Why are healers more populated than tanks?

[The_NPC]

Personally I find its the "Stress" of keeping ur gear up to snuff (enouf to hold arrgo against high geared & skilled DPS) but also the strength of ones "mind"/"heart". As the saying goes "The first move in any battle starts in the mind!" & unless ur a "battle-freak" the thought of being the 1st to engage, & thus control, an enconter can be to much for one to bear for too long. Plus one must also concider that Tanks (& healer) usually get the most verbal flack from anyone else (ex: "U took to much dmg there, what u no use def cd's" "ur holding the mobs wrong" "get thing mob I zeliously pulled from u off me u useless tank" etc.) while I can admit harsh coments can be thrown at any "Role" the Tank-role & its comunity-voted role as "Pointman Recon Commander" tends to get it a lot (healers are usually 2nd on the list... unless u got 1 really bad/lazy DPS)

Basiclly ppl eather buckle from the "mind" part (IE: insults/hate, even if it they didn't deserve it) or the gear treadmill (especially if they have other "role" classes they also like)... also sometimes ur just board/lazy enouf to not wanna Tank that day

[Ilan]

Personally I find its the "Stress" of keeping ur gear up to snuff (enouf to hold arrgo against high geared & skilled DPS) but also the strength of ones "mind"/"heart". As the saying goes "The first move in any battle starts in the mind!" & unless ur a "battle-freak" the thought of being the 1st to engage, & thus control, an enconter can be to much for one to bear for too long. Plus one must also concider that Tanks (& healer) usually get the most verbal flack from anyone else (ex: "U took to much dmg there, what u no use def cd's" "ur holding the mobs wrong" "get thing mob I zeliously pulled from u off me u useless tank" etc.) while I can admit harsh coments can be thrown at any "Role" the Tank-role & its comunity-voted role as "Pointman Recon Commander" tends to get it a lot (healers are usually 2nd on the list... unless u got 1 really bad/lazy DPS)

Basiclly ppl eather buckle from the "mind" part (IE: insults/hate, even if it they didn't deserve it) or the gear treadmill (especially if they have other "role" classes they also like)... also sometimes ur just board/lazy enouf to not wanna Tank that day

Every class has to keep their gear up to date and honestly tanking is way less stressfull then healing or dpsing. The problem what many tanks, well all classes, have is that the people don't get a new weapon asap which is the most important thing to hold hate.
Well tanks and healers may get some more flames then dps but if you can't take that you can't play any class in any mmo. Most of the time it already helps when you say that you don't play role x that long and that you may do some mistakes, that helps usualy in normal dungeons.

[Fredco191]

Maybe everyone finds healing to be more fun?

[JunseiKei]

'Tis something I'd been curious about for a while, and I couldn't find any answers on reddit or here on the forums. Why are healers more popular than tanks? Just my personal opinion, but it feels to me that healers have a more demanding job, especially in 24-mans and end-game raiding, but again, that's just from my own personal experience. Forgive me for my lack of MMO knowledge, but this is something that has been something of a curiosity for me.

The thought of basically needing to know every tank buster and setting my cooldowns before ever stepping into a fight is pretty daunting to me (even for learning parties, it feels like this is the expectation). Then making sure you're shirking and provoking correctly (more of a thing particular to XIV?), not losing aggro, having trust in your healer (I'm SUPER low on this - too many times I've done pulls on my tank that's fairly well geared, the healer is well geared, I pop CDs, dodge the bad and.... die. DPS too low for too long or the healer went DPS crazy. Usually the healer being DPS crazy).

As for healers DPS, I do, but once things go south, I don't bother. Until things are smooth, there's no reason to 'push DPS' and risk more deaths. So many times I've seen a healer raise someone, go back to DPSing, even when damage is about to come up and the DPS just dies again. Other times, I've just seen healers continue to DPS while there are people in their party that are dead. They get off 3 GCDs of attacks without needing to move (what it takes to hard-cast raise) and I'm even more perplexed.

Also, I usually run things with friends, 6 of who are tanks, one of which I've known for 12 years. No reason for me to pick up a tank, really.

I've also played a healer role for the better part of 16-ish years, most of which the healer role had 1 offensive spell (heal bombing undead or grouping up with other battle classes were how you mainly leveled). Healer DPS is still mostly a last resort chain of events when everything else is in order. It's just what I'm used to.

