Tank shortage is going to get worse.

[Rochetm]

Over the last decade of MMOs I have found only one thing they all have in common. Tank and Healer shortages. So it is normal but other games over time have been making things better.

I normally love tanking, I have played tanks in every MMO i have played... Ninja and Paladin in FFXI... Druid, Death Knight, Warrior, Monk and Paladin in WoW. Everything from exp parties and dungeons to raids. (few other mmos as well but not going to list everything).

So what is wrong? Gladiator/Pld is boring and not very good at multi-target tanking which is what most of the game is until endgame and even then there is some need for it. On top of this none of the tanks really feel like tanks at lower levels. We do terrible damage, can't really do much to keep ourselves safe and if any DPS wants to they can (and often do) pull things off the tank.

So why should I or anyone play a class that is boring, low damage, high stress , and only slightly tougher than other classes?

[Rochetm]

Paladin in FFXI we fun... Threat was coming out of everywhere. Most of the time things would get so mad at me no one could get it off of me no matter how hard they tried. Ninja was fun... threat wasn't that great but if they couldn't shadow wipe I could sit there all day taking no damage. These things are fun and they are the kinds of things tanks in other games do.

Right now tanks are 100% reliant on DPS and Heals watching their threat and 100% reliant on Heals keeping them up. There is no "HAHA you can't get it off of me" and there is no "HAHA I can't die" but there is a lot of "please target what I target and don't get to carried away with your damage, also please be quick with the heals so I don't drop dead".

For the first time in a decade of MMOs I am looking to main a DPS class and that in my opinion is not a good sign for the game.

[Syfin]

Paladin in FFXI we fun... Threat was coming out of everywhere. Most of the time things would get so mad at me no one could get it off of me no matter how hard they tried. Ninja was fun... threat wasn't that great but if they couldn't shadow wipe I could sit there all day taking no damage. These things are fun and they are the kinds of things tanks in other games do.

Right now tanks are 100% reliant on DPS and Heals watching their threat and 100% reliant on Heals keeping them up. There is no "HAHA you can't get it off of me" and there is no "HAHA I can't die" but there is a lot of "please target what I target and don't get to carried away with your damage, also please be quick with the heals so I don't drop dead".

For the first time in a decade of MMOs I am looking to main a DPS class and that in my opinion is not a good sign for the game.

You couldn't be more wrong. I have 0 issues with holding agro. ZERO ISSUES.

[v_jones]

It's challenging sure, but once you practice some it can be quite fun.

[Rochetm]

It's challenging sure, but once you practice some it can be quite fun.

I don't call just barely being able to do my job if I play at my absolute best and only IF the others in my party allow me to fun... also don't call that challenging.

[Sixteen]

Threat isn't really an issue at 50, but I do think many tanks will be rage quitting sooner than later with the current state of things. Paladin has a very boring playstyle, missing most of what a magic tanking class should have. Warrior is relatively fun to play, but it is inferior to paladin in all end game content. Both tanks lack active abilities to keep themselves alive and mostly depend on the healer doing the hard work. After games like Tera and even Wow tanking in this game feels very weak, active mitigation is a must-have for tanks these days.

[Rassiel]

Both tanks lack active abilities to keep themselves alive and mostly depend on the healer doing the hard work. active mitigation is a must-have for tanks these days.

This in spades; along with threat gain from party; Without enough mitigation (read: Legitimate defensive cooldowns, having Parry rating factor into a statistic that's actually useful for those of us with Parry {insert block where appropriate} etc.) healers rip hate away from tanks who are just barely able to hang on, even by spamming Flash (there goes that MP for us Warriors), Provoke (on a 40 second cooldown with no real dent in threat once a fight has been going on for more than about 10 seconds), and Tomahawk/Shield Lob, and then die.

I don't know if threat gain from DPS and Healing is a problem, or actual mitigation is an issue, but the answer is somewhere in there. And it needs to get fixed.

[Furious]

This in spades; along with threat gain from party; Without enough mitigation (read: Legitimate defensive cooldowns, having Parry rating factorinto a statistic that's actually useful for those of us with Parry {insert block where appropriate} etc.) healers rip hate away from tanks who are just barely able to hang on, even by spamming Flash (there goes that MP for us Warriors), Provoke (on a 40 second cooldown with no real dent in threat once a fight has been going on for more than about 10 seconds), and Tomahawk/Shield Lob, and then die.

I don't know if threat gain from DPS and Healing is a problem, or actual mitigation is an issue, but the answer is somewhere in there. And it needs to get fixed.

Player-related problem.

If healers are ripping threat from you, it's because they are having to heal too much - use your LEGITIMATE tanking cooldowns to take less damage, or use some cc from blms.

Provoke puts you on top of the threat list, meaning that the fight HAS to have been going for a while for it to be worthwhile. The only time when taunt is not useful is at the start of a fight, when "on top of the threatlist" means about +2 threat.

Here are your legitimate cooldowns that you should be useing clearly more often than you are:
Rampart
Sentinel
Flash blind
Shield Bash
Shield Block (seriously under-rated if you have a tower type shield rather than buckler).
Convalescence
Hallowed Ground
Awareness

And from Marauder:
Foresight
Bloodbath (ok so this one sucks)
Mercy Stroke

[A1CZERO]

I don't call just barely being able to do my job if I play at my absolute best and only IF the others in my party allow me to fun... also don't call that challenging.

If you don't call that challenging then what is?! Never having to worry about dieing or losing threat? Isn't that the opposite of challenging?

[Zaiken]

It's challenging sure, but once you practice some it can be quite fun.

Not really that fun, you spam the 3 skills over and over again along with flash to get hate. You mark the Target so hoping the DPS would target that monster. You constantly have to tell them to attack only the Target you attack. Ranger always keep stealing your hate showing off their DPS. Our sub job skill Cure are pathetic making it worthless. Our damage is laughable.

I hope they buff the Tank damage more, and at least gave them Cure 2.