As a very old healer from way back, it’s because…
It’s easy and you get to be self-centered.
That’s my take. Healers and especially Tanks have to put up with all the attitudes and still be expected to be flawless or expect the dps to get belligerent and rude.
It’s just not worth the effort sometimes.
I’m with you there. It’s not worth the grief to tank for pugs. I enjoy taking, I don’t enjoy getting harassed because I pulled too much, pulled too little, I’m going too slow, I’m going too fast and the worst because I didn’t spend 20 hours studying the content on youtube. It seems like the vast majority of gamers are never happy.
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I tried to learn healing but I wasn’t that good at it. I noticed I kept getting in battlegrounds with no healer so I rolled a healer and queued for random battlegrounds. My healing wasn’t very good and other players complained so I gave it up.
I tried tanking years ago but it’s just trading taunts and trying to move the boss around, I found it unfun. My ADHD made me forget to move the boss or taunt. With DPS I’m always in the top 3 or so and nobody complains so I stick with it.
I mean, there’s literally 3x as many DPS as any other role in a traditional group, so I think that’s probably the main driving factor?
Combined with the fact that virtually every class has a DPS spec in every era of the game and only specific classes can heal and tank.
This is true with any trinity-based MMO.
Simple, DPS is more fun to just kill things and kill em quickly.
There are elements of truth to this, but the ultimate bottom line is end game content varies in requirements for tanks and healers. To have the best gear, and highest potential performance (note I say potential as some people will still suck regardless of gear) you need to be raiding.
Classic 40 man 2-3 tanks, 6-8 heals. Turning this into 5man groups leaves you 5 or 6 tanks short and up to 2 heals short.
25 man raiding again sees 2 tanks and 4 heals or less
20 man I’ve lost track of the retail meta but again it comes down to 2 tanks and the fewest number of healers you can get away with.
So throughout wow there has always been a shortage of Main Spec, raid geared tanks and healers.
Short of a massive overhaul of end game design to need geared tanks and healers in the 1-1-3 ratio needed for 5 man dungeons there will always be a shortage.
At least there is never a shortage of toxic players that expect Mythic raid performance from your fresh alt tank/healer in a dungeon to continue driving people away from those roles…
This is actually one thing with dungeons that ffxiv really does well. In that game the path is pretty much obvious, and the path forward opens once the enemies are killed.
So much less stressful to tank because i dont have to worry about paths, and there is only so much i can pull at a time. But i still feel skilled becaue i have to use my defensives and abilities correctly to survive a wall to wall pull.
I think “braindead” DPS is a matter of perception. There’s more DPS so your going to see more bad DPS players.
I genuinely enjoy being a damaged dealer, and the classic and specs that focus on such. I also don’t want to be responsible for what too often turns out to be a bunch of whiny jerks.
There are many tanks, and healers, however, they don’t queue for random groups simply due to the nonsense.
But it isn’t lol. It’s less meaningful from a DPS perspective, but its impact overall is definitely higher than you’re giving credit for. The more gear the tank has, the more they pull, the more they pull, the value out of AoE and cleave you get, same with healers, the more they can handle in terms of damage output, the more you can get away with pulling big.
It all comes full circle and tbh every bit of gear is super meaningful. Though I’d argue I’d rather the tank being geared over a DPS since a tank being able to pull 3 packs at a time instead of 2 is more overall damage and speed than an individual DPS doong slightly more damage, in general.
Youre clearly terrible at the game. Its not hard bro.
Many reasons
Most common is that tanks and healers sont do big numbers
For me even though i main healing again is the bigger responsibility
Oh also healers and tanks get a ton of disrespect these days
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You see dps get kicked for poor performance because you know if you kick a tank or healer you are standing around for the next 15 minutes waiting
I’ve definitely been in groups that have kicked tanks before. Usually in situations where the tank is bad enough that they’re actually blocking progression. You can either spend 15 minutes to find a new tank or an hour wiping over and over hoping that the tank has an epiphany in that time.
Can’t recall a time that I’ve seen a healer kicked though I’ll admit. For performance-related reasons anyway. I’ve seen people of all roles kicked over attitude or afk.
Everybody and their mother hates the tank and wants to tell them what to do! But none of them will tank themselves. Fricking side seat tanks.
If the tank is constantly dying to tank-busters, then yes I will side-seat criticize the tank because their inability to do their job is preventing the rest of the group from progressing in the raid.
I even moonlight as a tank from time to time so I don’t feel that bad about it.
No you will not! You need to calm down right now Druid know your place or Tank up!
I do tank up when I need to. Putting that aside, even if I’m not currently tanking myself it’s not like the tank’s performance has no effect on the rest of the raid. I can see when the tank is failing to survive tank mechanics. I can see when the tank is positioning the boss poorly. Especially when I’m raid leading for my guild it is literally my job to identify those kinds of things and work with the tank to correct them.
Tanks are not special. They are not immune to bad play and can hold back a group just as much as any other role can. Your role doesn’t confer any special authority on you and if your mistakes are costing the group then they will either be corrected or you will find yourself replaced with someone who doesn’t make those mistakes.