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  1. #1

    If you think DPS is easier than Tanking or Healing...

    ...then you're probably a terrible DPS.

    Being able to "get away" with doing poorly doesn't mean DPS is easier. DPS is just as difficult as the other roles, but people are less likely to notice if you suck at DPS than if you suck at healing or tanking.

    EDIT: Okay, since everybody in this thread keeps calling me a troll or someone who hasn't played all of the roles despite the fact I responded with a long post already, let me add that post to this initial post so you guys can stop assuming things that you have no clue about.

    I never said DPS was harder than Tanking or Healing. I just said, when done properly, it's not easier. I didn't say DPS was more important than tanking or healing. You can afford to lose a DPS. You can't afford to lose the tank or healer, usually.

    As for "stroking my ego" let me state that I play all roles. My shaman, enhancement. Druid, resto/tank. Rogue, assassination. Paladin, Prot/Ret. Priest, Holy/Shadow. DK, Unholy/Blood. I'm not trying to say my job is better. I have done and DO participate in all roles. I enjoy all roles. I don't pride myself in my DPS any more than I do my healing or tanking.

    Yeah, I can go in with my rogue and use nothing by mut, snd, and envenom. I'll probably do reasonable enough DPS to where nobody will notice. Of course, I won't be sapping, kicking, gouging (as a quick interrupt when kick is on CD), using tott, and I won't even be doing a proper rotation, not using defensive cooldowns when I'm taking unavoidable damage. Yes, this is easy. But if I did it that way, I'd be doing it WRONG. People might not notice. Some might. But yes, it'd be very easy.

    But if I start to perform properly, doing a more ideal rotation, using CDs, kicking, using crowd control, aggro management... then it becomes a little more challenging. And you can ALWAYS do better. That's why it's not easy. It should NEVER be easy. You should constantly be pushing to do the best you can, and you will NEVER be the best. You will never hit those simulation numbers. Which means as DPS, you have to give it every thing you have, and it still won't be enough. THAT'S why it's hard.

    If you don't try, of course it's easy.

    It's the same for tanking as DPS. Tanks have to get the initial aggro, maintain it, use defensive cooldowns when necessary, still maintain a rotation/priority list just like the DPS do, and interrupt when possible/necessary. But if you screw up, people will surely notice. So you can't screw up. But that doesn't make it difficult, it just means you can't get away with the same stuff people try to get away with when being lazy DPS. But as a tank, you have to make up for DPS not doing their jobs, and targeting the wrong mobs. It has plenty of responsibility as well. Again, you can't really cap out on this - you can maintain better aggro, time your cooldowns better, and you should be adding a good amount of DPS as a tank too - much like dps, this can always be improved.

    Heals is a different beast - much like DPS you can never hit that cap. You can never be perfect. The thing about healing is that you always can improve, and if the tank and DPS are failing, YOU have the capability (not necessarily obligation) to compensate for them (barring 1-shots). It's also quite noticeable when you fail. But healers do get the brunt of blame because others might consider the fact hat the healers couldn't compensate for the others' failure to be a failure on the healer's part. Regardless, you will never cap out. Keeping people alive is one thing, but as long as you have bad dps and tanks to compensate for, you can ALWAYS improve.

    My conclusion is that ALL THREE roles have room for improvement. You will never be perfect. And if you have room to improve, then all you can do is do your best. And if you're doing your best in any of the 3 roles, then it's as hard as it's going to get.

    It's only as "easy" or "hard" as you make it out to be. If you give minimal effort, any role will be easy. But if you happen to be tank or heals, people will notice that more quickly. But if you give it all you've got, any role will be hard. And you will never be perfect, so there's always room to "give it all you've got".

    The reason we have so many less tanks and heals than DPS is because people don't want to be blamed. DPS is not easier. It's about the same, but people blame DPS a lot less often than tanks and heals, so players opt out of those roles in order to save themselves stress. Perhaps if people were less critical and more encouraging, this would be less of a problem.

    My TLDR point is this: if you think ANY role is easier than the others, then you just need to try to do your role better until it doesn't feel easy anymore. Until then, you're under performing. You can ALWAYS do better.

