Do you prefer to Tank or Heal?

[Misutoraru]

It is quite interesting, I found tanking the easiest role to pla, rotation are simple, aggro are so easy to hold and just need to pop CD at the right time, compare to DPS, more complex rotation, keeping the optimal output while dodging mechanic. Yet, it turn out tanking way more stressful than dps, I believe it have something to do with the community. As a tank I screw up, the run turn into a mess and likely get wipe, as a dps it is not so obvious if I screw up. As a tank, you pull wall to wall at the start and healer can’t keep up, it is our responsibility I will not object that, however, if we are unfamiliar with the dungeon or got many spout and we pull small, we got the blame. Even if we take sometime to observe the party before we go big, someone will complain

[Ryaz]

Always tank. For some reason, ever since my first MMO FFXI, I have hated healing and have desire to do so.

I say it's because I'm a sado-masochist. I like to hit things and get hit.

[Nicodemus_Mercy]

As others have said, I prefer to heal because tanking is stressful. I just don't feel comfortable in a leadership position and tanks are generally seen as the "leader" in a dungeon. It's also easier to go into a run blind as a healer than as I tank I think. As a healer I can adjust to the unexpected more easily and be less likely to have my adjustment put others in danger.

[Wanzzo]

Also why do you prefer this?

I like to heal more. The reason? Well, even people saying otherwise I feel that tankers have more responsability than healers (yes, I know that some of you thinks otherwise for a lot of reasons). And I don't like to be responsible for the dungeon pace.

oh, and I love the support the healers provide to the party!

[Gwenorai]

Neither, I find tanking/healing stressful as hell. Which is funny because of those who I know who also tank/heal say that in higher content such as savage and ultimate that being a DPS is a lot more stressful for them. I doubt that's universal but did make me arch a brow.

Note - I haven't done ultimate, so I can speak on this. My friends however have, and that was just their input.

So I give kudos to anyone who tanks/heals well.

[Allooutrick]

I enjoy playing healer. The same dungeon can become a different experience depending on the party and their skills overall.

[Mahoukenshi]

Due to my inherent fear of failure and the resulting light to medium social anxiety (thanksfully, probably not the medial definition of it), neither in dungeons but during the ARR "large-scale" fates, I prefer to "tank" if you were to count it for this content *lol*.
So yeah, if I had to choose: Tank. They get their AoE skills understandabily MUCH earlier and have a different feel of "oomph" behind them. Level 45 for Holy felt due to my personal issues quite long to finally get WHM AoE magic, but I have already cried about it somewhere else.

[Edax]

Also why do you prefer this?

I prefer tanking even though I find it harder to do. To add context, I used to be a healer main in WoW a decade ago before they allowed players to change specs easily. While I don't find healing to be particularly hard, I do find it to be anxiety inducing. If somebody dies, it feels like it's my fault even if it's just another player failing at the boss mechanics. Because I'm staring at my cast bar cooldowns, my own mana bar and at the health bar of everyone else and at the boss' cast bar, I tend to lose sight of the battle, so I have no idea if the team is failing or I am. When I heal I just have poor situational awareness.

Tanking on the other hand, gives me a better view of the team because it doesn't require me to look at more then 2 things at once. Tanking gives me the best situational awareness of the 3 combat roles which is why I prefer it, even it does often require me to be more knowledgeable about the bosses. It's my job to keep aggro and keep myself alive, which is easier to do then keeping other people alive as a healer. Even if the healer isn't at fault, it was still their job to keep everyone alive so they are still failing in some respect. This is why healing produces anxiety in me. When everybody's health just starts dropping like a stone, it feels like my fault that I'm not fast enough to keep up.

When I'm tanking, I know when I'm failing or if my team is failing.

[GenBroadaxe]

Tanking def. Since the rotation is straightforward it lets me pay attention to the fights themselves so I'm better prepared when I go in to heal or DPS. Half the time if I queue as a healer the tank or dps just tear off before I'm ready and I'm sprinting behind them to try and get something off to keep them alive before they die. On the upside, experiencing both has made me much more aware of how I can make my healers time easier when I'm running my tank.

[Connor]

I prefer healing since I like helping the party out. I also get really uneasy if I’m too close the enemy and don’t get a chance to run to safe distance (not that there’s ever much real need to be distant from the enemy lol. That said, I’d consider playing Paladin since it gets decent tools to help out the party and the spells look really cool (no idea how it plays currently since I haven’t used since Stormblood lol)