Tanking, healing, and DPS are all just as hard.

[Seegtease]

If you play them to the best of your ability.

DPS is only perceived as less difficult because you can get away with less than your best effort. You can auto-attack, hit a few abilities, and most people won't notice how awful you're doing. Yeah, that's pretty easy. Sometimes you'll get someone who is paying attention to meters and stuff and you'll get kicked.

Tanking and Healing have minimum thresholds. You have to at least exhibit a certain amount of skill, otherwise you just can't complete the dungeon. It's perceived as more difficult because if you fall behind this curve, you wipe.

So yes, being a lazy DPS is technically easier than being an average/good tank or healer. But why would you want to be a lazy DPS? I like to do the best I can, push for the best numbers, try to hit those interrupts, and avoid taking damage. Doing well is fun for me, but it also makes DPS a lot more difficult.

If I could get instant queues and a satchel with my Ret paladin, I'd still pick Prot. Getting good DPS as Ret is much harder than tanking as Prot, hands down.

TLDR: Tanking/healing is only perceived as more difficult because if you mess up, you wipe. Not because it's harder to avoid messing up, it's just less forgiving if you do.

[Paloro]

You are being very contradictory in your statements.

If you like to do the best that you can by providing your group with proper interrupts and maximizing your dps, why then would you still choose to play the "easier" spec?

[Seegtease]

You are being very contradictory in your statements.

If you like to do the best that you can by providing your group with proper interrupts and maximizing your dps, why then would you still choose to play the "easier" spec?

When I'm playing DPS, I like to maximize my performance. It makes a big difference. That doesn't mean I like to DPS. Sometimes, I'm not up for it, and it can be stressful, so usually I just tank when I have the option.

[Vanyali]

The main problem is this:

As a dps, you can slack off and someone will cover the slack.* This means you have very little responsibility. On farm nights you can afk watching tv and hit buttons while barely looking at the screen half the time.

As a tank/ healer, you very very very rarely get those times. If it's a stationary boss and there's no tank swaps, the tank might be able to get away with the same thing as a dps, but a healer ALWAYS has to be watching grid, ALWAYS has to be calculating into the future, and can't not watch the screen. That's why tanking/ healing is harder - you don't get a second off, for the most part. DPS get plenty of time off if they don't feel like putting out their best... and let's face it, a lot of dps seem to be in afk mode during heroics/ pugs.


*doesn't apply to progression/ heroic content, of course.

[Warcrafter]

Nearly eveything you have said is opinion based. Just because you think hitting a few buttons in a order every 5 seconds is as difficult as keeping everyone in a group alive or keeping agro on a boss and avoiding damage and performing maneuvers to counter boss abilities does not make it true.

[Auloria]

I get what you are saying, and I guess it average out to be close to true, but I would still put a bit more difficulty on healers. As a DPS or tank, I can do my rotation and kind of half pay attention and I'll still do great, but as a healer I'm constantly on edge, because when someone slips up because their team just got a touchdown, I have to be able to instantly react.

Sometimes I think healing is like watching a 2 year old, you look away for 2 seconds and everything's gone fubar.

I'd agree with you in general though, a good DPS is definitely doing a lot more than mashing buttons.

[Seegtease]

The main problem is this:

As a dps, you can slack off and someone will cover the slack.* This means you have very little responsibility. On farm nights you can afk watching tv and hit buttons while barely looking at the screen half the time.

Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Yeah, it's easy to be a lazy DPS, but people should really stop being lazy DPS.

Nearly eveything you have said is opinion based. Just because you think hitting a few buttons in a order every 5 seconds is as difficult as keeping everyone in a group alive or keeping agro on a boss and avoiding damage and performing maneuvers to counter boss abilities does not make it true.

If hitting a few buttons in order every 5 seconds is all you do as DPS, then you're either a bad dps or an arcane mage.

---------- Post added 2011-10-03 at 04:32 PM ----------

I get what you are saying, and I guess it average out to be close to true, but I would still put a bit more difficulty on healers. As a DPS or tank, I can do my rotation and kind of half pay attention and I'll still do great, but as a healer I'm constantly on edge, because when someone slips up because their team just got a touchdown, I have to be able to instantly react.

Sometimes I think healing is like watching a 2 year old, you look away for 2 seconds and everything's gone fubar.

I'd agree with you in general though, a good DPS is definitely doing a lot more than mashing buttons.

I dunno, if you get a good group, sometimes healing is a joke. Especially if you have a decent healing addon. It's just a few clicks sometimes. Healing is one job that varies greatly by your group quality. It can range from the easiest to the hardest. DPS is usually constant, and tanking can range a bit depending on how good your heals are or how fast mobs die (or if the DPS target the wrong mobs) but healing definitely has the widest deviation.

[Warcrafter]

Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Yeah, it's easy to be a lazy DPS, but people should really stop being lazy DPS.



If hitting a few buttons in order every 5 seconds is all you do as DPS, then you're either a bad dps or an arcane mage.

---------- Post added 2011-10-03 at 04:32 PM ----------



I dunno, if you get a good group, sometimes healing is a joke. Especially if you have a decent healing addon. It's just a few clicks sometimes. Healing is one job that varies greatly by your group quality. It can range from the easiest to the hardest. DPS is usually constant, and tanking can range a bit depending on how good your heals are or how fast mobs die (or if the DPS target the wrong mobs) but healing definitely has the widest deviation.

I gave an example. No need to take thing sso literally. From what I can see you shut down other peoples opinions to enforce your own. There is no point arguing since you will only listen to yourself. Why make a thread if you are not going to listen to anyone and stick to your own point of view....

