Is Tanking Boring?

[Kalise]

Part of the issue comes when trying to make Tanking "More Accessible" in order to try and alleviate the constant drought of Tanks in Duty Finder queues.

Though, "More Accessible" generally just means "So mind numbingly simple even Billy No-Brains can drool on his keyboard and play it" which isn't what gives a class staying power.

Being fun and interesting is how you keep a population on a class. Not simplicity.

I mean, I've seen countless horribad SAM's. Why? Because the class is cool and interesting, so people play it. They don't play it well, but they play it. Maybe one day they'll figure out how to play it well...

Tanks shouldn't be designed so that they only have to focus on DPS and nothing more. Popping defensive CD's for tankbusters in lieu of popping offensive CD's for when you're ready to burst damage isn't a particularly groundbreaking change of pace...

Tanks should be focused around staying alive and keeping aggro. Not relegated into a point of ignoring Tank stance because the only thing to care about is dropping as many Fell Cleave's into the boss as you can...

While they're at it, they could also improve Tank rotations. So instead of spamming 123 ad infinitum, why not give them procs like you've given most of the DPS classes? Make them based on mitigating damage and all of a sudden mitigation is worth a damn.

Give them more control over Enmity as opposed to just stuffing detaunts into every DPS/Healer's kits?

Heck, you could even make stuff have SYNERGY in their kit, such as having a proc that lets you use an ability that gives a large amount of Enmity, freeing you up to use a more offensive combo for a period of time (Instead of an Enmity/Defensive one)

Or you know... You could continue making them bland and watch how many people don't want to play them because they find them boring... But that's okay, so long as Billy No-Brain can theoretically play the class right?

[Orbus]

Tanks tend to just focus on damage and the current design allows them to, but in addition to not dealing as much damage as dps classes (despite people playing it like a dps) the damage rotations are pretty brain dead.
Most dps classes have at least two combos for various effects to maximize damage, but for tanks its "the dps combo" and "the enmity combo" with the latter being ignored most of the time, and there's no positionals cause if you're main tanking and the boss is looking at you like he should be then obviously you can't do positionals in the first place. (unless every one of them is "from the front")

So you have classes whose skills generate so mujch aggro that their main job of holding it becomes trivial, has two combos but one gets ignored, and plays like a dps class while doing less than them.
I know fell cleave is the warrior signature move, but spamming it eight times in a row is hardly what I'd call good gameplay.

[Derio]

I wouldnt say boring. However with SB and the gutting of many abilities, especially for DRK it has made tanking bland.

Hopefully 5.0 fixes alot of tank and healer problems.

[Dzian]

As I've said in a few threads yeah tanking is boring ad hell. That's why I don't play them much anymore.

Emniyy is a joke. When you can seao to dps stance and basically never touch your enmity combo ever why does it even exist? Mitigation is a joke. So i need to press rampart in 43 seconds for that tank buster. And in 81 seconds there will be a tank swap because of some arbitrary debuff I can't avoid getting. 120 seconds after that I'll need to come the boss back. Followed by another rampart 17 seconds later..

It's dull boring and far to predictable to be even remotely fun. You basicly know to the exact second when to pop cooldowns before that run has even started.... boriiiiiing.

It's like watching a football game when you've already been told what the score will be and who scores the goals

[Ekimmak]

The interest of tanking is dependant on the type of enemy faced.

Which is why the levelling roulette is so barren: the chances of getting shuffled into a low level dungeon where literally all you do is spam overpower/flash/unleash, or whatever mangled combo you have remaining on bosses, is not worth those crystals.

[Drakkaelus]

The interest of tanking is dependant on the type of enemy faced.

Which is why the levelling roulette is so barren: the chances of getting shuffled into a low level dungeon where literally all you do is spam overpower/flash/unleash, or whatever mangled combo you have remaining on bosses, is not worth those crystals.

Yeah, DRK used to be somewhat tolerable at lower levels but the removal of Scourge, Low Blow and Reprisal as attacks made it as tedious to play as a PLD. It wasn't much, but at least it was something. I legitimately don't understand why this dev team thinks spamming a single, incomplete combo for entirety of a dungeon is entertaining to anyone.

[Kaozurei]

Personally, I don't find tanking boring, what bores me is that I only have three choices to tank with. It's the same issue I have with healers, really... here's hoping 5.0 gives us another tank and healer, proper ones instead of the "limited job" blue mage turned out to be.

