Why Don’t You Tank Poll

[HyoMinPark]

I haven't played BRD since 2.0. And I know this is the job that has probably went through the most changes. So I have little knowledge of how it plays now, outside of what you just said. If that is the case, that you need to get all these DoTs up ASAP then why the hell isn't an ability like Diversion an option in Role Actions for Bards?! Or any sort of enmity negating/reducing ability...they really have none? Surprising.

Trust me, I’ve been asking myself that since they took away my Quelling Strikes. ;-; BRD/MCH have Refresh/Tactician, which dump your aggro, but they are only useful basically right when you’re about to rip hate or after you’ve ripped it—not to mention, they should be used first and foremost for support, even though I use Refresh particularly offensively in my static for Foe’s uptime. Considering BRDs can break 8k~9k in their opening burst, it makes it particularly difficult on an unsuspecting/undergeared tank, or if there’s no NIN around for Shadewalker. Never forget when I was pugging a V4S, ripped hate off of my static’s WAR because our NIN was subbing in on WHM, and Exdeath immediately turned around and just murdered me. Lol

As for the DoTs, yes, SaitoHikari is correct. The song procs are directly linked to critical DoT ticks, so BRDs are generally recommended to DoT 3~4 mobs in order to keep the procs flowing, especially while in Mage’s Ballad, since the old River of Blood trait was built into that song instead of remaining standalone. For Army’s, is to reach the 4 Repertoire stacks faster to get our little haste buff for more Quick Nock spam; and in Minuet, it’s for spamming 2-stack Pitch Perfects. :3



As for the poll, I selected that it’s “too stressful”, and I feel the need to specify why—mostly, I constantly worry about my own performance, so that stresses me out. I always worry “Am I pulling too much? Too little? Am I rotating my CDs efficiently enough?”, and I dislike how, the moment something goes wrong, blame tends to either land on the tank or the healer, even when it’s not their fault. I don’t mind tanking from an OT stance in 8-mans or 24-mans, but I get quite a bit of tank-xiety in 4-man or MT situations.

[Ghastly]

Tip
Go Warrior if worried about keeping hate. It's really the best tank to learn tanking with.
But yes I remember when I started leveling tank it was scary, the level of stress gets really high when leveling your first tank in dungeons you never thought you'd ever lead. Another tip is to always tell the party that you're new. As for raids, don't worry about annoying people, if they want to complain they can go queu as tank.

[Nedkel]

Reading all those comments made me ask a question, maybe you guys feel anxiety because you are pushing the line too high for yourself in dungeons?
Starting of harder dungeons at the start of playing a tank is driving you anxiety.You are familiar with these dungeons on your dps/healer but you never did it before on a tank, i believe everyone should start with easy tasks then go harder and harder, and learn the same way you did on your dps/healer.
You was playing the easier dungeons before you got good enough for the harder ones, the tank role requires the same learning curve, because its totally different role in the team.
It reminds me of my tries of switching from healer to dps in elderscrolls online, end up dying over over and over again, because i tried the harder dungeons i used to do on my healer.

[FrogDog]

I don't mind tanking dungeons and I do it well, but I won't do 8 or 24 man content as a tank. I just feel way too much anxiety over the larger scale stuff and the main things I worry about are screwing up a tank swap or not being perfect on CDs for every tank buster.

I ran Rabanastre for the first time a little over a week ago and for the entirety of the run 1 tank was berating another over something or other. I wouldn't have wanted to be that guy for anything. As it was, I screwed up a lot as a DPS on the first 2 bosses and nobody had anything to say about it.

[XiXiQ]

I don't mind tanking in general, but the impatience of the other players is ridiculous. You can at least wait 2 second for the tank to pull then get a single move out - but no, I head towards a mob and pew pew pew goes the dps pulling it first (while the helpful healer regens before I've touched a mob). I don't find it stressful - just plain annoying.

I dps a lot - I can wait a whole 3 seconds for the tank to get aggro, it's not a difficult concept.

[FallenWings]

It's a monkey role for your weakest players.

It's a role that when isn't done right is big trouble for everyone else but is so easy to do that you fail to comprehend how other people cannot do it. But because the role itself is so braindead easy there is no real satisfaction from excelling at it and being good at it means having to be bad at it ironically(no tank stance). Then you become a easy mode DPS with very easy to execute responsibilities and you have a role that is very unsatisfying to play.

Not to mention the fact that excelling in the offensive part requires your team to not be selfish dirtbags and help you attain your max potential. So along with being a unsatisfying monkey role, it is a DEPENDENT unsatisfying monkey role.

Finally, your impact as a tank is considerably less than the other roles meaning you have much little ability to carry the team in the event that you're stuck with other monkeys or that you matter the least in a competent team.

Little impact, dependent, easy-mode, hard requirement leashed dog role.

[NovaLevossida]

Mainly, when I get home from managing people and finances, I don't want to log onto a game and manage people and expectations. I have no desire to gauge each group I get matched with and try not to overpull what the healer can handle. I don't want to deal with the DPS pulling more when the healer can barely handle what we're already fighting. I don't want to even see alliance chat as a tank based on what I see in there as a DPS with what's thrown at tanks in chat. I used to like tanking bosses and such, but I really dislike how much of that depends on everyone else in the party so you can sufficiently do your job above a minimal amount.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

I tank casual content fairly regularly, but raid on DPS more so because I prefer their rotations. It's among the reasons I have very mixed feelings towards DRK's simplification now. It doesn't help the off-tank is often relegated to a fifth DPS.

[Bobs]

Tank requires that you actually know the content that you are doing.

It requires you to set the pace.
It requires you to understand party composition.
It requires that you have better gear for survival.
It requires you to know positioning.
It requires a more than basic understanding of mechanics.
It requires you to know tank swaps.

I'm sure there is more requirements this is just off the top of my head.

Why do I say "requires"? Because if and any time you don't do/know any and all of these things you will INSTANTLY hear about it. Never mind if you asked for advice.

[Gemina]

It's a monkey role for your weakest players.

It's a role that when isn't done right is big trouble for everyone else but is so easy to do that you fail to comprehend how other people cannot do it.

I am actually going to toss a quote at this:

Before I learned the art, a punch was just a punch, and a kick, just a kick. After I learned the art, a punch was no longer a punch, a kick, no longer a kick. Now that I understand the art, a punch is just a punch and a kick is just a kick.
-- Bruce Lee

What Bruce Lee is talking about here is a learning curve, and applies very much to many facets in life, including learning our roles in this game. In relation to tanking, there's the stage before you learn to do it, learning to do it, and then actually understanding it. No matter how slow or quick you progress through these stages, they all come with experience.

But because the role itself is so braindead easy there is no real satisfaction from excelling at it and being good at it means having to be bad at it ironically(no tank stance). Then you become a easy mode DPS with very easy to execute responsibilities and you have a role that is very unsatisfying to play.

I can understand if you feel it is easy, and tanking comes naturally to you. Where I falter is the use of the pronoun 'you' when calling the role an easy mode DPS, and unsatisfactory to play. I mean, why are you discouraging other potential tanks out there? Especially when the community needs more of them?

I can't even begin to tell you how much confidence I need in order to tank in DPS stance. Being a healer main, I know the instant I put more pressure on them to keep me alive, and every PUG requires me to trust my group to catch me falling backwards. These things are not going to come easy for everyone, and a single bad experience can destroy a lot of built up confidence that took many runs to acquire. That is just how some minds work. Maybe after another 100 instances or so, sustaining agro while tossing out some DPS will become unsatisfactory. Right now though, I feel pretty freakin good when a run I tank goes smoothly.