    DPS shouldn't feel easy. If it feels easy, you're not pushing yourself enough.
    Last edited by Seegtease; 2011-01-11 at 01:11 AM. Reason: Noobs wouldn't read follow-through

  2. #2
    Field Marshal Powerwurdhug's Avatar
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    If you have the right gear and you go online and look up the max dps rotation you can macro it and button smash 1 button and pull 10k dps.....also roll a healer and tank then repost
    "A priest is he who lives solely in the realm of the invisible, for whom all that is visible has only the truth of an allegory."

  3. #3
    I've played a prot warrior for 6 years, and rerolled holy priest this expansion. DPS is definantly easier than both tanking and healing.

  4. #4
    Yea but for that matter I feel that way about Decursive and Healbot. Its easy to heal when you prgram the Game to do it for you. Now tanking. I agree way harder.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Powerwurdhug View Post
    If you have the right gear and you go online and look up the max dps rotation you can macro it and button smash 1 button and pull 10k dps.....also roll a healer and tank then repost
    makes sense, you pull 10k dps when you should be doing 20k, because yo udont know how to

  6. #6
    Sure add-ons make it easier to use your spells, but it still falls on the player to heal the right person with the right spell and or use the right cooldown.

  7. #7
    Pandaren Monk Yosef1015's Avatar
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    I don't see how tanking could be considered harder, both dps and tank have rotations, CDs, and have to move out and in to stuff depending on the fight. DPS have to worry about not taking threat while tank have to worry about keeping threat. Healing is prorbably considered harder because of the huge change from wotlk to cata, but once you get used to it, it is really no more harder than dps or tank.

  8. #8
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    Tanking is rofleasy but demands focus. Healing is challenging and fun, even though I'm not a big fan of healing. Pushing big numbers while avoiding boss abilities is fun and that's why I like to go DPS. Normaly the terribad people roll tank for insta queue, which makes people think: "Wow we are wiping because a tank can't avoid Ground Slam (Ozruk) tanking is really hard!"

    In difficulty order: Healing>DPS>Tanking.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Seegtease View Post
    ...then you're probably a terrible DPS.

    Being able to "get away" with doing poorly doesn't mean DPS is easier. DPS is just as difficult as the other roles, but people are less likely to notice if you suck at DPS than if you suck at healing or tanking.
    It's not more difficult than tanking & healing. There's just little to NO room for error. If you screw up there's hundreds of people just waiting to take your place. All DPS have to worry about is producing the most amount of DPS possible while not being a liability in the raid or taking unnecessary damage. Tank & healers got to worry about so much more.
    Last edited by rated; 2011-01-09 at 11:48 PM.

  10. #10
    All roles are pretty easy tbh

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Maerran View Post
    Tanking is rofleasy but demands focus. Healing is challenging and fun, even though I'm not a big fan of healing. Pushing big numbers while avoiding boss abilities is fun and that's why I like to go DPS. Normaly the terribad people roll tank for insta queue, which makes people think: "Wow we are wiping because a tank can't avoid Ground Slam (Ozruk) tanking is really hard!"

    In difficulty order: Healing>DPS>Tanking.
    And you have no clue.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by duo2000x View Post
    Yea but for that matter I feel that way about Decursive and Healbot. Its easy to heal when you prgram the Game to do it for you. Now tanking. I agree way harder.
    Oh come on, healbot. It's just unit frames atm, allows you to click-heal.
    And yeah, dps is easier. Yea, you gotta cc and interrupt as dps, but hey, it's just like 2 additional buttons. And every little fail(even low dps) = extra pressure on the healer. Tanking isn't that hard, at least wasn't been hard in wrath. Didnt tank in cata yet.

  13. #13
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Seegtease View Post
    ...then you're probably a terrible DPS.

    Being able to "get away" with doing poorly doesn't mean DPS is easier. DPS is just as difficult as the other roles, but people are less likely to notice if you suck at DPS than if you suck at healing or tanking.
    in a way i agree, - play a dps is much much much more competive than healers and tanks, many guilds will have few few healers and tanks and therefor mistakes and slightly not great players might be aloud to raid on that basis, while dps spots are always in high demand and so if you dont put the numbers up/ make mistakes you are likely to be replaced

    so definatly good dps players are aware of this paradox and do everything they can to stay on top

  14. #14
    Decursive (or healing addon set to do the same thing) is a nesesscity. I know healers that heal well without addons, but i dont know anyone that can handle dispelling well without that. And have the game programmed to heal for me? How do i do that? I still have to react with an appropriate spell, manage my mana etc.

