Shortage of tanks a myth - thoughts?

[Aeyis]

Tanks will have higher standards, if you can't get over that then don't play one.

It is human nature for a person to hold a higher standard for a leader.

That's the thing tho:

Tanks are not leaders. Its not anywhere in their role description. Its the current days mindset that the groups tank is supposed to be the one in charge that is causing these issues. Not the tank role itself.
In fact its the group mentality of wanting to shift responsibility away.
Because many (most?) people do this, it causes a lot of tanks to shy away from df content (particularly the harder bits) because they dont like being forced to take responsibility for the groups success.



As far as tanking difficulty level, that depends on both the game and the content. Overall tanking tends to be fairly easygoing however.
-During bossfights youve always got the boss focused, so you can respond to boss abilities faster.
-You dont have to focus on pushing dps.
-You dont have to focus on others healthbars.

All of the ''expected from a tank'' points you list are in reality ''this is expected from our rolemodel/leader'', not the tank role.

[Sapphic]

Because many (most?) people do this, it causes a lot of tanks to shy away from df content (particularly the harder bits) because they dont like being forced to take responsibility for the groups success.

This, the success of the party is down to the whole party. Albeit Tanks do have more control than the rest due to them being the ones who can dictate how large or small a pull is going to be. Outside of healers blackmailing tanks into, do this or I don't heal you, or DPS running off and grabbing more mobs.

[Risvertasashi]

Tanks are not leaders. Its not anywhere in their role description. Its the current days mindset that the groups tank is supposed to be the one in charge that is causing these issues. Not the tank role itself.
In fact its the group mentality of wanting to shift responsibility away.

It's the sort of natural thing to do though. Tanks, ultimately, control the pacing of the instance in the most direct way. They're the ones that start engagements, choose position, choose how much to pull, and so on. As another poster pointed out, healers (and DPS really) can only ask the tank to do certain things, or blackmail by refusing to fill their function (worst case).

[Zykor]

As far as tanking difficulty level, that depends on both the game and the content. Overall tanking tends to be fairly easygoing however.
-You dont have to focus on pushing dps.
-You dont have to focus on others healthbars.

Right, most content does not push tanks. Whereas, without echo and without full 130, when you fail to kill Bahamut by a few seconds, you'll wish the tank would be better at stance dancing. And Paladins should also be watching HPs, or more specifically, weakness. A stoneskin on someone with weakness could save their life during the megaflare mechanics. This will be double true as they get more raid abilities in xpac.

Though echo makes that all irrevelant in current content.

[Ketch]

I had actually hung up my tank job and switch to bard because of the abuse tanks get, but recently my FC has had a need for my war. I had forgotten how much it was to tank without the snark or other players or the tank battles in the tower.

It's not about having a thick skin (Though I get a feeling that is said purely to up ones epeen) It's about how much sh*t you're willing to put up with for a game that is suppose to be for enjoyment.