I was reading in a link shell just earlier today for someone looking for a tank for Crystal Tower so they could do their quest and unlock the next raid and no one offered. So I figured I got some time and told them that I would. So I got an invite, switched to Paladin and then the person started talking about why no one seems to want to tank or if they do only with people they know.

And it got me thinking – why do people hate tanking? Well I came up with a few reasons.

  • First (or second to be blamed).
  • Lack of anonymity.
  • People are simply dicks.

When you think about a battle there is a lot going on. You got the tank making sure no one is being attacked, the healers babysitting everyone and the DPS pewing pewing and if you think about it carefully – which one do you notice doing their jobs?

The answer is tank and healers in most cases. If a DPS lacks with their damage things simply will not die as fast although in Final Fantasy XIV with a lot of DPS checks and enrages this is kinda noticeable but without certain 3rd party software no one would know who it is. If healers mess up then people die – period!

And now we move onto tanks. If a tank messes up you can clearly see with the mob of the day flying around attacking random people (quite often DPSes with the amount of agro that can pump out) and that is kinda hard not to notice. And quite often the first thing that is said is people is DPS quickly jumping to the point saying things like – Hey look how good I can kite / tank this.

The next problem is the tank is normally deemed the default leader and expected to do whatever the party wants and if the DPS is edging to already pulling things for a speed run – you are kinda forced to do so or get moaned at.

Basically I can sum up the problem why people do not play as tanks – they do not want to be moaned at by people for making mistakes, not wanting to do something etc when a DPS could get anyway with pretty much just anything. That said though I got no problem with DPSes – everyone does an equal important part in every battle.

Honeygain - Earn money passively by doing nothing!