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To Tank or Not to Tank...that is the question


mikebevo

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If you are the selfish need everything, then this is not the thread for you.

 

The question here is for those that are generally trying to make their guild better and the community better as a whole, not the self-centered me at all cost. I have been feeling guilty lately because, you guessed it, I do not have a tank on the republic or the imperial side. I have 3 healers and 3 dps at the moment. So am I being selfish and self-centered by not at least rolling one tank? Or does the healer role absolve me from need to roll a tank?

 

The tank role just holds no interest to me. Of course the healer role held no interest either, but that was what the guild needed at the time and I have fallen in love with the role. I also know many people only run dps, but this isn’t about that, is it alright not to roll a tank if you at least fill the healer role. I could easily covert my dps shadow over to tank, but I like the support role of a healer way more than I ever could enjoy leading a group.

Edited by mikebevo
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I have a Tank Guardian and an Assassin, and I have a Dps Vanguard and a Sniper. I Suck at healing, I know it, but I would be willing to try to get better if I had to. I am of the mentality that I would rather Protect or Kill, I'm not much of a healer. But thats just me. I don't have a guild yet so I don't know if I would run a healer if they needed one.
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I have at least one of the 3 roles. I rarely play my healer because I don't like to heal. Unless you were recruited to the guild to tank or it is the only way to get into guild runs, I would not worry about running a tank.
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I currently have 3 dps, 1 tank, and 1 healer at level 50, i have 1 tank in the 20's and a healer in the 30's. But honestly i have stop queing my tank and even my healer in the group finder due to boredom and frustration with the quality of the groups. It wouldnt be to bad if people were willing to learn and admit that they have room to grow, but most of the time the people i get most frustrated with are self-acclaim pros that dont have nothing to learn from another player.

 

But back to your original question, it could/would benefit the group finder ques for some if you had a tank you played on occasions, but the effect would sorta be a drop of water in the ocean. Que times are still going to be a pain majority of the time, especially since your friends/guildies will want you to tank for them most likely.

 

There is also the question about personal growth as a gamer, and as a player in swtor. Playing a tank will help you experience the third side of the trinity, and will make you a better healer and dpser. Also if you understand the role of a tank well, and get a fair amount of experience you should be able to contribute more to the development of strategies for new fight (that is if you do progression raiding).

 

Overall, there really isnt a reason not to try out tanking... i would advise you to level a new toon to 50 though to be your tank instead of just respecing a dps toon. This will give you the chance to develop your skill as a tank, at the same rate your abilities will develop.

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Yeah, you shouldn't have to tank if you don't want to. If your guild starts to harass you, leave.

 

You're not being selfish by not wanting to tank. Everyone has some role they prefer not to do (personally, I dislike dps'ing).

 

^This. Play the roles you enjoy, and if there are not enough people around that enjoy tanking, well then measures would need to be taken to make tanking a more rewarding and enjoyable experience.

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You are not being selfish, if all you want is healing and dps'ing do that. If you don't want to tank you might not end up being a good tank since you may not enjoy it so what would be the point. On the other hand as soon as you feel that you want to try it go right ahead, nobody can tell you otherwise.
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I leveled a gaurdian tank and a powertech tank to 50, but they're both dps now. Tanking is meh. This is my first MMO and I liked the idea of tanking but actually doing it just got old really fast.

 

I do have a 50 healer I like though, and it seems to suit me more than tanking.

Edited by DrewFromPhilly
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People are selfish, ungrateful jerks by default. Play what you like and don't concern yourself with their opinions. I play all three roles extensively, and, unless the guild really needs something (like the Ops run will not happen without my tank or healer), I run what I enjoy most at the moment.
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If you are the selfish need everything, then this is not the thread for you.

 

The question here is for those that are generally trying to make their guild better and the community better as a whole, not the self-centered me at all cost. I have been feeling guilty lately because, you guessed it, I do not have a tank on the republic or the imperial side. I have 3 healers and 3 dps at the moment. So am I being selfish and self-centered by not at least rolling one tank? Or does the healer role absolve me from need to roll a tank?

 

The tank role just holds no interest to me. Of course the healer role held no interest either, but that was what the guild needed at the time and I have fallen in love with the role. I also know many people only run dps, but this isn’t about that, is it alright not to roll a tank if you at least fill the healer role. I could easily covert my dps shadow over to tank, but I like the support role of a healer way more than I ever could enjoy leading a group.

 

It depends, a lot of people aren't able to tank HM EC and HM TFB, if you can (and your guild needs a tank for it) then I'd say you should at least offer. If you're not able to tank HM TFB and Nightmare EC when it's out then don't feel guilty about not offering.

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First I want to make this clear; no one in my guild is telling me that I need to roll a tank. I just feel guilty that some of them have to run ops on their tank alt instead of their dps. My main is a healer, so while I am not running them that often on my dps, I am running them on my main.

Playing a tank will help you experience the third side of the trinity, and will make you a better healer and dpser. Also if you understand the role of a tank well, and get a fair amount of experience you should be able to contribute more to the development of strategies for new fight (that is if you do progression raiding).
I know this is true, it didn’t really seem to matter in everything up to NIM KP and EV, but doing EC and TfB on my DPS, really helped me heal them on my sawbones. The next time I healed either of them I knew when and where the damage was coming from which made be better prepared with big heals and HoTs on those that I knew would need them. I was also better able to pay attention to DoT and know what could be cleansed and what couldn’t. Even when I could not do anything, I had the knowledge of how to tell dps to mitigate damage when I had to concentrate on the tanks.

