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Tank or Healer which is harder?


Dabrixmgp

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Just reinstalled and resubbed and plan on rerolling to a new server. I just cant decide between either Tank or Healer. I havent found many encounter guides so Im kinda skeptical about rolling a tank. At least with a healer I dont have to worry about mob positioning, interrupts, and having to use CDs at the right moment to avoid big hits. But like I said I cant find many encounter guides so I wont know when to use CDs or how to position mobs especially once I start doing raids. I have played healers and Tanks in both WoW and Rift but there were plenty of encounter guides for both games, especially WoW so I actually found tanking very easy as I at least had some knowledge of every encounter even before attempting them. Or are encounters so easy in this game the reason there are no guides is because they arent needed? If I go with a tank will probably be a Powertech. Still trying to decide on my healer but leaning towards Operative over a Sorcerer since I already played through the SI storyline before on my Assassin.

 

Also Do both of them get pretty fast queue times while leveling and also once I hit 50? I have no friends or guild so will only be using the LFG tool for all my groups.

Edited by Dabrixmgp
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In this game, I tend to not heal if I get a choice between heals or tanking. In PVP, as soon as you heal, people will mark you, thus having everyone on their side make you a priority target. Not good.

 

 

Tank is nice. If you go for a tank, I suggest you do a Powertech(advanced class of a Bounty Hunter). My next choice would be a Juggernaut(advanced class of a Sith Warrior). Inquisitor/Agents just aren't built for tanking.

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In this game, I tend to not heal if I get a choice between heals or tanking. In PVP, as soon as you heal, people will mark you, thus having everyone on their side make you a priority target. Not good.

 

Personally, I prefer to tank over healing which I then prefer to DPSing, but that's because I find DPS to be incredibly boring (using the same simple rotation as you slowly mow through targets and sometimes using a threat drop when/if you get aggro). Healing is slightly more interesting because it's not just the same constantly blasting into targets, though it vacillates between incredibly aggravating (when the tank can't hold aggro and everyone is taking damage all the time) and horribly boring (when the tank and DPS execute perfectly, interrupting everything and never standing in bad stuff) with the occasional sweet spot right in the middle (high enough incoming damage to require you to pay attention but not so much that it's impossible or annoying to keep up). Tank is always interesting because, at worst, it's just like DPS with the added complexity/interest of having to pay attention to survivability CDs (tank + spank fights) and, at best, it's about watching a lot of targets while paying attention to your survivability while not standing in bad stuff and making sure the DPS can avoid standing in bad stuff while still blowing up other stuff while beating on said targets to maintain threat while watching survivability abilities to minimize incoming damage.

 

Of course, if you do a lot of PvP, it's entirely different. Healing is great in an organized PvP group where you'll actually have other people peeling off the others doing their damnedest to focus fire you dead. In a random group, it's going to suck because no on will peel off of you and you'll just spend a lot of time dead and getting wailed on by the other group while your teammates just stare on. Tanking is... less than interesting... in PvP because tank survivability contributions are questionable at best compared to the reduction in damage and the only real utility you're providing is Guard (since tank capable DPS can throw out Taunt).

 

Inquisitor/Agents just aren't built for tanking.

 

Agents don't *have* a tank spec, so it's right to say that they're not built for tanking, but Inquisitors via Assassins do and it is *amazing* for tanking: great threat, great mitigation, great damage. My main is a Shadow and is always getting compliments concerning my performance so the suggestion that I'm "not built for tanking" is a bit insulting.

 

Which tank class you want to play depends largely upon what you want to do and how complex you want it to be.

 

For PvE, VG/PTs are incredibly simple to play but don't offer much in the way of growth and improvement in performance based on skill; Guardians are the hardest to learn to play and have well known problems with threat generation and damage, but turn into admirable tanks when played properly; Shadows have a middling level of skill required to learn to play them, require a *lot* of attention to fight mechanics and buffs, and have a lot of room for growth and improvement in performance as you learn more about the class and how and when to use certain abilities.

 

For PvP, VGs have decent control but less in the way of utility so that they're not really popular; Shadows are squishy since a large amount of player damage circumvents the def/shield/absorb they rely on to achieve tank survivability so they're generally seen running around in a hybrid tank spec with DPS gear on to capitalize on their utility, passive survivability, and damage capabilities; Guardians are highly mobile (Force Leap and Guardian Leap) and have a *lot* of utility (slows, stuns, debuffs, push) that makes them great for contributing in the non-damage media that PvP capitalizes on.

