Just wondering why there are so few tanks in the que ?

Because being a tank means I can't have a healing spec.

 

I'm not being crass... that's really why I don't log my tanks in. I love tanking, but I like healing slightly more, so I'd rather gear my healers.

 

For most other people I think it's one of 2 things:

• Gearing a tank means sacrificing big shiny stats like Crit and Surge for boring stats like Absorb and Shield. For tanks who love tanking, defensive stats are awesome. But for most people, they're disappointing compared to bigger damage numbers.
  
• Playing a tank places a lot of awareness pressure on you. You need to watch all the mobs, plan pulls, keep the healer protected and generally be alert and vigilant. If you zone out and tunnel 1 mob, aggro goes all over and people get very mad at you. So, tanking is viewed as stressful by a lot of people I think.
  

 

And also, only 3 ACs out of 8 can do the Tank role.

• For Knights/Warriors, most new players choose the dual-wielder that can't tank because TWO LIGHTSABERS.
• For BH/Trooper, people tend to choose the non-tank ranged AC because the class feels more natural shooting things from range, and also TWO PISTOLS or GIANT GUN.
  
• For Inquisitor/Consular, again, people tend to choose the non-tank spellcaster AC because it's a very appealing class and your first 10 levels are spent using a lot of caster abilities that endear you to that role.
  

So I think there's also just a shortage of capable classes, on top of a shortage of interested players. The tank-capable ACs tend to be the less shiny, exciting ones to new players.

 

I love it, though. Really fun job imo.

Edited May 6, 2013 by SW_display_name

I actually quite like being a tank, with quinn around my SW is taking down elites that out levels him by 4 levels. The only other classes that match it in survivability are the healer/DPS types.

I'm more of a support guy myself. The tank may not be the leader of the group all the time, but he is still the one who controls the tempo during battle, it's a bit responsibility. A good tank during a FP run makes it a thing of beauty. A bad one can make the run a living hell.

 

I just prefer heals when it comes down to it.

I roll DPS specs on my tank classes. Problem? /trollface

 

On a more serious note, there are plenty of tanks - it's just that most of them just run with their guilds. Pugging as a tank is about as thankless and stressful as pugging as a healer. You have the responsibility to lead without any real (besides votekick) tools to keep tools (pun intended) in line, you must know the instance well, you must maintain constant awareness of the entire fight and patrols, you have to be precise with taunts, etc.

As a tank i dont have to rely on others too much - however strange it may sound. And i love it.

 

I control the battle, i control the mobs and unless my dpsers are complete losers (which sadly happens too often in random ques) or healer is in tank gear (yep, happens to sorcs mostly - havent seen a merc tank geared, but at least 2 sorcs in absorb/defence gear) i know that if i do my job then the run will be smooth joyful.

 

For the last 2-3 days i've been playing my OP and changed roles from heal to dps all the time, and it ensured me that i should tank as often as possible, becouse i have much lesser impact on the smoothness of the run.

 

As a healer i get annoyed alot by tank and dpsers all attack 3 different targets, tanks not holding aggro and not using taunts and dps in general being DERP. Its not that bad becouse i can at least keep them all alive and it just takes a little bit longer but we manage. Unless they all go full herp-derp, then its simply a fail. The downside of being a healer is if the team is good - you are bored if they are bad at least you got some work

 

As a dps i was reaaaally disappointed... it felt GREAT to go and melt things down with my toxins and cull (i sooo love operative lethality gameplay) but it was great only as long as you have a decent team, or at least a decent tank. If both tank and healer suck, then just leave and wait for another hour for a FP pop-up...

 

So i decided never to go as DPS unless i know the team im going with (im more of a casual player, i simply dont have time for a hardcore endgame guild due to job etc) but its sooo hard to get one with group finder.

 

As a tank? What you really need is simply a "not-bad" healer. Rest is mostly up to you.

 

Back to the point - if you know that you can count on yourself to do your job, then go tank - its fun, its rewarding and you have the biggest impact on how the FP goes.

[*]For BH/Trooper, people tend to choose the non-tank ranged AC because the class feels more natural shooting things from range, and also TWO PISTOLS or GIANT GUN.

 

Oh I love you.

Someone agrees with me.

 

My main is a commando just because of that, the range thing. It's critical to me, after all, a soldier firing a heavy caliber rifle only 10 mt (for special and most used abilities, since most people don't use hammer shot all the time) away from the enemy? I mean, c'mon...