    Now, I personally think its easier to heal than top the charts as dps, but i have to make a lot more desicions while healing, and it sure is more complex. (than what i dps as ) I cant adhere to any rotation or priority list other than Keep tank and me from dying, then keep dps up. I can use one strategy to conserve mana, another for max output and a third for aoe dmg etc etc. Someone that can tank like a god may suck at healing, and a healer isnt nesescarily cut out to be a chart topping dps. Its all down to personal preference.

  15. #15
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Marthisdil View Post
    And you have no clue.
    Atleast I've played all 3 roles A LOT so I probably know what I'm talking about. Tanking raids as MT was roflol couldn't become more boring, HCs is not much of a difference. Seeing all these tanks failing makes me wanna powerlevel my warrior just to avoid silly wipes.

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Powerwurdhug View Post
    If you have the right gear and you go online and look up the max dps rotation you can macro it and button smash 1 button and pull 10k dps.....also roll a healer and tank then repost
    If you have the right gear and go online and look up max threat/healing rotation you can macro it and button smash 1 button etc etc. That argument doesn't work very well my friend.

  17. #17
    The game's "difficulty" depends on the situation. Its much harder to heal a bad 5 man than dps in a good raid. DPS is only "hard" because you can always do better. No one will ever dps 100% perfectly and match their theoretical dps. In that regard its a challenge, but putting out the DPS required to beat enrage timers isn't very hard.

    Not standing in the fire as ranged dps isn't very hard. Some fights are tough on melee, but at the end of the day all you "have" to do is beat the enrage and OoM timer (making it harder for healers). If you're good at dps it isn't really hard at all, its just a challenge to push your dps but the priority/rotation is second nature to you.

    Tanking isn't very hard now since threat is trivial but in the future tiers of content we might actually have to choose between things like threat and mitigation. Raid tanking has never really been all that tough but 5mans offer a bit of challenge, especially if the group is light on CC or undergeared/bad. Most of the difficulty from tanking comes from learning your class and the fights. Tanks do a lot of their work before hand in planning and gearing. Its not harder so much as its sink or swim. Groups won't carry a bad tank where as bad dps get carried every day.

    Healing can be the hardest as you are expected to make up for everyone else failing. It can also be the easiest in 5man with lots of CC. With mana management coming into play now there is more thought that has to go into healing and you really have to know a lot about your class to make quick decisions on the fly. If you want to compare it to DPS you can always heal better in terms of making the most correct decisions concerning efficiency. All they really "have" to do is keep everyone up though, which is harder IMO on average than putting out enough dps to beat the enrage timer.

  18. #18
    I guess it depends on what you are looking at. Each type of playstyle has its own niche. The difference between dps and tanks and healers is you can get by with bad dps, whereas bad healing and or tanking usually involves a wipe. That being said, I guess that really depends on the person if you think that really makes one type harder than the other. In reality, poor play usually has more drastic results as a healer or tank, but that doesn't necessarily mean one is easier than the other.

    You can make the argument that as a healer you have to make up for everyone elses stupidity, but in essence the same somewhat applies to poor play from some dps as well.

  19. #19
    Playing to absolute 100% of your class/spec's potential is very hard as dps. Doing so as heals or tank is just as hard, but now you have to deal with a lot more responsibility and information management and team play as well.

    So no, you're wrong. I raided as heals in vanilla, tanked and dps'd all of TBC and WOTLK. When I dps it's like a huge weight off my shoulders - just show up, do my thing, no worries, ok guys see ya next time!

    Tanking it's position this, teamwork that, timing whatever, mark and switch and you usually end up in a leadership role since it's just the natural function of the role - you're controlling the fight, the timing and execution of pulls and switches.

    Dps doesn't even come close in responsibilities and adjunct teamwork.

  20. #20
    Deleted
    DPS is easier.

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