Are tanks a scapegoat for performance issues?

[Dreggit]

Many places in the forums, in the game, on reddit and the net seem to blame tanks for many things. But is it because it's really a tank issue or is it easy to blame the tank?

Granted not everyone tanks well and tanking is not a job for everyone but it is no secret that the tanking community is one of the smallest in the game but also likely the smallest when looking at combat roles.

One of the faults noted in another thread notes that tanks are expected to know the content they que for even if it's their first run. Sometimes they are asked to pull more than they're comfortable with and blamed if they die because they're undergeared. There's many possible reasons but that's not what they threads about.

Do you think tanks are the goto to blame for wipes? Why is that?

This discussion was sparked by a member of my FC on why it was recommended that they not learn tanking if they could not take player discourse.

[bswpayton]

Many places in the forums, in the game, on reddit and the net seem to blame tanks for many things. But is it because it's really a tank issue or is it easy to blame the tank?

Id say its shared blame between tank and healer just the nature of the game ha ,its a reason why 55 percent of players play dps

[Risvertasashi]

Many places in the forums, in the game, on reddit and the net seem to blame tanks for many things. But is it because it's really a tank issue or is it easy to blame the tank.

Just as the person above said... same deal with healers. Sometimes there's genuinely an issue with tanking/heals, fairly often they can end up a scapegoat.

[Ilan]

Id say its shared blame between tank and healer just the nature of the game ha ,its a reason why 55 percent of players play dps

It has to be blamed on DPS also, if they deal damage like a wet noodle and stuff just doesn't die because tanks and healer run out of cd's/mana after a while. Everyone in the group is responsible, bad tanks and healers are just harder to carry.

[Launched]

No, lots of tanks badly underperform.

[Masekase_Hurricane]

Many places in the forums, in the game, on reddit and the net seem to blame tanks for many things. But is it because it's really a tank issue or is it easy to blame the tank?

Granted not everyone tanks well and tanking is not a job for everyone but it is no secret that the tanking community is one of the smallest in the game but also likely the smallest when looking at combat roles.

One of the faults noted in another thread notes that tanks are expected to know the content they que for even if it's their first run. Sometimes they are asked to pull more than they're comfortable with and blamed if they die because they're undergeared. There's many possible reasons but that's not what they threads about.

Do you think tanks are the goto to blame for wipes? Why is that?

This discussion was sparked by a member of my FC on why it was recommended that they not learn tanking if they could not take player discourse.

I think it is because most new tanks/tanks don't have a middle ground. They either pull two or 3 mobs or a massive pack pull. If the party wipes they say ok I will pull small, then they grab 3/4 mobs at a time lol

[bswpayton]

It has to be blamed on DPS also, if they deal damage like a wet noodle and stuff just doesn't die because tanks and healer run out of cd's/mana after a while. Everyone in the group is responsible, bad tanks and healers are just harder to carry.

Oh trust me I know when dps are screwing up hence zurvan extreme shouldnt even see way cannon in second phase but so far every group Ive been in has seen it, I at the point now where I think lots of dps just do their combos

[Tint]

I think it is because most new tanks/tanks don't have a middle ground. They either pull two or 3 mobs or a massive pack pull. If the party wipes they say ok I will pull small, then they grab 3/4 mobs at a time lol

usually the tank has blown all his cds in on the wiped pull before, so doing a big pull again is not the very best idea.

however, the tank has a big affect on everyone else in the party. the tank decides the speed of the dungeon, how much is pulled, how the enemys are placed, how much enmity he builds leads to how much dps the DDs can make (single target or aoe, have the DDs have to switch targets?), how much the healer has to heal, and how much time he can spend in cleric, how some mechanics are handled...

the tank IS the defacto leader of the party. the skill level and decisions of the tank have the biggest impact on how the whole party has to handle a dungeon. of course everyone wants to tell the tank then how THEY want him to handle things.

this is also the reason we don't have many tanks. pressing the buttons correct is not very difficult. being the leader of the party is what turns people away.

[RopeDrink]

In short, it is a group effort. Tanks & Healers keep everyone alive, fight duration depends on overall DPS - everyone has an effect on how smooth everyone elses task can be performed. There are times where things go wrong for a specific reason, but more often than not there are many factors. In said cases, everyone can usually do something to help everyone else (and themselves), but it's a lot easier to skip all that and have a good old fashioned flamefest. Unfortunately for the tank, given they have arguably the most responsibilities in whatever content they are in, they are definitely an easier target for waylaid blame. Doesn't mean it is always correct, just it's easy to do.

In terms of tanking specifically, think of your own pace then amplify that by the trust you have in your healer vs how quick everyone can kill enemies. Both you & healer should be guaging eachother to see eachothers limits, and fight duration in general is a standard DPS check. When I'm playing tank, the first pull will determine how I treat most of the dungeon (especially when in a non-communicative group). From there I go at whatever pace I believe is comfortably efficient. You will still get random Joe Soap (Healer and/or DPS) who wants you to punch the envelope, to which I'll probably agree if I think the group can get away with it. Again, goes back to 'team effort'. There is more than one person doing that same content, so everyone should be communicating when they're uncomfortable rather than waiting for a failure before exploding into a hateful tiriade.

[seekified]

I think lots of players get rightly or wrongly blamed for a lot of things, regardless of role. I also think that considering how little the game does to actually teach the roles, most notably tanking, there's an expectation that everyone will either understand exactly what to do just from reading their tooltips, or go online to look up guides. Having such an expectation of new players is unrealistic - I think that assuming that all this basic play information should be available in-game is fair, and it's weird that it isn't.

Tanking in particular also seems to be hard for some people because of the responsibility. Tanxiety is a very real thing. The whole "pulling more than you're comfortable with" scenario could easily be avoided by simply saying "no, I'm not comfortable with that yet", but I've pretty much never seen someone say that. They just try it, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. That's part of learning, too, but every wipe is cause for angry chat messages.