Is it really rewarding to play tank/heal role?

[Synestra]

I hate to break it to you, but the natural tendency is for people to seek out the maximum reward for the least amount of effort. 60% of the playerbase didn't choose the DPS role for the challenge. Most did it to avoid responsibility and fly under the radar.

And its these peoples that cries about DF que times or struggles with horrible PF's while all tanks and healers picked best DD's avaible and started to faceroll savages :P

[OcieKo]

Tank/Heal being rewarding is balanced by a high level of accountability, when one screws up. You know it. So if were talking on a facet by facet basis.

Hardest to Easiest:
Basic Encounter Knowledge: Tank > Healer > DPS
Advanced Encounter Knowledge: Healer > Tank > DPS
Basic Play: Healer > DPS > Tank
Advanced Play: DPS > Healer > Tank
Arena Awareness: Tank > Healer > DPS
Basic Encounter Timing: Healer > Tank > DPS
Advanced Encounter Timing: Tank > Healer > DPS
Basic Personal Timing: DPS > Healer > Tank
Advanced Personal Timing: DPS > Healer > Tank

So Why?
I split them all into Basic and Advanced because the entry level for each facet has different requirements than the more advanced level of encounters. Entry level is mostly that stuff every player pretty much HAS to do, Advanced is more of the choices for better item rewards.

Encounter Knowledge, at the most basic level tanks have the most they need to find out right away, healers and dps really just need to play follow the leader. At the advanced level the tank mostly just has to worry about the big changes that happen to them, the whole party, or to the mobs while the healer is accountable for knowing what happens to everyone (this is why I like to learn content as healer, theres less holes in the "need to know"). DPS pretty much down to what affects them and their personal CD usage optimization points.

Play, here Im referring to the self contained aspect of playing a character. At the basic level healers have the most to do, DPS tend to have to move more, tank gets really simple here hold aggro on everything, do it the spam aoe way do it the rotating targets way, still easy. At the advanced level DPS just have the most things that only matters to them regardless of encounter, this ties into why DOS is at the top of personal timing as well.

Arena Awareness, this is one of those points that tanks need, and its one of the first that people will notice is missing. If a tank is tanking in a bad spot or If a tank is late on add pick-up EVERYONE knows, and in this game Off-Tanks are like Unicorns, mythical. Healers get second by merit of generally being the first target of any such issues. DPS only really get hit on for this if they ignore it completely, if they follow to he tanks generally, this is done for them.

Encounter Timing, honestly tanks and healers are about equal here, just healers are more prone to screwing themselves over at the basic level, and tanks tend take the hit at higher levels. DPS yet again mostly just worried about themselves.

Personal Timing, all that stuff your doing regardless of encounter, offense and maintenace buffs here. This is the main challenge of DPS where player physical skill really comes into full measure and less of their mental skills (not underestimating the needed knowledge, but getting it all to flow smoothly is way harder than knowing whats needed to do it). Tanks this mostly encompasses the non enmity or encounter driven offense utilities and rotations, quite frankly its rather simple on its own, whether it be as OT on a raid boss with no OT like duties at the time (Blue DPS stuff) or on a Rank B solo hunt, its about the same. Healers, this part is getting easier with 4.0 Cleric Stance and MND replacing INT as the DMG modifier, but none theless knowing how long you can push constant DPS without fear of reprisal and getting a geel for when your more in-combat maintenances are going to run short are a fairly mild learning curve, but physically rather easy like tanks.

What to take out of this? Tanks and Healers are rewarded for the destination, DPS are rewarded for the journey. And being able to focus on the journey is less mentally and emotionally taxing, as well as more reliably exciting. And awesome Parse even on a failed attempt is an accomplishment. Tanks and Healers tho, its those times when all excrements hits the fan and goes every which way and you STILL pulled it off, those are the moments your tank/healers play for. Getting through that raidboss with a co-healer thats always dying as a SCH or N AST your feeling mega boss, managed to handle the Main tank AND off tank duties because you have a worthless Blue DPS in you raid... Ya you fellow tanks and heals know what I'm talkin bout.

Minor thing you wlso notice about Tank/Healer players, we like DPS who take care of the team on their own A LOT. That summoner who rezzes automatically when your MP is taxed, that NIN who goads a recently rezzed physical DPS, that BRD whos on point with Wanderer's Paeon, the MCH (or BRD) who has their resource/DMG buffs ready for when the AOE or resource drain is gunna get intensive. You tend to find we like those DOS a lot, and we tend to do it more when we need a vreak from the responsibility of tanking and healing.

[Claire_Pendragon]

If I'm wrong, why do DPS is highly more playable by players than healer and Tank?

