Why do you refuse to tank/heal?

[Ghost_Spectre]

I don't see anyone looking for "bonus kudos." What I do see are people who are tired of shouldering the blame for group failure. If, as you say, "no one role is more important than the other," then no one should be faulting the tank or the healer specifically for any deaths that occur, yet that sort of thing seems to happen quite regularly.

I wholeheartedly agree. It is apparent to me the person whom replied to me that you quoted truly doesn't understand the support role and is trolling. Asking for an ego stroke is the sign of a atypical clueless player. One that doesn't deserve a response in my opinion. Thanks, you pretty much covered what I was thinking and posted.

[souloferdrick]

I don't see anyone looking for "bonus kudos." What I do see are people who are tired of shouldering the blame for group failure. If, as you say, "no one role is more important than the other," then no one should be faulting the tank or the healer specifically for any deaths that occur, yet that sort of thing seems to happen quite regularly.

 

When I say no one role is more important than the other its because all three roles need to be doing their jobs in the group for the run to go well. That doesn't mean any of them are beyond reproach if they aren't pulling their weight, which is what you seem to be advocating, again, in favor of tanks and heals.

 

I wholeheartedly agree. It is apparent to me the person whom replied to me that you quoted truly doesn't understand the support role and is trolling. Asking for an ego stroke is the sign of a atypical clueless player. One that doesn't deserve a response in my opinion. Thanks, you pretty much covered what I was thinking and posted.

 

I wasn't replying to you specifically as more than one person has expressed the "woe is me QQQQ" about their personal decision to play a tank or healer so you can ease up on the paranoia but yeah, looking at your post, you are a classic case:

 

"However, it is a thankless job for a player to do. Like healing, tanking is a support role. It is not all flash and bang like dpsing. Rarely are you thanked for doing your part right and spot on. However, if you screw up or that mighty dpser aggro's every mob within eye shot and dies, it is the tank or healer's fault. Tanking, like healing, is a mind set. You put the team before yourself. It takes a rock solid team oriented player to fulfill these roles. That and the responsibility that comes with these support roles is a big deterrence for many players.

 

This is why you won't find many who can actually tank/heal or aspire to try it. Too much qqing and finger pointing by those who do not understand the tank/heal role or their purpose either. Dpsing is the "flash and bang" of MMOs, the tank and healer are not. "

 

Get over it dude, you're not special for playing a tank.

Edited February 17, 2015 by souloferdrick

[Djiini]

I've got 2 Tank, 1 Heal, and 5 DPS.

 

Healers aren't really great for the solo game, and that's mostly where you learn your rotations if you're a filthy casual like me. Tanking can be already but I don't tend to like the DPS Companions.

[SelinaH]

When I say no one role is more important than the other its because all three roles need to be doing their jobs in the group for the run to go well. That doesn't mean any of them are beyond reproach if they aren't pulling their weight, which is what you seem to be advocating, again, in favor of tanks and heals.

No. What I'm saying is that many people's experience in PUGs goes like this:

 

If the tank screws up and someone dies, it's the tank's fault.

If the healer screws up and someone dies, it's the healer's fault.

If the DPS screws up and someone dies, it's the tank's fault. Or maybe the healer's.

[FerkWork]

No. What I'm saying is that many people's experience in PUGs goes like this:

 

If the group wipes, it's never our fault it's someone else's. Bonus points if it's somehow BW fault.

FTFY

[detrakemental]

First of all i have to admit, Im a true noob and im probably the worst player in the history of this game. I would like to try a tank class but ...i lack skills, lack of knowledge of this game, i dont have any friend playing swtor or want to try it so...common sense is telling me to stay away from tanking

[souloferdrick]

No. What I'm saying is that many people's experience in PUGs goes like this:

 

If the tank screws up and someone dies, it's the tank's fault.

If the healer screws up and someone dies, it's the healer's fault.

If the DPS screws up and someone dies, it's the tank's fault. Or maybe the healer's.

 

If the dps screws up and someone dies its the dps fault. I think most rational people filling dps roles would agree.

 

Edit: On support roles: Its a team effort so every role is a support role.

Edited February 17, 2015 by souloferdrick

[Helig]

While I enjoy tanking (got no problems running a pug once in a while, too, never experienced the alleged "tank abuse", and I'm a Founder), one of the reasons for DPSing on a tank\heal-capable class is the feel\flow of the DPS discipline of a particular AC. I, for one, find myself enjoying Vigilance\Vengeance quite a lot, as well as Gunnery and Lightning.

[lilearnie]

I DPS because it's satisfying being able to kill certain enemies with one big, powerful attack.

