Solution to Problem of no Tanks for In-Progress Parties

[Ollorin]

At the lower levels, it can be an hour or more waiting for a tank to come if you lose your tank during a dungeon raid. Often, you never get a tank. I think this problem happens because it's easier to get gear from a dungeon raid as a tank than as any other job because tanks get no competition. In every dungeon raid, either the mages or the dps have to compete for gear. The tank never has to compete. I've done enough Brayflox runs, for instance, to know that each possible piece, whether mage, tank, or dps, loads at around the same frequency. That is the problem and the reason why tanks are harder to find. A mage might have to repeat the run a dozen times to get his or her gear because he or she had to compete for that gear, let alone because it didn't load on that run. Tanks, however, get their pieces when they load.

So the solution is simple: lower the load percentage for tank gear. Make it something like 40% for mage, 40% for dps, 20% for tank.

[TheWitcher]

All tanks are at endgame running Amdapor keep and only amdapor keep thats the problem

[Skullcrusher]

All tanks are at endgame running Amdapor keep and only amdapor keep thats the problem

Dont you mean all tanks that have nothing better to do all weekend then play final fantasy are at endgame running AK!

[Ilenya]

So, wait...

The solution to not enough tanks for parties is to have it so less tank gear drops?

[Ollorin]

Less gear drops = tanks have to repeat dungeons more to get gear. Granted, not every tank cares, but I think there are enough people that do that we'd see good results. It's not a full solution, as there are simply more dps players, but it will keep tanks repeating dungeons and therefore increase the frequency of tanks joining in-progress parties.

[Balaur]

Less gear drops = tanks have to repeat dungeons more to get gear. Granted, not every tank cares, but I think there are enough people that do that we'd see good results. It's not a full solution, as there are simply more dps players, but it will keep tanks repeating dungeons and therefore increase the frequency of tanks joining in-progress parties.

While your solution has some merit to it, statistically speaking the reasons groups wait for tanks is because for the most the greater number of them aren't using DF randomly. Instead, they are queueing with structured groups, FCs and premades. There are less of them in the open system, more using the DF merely as a way to pop into dungeons repeatedly. So the gearing distribution wouldn't solve the problem. One way to do so would be to incentivize tanks for jumping into the DF with a large number of randoms, and actually use the DF for more than dungeon-hopping. They must contribute to the community.

[Pandemonium]

Less gear drops = tanks have to repeat dungeons more to get gear. Granted, not every tank cares, but I think there are enough people that do that we'd see good results. It's not a full solution, as there are simply more dps players, but it will keep tanks repeating dungeons and therefore increase the frequency of tanks joining in-progress parties.

I like that you are thinking outside of the box, but frankly this still will not work. I am levelling a tank to progress through the story quickly (as I have a 50 MNK already, but got tired of 1hr+ queues just to complete the story line dungeons etc.) - but the dungeon gear means nothing to me, and I doubt it means much else to many others.

Sticking with your Brayflox example, I have run it 3 times. I have sheild/head and i'm not bothered about any other pieces, so I won't be running it anymore on tank. Granted, I have a high level ARM and can HQ my own armour, but even the NQ is good enough to level with, and cheap as chips on the Markets. The levelling progression is so quick that the Brayflox drops are obsolete within a matter of hours, and there is no incentive to grind it out when I pass it so quickly and I am ready for the next tier.

Thus, your idea of making "Gear for tanks more rare, so they will grind it out more" doesn't work, as the tanks will simply out-level the gear.

The solutions which remain are:

Allow other classes to tank (or at least queue as tank, and have 2 x DPS off-tank somehow - e.g. MNKs get a better 'earth stance' but at the same time a penalty to DPS)

or

Slow the rate of levelling, so make people want to run low level dungeons over and over for gear that will last.

[EmSix]

Punish the already dwindling supply tanks are by making it harder for them to get gear.
Genius.

[Steeled]

^ Emsix has it right.

People have this idea that the way to improve their experience is to punish others and it's getting absurd.

Like it or not, the thing to do is give in-demand roles incentive to join groups, and incentive to join in-progress groups. Anyone can play a tank or healer, so anyone can take advantage of this.

[Ollorin]

It's not punishment, it's appropriate balance. It's simply too easy for tanks to get gear compared to other jobs. The other solution would be to make mage gear or dps gear randomly able to load *with* tank gear whenever tank gear loads. That would also help.