Gear is partially to blame for tank shortage

really? you feel proud about that? I never even felt like that once my entire tanking career in this game mate :P

Imo tanking remains a largely thankless job, but most thrilling part about is how you are always up close and personal with the "scary" bosses in a "Come at me, bro" fashion

Also... my main is a tank and I enjoy playing him alot and its my favorite role by far.

BUT some nights, you just feel like raiding and not having the pressure, or your watching a movie on the sides, or you want to have a few beers while playing, then I play DPS... if I make a 3 seconds mistake as a DPS who will know? or who will even care? Some fights are so easy with DPS we just burn up the boss and I am having a discussion with someone in RL pressing one button...

It feels like most of the tricky mechanics end up being the tanks job, not all, but most. Healing is half way in between, IMO, but healers get more love, since you see their name in big green letters whilke they are saving your *****.

When the tank does well, its a good team effort, but when the tank ****s up its his fault, Im a hockey goalie in RL and it kinds of feels the same way lol.

It's not so much pride as it is "I kept you alive so that you could be awesome." Large numbers are just that, large numbers. They really shouldn't matter, the only reason they do is because people are obsessed with their epeen. I'd much rather be able to say "Good for you, but it was because of me that you could do that."

I think he is referencing tanking in pvp not pve. This is an atmosphere where tanks are often time not required. Sure there are some benifits like holding off an objective longer, while you wait for reinforcements. But generally speaking PvP is more offensive in nature and many tanks in full tank gear are a hell of alot weaker on the pvp side. Many tanks spec the tank line but get gear in the dps line. This is because shield/absorb is a joke because crit bypasses shield and dps generally can crit on some abilitites more often than not. Additionally if your in tank gear you cant kill a healer as they can EASILY out heal your dmg. So for the most part as a tank you help keep your healer alive until they get 2 dps on them, then you watch helplessly and hope you can survive without heals long enough for them to repawn and make it back before you lose the objective.

Now.....I dont agree with the OP, just showing his take on tanks. There are better ways to fix tanks in PvP.

Tanks are like drummers in a rock band.[1]

The lead guitarists are jumping about doing their widdly widdly stuff all over the stage and grabbing the limelight and pretending to be all that, but really they are just all hot air and ego - like the DPS monkeys who drool over posting big numbers into the chat window.[2]

Meantime, it's the drummer who holds the thing together keeping the group in rhythm and controlling things from the background, they don't need the limelight, because they know they are truly critical to a successful group... Like tanks.

I'm not sure who the healer is in this analogy. Lead singer perhaps, being as I know many healers who like to post their massive heals into chat as well!

[1] This analogy is in no way connected with my fondness for tanking... and that I'm a drummer.
[2] Never done that whilst playing DPS... Ermm.. No Sir *coughs and walks away whistling off-key*

This is kind of what I am getting at. If I have a tank but on raid night we have another tank or I just do t feel up to tanking on the night. In that case I need an entirely different set of gear to be a respectable Dps. To me that's a barrier that should not exist. A Dps can switch specs with the same gear, healers can do the same with only a slight decrease to Dps output, but as tank my tank gear is uess for Dps. That's unfair to need either 2 sets of gear or having to have a Dps alt, which really doesn't help as he needs gearing up which I can't do while I'm on my tank.

Yeah this. The first time you main-tank something a little more difficult and pull it off beautifully - LR-5 or Soa or whatever is the first boss you meet that takes a little more work than your standard spank-n-tank. It's great! All you people boasting about your crits, proud of your epeens, grow some ovaries and learn to tank!

I was one of the first people to register here. I beta tested. I'm a current subscriber and CE owner. I like to think I'm knowledgeable on the game. Yet, I've never heard of these features at all in the game. Is this something new that's been added.

Or is the OP referring to Skills and Skill Trees?

I agree with you. When I play a tank, I'm looking to play a tank character - my job is to take a beating, block it with a shield, absorb it with my shield, that kind of thing. I should be a turtle with a bullseye on my shell. Healing? That's a job for the wimpy mage or doctor behind me. Doing damage? That's a job for the wimpy mage or sneaky bastard to do while I'm getting pummeled.

Now, I think all the "tanks need to do more damage!" stuff is coming in from PvP standpoints. I hear they're useless in a PvP match on their own. I don't PvP much, so I have no idea. My suggestion, from an outsider's point of view, though? Hop on a Vent or something, go PvPing with some friends you know, and run as a mini-party. Have a healer, have a DPS, and stroll around like the Three Musketeers - the Tank becomes the focus of the attacking player while the Healer keeps them juiced and the DPS takes out the guy attacking the tank before anyone knows what hit them. It's not ideal, but it solves the whole "we need more gear options / dual-spec / rebalancing!" issue with stuff that pretty much exists in-game already (well, aside from the Vent thing.)

Just my thoughts on it. I think "doubling up" on crit and surge stat boons would imbalance things horrendously, and you'd start getting Guardians rolling on obviously Sentinel-specced gear.

I don't think it's gear at all, except maybe to the extent that this game is so gear dependent. But that's true of the other specs as well.