[Addonexus]

Ive done all 3 in a high progression environment (6/7 heroic) and i personally beleive they all take skill, the difference is in the minimum skill required. At a max level of play, all 3 take just as much skill and concentration. Yet on the other side, its easy to slack off as a dps only doing mediocre dps. Its not right to do that, but you can. As a tank it requires a minimum skill, then if you want you can just slack off and be a mediocre tank. Same as with tank, a healer requires a minimum skill before you can slack off, but then you can. With healing, you can be a wasteful healer that OOMs and holds up the group, not paying attention and letting people die. The concept of one being harder than the other disappears at a high level of play, all are just as hard as others. Its just when you can start slacking off to become 'Meh' that people think some are harder than others. The other reason people think healing/tanking is more difficult is because is you mess up, its an instant wipe. Tank is dead, everyone is dead. With dps, you "Can" be dead and 4/9/24 man bosses no problems.

[Mammoth]

I assume this latest repetition of this argument comes from one of the other threads I've seen today about DPS deserving satchels.


The different roles do not have different levels of difficulty. They can all be done badly, they can all be done very well. I don't sit in any of the roles thinking that I've hit the skill cap and I couldn't possibly improve my performance in any little way.


However, what is often the point of contention is:

The amount of attention you have to pay to your role in a 5 man situation is much less for DPS than it is for tanks/healers; because if the tank/healer stops for a quick break, the entire group stops. Whilst if a DPS takes a break, the party can carry on.

For instance, I like to have the TV on while I play. If there's an interesting section of the comedy show happening, I can stop and look at it as a DPS as long as I have a quick glance at my screen to make sure things aren't going horribly wrong. As a tank however, if I take a break the DPS will get angsty or pull for me. And if I'm a healer, I'll have a bunch of dead buddies angry at me.

At the end of the day, this is what makes the DPS role more attractive to players in 5s. You have a lot less responsibility.

[Deleted]

Part of the "hard" in tanking / healing is the responsibility, dps most of the time can just be followers.
95% of the time a dps can just look after himself, obviously a healer can't, and to a lesser degree neither can a tank.

[Deleted]

Well most of the times dps fail is punished with death of the raid members instead of "boss getting enraged" (Beth comes into mind), no wonder most casual players think that way. Should they build a 5 man dungeon for 2 tanks 1 dps and 2 healers with a hard enrage timer then it will be considered as "too hard" because most of the people nowadays cannot even execute their priority list properly, let alone running out of the fire, etc. Imo, it's the problem of the dungeon designer that made things develop this way.

[Crashdummy]

I dont agree.

The only time DPS is as "hard" as tanking and healing is when they have to interrupt or kite.

In other fights, DPS just have less things to worry about.

[Sesshou]

I don't know if I agree with the OP. Its important to know which ability to use at what time for all 3 roles. Now its also important for all 3 to know who/what to use those on, but this is why I disagree with the OP. Its far easier for a dps/tank to know who/what to use their abilities on as you know the kill priority order as a dps and who is responsible for picking up what adds as a tank. A healer doesn't always "know" who they should be casting on. Even if you have assignments, healing at a high level has every healer watching everything to some extent. So if its progression content, healers are going to have to make value judgments on the fly as to who they should heal. Part of being a good healer is being very quick at making the correct choice, and theres nothing really that any dps has to do that is similar to that.

Anyway thats my opinion after having raided as a dps and healer (and alt run tank). If it matters, the majority of my raiding has been as dps (current main is a rogue).

[Volitar]

Why does it matter what is easy or what is hard play what you like.

[Deleted]

The only time DPS is as "hard" as tanking and healing is when they have to interrupt or kite.

In other fights, DPS just have less things to worry about.

This is so not true. For most dps, their priority lists contain at least 10-15 steps of logical judgements, whereas tanks, if not having a rotation (bear), most likely only have 4 or 5 steps. And tbh, tanking is even easier als dps'ing because you're less punished for an empty gcd or not mashing the keys hard enough.

[LethalAim]

This is so not true. For most dps, their priority lists contain at least 10-15 steps of logical judgements, whereas tanks, if not having a rotation (bear), most likely only have 4 or 5 steps. And tbh, tanking is even easier als dps'ing because you're less punished for an empty gcd or not mashing the keys hard enough.

10-15 lol? Sorry nothing is like how ferals were in Wrath and Affliction was in BC...at most you have about 6 or 7.

[Sesshou]

I assume this latest repetition of this argument comes from one of the other threads I've seen today about DPS deserving satchels.

I didn't get that impression, but maybe thats just me.

At the end of the day, this is what makes the DPS role more attractive to players in 5s. You have a lot less responsibility.

Well I think there is that for sure, and I don't want to horribly derail the thread by going into massive detail but you also need to consider number of specs that can tank, 4/10 of the classes can only dps, tanking can't (and healing can't always) be done with the same gear the other specs of that class use. So really there is no way in hell 20% of the people interested in randoms are ever going to be que'ing as tanks.

[Deleted]

If you are doing your best (or at least trying), you'll be thinking of your 10 min cd's, execution, double dotting, planning the shards, movements, SB Portals, etc. As a tank, all you have to do is to face the boss, stand there and wait until you have to click shield wall, which really isn't that difficult... even a prot warrior that can only spam devastate and HS can hold the aggro.

[Nightstormer]

Its not the tanking or healing that is hard.

Its dealing with dps.