On average, most people are more "Offensive" than "Defensive" in how they react to situations.

When I first started playing RPGs, I may have used high burst DPS, but my goal was high HP/defense, with as many people able to heal (but never a WHM, as they died too quickly)
Essentially I was obsessed with high survival potential. (Even though I was terrible at making it work.)

I always would spend many turns healing, waiting for the 1 turn I could land a single hit, and slowly drag out fights. (I was usually drastically under leveled) and playing offensively was too risky, more so because I was terrible at being offensive effectively.

In most games, like in Shooters, a lot of "Defensive" strategies get nerfed, not because they are good, but because they annoy the majority of players, while only being fun for the minority of players.
(Just listen to an FPS player complain about "campers", they cant even defend their argument, and usually dont even understand the game well enough to know how to deal with a camper with a single blow.)

For me, I like the idea of healing, and mitigating damage to be lower, while minimally contributing "slightly" to melee damage. (more so for the appearance of "im fighting the enemy", despite im just more interested in surviving the enemy.)

Sadly, healers heal, and dont melee. (i like healing more than mitigating)
And tanks dont heal, but do mitigate/melee.

I have 0 interest in holding hate. Its the thing I cant friggin stand about tanking, its so boring and uninteresting.
But I have to do it, if I want to get hit.

So I pick tanks, because they get more things that I like, compared to healers. (Occasionally I play healers too, and sometimes DPS)

But when im a DPS I almost never actually care about my DPS. I want to be useful, but I more so look for "Supportive" ways to enjoy the class, or I just like the aesthetic of the job.

Tanking losing their DPS is the least of my worries.
But tanks losing methods of mitigation, healing, threat, or any class mechanic i enjoy lost, does worry me.

So I am worried about almost everything most DRKs are worried about with 4.0, but not because of their dmg, but the way the abilities functioned before, or their effect on the prior mentioned things.
(I also know my friends will pick someone else over me, who has more DPS, which means im not going to be playing DRK if so. So im forced to care abotu DPS technically.)

But thats ok, I'll be playing RDM.
It's the 1st DPS that seems interesting.

Will be using virus to help mitigate the tanks dmg.
Will get to melee at least some, which is more than my WHM.
Probably wont get to help heal, except when bosses jump away, and i want the dual cast proc. But I can help rez during progression.

[Yeol]

Tank is the most difficult role to play.

I disagree, I believe healers to be the most difficult role to play (Talking about optimized gameplay).

We all need to do equal damage in the DPS stance!

This will make tanks and healer dps almost mandatory and game changing.

If I'm wrong, why do DPS is highly more playable by players than healer and Tank? Prove me that I'm wrong.

Tanks and healers have more responsibility than DPs. And it is more common that people want to play something less stressful on them. As a DPs you will do the same opener and rotation in almost every content. While tanks and healers have it differently for every content.

There's 2 new DPS jobs and what we tanks and healer get? A BIG HAPPY NERF.

Wait for patch notes, not all changes are final yet. Also, some nerfs along side buffs were needed to balance the jobs. It may not be that bad after all.

[Azreal]

but does not answer why tank is the less played role.

Your doing the same thing as when I called you out before. "dps can be blind carried" is no argument as to why you believe tanking is hard.

It\\\\\\\\'s not hard, as most have stated it generally has many less mechanics to worry about , just because you find it difficult...

The reason I tank is I enjoy the role, the reward is being added by players to do content because they know you are good.

As a tank you generally get to hand pick your team and never have to carry bad\\\\\\\\'s unless you choose to.
One thing that\\\\\\\\'s silly about this game is main/off tank, there is little to no mmorpgs left with hard pve content that operate like that because both tanks have active roles and you one tank to cheese things.

Tank is least played because people like to pew pew , always been this way.

No one cares if you tank or don\\\\\\\\'t, get good and maybe you will feel rewarded.

[seekified]

I definitely disagree that tank is the hardest role. Healers have a lot more on their table to keep track of and a lot more room for optimization than any other role in the game.

I tank because I like tanking. This is also the reason that I find tanking dungeons incredibly dull, because it's really just pulling gate-to-gate, popping a couple of cooldowns and AoEing everything down. EX/Savage tanking is a lot more interesting because it's actually about the tanking. Mitigation is incredibly important in many of the fights, and I think that's what tanking should be about. It's also why I take issue with potentially becoming a Fell Cleave machine in 4.0, but hey.

[Claire_Pendragon]

I'd like to point out scenarios where I purposely played my role badly (usually the group ticked me off.)