It depends, a lot of people aren't able to tank HM EC and HM TFB, if you can (and your guild needs a tank for it) then I'd say you should at least offer. If you're not able to tank HM TFB and Nightmare EC when it's out then don't feel guilty about not offering.
Have no clue since this is my first MMO, but believe I could figure it out, after all I figured out healing. No doubt I was the worse healer ever when I first hit 50, but now while I still don’t consider myself great, I am fairly competent and have been told that I am really good by even pugs. I know my abilities on every toon. Learned in my first HM FP that it was key to a successful run especially for a healer, sure it is the same for a Tank. Only tanked twice so far in the game and one of those was on my sawbones. Tank died on SOA, I got aggro and somehow kitted him under a pillar. Pillar got him, but me too, but dps finished him off. My guild still jokes about my smuggler being a backup tank. The only other time was on my dps shadow on the turrets at the start of HM EV. I guess I did alright, no one got hit by the turret, but me…Of course I died right as dps finished off the turret. Beyond that I have just used the taunts on my shadow to divert NPC to me instead of the fresh 50’s I help with dailies. I am really good both on my healers and my dps and using what abilities they have to mitigate damage.

 

Thanks everyone...think I will roll a tank or change my shadow to a tank, but only after I get my Knight to 50. If nothing else I can use it to get guild mates though hm fp faster.

Edited by mikebevo
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First I want to make this clear; no one in my guild is telling me that I need to roll a tank. I just feel guilty that some of them have to run ops on their tank alt instead of their dps. My main is a healer, so while I am not running them that often on my dps, I am running them on my main.

 

Why? If nobody is pressuring you to do something you aren't really interested in doing, why feel guilty about it? If your guild consistently has to have people switch to playing their alts to get the right composition for a group the solution isn't to have yet another person have a tank alt available. The solution is to get your guild to recruit people who's mains are actually tanks.

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I wouldn't feel bad about not wanting to tank. Sure if you ran a tank up to 50 if might be easier for you to get into ops or faster ques using the group finder sometimes but it seems like your guild has a pretty strong raiding group from what you have said.

Everyone clings to that one professions that they like more then other professions. My first character is a jedi sentinel but after trying the jedi shadow and running him as a tank i find that im on my shadow tank 95% of the time now ;) then my main character that is the sentinel dps. So dont worry about it.

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I would suggest trying a tank role, because when I first started the game I had no interest in it, and just thought I'd go easy DPS. I played some of the beta as an inquisitor, and I knew the light armor is annoying. So I decided when the game went to live to make my assassin defense-specced , just for survivability. Then when the team was desperate in my first boarding party, I decided to tank. I love it.

 

Then I eventually started a guardian (who is now my main) and guess what role he is? A tank. Eventually I made a DPS operative, and I always seemed to do enough damage to pull Agro. And now I have a vanguard I plan to respec to tank at level 30.

 

There's just something fun about looking the boss in the eye, while your DPS chips away it's health.

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Play what you like to play, period.

 

That being said, you may want to try out a tank just for the sake of trying something new. Who knows, maybe you'll actually enjoy the role like you enjoy healing.

 

Vanguards and Shadows are recomended tank classes, I'd stay away from Guardians since they have a difficult time holding aggro and don't have as much utility as their blaster-toting colleagues

Edited by RendValor
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You already have lots of good advice up there, but I'll make this short and straight to the point...

 

Unless your guild is actively paying your subscription fees and has direct access to log in your account, you play what YOU want to play... period.

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There's a difference between being selfish and self interest. You need to play what you enjoy playing the most. If you decide on a role based more on what the guild needs over what you enjoy playing, you will get burned out on the game and quit. Then the guild is down a member.

 

Only tank if you're interested in tanking. I just happen to be the type that likes to get in the middle of a bunch of NPCs, shrug off their blows and scream "NOT IN THE FACE!!! NOT IN THE FACE!!" at the top of my lungs. That's just what I find to be the most entertaining. I don't need to be the top of the charts, I just want to be the center of attention.

 

If that's not for you, then by all means don't worry about it. There's plenty of tanks out there, your guild can recruit one if they need one.

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If you don't want to tank, then don't tank. If for no other reason than you'll be less likely to want to play, or be good, if you're doing something you don't enjoy doing. And the game doesn't need anymore bad tanks.

 

Do I personally feel that everyone should have an idea of how it is to tank? Yes, if only so the complain less. But too many people roll tanks for the wrong reasons. They end up being timid and clueless.

 

If you're not willing to actually learn how to play the role, and not the class [Dirty little secret: learning to tank, in any game, is not half as hard as people make it out to be] then don't roll a tank .

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I prefer someone who knows what they are doing over being a spec we need...

 

if you're a bad tank, and don't know how to tank, or tanking just isn't your thing, then don't bother... because we'll hate you more for it for doing it badly...

rather you be an extra DPS and wait for a tank than to bug you to do a tank...

 

I have made a tank assassin, and a tank vanguard (also tank shadow, which is basically mimicking my assassin) but not very high in lvls yet...

 

I don't think I'll make a medic, would probably try, but may not like it... I've never been the healing type... and I know no one will bug me for it and rather they know I suck at it than to try and fail and disappoint

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It doesnt help that tanking in SWTOR is really dull and that the skill tree is dull too.

 

I like tanking......in other MMOs where it can be fun and interesting. But after trying tanking in SWTOR, well i just found it really boring and the skill tree so underwhelming.

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