so if you are a healer or tank as main, you dont have as many available slots in a raid group as you would a DPS.

In the end it comes down to, organized groups usually need geared and competent dps, more than tanks/healers, and the DF needs tanks/healers more than dps.

[Velstriker]

its about having to run a dungeon 60 times to get a drop and not wanting to effectively double or triple the amount of time the dungeon takes

You made the decision to queue as DPS, you made the decision to wait sometimes more than 20 minutes to get into the dungeon. Those decisions forfeit your ability to complain about dungeons taking more time then they should. A DPS in a rush complaining about how much time the run is taking is like a psychologist complaining that everyone they talk to is crazy. If you were in such a rush.... don't queue as DPS.

The road goes 2 ways so stop blaming everyone else

Here's the thing, the road doesn't go 2 ways, and thats the entire point of this thread. Because of people like you, no one wants to tank in DF. If the road did go 2 ways then there wouldn't be a shortage of tanks, there wouldn't be threads like this, and everything would be fine. The best way to solve this issue is to encourage new tanks, be nice to EVERYONE in DF and (you're going to hate this one) give tanks a bit more slack when they do something stupid. I know, its not fair, its preferential treatment, but its the best way to keep DF stocked with meat shields. Be the change you want to see in others. /endrant

[KisaiTenshi]

I think it just boils down to a lot of people both not wanting that much responsibility thrust upon them, and being adverse to conflict. The second of which leads them to allow obnoxious party members to kinda walk all over them.

The game would be better if we could just silently go "don't match me with this guy again" at some point during the run (eg after a wipe.)

[Khalithar]

The game would be better if we could just silently go "don't match me with this guy again" at some point during the run (eg after a wipe.)

Most MMO's with group finders do have this, swtor and wow for example allow you to blacklist the people in your group and it makes sure to never match you with that person again even if they are on a different server than you. FF14 doesn't allow you to block people in your dungeon group at all which I don't really understand.

As for the shortage of tanks, there is one aspect of it that I keep in mind. Given how quick tanks get groups and how we rarely if ever have to roll against anyone for drops, it's fairly easy to gear up. Once we're done gearing up there's not much else to do besides level and gear up something else. Using myself as an example, in three weeks of fairly regular play as a tank, I went from 1-50, have an ilevel of 108 and finished the entire main scenario to go to HW as well. The reason? I'm a tank, my role is always in high demand, but now that I've basically accomplished everything, why bother queueing up at all? I got what I want, I don't owe anything to the random potential pugs in my potential groups. Though they are in luck as I am leveling a marauder, so there will be at least one more tank in the system for a bit.

Edit:

One thing I want to add though, I didn't have any of the disrespectful jerks in my group, everyone in the groups were very patient with me and more than willing to teach me how to do the various dungeons and trials that had mechanics and if we did wipe everyone maintained a positive attitude until we succeeded. I only had one boss in the whole ordeal give me trouble and that was Niabri whatever his name was.

[AsahinaMyLove]

I think definitely that the game would benefit from players in DF treating their tanks with more respect and NOT expect perfection or speed runs every time.

If tanks were viewed as group leaders and necessary members (which...they are) and treated respectfully during runs then people wouldn't be so afraid of the responsibility.

It's jerkwads who yell at the tanks and tell them off about not playing the way they want them to (usually demanding pulls of every monster in the dungeon, then getting mad when the tank dies) that have ruined people willing to sign up with random folks.

This is why I stopped playing as Tank ages ago!! D: <

[Nhelydes]

It is true that people are expecting a bit too much from tanks, just the other day I got scolded during a level 10 fate by a random guy because I didn't tank his mobs that would have died in 2-3 hits anyway. He proceeded to call me noob and insulted.
He may just have been an idiot but I often find myself in similar situations, both in dungeons and not.

[The_NPC]

As a PLD I haven't got a lot of "Abuse" cept for times I did F up (Lack of skill/knowladge of dungeon) I have gotten a few from over-geared DPS playing the "Take Hate from the Tank" game but since I do mark at lest 1 target (usually a AoE or ranged Mob) I just blow it off. I can say I few a bit bad from a run I did once a few weeks ago as a BRD (110 weapon, total ilv115) gave my PLD a bit of shit for saying something about BRD AoE spaming failing us, when I've done that with his gear & haven't lost arrgo that bad, might lose them for a second but I get it right back (DPS check of Amtor Keep HM Big stature with slimes phase lost them to us didn't want them back, he had the 110 Relic & lots of 130 gear... can't speek for other BRD didn't check them)... so yah I feal bad about that & try not to be as "mean" as a DPS anymore if I even ever talk. don't say anything unless I need to even as a Tank.

[Catwho]

As a PLD I haven't got a lot of "Abuse" cept for times I did F up (Lack of skill/knowladge of dungeon) I have gotten a few from over-geared DPS playing the "Take Hate from the Tank" game but since I do mark at lest 1 target (usually a AoE or ranged Mob) I just blow it off. I can say I few a bit bad from a run I did once a few weeks ago as a BRD (110 weapon, total ilv115) gave my PLD a bit of shit for saying something about BRD AoE spaming failing us, when I've done that with his gear & haven't lost arrgo that bad, might lose them for a second but I get it right back (DPS check of Amtor Keep HM Big stature with slimes phase lost them to us didn't want them back, he had the 110 Relic & lots of 130 gear...can't speek for other BRD didn't check them)... so yah I feal bad about that & try not to be as "mean" as a DPS anymore if I even ever talk. don't say anything unless I need to even as a Tank.

I really hate the "take hate from the tank" game.

I especially hate it when the off tank plays it on the main tank.