What do you guys think is the cause of severe lack of Tank users?

[Minnel]

Do you think it's just lack in number of tank jobs or people simply wanting to do more damage? I've noticed that lot of sprouts jumping into FF14 lately, thanks to(?) Corona, decides to start out as a dps and was simply curious.

[Shurrikhan]

Imbalance of apparent responsibility vs. apparent reward. Granted, apparent responsibility and apparent reward depends on one's (typical) groupmates, but on the whole, if you seem to get less enjoyment/respect/performance out of a given amount of responsibility (especially of a sort others can see and will hold you to), interest rapidly declines.

[Marxam]

That's partly due to fights being designed to take control out of the tank. Tanking to me has always been about controlling the flow of battle. Where do I take the boss? How should I position? Is the boss in an area that is accessible to melee DPS with aoe puddles around? Things like this used to be part of a tank's responsibility. Best example is T1 and even T5. Any tank who went through that either sync'd or back in the day knows how important where the boss needs to be or else its a wipe. Current fights boil down to keep boss center and face north*, which is redundant because most of the time the boss recenter's for mechanics i.e. Memoria EX. Some will find it boring and unrewarding and I can see why the tanking damage thread is blowing up right now. Tanks are nothing more than damage sponges for the boss.

Putting back tanks ability to control the flow of battle may not increase the lack of tank users but it will reward those who like to tank or enjoy the responsibility of leading a party.

[Iscah]

Tank is the highest responsibility job and I wouldn't recommend it to people as a first class to play.

They lead the way through the dungeon, and everyone else just has to follow them.

[MerlinCross]

Tank is the highest responsibility job and I wouldn't recommend it to people as a first class to play.

They lead the way through the dungeon, and everyone else just has to follow them.

Yeah it's real hard to do that and not let the DPS die when they run ahead.

I'd say it looks to have high responsibility but it's no where near what it actually looks like. Just hit your CDs in this order and you'll be fine.

[Iscah]

Yeah it's real hard to do that and not let the DPS die when they run ahead.

I'd say it looks to have high responsibility but it's no where near what it actually looks like. Just hit your CDs in this order and you'll be fine.

I'm on the JP Elemental data centre and it is very rare to see people running ahead of the tank. On the rare occasion that a tank is new and doesn't realise they're supposed to be leading, the rest of the party will usually wait and try to nudge them along.

Therefore, there is more pressure and responsibility on the tank to lead the party, and it is easier to learn a dungeon as DPS.

[MerlinCross]

I'm on the JP Elemental data centre and it is very rare to see people running ahead of the tank. On the rare occasion that a tank is new and doesn't realise they're supposed to be leading, the rest of the party will usually wait and try to nudge them along.

Therefore, there is more pressure and responsibility on the tank to lead the party, and it is easier to learn a dungeon as DPS.

And yet on NA, there’s no upper limit to “YOLO” rushers in dungeons. Not even by DPS solely, if seen Tanks just take off before the healer is ready. Different playing manners across different regional servers who knew?

I still say it’s easier than most people think/expect it to be mainly due to that initial stage fright of leading and messing up. Then you notice it’s a puddle, not a lake and that just kinda goes away.

[LalafellDown]

On the rare occasion that a tank is new and doesn't realise they're supposed to be leading, the rest of the party will usually wait and try to nudge them along.

Therefore, there is more pressure and responsibility on the tank to lead the party, and it is easier to learn a dungeon as DPS.

This is true because when I heal and see the tank doing slow pulls I usually pull a bit more for them. They don’t need to worry because I’ll keep them alive. I wouldn’t of pulled extra if I couldn’t handle the healing. New tanks if you see your healer do this, trust them. Don’t get bitter and stop playing. You might learn something.

It also helps break that comfort zone when you see what is possible to achieve when healer and tank are in sync. Just remember that in most instances the healer could probably tank the whole dungeon themselves. So don’t worry.

[SamRF]

This is true because when I heal and see the tank doing slow pulls I usually pull a bit more for them. They don’t need to worry because I’ll keep them alive. I wouldn’t of pulled extra if I couldn’t handle the healing. New tanks if you see your healer do this, trust them. Don’t get bitter and stop playing. You might learn something.

It also helps break that comfort zone when you see what is possible to achieve when healer and tank are in sync. Just remember that in most instances the healer could probably tank the whole dungeon themselves. So don’t worry.

I've had several tanks get mad when I did this and l've made a post about it before on these forums, in which by far most seem convinced you should never do this as healer because it seems to violate some arbitrary etiquette.

[MistakeNot]

This is true because when I heal and see the tank doing slow pulls I usually pull a bit more for them. They don’t need to worry because I’ll keep them alive.

What makes you think that is why they did not pull more?
When I tank I really hate if other people pull extra mobs. Too many mobs means that I can't keep track of where all of them are, I can't avoid their AoE attacks, I may have trouble keeping aggro on all of them and won't notice if some get away from me.