DPSing versus tanking

[Deleted]

Hi, so as of late I've been wondering about two things regarding the differences in tanking and dpsing, both in terms of playstyle (haven't played dps since I played a warlock in sunwell, which was relatively simple) and numbers.

1 - Which one is hardest? I play the main tank in my guild which I find super easy (even when I'm the one making all the calls and checking timers), but apparently DPS is supposed to be way harder, and I've been considering switching because of this. Thoughts?

2 - How are your numbers supposed to compare? I'm currently doing the most damage of anyone in my guild on bosses like Imperial Vizier (82-84k dps), but obviously way lower on bosses where I don't have vengeance half the time (like Blade lord, where I'm doing 60k-50k depending on how long our phase 2 lasts

[Darsithis]

There is no easiest or hardest role. Each encounter uses the roles differently. Some are a breeze to heal, and others place the onus of succeeding on the healers. Some are strictly tank fights and the DPS can sit back and pew pew, and others require the DPS to make most of the moves. It's not really fair to specify any of the roles as the hardest. I've been all 3 in 25 man raid environments.

Tanks will deal a lot of damage, but not a lot of burst. All depends on vengeance. On some bosses you will do more overall damage (I remember blood DK's on Ultraxion!) and on others you just can't match them. Plus, add switching has an effect on dps for dps'ers, especially those who require DoTs to ramp up or sustain damage.

[Temp name]

1:
Depends on you. Some people just can't handle the DPS playstyles and will find it hard as a result, some the opposite.

2:
I'm sitting at between 3rd and 6th (depending on the encounter) as a Blood DK (Not counting Wind Lord, for reasons on ZOMG VENGEANCE)

Dars if you thought Ultraxion was fun, wait till you get to Wind Lord, especially if you solo tank it. On my best attempts I'm sitting at 250k+ dps at the end of p1.

[Reyzzz]

1 - In my opinion, choosing a role isn't about difficulty, it's about preferred playstyle. I've noticed that roles are based on 2 types:

Tanking - proactive
Healing - reactive
DPS - mix of both depending on situation

Generally, my personality fits with proactivity, thus I've ended up liking tanking (most of my time in wow, really) but occasionally I have also been dpsing, but I rarely have been into healing. I have a healer char atm, but it's not very interesting or fulfilling role to me. To each their own I guess.

2 - Tank dps depends hugely on your class and the encounter itself, generally I guess tank dps should be 0.75% of a regular dps class. Beating the enrage is up to your dps classes, not the tank no matter what your dps as a tank is.

Just my 2 cents.

[Scummer]

While I can't really say anything about the second I'll give the first one a go.

Both are pretty much equal in terms of difficulty, although there are only two immediate differences I can think that might in certain situations make one harder.

For starters generally speaking a DPS has to manage his rotation/priority order more efficiently than a tank as if a tank doesn't perform his rotation at 100% then really it isn't a huge loss even with active mitigation in effect whereas getting the most out of your rotation is vital for DPS especially during burn phases or Patchwerk encounters.
Tanks are usually expected to manage usually 1-2 more boss mechanics than DPS'ers in some fights where they will have to look out for raid damage abilities in the same way a DPS'er would however they may have to manage their own mechanics such as taunting and pulling bosses to certain locations at certain times.

However both of those examples vary on encounter to encounter and from class to class, but generally that's how I feel the two stack up to each other.

The only other thing to look out for with tanking is that you have the weight of the raid on your shoulders, if you muck up a mechanic then chances are you entire raid will suffer or wipe whereas if a DPS'er slacks there is a chance the other DPS'ers could perhaps compensate.

[SurrealNight]

I'm sure it's all relative, if you go by the # of wipes I can blame on DPS it would indicate that is a harder role to play =) That being said I always prefer to tank and I'm usually at best mediocre when I DPS. Even with equal gear I can never seem to hit the #'s others do.

As mentioned your tank DPS will vary by encounter and how much time you spend tanking the boss and benefiting from vengeance. Also DPS will vary a lot depending on what class you are right now, DK/BrM do a lot more damage than pally/warrior.

[Deleted]

Hi, so as of late I've been wondering about two things regarding the differences in tanking and dpsing, both in terms of playstyle (haven't played dps since I played a warlock in sunwell, which was relatively simple) and numbers.

