The ceiling of how complicated a rotation is tends towards non-tanks, though. For example, my Demo Warlock’s rotation has 12 abilities. Not including Mortal Coil, Fear and defensives, and not including Demonic Gateway and Demonic Circle, both of which become necessary to maximize DPS on more difficult content. My WW Monk has 9 abilities in his rotation. Not including defensives, Spear Hand Strike, Ring of Peace or Leg Sweep.
My Prot Warr feels braindead compared to this. Slightly less braindead than my Fury Warr, but easy nonetheless.
It depends on the content. Last expansion, tanking meant mass-pulling to the end of the dungeon in every Heroic, everyone else be damned. The more difficult the content, the less forgiving it is on any one role to make a mistake. But that doesn’t mean tanking is any harder either. It’s not difficult to taunt swap, to position the boss correctly or to not stand in the bad. Most times I see another tank mess up, it’s one of those. And it’s easily avoidable.
Players don’t play tanks because tanking is hard. They don’t play tanks because of the pressure.
I am no mythic all star but I have seen a lot where season Heroic types who step into Mythic/+ players should understand. From my own UX those who fail at mechanics the most is DPS. Also when it comes to actually doing mechanics like the Ghuun fight, Bombs, etc. DPS never want to raise their hands.
They may not tank because of the pressure but have to adapt to the pressure. Tanks usually cannot pass off a mechanic like DPS can. If they do not do a specific task the encounter will not be completed. Very few encounters in WoW needed multiple OTs.
Let’s not forget the extra amount of pressure they receieve for needing to take a night off. If your MH does not show up your not doing progression. Alts are more reliable now but they still need to learn by doing on some encounters.
Does this bait ever actually pull anyone? I’ve seen you say this in several threads now.
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Its just the truth. Tanking is the easiest role. You can be carried as a dps for a while sure but once it comes time to pull your weight nothing is easier then the tank.
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At least you’re committed 
That makes the role more visible, but not harder. It’s not hard to position the boss correctly, hold aggro, taunt swap and not stand in the bad. The only reason more people don’t tank is because of the visibility. Even in M+ where there are fewer players and DPS are not forgiven for messing up mechanics, tanking is still easy.
No matter how you try to spin it, the pressure outweighs the ease of the task. As many have stated if it was as easy as some believe they would set their loot to their preferred spec and obtain the instant pug ques. They do not as many have stated. The road block’s people have to overcome as a tank is not be scared to fail, memory, research, practice, and gear. Tank players have to put way more work into the role than DPS.
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I think the greatest tell in deciding if tanking or dpsing is more difficult is in what people do to relieve stress.
When the game becomes to much and you just need to sit back and relax do you find tank players more often gravitating to something like BM (I tend to do this for about half a patch per expansion,) or do you find dps players changing to tank spec to just do something thats easy for once.
Now I can’t speak for the majority as I don’t know them but I rarely if ever see a dps player change to tanking unless they are interested in doing so long term and they are often overcome by performance anxiety and have tons of questions. I’d say many of the tank players I know tend to swap to dps occasionally. When they do there is rarely any questions asked other than a quick one about a specific mechanic. Quite a few seem relieved when someone else is willing to fill those shoes for a guild.
Of course all of this is about M+ as raiding is an entirely different story.
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Then why is there like 10 to 1 for dps to tanks if tanks such an easier role? Wouldn’t the masses flock to the easy role kinda like how the hunter class is always high in popularity?
The hunter population is currently low… still.
The issue isn’t that its hard. It is that you cant really carry a tank past a certain point. You can’t with dps either but its later.
A lower then a hunter’s pet dps through persistence can be dragged kicking and screaming though normal raids to a 5ish key. A tank of equal skill simply cant.
That doesn’t make the tank harder to play just that there is more of a focus on it.
If one of the triangle is required to have more skill sooner does that not mean it is the more difficult one to play?
The fact your saying you can carry dps through harder content then tanks kind of furthers my point.
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No, just that there are two others that can carry it easier. The overall skill is still lower for tanks. Just dps can be carried more easily.
Unironically coming from a class that just stands there and hurls fireballs?
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this. this and this.
there is an old saying “if it was easy, everyone would be doing it”
the utter dearth of tanks proves its own point.
DPS entering into m+ with the attitude that tanking is “easy” because it has a simple damage rotation reinforces my initial post.
DPS rotations tend to be very sequential around a combination of abilities with a filler ability. CDs and DoTs have to be tracked of course, but the rotation is, by and far, a fairly routine sequence. Some can be quite complicated, of course, but no one is forced to pick a complex spec.
meanwhile each button press for a tank is a decision made in real time. based upon what is happening at the very moment.
those decisions require monitoring not only their own “rotation” but also the environment, but mobs, adds, and the behavior of the rest of the group.
each action the tank takes is based upon an in-the-moment evaluation. if the tank gets it wrong, it often goes badly for the whole group. same for healers, really. they have to clean up after everyone.
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But tanks have to do everything dps do and then some, would that not make it a more difficult role?
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did i the very first week? Sure. But to that extent, that was the only real “challenge” I’ve felt besides being a bit nervous when hit by Liquefy or Princess’ little stabby tank buster.
I’m not trying to sound like an elitst here, I’m just saying that I put a hell of a lot more work into my key tanking than I do raid tanking. That’s all.
Fair enough I do as well, but I stop raiding at ATOC so I tend to go blind into every fight while in M+ I usually try to push past what is now +10’s. I’m already at +9’s in week 2 so I might try to push title for the first time though its hard without the mythic raid gear.
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You have to forgive him, he lives in a delusional fantasy land and has some disdain for tanks. He apparently knows all of this, but hasn’t hit level 80 yet.
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We don’t, though. Because everyone should be reading and watching the encounter guides. Because our rotations are simpler, and because we don’t have to worry about the economy of movement that ranged classes have to consider. It’s the simplest role. Pressure doesn’t equate to difficulty. It’s just a mental block.
No everyone is not reading and watching guides. It is the same as the amount of users who know about or go to the forums.