 

I don't wanna sit around for 5 minutes fighting one boss in a story mission, I want to show my power and beat the <censored word here> out of him.

[wadecounty]

Hey, don't get me wrong, I think we should all get to DPS some too, and I agree some tank/heal capable classes have fun DPS trees like Vigilance/Lightning.

 

I just don't understand those that refuse to ever tank or heal, at all.

 

I think one thing that confuses me is people refer to less responsibility as a DPS, but there are some fights where I actually think the DPS role matters more than the tank or heal, and a weaker player would have an easier time with one of those. DPS always being the easiest role is really only true in leveling content where there is no enrage.

[Gwena]

I refuse to tank because not only are tanks usually expected to be the leader, but they (along with healers) are the most likely to incur the wrath of their group if something goes wrong -- their fault or not. The mistakes of a tank tend to be more obvious than the mistakes of a DPS as well, IMHO.

 

I do enjoy being well-nigh unkillable, playing the "mob round up" game, and keeping my companion or whatever rare random groupmate I have from getting mauled on my tank spec'd Juggernaut . But doing actual group content? Nope, no, and heck no.

[XiamaraSimi]

I'll admit it, I don't pay enough attention to heal. I can tank or DPS, but please never ask me to heal...I don't watch my own health 1/2 the time...I could never be tasked with watching up to 15 other players. I just don't have the mindset for it, which is why I have HUGE respect for anyone that does heal!!!

 

^^^^^^^

 

Me in a nutshell. I have 3 sins and 1 shadow that are all tanks, but i know i would suck as a healer. (plus i dont like being squishy!)

 

But i wont tank anything thats not a friend/guild thing pecause people are jerks for reasons already stated by others in the thread.

Edited February 17, 2015 by XiamaraSimi

[KyaniteD]

Tank - exectations of perfection. Not just good/decent. Expectations of knowing all tacs, dps & healers included as well and explaining every time. The way people can abuse tanks for even slightest mistakes or, God forbid, for being a new tank (or new to a particular content) is just ridiculous. I tank rarely and almost exclusively within the guild for those reasons. The 'etlist tank' attitude many experienced tanks display seems proportionate to the level of abuse new/inexperienced tanks endure.

 

Exactly this. I tank for guild and friends, but not for pugs or GF. Healing is a foreign concept to me. My mind is hard-wired to make health bars go down.

[calypsissmexy]

One word.

 

Responsibility

 

I, myself, do heals. But mainly because playing dps means having to rely on a bunch of yolo puggys to throw bubbles and off heals. Cause of course they're all dps, even the Sorcs. And god forbid they do anything off spec like keep the team alive after they e aggroed the whole room with overload and force storm. Edit: talking mainly tacticals since I've been leveling all through dble XP and and now sick of dps pugs)

 

Also leveling is designed around dps primarily. It goes faster if you dps. Tanking and healing through solo content is slower.

Edited February 17, 2015 by calypsissmexy

[iKlone]

Because good DPS is hard to find.

[Bachannal]

I have 2 tanks...had 3 but swapped one to a DPS spec, and the other I swap between DPS/Tanking on. I will say I rarely tank anymore though, and that's primarily a twofold reason. 1. Because while I'm decent at it, I'm not a bonafide bad@ss of a tank. 2. Because it's just not as fun of a class to me overall.

 

I have like 15 toons currently, and they run the gamut - but my main toon is a Merc Heals. I also created a set of DPS gear for him so I can swap specs if needed, and I find I'm DPSing a lot more often these days because it's fun just killing stuff. I still enjoy healing, because keeping people standing during a fight is it's own challenge, and I feel like a boss if I've managed to not let our tank(s) drop and the boss has been beaten.

 

I think maybe the reason the OP is on this topic is due to the fact that it does seem like a whole lot of people are swapping to DPS specs, and the void left in other areas has a ripple effect that can be felt in the game in the quality of performance overall.

 

I am by no means super fantastic at this game, but I have seen some stunningly poor performance in players as of late that astounds me. A good example is the other day I did a tactical run of Blood Hunt, and the people in my group were lamenting how "hard" it was, Seriously. Blood Hunt wasn't hard when I was still decked out in 162 gear, much less in a group of 60's in full 186 auged gear. Makes ya wonder.

[The-Kaitou-Kid]

I don't refuse to play healer, I'm actually leveling one right now (a Sage with Seer spec which I'm absolutely loving), but my biggest problem with the role is it feels stressful to me. There's a lot of managing other people in the healer role, since you need to see who has what health, who needs a heal, who doesn't, should you be saving your energy or attacking to speed things up/help out, etc. With DPS you just have to worry about managing yourself. You want to kill the enemies and stay alive. That's it.