1 - Which one is hardest? I play the main tank in my guild which I find super easy (even when I'm the one making all the calls and checking timers), but apparently DPS is supposed to be way harder, and I've been considering switching because of this. Thoughts?

2 - How are your numbers supposed to compare? I'm currently doing the most damage of anyone in my guild on bosses like Imperial Vizier (82-84k dps), but obviously way lower on bosses where I don't have vengeance half the time (like Blade lord, where I'm doing 60k-50k depending on how long our phase 2 lasts

Tanking is more about controlling the fights and more often helping out with general mechanics. DPSing is more like pushing out numbers while still following mechanics, like knowing when to move and when you can stand and nuke some more. It's really depending on what you find harder, me myself switched from DPS to tank since one of the tanks left the guild and I enjoy it quite a lot. I liked DPSing as well but tanking feels more like my style. I had some good ranks at the start when I played arms (mostly 20-50 on first kills) and as it seems I do good DPS for being Prot as well since I've lately started to ranking.

Btw, Wind Lord Mel'jarak is awesome to tank as a Prot Warr, Nr 1 on DPS and HPS

[traen]

Tanking is harder, tanking requires more focus and any of your mistakes will cause a wipe. Tanking is a great responsibility. You can't go afk during trash clears, you can't be late or miss raids.

Dpsing is the easiest role out of all. You do your rotation, you move from fire. You did a mistake? Oh god, you lost your #1 place in recount. You are responsible just for your own life and you can be easily replaced.

Playing dps is usually more fun because who does not like to be on top spots on the WoL?

[Paloro]

As someone else said it varies on the fight....but I will say that it seems as though blizzard does cater fights to usually involve some sort of dps specific mechanic. This means that hardly any fight will seem "boring" for a dps.

Also, dps (unlike healing/tanking) can always be better in terms of rotation execution. Maybe I feel that way though b/c I play a DoC feral druid.

[nightfalls]

Tanking is a great responsibility. You can't go afk during trash clears, you can't be late or miss raids.

That's hardly a "great responsibility," more like a bare minimum for any non-trash guild.

[yjmark]

Tanking - proactive
Healing - reactive
DPS - mix of both depending on situation

Purely reactive healers are bad healers. All roles are both proactive and reactive. If you don't do that for your role (regardless of what it is), then you are not doing it right.

OP - tanking and DPS is apples and oranges. You can't really compare them. Just play the one you enjoy more.

[Deleted]

That's hardly a "great responsibility," more like a bare minimum for any non-trash guild.

Raid wipes with 1 bad tank, Raid doesnt notice much with 1 bad dps

[Darkwing]

Which one is hardest? I play the main tank in my guild which I find super easy (even when I'm the one making all the calls and checking timers), but apparently DPS is supposed to be way harder, and I've been considering switching because of this. Thoughts?

I haven't played since cata, but for me there is a lot in difference when it comes to class. Pala tank was super easy in Wotlk, only needed 2 marcos and a good ratoation. But in Cata i was struggeling a bit with warrior, not my style, but DK tank i find very easy.

But the dps, they are suppose to debuff mobs, interrupt, and CC. Not only nuke. I've seen very few ppl in Cata so knows how to cc. Like how many knows that a druid can dispell enrage with Sooth? And hunter can dispel with tranquil shot? Or shaman can dispel with purge? etc.
And thats do bother me, but i'm not going to make a big deal out of it. As long as the group gos well and nobody messes upp real bad, i'm fine with it.
My point is that dps have more than one role, but many gives a flying f**k about it most of the time.

[Darsithis]

Tanking is harder, tanking requires more focus and any of your mistakes will cause a wipe. Tanking is a great responsibility. You can't go afk during trash clears, you can't be late or miss raids.

Dpsing is the easiest role out of all. You do your rotation, you move from fire. You did a mistake? Oh god, you lost your #1 place in recount. You are responsible just for your own life and you can be easily replaced.