I've also been contemplating the thought to make content a bit more engaging by adding more randomness to boss patterns. I feel a big reason why people have trouble staying interested in tanking content is that once you run it once or twice you know exactly when everything will happen.

...Though considering people still fail even when everything is choreographed I can only imagine what it'd be like if the fight patterns changed every single time you ran it.

[Renato]

I thought it was just me. I started playing PLD in 2.x but later migrated to DRK once 3.x was released as it's my favorite class. I then played DRK for the entirety of 3.x and halfway into SB later switching to DRG, SAM or RDM.

I do tank from time to time but I've been noticing that it's just not engaging as I remember it being for some reason. PLD feels extremely simple and DRK just feels...weird to me. WAR is honestly the only one I really enjoy nowadays because it feels as engaging as a DPS class.

One thing that I really hope SE changes is the fact that actual tank stats are neglected for more DPS. I hate the fact that Tenacity, which should contribute more to tank classes is useless. I actually want to feel more like a tank.

[Katie_Kitty]

I don't think that tanking is boring at all, and I don't think that "just make staying alive and/or keeping aggro harder" is the answer for people who dislike tanking. In fact, I would argue that people who think this are simply missing the point.

I probably do more tanking than anything else because I have fun with it. I enjoy pulling packs of mobs, bringing them together, and burning them down. I enjoy having the enemy's attention while mitigating damage and dishing out as much as I can. That doesn't mean I want my role to be nothing more than a meatshield for the party. I don't want the expectation to be "just stay alive and take all the damage." I like the expectations as they are now - Get in there, face them head on, and dish out as much damage as you can without failing the basic responsibilities of staying alive and keeping hate.

Could tank classes benefit from more complex rotations? Maybe, if it's done in a way that doesn't significantly increase the risk of tunnel vision. I wouldn't want a tank that plays like a bard, for example, because tanks already have enough stuff to keep an eye on as it is. Generally, though, I believe that the "tank rotation is too simple" complaint is a bit overblown (with the exception of Warrior). I've played nearly every class at max level and the DPS rotations are generally not that much more complicated, and that doesn't even take into consideration all the other things tanks have to deal with such as positioning, enmity, mitigation, and general raid awareness.

Overall, for me, the role that is most relaxing and chill is DPS, not tank. When I play DPS, I can just relax and hang out and focus on hitting my rotation to do damage. Tanking is a role of responsibility and one that demands a lot from the player whereas DPS is just "hit these buttons in this order and pay the minimum amount of attention required to ensure you don't mess up mechanics".

[Kalise]

all the other things tanks have to deal with such as positioning, enmity, mitigation, and general raid awareness.

That implies that these are things that Tanks actually need to do...

Enmity is pretty much a non-factor, it's just a case of mash your highest damage rotation in DPS stance and have everyone else de-taunt.

Mitigation is just "Use X button when boss uses Y ability at the predetermined time"

Positioning, is relevant occasionally, but there are a number of times when the boss just positions itself.

With mechanics, often actually having Tanks deal with fewer mechanics, since people who design bosses tend to make it so that DPS and Healers get targeted by crap that forces them to do stuff, while Tanks are often just sat there whacking away at the boss with maybe a cone attack to sidestep here and there.

It's a far cry from some of the great iterations of tanks from MMO's. Where things happened such as consistent high damage throughout a fight, meaning that a tank would have to continually space out their defensive CD's well to mitigate damage (Often weaving them between healer CD's) but ensuring that for the Tankbuster skills they had a potent enough CD available. Where threat was an actual thing that Tanks were in control of, where they'd try and optimize how much they used their major threat generators vs their DPS skills (Because while maximizing DPS was still important, it didn't happen to coincide with dealing adequate threat). Where tanks were constantly having to move bosses and adds in a fight and so the best Tanks could excel by moving as little as possible to deal with mechanics and minimize DPS loss from casters having to move.

As it stands now, Tanking in FFXIV is essentially just like playing a DPS, only you've swapped your DPS cooldowns for defensive ones. A lot of the time it's just sit there, follow the boss and maximize your DPS rotations. Maybe you boost your threat on pull with tank stance and an enmity combo before just going full DPS to mitigate high frontload classes. But otherwise, it's mostly just DPS stance, DPS combo, maximize usage of DPS cooldowns.