Anyone else ever have "Tanking-nerves"?

[GotMoxie]

I get tanking nerves when I first start tanking after a long break, but eventually find my groove. The nerves come back if we wipe, even because of someone else's mistake, but they disappear when we complete a dungeon successfully. Like someone on the first page said, "Queueing as a tank is putting myself in a position where I feel directly responsible for the experience of four other people, and that's paralyzing for me." I still do it, though, because I love to tank as a change from ranged DPSing.

[Deleted]

Nerves goes away with time. You learn your own limitations and to use your ability's at the right time and learn to judge what you can do with each new group you enter.

Don't follow the advice some people here gives you about letting people die. Always do your best to grab adds hold aggro even if people pull more groups take it like just another challenge to test your own skills. Let me assure you are the only person in the group that thinks your cool when you stop tanking. It causes unnecessary drama, and using excuses like "but it makes my job harder" is only viable if your not good at your job to begin with, and most people that use this argument could easily handle the situation they just like to be in a dominating position and generally like the drama and have people kicked from the group.

If you get a group with a ninja puller and you do your best i promise it will be noticed by the 3 other members of the group that didn't do the pulling, and if the group happens to wipe at some point because of this you will never be the bad guy in this situation. People need to give more credit to the other members of the group, I have seen a ninja puller get kicked from a group plenty of times because he caused a wipe and then whined about the tank being bad.

Bad behavior and drama is what ticks most people off and if you stop doing your job (tanking) to spite the dps the other group members will most often agree with the puller that you are a bad tank, if you try your best they will kick the retarded dps since they all very well know he was doing things outside his role and making your job more difficult, they just don't care what he was doing as long as it works out decently.

[tennesseej]

I am gonna go against the grain a bit here and propose an idea. I think there are 3 types of people:

1) People who can't tank
2) People who can tank
3) People who are tanks

I think you are #2 on this list. You are a smart player, and you are more than capable of tanking, but it isn't quite natural to you. You have to think the entire time you are tanking, which causes some stress. It doesn't mean you couldn't be the best tank in the world, and it doesn't mean you are a bad tank (it sounds like you are pretty good actually) it just means tanking isn't your natural role.

People who are #1 are the people that just don't get tanking. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but for some reason the idea behind tanking just doesn't work for them so they stay away from it.

People who are #3, are the people who are uncomfortable when they are not tanking. These are the people who are mediocre healers and mediocre DPS, but their instincts are naturally tank driven, so they don't have to think as hard when they tank (but they do need to think when healing/DPSing). You can tell a #3 because they aren't the tank who brags about topping meters. In fact, they could care less about their own performance, as long as everyone survived. They consider their job complete when everyone else is able to do their job to the fullest extent.

Unfortunately this game requires more tanks than people who are naturally type 3, but thankfully there are people like the OP who are giving tanking a try and can definitely excel at the role.

[Airwaves]

I have the same problem but with healing. I used to main tank a heroic 25 guild stress free. When it comes to healing just a 5man i stress out. Nobody ever dies unless its all there fault even then i can heal most stuff like that. Yet i still feel on edge.

[theWocky]

Don't let it get to you. While it is human nature (for some), to not let people down, it's no big deal if you do.
Certainly don't bother what people think of you in an mmo.

Heck, I've been playing mmo's for years and my skill levels in dungeons/raids and games in general seem to be on the decline.

I kept making screw-ups the other night - I blame it on being tired - in a dungeon and got kicked. I wasn't rude, I was just not focused. Just have fun. Don't let people get to you. There are more important things in life than worrying about your performance in an mmo.

[dokilar]

i was a tad nervous the first time i tanked because it was a role that i had absolutely no experience at and i knew that it was something that was essential to a group. in a lot of scenarios if the tank dies the group fails so there was a bit of self pressure i put on myself. however i have been part of a group of guys and gals that ive played games with for nearly 10 years, we play a whole boatload of games and are extremely helpful and friendly to one another and never take the video game so seriously that it becomes a 2nd job. so that helped quite a bit that people were just happy we were able to do some of the end game content.

i like you dont consider myself a pro, but i do do some research about the class i play and how the mechanics work a little bit and overall find myself to be pretty good at just about anything i do so once i got the hang of it it became second nature. i started tanking in wrath and by the end of it i had become our little guilds main tank. this has carried on into every other game we play/played. if theres a tank class i generally end up playing it

[SturdyGamer]

It's weird, but back when I was new and a terrible player I was very rarely nervous about either tanking or healing. Now that I'm more experienced, though, I much prefer to devote myself to playing my warlock and thus focusing on fulfilling a DPS role. Whenever I've tried to tank or heal on any of my alts, I just end up getting frustrated and nervous even when I know I'm performing adequately.

[Lemp]

Only thing I was ever worried about was Dcing lol

[teddytous]

I would suggest the following. Sign up for a random, keep doing it until you find a real group of "winner"(read assholes).

Then - fail. Do you worst, lose agro, grab extra groups, stand in the fire, dont try and wipe but try and be as bad as you can without wiping.
The group will swear at you, some will leave, mighta try and vote kick ya(try and do it in a group where they already kicked someone so they cant!)
Congratulations! Your worst fears have happened, and everything still fine. The roof didn't collapse, they end did not come. Go do another knowing, you are better then that - that being the bad tanks out there.

OR if your an Upper ego person, tank reg Jade serpent a few times and just face roll the shit out of it. Pull like you own the place and do(because you will).

Personally I've never gotten stressed, I've tanked 40s, 25s, 10s, AVs, randoms, LFG, LFR - guild groups, pugs, DKP runs. I can tell you with a certainty 2 things - no matter how bad you are, if your trying, you won't be as bad as "the bad", you know the ones I mean. The ones who get a reputation. If you try and fail, then your just another guy, they won't remember you(if you even see them again) and you can try again until you succeed. And #2 above all else remember that this is a game - and games are supposed to be fun.

Heck, I've been playing mmo's for years and my skill levels in dungeons/raids and games in general seem to be on the decline.

I attest to this sir! I remember playing MMOs that didn't have instanced dungeons, and it was a 1 1/2 hour trip into the dungeon just to get to the mobs you wanted. And that's assuming you didn't run into that other guild/clan that wanted to KOS you haha.... "Now come on folks, we all just spent alot of time getting down here, we are all tired lets not do anything ....." *A DORF USED STUNNING BLOW AND ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE* people dying, running, Toms pants are on the floor!!!! , giant packs of mobs get pulled, both clans wipe.... oh good times.....
**edit you were talking about personal skill on the decline, not dungeon difficulty, my bad