 

I also have a dps vanguard and I loved him when the range for special abilities were 30 mt, I really felt like a ****** soldier. Now he is pretty much left aside.

 

If only commandos could get an over-sized rifle or something like a machine-gun, like a M240B, instead of a cannon!

 

But I do use a rifle, mostly for dailies and HM flashpoints, but NEVER for Operations.

Edited May 6, 2013 by Haggardbr

I enjoy tanking. I enjoy requiring awareness, and planning things out in the moment, as well as leading a group.

 

What I dislike, and therefore what makes me not want to queue as a tank, are the people that place no respect in other group members. Things like pulling stuff I was never intending to pull, arrogance in group chat when I kindly give someone a pointer on how to do something better, and just all-around disregard for the job a tank actually does.

 

In my opinion it's not the game that causes a tank shortage, it's the bad dps / healers that tanks just don't want to deal with that causes it. That and I would say a large amount of people want no responsibility / accountability in a group setting and would rather just relax and dps, which is perfectly fine - that's their prerogative.

Edited May 6, 2013 by CyberTronX

What I dislike, and therefore what makes me not want to queue as a tank, are the people that place no respect in other group members. Things like pulling stuff I was never intending to pull, arrogance in group chat when I kindly give someone a pointer on how to do something better, and just all-around disregard for the job a tank actually does.

 

This pretty much sums it all.

 

I used to tank with the vanguard I mentioned above, because I did want tank before respec'ing him to dps... but I noticed that there are so many "trigger fingers" dps out there that just don't wait the tank to pull or say something in chat prior to the fights.

 

Once I ran a 50 HM with a sentinel that always pulled an entire group of mobs before I jump in, so what did I do? The more he kept doing that, the more I went to attack a completely different group and the other dps and healer kept giving me assistance and so this sentinel died several times in the same HM, then I just pulled the other group and finished what the sentinel couldn't do.

 

When we reached the last boss I told the sentinel to pull if he was so impatient about finishing a flashpoint and he told me to do it, so I thanked and told him to be more patient.

I like playing my tank, cause it's p*ss easy

I enjoy tanking. I enjoy requiring awareness, and planning things out in the moment, as well as leading a group.

 

What I dislike, and therefore what makes me not want to queue as a tank, are the people that place no respect in other group members. Things like pulling stuff I was never intending to pull, arrogance in group chat when I kindly give someone a pointer on how to do something better, and just all-around disregard for the job a tank actually does.

 

In my opinion it's not the game that causes a tank shortage, it's the bad dps / healers that tanks just don't want to deal with that causes it. That and I would say a large amount of people want no responsibility / accountability in a group setting and would rather just relax and dps, which is perfectly fine - that's their prerogative.

 

I've met tanks who went arrogant when I politely explained them what they could do better. So it's not problem of the other roles.

• Playing a tank places a lot of awareness pressure on you. You need to watch all the mobs, plan pulls, keep the healer protected and generally be alert and vigilant. If you zone out and tunnel 1 mob, aggro goes all over and people get very mad at you. So, tanking is viewed as stressful by a lot of people I think.
  

This.

 

Also, ive found a tank to be rather boring if everything goes smoothly, the same as with a healer who more often than not starts dpsing to pass the time, but if everything goes right for the dps, they start chaining up some attacks and their dps goes off the charts. It seems a good run depends on tanks and healers being bored while the dps have all the fun.

Just wondering why there are so few tanks in the que ?

 

for me personally the only reason i don't go tank is because i don't want to suck *** and be the reason for fail groups

You probably dont find tanks because tanks get tired of hearing **** about not keeping aggro or sucking... then they go do the same flashpoint with their guild without a hiccup.

Just wondering why there are so few tanks in the que ?

 

1) Highest skill floor to be effective. A half-braindead monkey can heal or DPS passably (not well) in this game. A half-braindead monkey cannot tank.

 

2) Most pressure... mistakes are always your fault, but you're just one small piece of success, at least in the eyes of the average player.

 

3) Competence taken for granted... if you're bad, people complain incesantly; if you're good, no one says anything, or you might get a token acknowledgement. Tanking skill is rarely acknowledged unless you're drastically above average.

 

4) No opportunity for Big Number Syndrome. You don't get big hits or big heals. People like BNS.