[Keridwyn]

Well I come from WoW since the Vanilla days and I never had a problem with being a DPS Healer. There's an entire healer in recent years that heals via DPS aka Disc. Priest.

I am glad you personally didn't have an issue but considering what I see in the DF and hear in various places I don't think you or even myself represent the majority.

Also, Disc. Priest is a bit special and unique. I haven't played WoW in some years but I do remember if I had tried to go hard on DPS as a Resto Druid or Holy Priest I would have run out of mana pretty quick and done a whole lot of nothing much.

Why do I play healer over tank? Learning curve. Folks were way more willing to put up with a new healer in this game than a new tank. So I just tank for friends and learn that way instead of for the general populace until I am 100% comfortable with the given duty or dungeon.

[Schan]

Though most people don't realize that tanking is practically the easiest job once you get the skills down.

This is what i've found out while leveling my jobs and I don't think people realize that if you want to be lazy... tank is probably the way to go. Mechanics usually target other people. When they target you they're usually tank busters that don't hurt that much anyway (talking about dungeons - normal raids / trials start punishing you if you don't use a cooldown on tank busters)

For maximum laziness just just you're ranged aggro move, aoe aggro twice, pop a cooldown, go make a coffee, pop aoe aggro move again, do the manderville... wait nvm that's too much work just sit there instead. Pressing 1,2,3 may be optional.

That's literally how i got my tanks to 60. Aoe aggro move, do the aggro combo, pop a cooldow, look pretty and not a single person said anything.

People will not bitch at you as much as you think they will as long as you keep aggro in dungeons at least. For MINIMUM EFFORT tanking takes the cake.

NINJA EDIT: I guess people associate tanking with taking responsability for the party and they shy away from that.

[Bonbori]

I don't like any of the tank jobs thematically. Swords, boards, axes and angst aren't my "things". But give me one that uses gunblades and I'll probably end up maining it n_n

That said, tanking also means setting the pace and leading the group. My only tanking experience comes from SWTOR and I didn't enjoy the pressure of leadership. I've always gravitated towards support roles. Tanking and healing are sorta polar opposites and while there are people who can enjoy both, I feel like the majority of us who play those classes are either one or the other.

As a healer, you react to the ebb and flow of combat - it's all about triage, picking the right heal at the right time and on the right target, weaving in some dps in between and managing mana. And trying not to get too distracted by healing everyone else at your own expense. I do that a lot.
In contrast, the tank is the one controlling many aspects of the fight: the enemy's positioning, the size, frequency and timing of pulls, even the direction the party is going. Often you have to remember all the mechanics even if nobody else does because the spotlight is always on you. A tank who does a poor job at controlling the fight loses aggro, catches the party in cleaves, takes unnecessary damage and generally makes everyone else's jobs harder. It's very, very obvious when a tank makes mistakes because everyone else feels the consequences.

If a DPS fails a mechanic and dies, the boss might simply take longer to kill. If a healer fails, tank is probably the next to go BUT things can be salvaged with a timely rez before the healer's absence has critical impact. But the moment a tank goes down, total chaos breaks out. Chances are someone else is going to die before tank is back up because all the aggro they were holding is now running wild and probably chasing the healer, interrupting casts, splitting up damage all over the place and scattering adds so they can't be easily AoEd.

The mechanics of tanking can be learned by anyone but not everyone enjoys the leadership/lynchpin role that comes with it.

[MoroMurasaki]

I haven't read through this whole thread yet but I know for me personally I like to queue as a healer because there is nothing that can carry a bad party better. You could be the most competent tank in the world but if both your healers are asleep at the wheel you aren't going to be able to salvage an awful run where as on WHM I can more or less keep anything in trials/normal raids/24 mans afloat as long as I don't wind up taking (too many) auto attacks.

[TheMightyMollusk]

I prefer tanking over healing because I have anger issues and I like to hit things with giant weapons.

[Schan]

I haven't read through this whole thread yet but I know for me personally I like to queue as a healer because there is nothing that can carry a bad party better. You could be the most competent tank in the world but if both your healers are asleep at the wheel you aren't going to be able to salvage an awful run where as on WHM I can more or less keep anything in trials/normal raids/24 mans afloat as long as I don't wind up taking (too many) auto attacks.

In my opinion both roles can carry. I've had runs where both healers were dead and I still managed to carry that fight on my PLD... but then again.. Clemency is a thing even if it costs a ton of MP.