 

Purely in the abstract, I would have to say that healing is easier: you watch the bars, cleanse debuffs, and keep your group alive and there isn't much variation from there whereas tanking requires a lot more situational awareness and ability to control targets and plan ahead. Of course, there is a lot of variation within those roles: it's harder to play Commando heals (the hardest heal class to play effectively thanks to an unforgiving resource system and the use of multiple medium-long CDs to heal optimally) than it is to play a VG tank (watch your ammo while keeping 3 abilities on CD and spamming Hammer Shot otherwise). A lot of it depends upon your actual experience with the roles themselves: someone that has tanked in other games is going to find tanking easier because they're just learning the mechanics, not the role itself. If you're coming from neither, then healing is probably the easiest because it doesn't change much from one fight to the next. Tanking can vary greatly.

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Are any encounters hard? I remember chain vote kicking tanks in WoW because they didnt know encounters or couldnt hold threat. Once we ran out of vote kicks, as a healer, I just left the group. Once I hit 50 are FPs pretty easy to tank if going P-tech? What about when I move into raids? I wont know encounters at all because before I quit I mostly PvPed and this was also before LFG was added so during the 3 months I played I think I did like 3 FPs TOTAL.
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I main as a tank (Guardian) and alt as a healer (Scoundrel) and I think it really depends on WHICH spec you play and what kind of groups you end up in. I don't tank PUGs anymore after one too many bad experiences but I love to tank with my guild who actually uses CC and follows a kill order. I'll PUG on my healer still (subject to change!).

 

Personally, I don't think either is "hard", just a matter of preference. Not sure I agree with you that the healer doesn't worry about mob placement, interrupts, etc either. I spend a lot of time watching where friendlies and enemies alike are standing, where I'm standing, and I've been interrupting more than my DPS lately and sometimes more than the tank....

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I had been tanking on a Jugg for the past few months. No raid level, just pugging and with friends. I Enjoy the play style more so than the PT or Assn, but I felt I lack one or two tools to feel complete. I had been playing Empire since release and was finally getting around to finishing up my PT(46) and Assn (43) so I could have a complete feeling for all the tank classes.

 

I found a good guild who's raid times I can follow and when asked what role they would like me to play, they asked for a Shadow Tank. So.... at lvl29 now after 2 weeks which is good for me since I can't play that much, but I'm excited to get tanking at the raid level. While I don't enjoy the Shadow play style as much as the Jugg, it feels more equipped to completely handle situations than a Jugg.

 

Bottom line, while I know all tanks can tank everything, PT felt a little slower to me, Jugg felt just right playstyle wise, just lacked a tool or two (i felt), and the Shadow feels good.

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I've played both in various MMOs and really don't like tanking. Every time I've tried to play a tank I've ended up getting my *** kicked because no one would heal me and there I was ducking and covering and trying not to get killed while getting no healing. So I decided to roll a healer which I've also found to be frustrating at times. You always have THAT guy who wants to play Rambo and run off and attack random mobs. He gets the crap kicked out of him and blames you because you're hanging around with the rest of the group healing them. And you also get blamed every time there's a group wipe. Yes, the two DPS guys dragged two Elites into the fight where you were already fighting an elite, but it's your fault you got wiped. Ugh. Neither roll is particularly fun IMO.
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I prefer healing personally. I feel that when I'm tanking too many variables are left in the healers hand, and I don't like like having to rely on someone else to keep me up, or having so little control. xD I mean realistically you can get through most hm fps without a proper tank, it's a lot harder without a proper healer.

 

Tanking you tend to really need to know the fight mechanics though. I find when I'm healing I only know the basics (like when to cleanse , and don't stand here) and have an idea of the flow of the fight (when will there be a lot of aoe damage, when will I focus heal, is the tank going to take heavy but spaced out damage, or more consistent damage,etc), but know very little about the fight details unless it effects my job. I do find that healers need to be more aware of the abilities of other healing classes when doing ops however. Kinda helps avoid panic when a sage healer is regenerating force for instance.

 

Tanks really control the flow of the group too. They really decide if there is a wait between pulls or if we just plow right through everything. The rest of the group is kinda just along for the ride.

 

From my own experience tanking seems to rely more on following a solid rotation. whereas healing is a little more situational. This could have a lot to do with what classes I'm playing though, so I don't really know.

 

In the end I think that it depends on your personal preference. I have an Assassin tank and a Scoundrel healer. When I tank, I tend to get really stressed out, whereas when my boyfriend tanks he is normally watching a movie on a second monitor. Little punk...

 

Also, what are you talking about?! Agents are absolutely built for tanking! I do it on my scoundrel all the time! Drives our guild vanguard nuts for whatever reason...:rolleyes:

Edited by Fiamma_Verde
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