 

5) Have to pay attention the entire time. Can't zone out or watch funny videos on YouTube whilst tanking and still be effective.

Just wondering why there are so few tanks in the que ?

 

nobody wants being constantly beaten!

 

tank is less fun (some say it), more claiming, more responsible - any wipe blame tank!

and it is not fun at all for solo playing - where DPS is 'musthave'

and as a tank you need have 2 sets of gear!

 

beside, overgeared DPS can run through hm flash even not bothering where "that noob tank" stick

 

have some tanks as alts and learning that way now

but i prefer healing and dps-ing

I play for flavor. I love agile/acrobatic & stealthy characters, I like melee, and I also like some degree of spirituality in a character. The Jedi Shadow is the perfect class for me. (Technically Assassin is more my style, but I hate playing Empire.)

 

I tank because I love having the enemies' attention on me. I love being the main character; the star of the show; the protagonist that the enemy will say, "I'll get you for this!" toward.

 

It can be hard as hell sometimes. And thankless. But it's oh-so-fun.

1) Highest skill floor to be effective. A half-braindead monkey can heal or DPS passably (not well) in this game. A half-braindead monkey cannot tank.

 

2) Most pressure... mistakes are always your fault, but you're just one small piece of success, at least in the eyes of the average player.

 

3) Competence taken for granted... if you're bad, people complain incesantly; if you're good, no one says anything, or you might get a token acknowledgement. Tanking skill is rarely acknowledged unless you're drastically above average.

 

4) No opportunity for Big Number Syndrome. You don't get big hits or big heals. People like BNS.

 

5) Have to pay attention the entire time. Can't zone out or watch funny videos on YouTube whilst tanking and still be effective.

 

All of this. I have a tank and I'm too lazy to play him.

Personally I don't like tanking because of how weak they have been and still are in pvp. Things have improved with crit nerfs and shield buffs but still they are not what I was used to in warhammer online. Which is an extremely durable class able to solo anything other than a caster-healer type only in the event that "anything" decided to stick around long enough for the fight to run its course due to the tanks' pathetic dps. Edited May 7, 2013 by Aelaias

tank is by far the easiest spec for level up and solo content.

Why people don't like to play tanks? beyond me.

Just wondering why there are so few tanks in the que ?

Time.

 

I have one of each tank class, just don't have the time to play them.

Vanguard lv50 (doesn't have operation gear yet, hit 50 after 2.0, didn't get free tionese)

Juggernaut almost 50

Assassin almost 30

Guardian in 30s

Shadow almost 30

Powertech 30s (experimented with dps builds before 2.0; haven't touched him since 2.0)

 

Otherwise, I love playing a tank. I set the pace of the flashpoint. I can speed up or slow down as needed.

Don't have to deal with divas, tank hissy fits, or undergeared tanks.

Edited May 7, 2013 by Falensawino

I tank on all 3 ACs but only have done it extensively on my Shadow. I prefer tanking and I can get all of my dailies/weeklies done on one day if I choose to. Usually that leaves me time to focus on my healers or dps the rest of the week so the only reason I would tank is if it is an Ops run or to help guildies. Really, after that the only reason to join a FP on my tank is to get better geared from drops (which is random) or comms.

I came from tanking in WoW, and that was pretty much all i did for about 4-5 years. Did a lot of endgame raiding when the first and second expacs hit. But then i played SWTOR when it first came out and a lot of the mechanics just feel clunky. Even vanilla WoW had a better tanking feel to it then SWTOR does now. Of course back then tanks had a smaller toolkit when compared to todays games hehe (wait for 3 sunders!!!). But current WoW has just as much ability/skill bloat as SWTOR does.

I love my tank, but I will not pug ever.

I rarely do random groups with tank type characters in MMOs because I'm expected to know all of the content ahead of time and lead the group. My only character right now is a Guardian, I don't know the instances. I'm not going to interrupt my gaming time to watch a video or read a guide. And to top it all off, I've noticed that a lot of the players here seem to do the same thing I had to deal with in WoW, where I'm expected to tell everyone else what mobs they should CC. I'm still trying to learn my class, I'm not going to deal with playing everyone else's character for them too. Even when I tell them I'm new and I have literally no idea what other classes can do, I have to mark or there'll be no CC. Then I mark things and get "but I can only CC droids, why'd you assign me to a non droid omg."

 

No thanks.