 

In the group content I've done with my Sage I've often found myself apologizing if I let somebody in the group die. Even that phrasing kinda shows my problem here. I let them die. Which isn't always the case but as a healer role I feel a bit responsible when I can't keep somebody up and that can get stressful.

 

I wouldn't want to play a tank because it seems like tanks should be the ones kinda directing the battles and such, deciding when to start each fight and holding aggro and such, which is something I'm not good at whatsoever. I'm not the kinda person to lead anything and will more often than not wait for somebody else to start and then go.

 

Now, note, these are my opinions on the roles. I primarily play DPS (my Sage is my only non-DPS, but to be fair the Sage will also only be my 5th character finished so it's not like I have a huge amount of characters made) but just trying to play a healer as I have with my Sage has made me respect the people that get good at the heal and tank roles. They both seem stressful to me, given that you have so much more to manage, so I imagine it takes a bit more to really settle into them as a result compared to DPS since some things you have to worry about are other group members.

 

Needless to say, you won't see me complaining to a Tank or a Healer in a group setting because I died. My general rule of thumb is it's my fault unless somebody did something obvious to cause my death (pulling multiple groups of enemies at once or something mainly) and even then I'm not the type to get mad and go off on somebody. Just try again. I can understand why others would be harsher and what not, that's just not for me.

[PLynkes]

Fed up with idiots who do stupid things and then blame me when they die, and say things like "Just shut up and *********** heal!" when you try to suggest a better course of action.

 

Can't say I care for the OP's tone much either myself. Needlessly aggressive and confrontational. That's the kind of attitude that leads to the problem he's talking about in the first place.

Edited February 17, 2015 by PLynkes

[Aienir]

I play on an NA server from the EU... I have to deal with 250 ping, so I only tank/heal for friends cause I don't want to deal with pugs if I have a lag spike (happens every so often, always at the worst time possible).

 

Also, good DPS is hard to find sometimes. I don't mean someone who only does a **** ton of DPS, but also has situational awareness and knows how to offtank/offheal or not stand in red.

[LoverNoFighter]

Yeah you, mr "I only DPS but play classes that can tank/heal" guy. Why do you never tank/heal in group content? Just curious about some of the reasons (excuses) people have.

 

Personally, I like all three roles, but I get tired of always having to tank or heal to get flashpoints to pop.

 

Obviously, if you only play Marauder/Sniper, ignore this question

 

Too much hassle to tank/heal.

DPS is just facerolling across the keyboard while watching tv. So easy.

[Cay_Chamma]

If the dps screws up and someone dies its the dps fault. I think most rational people filling dps roles would agree..

 

Unfortunately, I have seen few people that DPS react rationally when they screw up and get killed. I have rarely seen people that tank or heal react irrationally when they screw up and get someone else killed. Over the years, and many PUGs that I have, reluctantly, joined, I have learned that I need to be self sufficient, because I can't rely on most of my "teammates" to actually work as a team. Most of the PUGs that I have experienced have been a group of individuals attacking individual bad guys individually. The ones that are most likely to work as a team are the Healers and Tanks.

 

As for why I don't Heal or Tank? I'm not good at either one.

[JouerTue]

becuase they are bads. there are also bad tanks and healers, but people tend to crush bad tanks and don't recognize bad healers unless they cause many wipes. there's also less responsibility in dpsin since sooner or later the boss will die, but lately i found myself with lack of heals while dpsing and lack of dps while healing..tanks slack mainly in new sm ops so can't really tell how they are doing.

 

so tl;dr : bads, responsibilities.

[Toweleeeie]

Too much hassle to tank/heal.

DPS is just facerolling across the keyboard while watching tv. So easy.

 

I would argue that out side of Bulo HM that dps have the hardest job in the new Ops.

 

To answer the OP, I used to heal and tank HM FPs all the time, but now the reward isn't worth it. Plus people do tend to suck more after the introduction of tacticals. Rather just do SM Ops with the couple of guilds I have toons in for elite/192 gear.

[DjSnazzyduds]

Because I find DPS much more fun. Why play a role I have no interest in?

[TiekoSora]

My trooper is a healer. I've been doing flashpoints a lot over this past weekend. I have had lots of compliments, no criticisms, aside from one snarky comment that we would have to slow down by the guy that just died because he decided to pull everything in a large room. A pull that almost caused my own death, and would have resulted in a wipe. On my sorceror, he very rarely heals. You can't seriously expect me to heal while spam channeling Force Storm, can you?