Why are healers more populated than tanks?

[Ilyrian]

No, I mean literally all the time .

Forgot about Holy having Mind Sear. Was it removed and locked to Shadow in Legion? I've been away too long it seems.
Anyway, that does sound fun;(without wanting to derail more) it does make me miss that kind of customization.

[Kallistra]

I don't really play healer, so I asked some friends of mine who main healer. They all gave a similar response along the lines of, "I don't feel confident as a tank/I don't like leading." and "I don't trust healers in the Duty Finder enough to play another role."

Interestingly enough, one of them said, "I like healer because the queue times are perfect. It's [usually] not instant unlike the tank queue, but not crazy long like a DPS queue. Just long enough to do a craft or two before diving into battle content and I like that." Which I thought was a unique view worth sharing.

[Thoosa]

I had to do my weekly o5s and o6s yesterday as a tank because every party finder was full. Incidentally if you join an extreme or savage group as a tank you almost always get a warm welcome, since there still is a shortage of people who want to tank that content. :P sometimes I feel the responsibility of tanking comforting as I feel like I have more control over the situation (as long as i handle tank busters and swaps ok) and don’t have to worry too much about what everyone else is upto.

I still think in this type of content that healing is the toughest, and it highlights bad healers. As healer, not only do you have to avoid often 1 shot kill mechanics, you have to handle big damage. And often if the healers make a tiny mistake (like dying or missing a heal) the group wipes. Also you are dependent on your co healer not being bad, which if they are, makes the fight that much harder. A good healer in this content is worth a huge amount.

In dungeons and trials I think healing is the easiest - you don’t have to lead the group, the damage isn’t massive, and mechanics aren’t usually complicated and are completely avoidable. You also don’t get complained at for bad dps if the dungeon is taking longer.

Just my thoughts anyway.

[alimdia]

Healers only have a more demanding job in very specific savage fights, other than that naaah. Heals are way too overpowered in this game, and the more they add ogcd heals the stronger healers will get because that's more gcds to be spent DPSing.

The only time healing gets harder is if you add an unpredictable element like a dps suddenly eating an aoe he shouldn't right before raid wide aoe, and even then it's likely you have an ogcd heal for that.

[Kaliesto]

^
I can see why Healers have it rough because DPS getting caught up in AOES and such, it is a real nightmare in Savage Raids, some DPS can do some quick healing themselves, and Super Potions these days do help cover up a fraction of the mistake.

Hopefully the healing potions get another higher version soon, probably help healers out more.

[TimeraiderGaranyi]

While i do agree that healing does require the most instant/reflex attention, tanking still requires the most learning of tactics and timings.
Healers always have to be on their toes due to every fight being different for them ending up with them not really having specific rotations and making their actions based on micromanagement or reflex.
Tanks (good ones, not the ones flooding the dutyfinder that believe a rotation + good enough gear is all they need) however need to optimise their rotation as well as dps, need to know every single skill and effect the boss can cause and what resistances/skills do or do not affect them, need to know where his teammates are through the entire fight and know what role the person has and when its best to take a hit, avoid it or use skills to block most of its damage depending on what cooldowns the healers do or do not have.

[Awha]

I leveled a healer just to troll help people with rescue.

[supaiku]

I enjoy healing and dpsing, but tanking is just too stressful for me. I'm fine with healing O8s while dishing out a good amount of dps, but doing a lvl 50 dungeon as tank is too much for me, lol. I don't even queue up with my lvl 60 pld for 50/60 roulette. The problem is probably just in my mind, as tanking overall isn't that difficult, but I don't enjoy tanking enough to play this role more.

And because you as tank more or less decide how the run is going, I think that's a reason why a lot of people don't bother with it. Or they just prefer the other roles.

[Derio]

I always wondered this too. Healing has a higher population but I thought that just because there are more slots offered for them in content like 24 man where there are 6 healers and 3 tanks.

But tanking IMO is much easier than healing. Healing is stressful IMO. I think it is just intimidating to people.

People want to follow the leader while people who tank like me want to be the first person to hit the enemy.

But really both roles when they make major mistakes are noticeable and I think when people see that or experience that mistake it can persuade them to not continue or not choose to play that role.

[Ilyrian]

But really both roles when they make major mistakes are noticeable and I think when people see that or experience that mistake it can persuade them to not continue or not choose to play that role.

I think that's it basically.

I think there's a Yoshi P quote somewhere answering the question about Savage 4 man content saying that if the healer dies it's basically game-over and that's too much pressure to put on one player in that environment.

Obviously everyone is at a different skill/experience level and what is easy for one person would be challenging for another - but the general idea of responsibility and being called out for making mistakes is generally what I see as a reason to not take on these roles.

I heal because I find it way easier than DPSing - I can do it, but for me I'm just better suited to healing and have been for a long time. I have huge respect for the good DPSers (especially in this game).