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.

[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.

[Gawbles]

Besides the responsibility aspect that was previous mentioned, it could be possible that tanking just isn't as interesting to play anymore compared to other roles. Even at the current level cap, casual game play for 3 of the tanks is mostly just turning on stance, 1-2-3/4, inner beast/req/delirium phase, use defensive CDs, and movement.

[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.

[Shalan]

I'm going to rub against the grain a bit here, and say it's the perceived difficulty & responsibility that tanking has. The talk surrounding the class and the people saying the class has so much more pressure/responsibility creates more pressure and anxiety than the role actually deserves to have. I've found that while there's some initial trepidation towards tanking the anxiety tends to drop fast once you've actually done it.

Leadership in the group tends to be fluid as well, often passing more to the most charismatic person in the party rather than role. The tank may be ahead of the group but that doesn't mean they're necessarily the leader. In fact, a majority of the content doesn't really need or have a leader. Most of it is pretty linear and easy enough that simply keeping a steady pace as a group with the tank in the foremost position allows the party to blast through everything in no time. Unless you're wanting to imply that being a little further ahead of the group is indicative of leadership in which case... lol

[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.

[Quri]

Tanks mistakes are seen, you can't tell with a healer because it could easily just be the tank not mitigating. DPS mistakes won't be seen unless enrage. That's the pressure.

[Awful]

The reason is how tanks are designed currently, nothing challenges you as a tank other then leveling and pulling dungeons outside of that bosses in EXs and some Savages either don't move or auto position themselves and outside of positioning and living we only do DPS which our DPS isn't rewarding this expansion. I can do 10k DPS as a DRK and a co-DPS can do 14k but their DPS makes it or break it mine doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, not only that but every tank has way too many CDs for any situation where you won't die whatsoever even with 1 measly tank CD.

This expansion it's great they balanced tank DPS with getting rid of things like slashing resistance, making them more accessible but it came at a cost, as it stands tanking is the least rewarding role when played right you're a downgraded DPS that can survive a beating while hitting the boss with a foam bat. I'm hoping 6.0 changes it but i'm not very hopeful the only reason I haven't quit raiding is because my static needs me as a tank and if I swapped to a DPS it'd just make things inconvenient since I've been a tank main since I started the game.

That's just my 2 cents.