WHy do you tank?

[AI_wass]

Exactly what the title says. What drives you to play these jobs over healing or damage dealing?

Me, I tank because damned if I'm gonna watch someone else do a worse job of it. Bad DDs, even bad healers are bearable if they keep the tank alive; but a bad tank wipes parties more than anything else, in the vast majority of content in the game.

[Hayward]

*Because sometimes I get sick of Leeroy wannabes giving the role a bad name.

*Because oftentimes it is as much fun to go head up with enemies and keep their eyes on you as it is pelting them with Aetherial projectiles and setting an Aetheric bird/demon (that's Garuda & Ifrit) on them.

[Odett]

Being a past DPS main, I started tanking for my static out of necessity a year ago and I've grown into it, I used to HATE tanking. A good tank can make runs extremely smooth and I appreciate that so much. I started taking tank seriously at the time Shiva EX came out and seeing what a difference a good solo tank could make in that fight has made me never look back. It's a lot easier to save a group as a tank than a DPS, and I enjoy having that power. Last week I ran an A1N where only me as WAR, a PLD, and a MNK were alive by the last 10%, the MNK helped the PLD on his oppressor and I took care of my own as well as the alarums, and pulling off stuff like that is rewarding as hell.

[Lemuel81]

I like getting hit in the face with a bunch of mobs

[Alien_Gamer]

Because it's fun.

[Brannigan]

Feels the most like I'm actually fighting the monster.

[Raji_Lev]

I've gone between maining tanks and maining healers over the years and across various games - mainly maining healer here, but my reasons for tanking as well:
* The queue times for tanks, versus DPS or, lately, healers
* Occasional fits of frustration with bad DF tanks, combined with a sense of "If you want something done RIGHT, you've got to do it yourself"
* Feels more "active", particularly when you have a good group and/or a good handle on what you're running
* ALL THE COMMENDATIONS
* Whenever things go badly, I can always blame the healer, even if the real reason for the wipe was me derping up somehow or another. (note: don't actually do this!)

ETA: As an aside:

Bad DDs, even bad healers are bearable if they keep the tank alive; but a bad tank wipes parties more than anything else, in the vast majority of content in the game.

I... can't really say I agree with that. When leveling, I've had more than my fair share of healers who don't know how to dodge, heal people up from unavoidable damage (including themselves, even!), or otherwise do anything besides tunnelvision on my health, and it pretty much always ended badly no matter what. Not that a bad tank doesn't lead to bad times, but in my experience, a party with a bad tank and good healer is more likely to clear than a party with a good tank and bad healer. (Unless, of course, the good healer decides he's too sober for this bullshit and bails on the group)

[AI_wass]

I've had very different experiences leveling my tanks, then. Raising all three tank jobs up, I've always found that as long as mob attention is on me, and that I didn't overpull, even a poor healer could just sit in the back and hit his Cures or Physicks and keep me alive. Unavoidable damage isn't really a thing for much of the leveling process, and there's rarely any true danger from targeted AOEs outside of endgame.

[Donjo]

Why do I Tank? Well, because it's fun. It can be nice from time to time to absolve myself of most responsibilities and be a DPS, but it's so great to be able to do something more. Something to directly support a party. Tanks are, above all else, enablers. Of all the roles, their responsibility is the most skewed toward the goal of enabling your party to perform their roles at maximum efficiency and making sure it's as easy as possible for them for them to do so. I can control the monsters to make sure everyone can hit them. I can control my equipment and cooldowns to keep healers at ease. I can control my utility to minimize threats that I cannot outright prevent. When it all comes together, I truly feel like I've protected something.

This is why I Tank.

[Raxiaz]

to upset the bads when i go AFK