I disagree wholeheartedly with this. First, no one in your raid should be going AFK, even in trash clears, and no one should be late or missing raids. Those kind of players should be replaced. Secondly, DPS is not "do your rotation and move from fire". There are encounters that require divided or specific amounts of damage done, everyone to group up in specific arrangements to chain or otherwise split damage, and fights that specify group movements in and out of other zones in order to complete the fight successfully.

DPS are not easily replaced. The best tanks and healers in the world are nothing without the DPS to back them up and bring down the boss.

[Taoforums]

Any role, whether you like what you do or not, will not take for account its difficulty, alike real life. Doing something that you enjoy will make anything easy, with bumps on the path. There's no easy, no hard, just something that you are doing. Odds are, you will find hard things become just as easy as others claiming something else to be easy.

[Ayonel]

There are some very good answers here. I'm keeping it basic. Generally, tanking is always going to be harder and require more work because you have to pay attention and if you make too many mistakes, you cause a wipe. Dps will rarely get kicked for anything, but I've seen tanks get booted because they weren't pulling big enough or fast enough.

That said, tanking right now is pretty easy, especially if you overgear the content. I am tanking a pally and a dk ATM, the pally is easy mode unless the healer is weak or someone's pet aggros half the instance. The dk requires a little more effort and thought about cooldowns, but again, it's not too hard, dps is better than pally, and threat isn't an issue unless I have someone hammering on (60k+) a mob before I get solid aggro.

So, I might say dps is a challenge if you are trying to be at the absolute pinnacle of your class. With current content, depending on who you run with, and what you run, t could be easy, or it could be more challenging.

From my perspective as a heroic/LFR player, tanking requires some attention and effort, while dps'ing is quite easy.

[TheWindWalker]

I've done all three. I have to say that tanking is by far the hardest thing to do when you're not terribly overgeared or on a sleep-easy raid boss. Monks and Bears especially have it hard as they have to reforge into secondary stats and quite often never gem or reforge into dodge or parry meaning they rely heavily on active mitigation whereas a Warrior and Paladin have blocking and self-healing to an extent to cover some mistakes. (DKs are easy mode tanks, of course. Static dodge and parry, tons of defensive cooldowns, constant self-healing and a mastery that bubbles them for potentially their entire health. Of course, a bad tank with a Blood DK is still a bad tank and it will show very quickly.)

[PrairieChicken]

DPS is much harder.
Single mistakes in rotation will hamper your dps

For tanks it's really more of your gear than the skill
Tanks can mindlessly spam some basic rotations and they will still be mediocore
But if DPS did that they will hit the bottom of meters
And seriously getting out of fire isn't a skill at all..

Plus if you screw up with tanking healer can clean up the mess but there is no way to compensate for lost DPS

[Ayonel]

I disagree wholeheartedly with this. First, no one in your raid should be going AFK, even in trash clears, and no one should be late or missing raids. Those kind of players should be replaced. Secondly, DPS is not "do your rotation and move from fire". There are encounters that require divided or specific amounts of damage done, everyone to group up in specific arrangements to chain or otherwise split damage, and fights that specify group movements in and out of other zones in order to complete the fight successfully.

DPS are not easily replaced. The best tanks and healers in the world are nothing without the DPS to back them up and bring down the boss.

The counterpoint to your argument is that the tanks and healers have to do all this as well, so the only difference is that the dps has to execute his priority list/rotation while dancing. The tank has to stay alive, manage aggro and switches, and position the boss, the healers have to prepare for special attacks and damage phases, etc.

The point being that if the tank or healers screw up, a wipe is much more likely, and much sooner, than if a dps is slow, or dies due to a mistake.

Of course, dps is crucial to party and raid composition, and the better the dps, the faster the fight, which is good, especially if your dps are all solid. I think, and this wasn't clear in the OP's opening, there is a huge difference between what I'll call hardcore raiding and regular play. At the high end, some dps classes can be quite challenging. At regular levels of play (say off spec frost dk) you can spam three buttons and be near the top of the charts as long as your gear is ok.

[yjmark]

For tanks it's really more of your gear than the skill
Tanks can mindlessly spam some basic rotations and they will still be mediocore

In my experience, tanking has less to do with gear and rotations. It's more about control of mobs, abilities, and actively reducing large damage abilities.

And you don't think DPS can mindlessly spam a "rotation" to be mediocre? Interesting point of view.