OK this is getting rather silly regarding hard mode Flashpoint GF

This old chestnut again? Nothing like flogging a dead horse.

Tanks dont queue for several reasons, all of which have been illustrated here.

1. DPS are (on average) functionally retarded.

2. Tanks are held responsible for the groups success/failure regardless of their culpability.

3. Tanking comm gear is terrible beyond belief.

Tanking in a good group is like conducting a wonderful symphony, taning in a bad group is like getting your dick caught in a wringer.

Incentives beyond terrible comm gear is the base minimum that needs to be done, but there will still be plenty who queue in guild groups and get the rewards anyway without ever helping out any more pugs than they do now.

And if the OP spent 8 hrs in GF as a healer with only 2 pops he's on a lot of ignore lists or playing at perverse hours.

Correction, no tank wants to pug hm's cause the average dps player is a total moron who doesn't care about the resource level of healers nor the hp bars of tanks and just starts pulling without a word, then starts raging in caps when he dies.

It's simply not worth the headache of dealing with those "people".

Jeez... I don't know how much bad PUG's you met, folks. But its obvious that people crying "i will never gonna tank in pugs EVAR!!!!" is sound like a complete drama queen.
Yes, i meet bad players. Damn, i was kicked from PUG becouse i was wearing light armor on my tank (yeah... Sin/shadow).
But im never gonna say "PUGS sucks. I quit tanking".
Becouse i love to be tank

I have a jugg and shadow tank on Harbinger and those aren't the 'facts' I'm seeing.

I queue for level 55 HM FP's pretty much daily with my 3 55s. I have a operative healer and a jugg and shadow tank (shadow also has dps gear, jugg doesn't)

I queue as both tank and dps on my shadow. Within the last week I've actually got in twice as dps - meaning the tank was waiting on the pop. And before I got my shadows tanking gear, I queued only as dps - daily. And I never had to wait more than an hour. And the hour wait was rare, usually faster than that. There were times I got a queue pop within a minute of queuing.

My jugg tank often has to wait for the queue to pop. Usually it's waiting on a healer. But a few times recently the queue popped, a dps declined, and went back to waiting. It was never that long of a wait on the healer, so I'm not complaining. But saying there are no tanks queuing for level 55 HM FP's on Harbinger is just wrong.

I will agree 'usually' there are more dps queuing then tanks. But it's not always the case since I've get dps pops on my shadow.

I love tanking too. I just don't tank using GF. I tank for my guild or I tank for friends. I don't tank for pugs. Just like most people said in this thread. So where is the drama?

All the more power to you. I however don't *need* to pug to tank hm's, so why on earth would I? And you should prollie think of it from the perspective of newcomers a well. How many atrocious pugs do you think they are going to bother running before they simply give up? For a new player, it's hard to jump into them if they are insecure about the tactics and eiquette, then to have some retarded muppet scream at them? Why would anyone subject themselves to that? They either respec to dps or simply reroll. It simply isn't worth it to most players, and I can safely say "most" due to the time it takes to get a tank for a pug hm on average.

Well, there's a point in your words.

I never said, and I'm pretty most of the tanks in this thread never said "PUGS sucks. I quit tanking". (sic)

We never quit tanking, we just choose not to have to deal with the idiots in GF. And really why should we have to, once you get known as a good tank on your server, you pretty much have to beat people off with a stick otherwise that's all you would do is HM FPs. Why queue when you can get invited by good DPS and good healers that make runs take less than an hour?

As someone else mentioned above, tanks have the highest repair bills in the game, because all our gear is taking damage even if we don't die, whereas for a dps or heals, most of the damage inflicted is just on a weapon or offhand. Why should I subsidize people who can't respect the way I want to do a pull, when I'm the one footing the biggest bill? Why should I be the one to suffer the personal degradation and insults from people that can't own up to mistakes they make?

Sorry Jesus died 2000 years ago, and I think even he would have issues with some of the people in GF. I am not more saintly than Jesus, so please stop asking me to be.

That is what I was thinking. I play mostly healers & the only time I have had an extended wait is when I come home drunk at 3 in the morning & decide that what I really need to do is heal a HM somewhere. Other than that it's usually 15-20 mins or less & I generally play a few hours behind peak times.

I didn't read all the entries so if I rehash anything, My BAD.

These are my opinions and you may agree and you may not, IT"S ALL GOOD.

The problem is, their is no main reason as to why their is shortage of Tanks rather, it'a a bunch of smaller problems (and matters of opinion of course) that are compounding on top of each other and thus amplifying the problem.

Bad Tanks - Yes, their are bad tanks (that's inevitable) but, their are also primadonna that are simply so arrogant it's unreal.

The Tanking Role itself - While this is a matter of opinion, most people I meet in Swtor don't relish the Idea of being a PUNCHING BAG! It's not the mechanics as much as the abilities and the lack of excitement (nothing exciting about being a punching bag).

Tank "ShellShock" - This is when a good Tank keeps getting grouped with Cr@p Players. over the long term this has a horrible effect and the Tank will begin to ask himself "WTH am I even doing here besides amassing a crazy repair build, F-This I'm gonna go find a guild"

Bad Healers - I hate to say this but your Tank is only as good as your healer and if you have a bad healer, YOUR SCREWED! Even the best tanks need to be able to rely on their healer from time to time for big heals, clensing or possibly a battle revive. If your grouped up with a bad healer the 1st person to leave will be the Tank and for good reason too.

Bad DPS - Just like bad Tanks this is inevitable. I think I can pretty much assume we all know how badly a poor DPS player can be and the many ways they can screw up an FP. Let move on.

Some General issues :

Tunnel Vission : I'm not sure why but this happens alot but, it happens with all classes. You get fixated on one dude and your not paying attention to anything else and I consider this to be one of the dumbest thing you can do in this game.

Swtor's learning Curve - It's a steep learning curve, especially if this is your 1st MMO. Bioware does very little in the way of providing newb's with understanding of the classes, abilities, navigation, ect (Diablo 3 has a better game guide on their website and thats just sad)

Less People Playing Swtor - I'm sure this could be debated in one way or another but, I started playing this game almost 2 years ago and since then I have seen a substantial drop in the population. Thier just are not as many people playing swtor as their was before