I was a DRK tank. made sure to ONLY have grit up. and the ONLY action I took was spamming cross skill "Flash". (and I think blood price occasionally)
I could look over and watch netflix, and still get 3 commendations every time. (I also only had VIT accessories when VIT didnt help add dmg.)
Same with PLD.
Not the case with WAR, as Id run out of MP or TP if I tried this. (Only WAR is arguably "more" involvement at the bare minimum level.)

As a DPS, I can pick some basic 123 combo, or my only AoE, and go watch netflix. (when groups werent trying in void ark, and I could see them miles behind me in threat, I would go into a ruin1 spam, and see peopel STILL behind me in threat.)

As a healer, I could spam cure1, and go watch netflix.

In pretty much every fight, we could get through the encounter.
Very rarely is there any tank/dps/healer check in 4man, to which I could spam the same abilities, but had to pay attention to what my target is, and where its positioned in comparison to myself.

So if these tactics can get you through ANY 4 man content, I dont think any role is fundamentally hard. Only when you get to 8man content, can things get harder.

But even with the above example, which of the 2 seem to bring more stress? The answer is tank and then healer.
I'd say it's more so the state of mind of the person who would play those roles, and how they perceive it, rather than the argument its "more responsibility", because they all have the same level of responsibility most of the time. It's just perceived otherwise.

[Yeol]

rather than the argument its "more responsibility", because they all have the same level of responsibility most of the time.

What people mean by saying "more responsibility" is that making mistakes as tank or healer will most likely lead to a wipe. Making mistake as a DPs is more forgiving. This doesn't mean that dps has no responsibility. But the weight on tanks and healers is much higher.

[Claire_Pendragon]

What people mean by saying "more responsibility" is that making mistakes as tank or healer will most likely lead to a wipe. Making mistake as a DPs is more forgiving. This doesn't mean that dps has no responsibility. But the weight on tanks and healers is much higher.

I used to think this way as well, but Ive been persuaded otherwise by the numerous times ive duoed a dungeon missing a healer, or tank, etc.
If people wiped due to missing a person, that's their own fault usually.

it is possible for a person to take control of a mechanic for a fight, and in turn mess up so much, the other people cant fix it for them. (such as placing soem marker in a place that prevents being used correctly.)
and its possible for that mechanic to target a specific role.

Again i think it gives the illusion of being "tank/healers" fault more often than not.

Tank cant hold hate, healer doesnt heal the DPS, and they blame either the tank or healer, despite being able to nearly solo a lot of the games dungeons. (And at the least, duo it.)
They died from their own poor performance, but since someone else made them actually "try", they all agreed its easier to blame someone elses mistakes.

but that's just an illusion. It doesnt mean the responsibility is ACTUALLY higher for tanks/healers in all scenarios. (of course its true in some, just as its possible that DPS are more responsible in some scenarios)

[OcieKo]

I used to think this way as well, but Ive been persuaded otherwise by the numerous times ive duoed a dungeon missing a healer, or tank, etc.
If people wiped due to missing a person, that's their own fault usually.

it is possible for a person to take control of a mechanic for a fight, and in turn mess up so much, the other people cant fix it for them. (such as placing soem marker in a place that prevents being used correctly.)
and its possible for that mechanic to target a specific role.

Again i think it gives the illusion of being "tank/healers" fault more often than not.

Tank cant hold hate, healer doesnt heal the DPS, and they blame either the tank or healer, despite being able to nearly solo a lot of the games dungeons. (And at the least, duo it.)
They died from their own poor performance, but since someone else made them actually "try", they all agreed its easier to blame someone elses mistakes.

but that's just an illusion. It doesnt mean the responsibility is ACTUALLY higher for tanks/healers in all scenarios. (of course its true in some, just as its possible that DPS are more responsible in some scenarios)

While I wholeheartedly agree that DPS often like to shove the blame and responsibility to keeping them alive SOLELY on the tank and healer. To a certain extent this is actually true, (I god mode assassinate DPS who blame me for not healing when they dont dodge, 2nd stack of weakness = cure for the common lazy and entitled). And yes that weight of responsibility is largely assigned arbitrarily or forced upon by others. But alas its actuality is probably about 40% healer, 35% tank, 25% DPS, but in practice ends up feeling more like 50% healer, 40% tank, 10% dps.
<< Proponent of enmity bars arent just for tanks, its also a tool to know when a DPS needs to use their reductions or change targets. Or for healers to cry at when their group blows but their MP is fine (yay enmity reduc/refresh for everyone).
And yep as long as you pull smart and stay within your abilities its pretty easy to ditch vital roles. If CC gets more practical in 4.X like im thinking it will, this will be even moreso true.