The reason most play DPS (it is not because they like DPS or because they hate tanks)

[epigramx]

It's a multiplayer game and people instinctively want to beat others in multiplayer games; they want an objective mean of being able to say to others "see? I beat you"; if that is missing they lose interest very easily.
Tanking and healing heavily lack that; DPSes can be considered bad if they only look at meters but they are the only ones who CAN use meters in some fights ("Patchwerk" ones); tanks almost never have that.

[Tentim]

At higher levels you might be right. At lower I assume its because dps are the free carried role. It's rare blizzard ever has a mechanic that wipes a group of one dps is awful but a awful tank or healer can kill a group.

[Varanus]

I mainly play dps because I find healing, and especially tanking too much responsibility. That simple. : |

[khazmodan]

Actually, tanking is a leadership role and most people are not even tempered enough to lead. Leadership is something that many aspire to but not that many can stay cool under pressure, also, there are some real social skills and problem solving skills required for high level raiding or mythics. I can get away with some tanking in a low pressure easy dungeon but running a raid is a whole different animal. As for healing, well healing is a support role and I enjoy being in a support role but many feel taken advantage of or feel too anonymous in that role. The dps role is a role you can be more selfish in when you want to be and be more support when you want to. In the tank or healing role you don't have as much of a choice about being selfish or a team player and that is not for everybody.

[Beastiel]

Competitive aspect aside there's an actual numerical value you can watch rise as you both get better gear and better at your rotation and it's hard to enjoy a progression based game without that.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

One of the big problems with tanks and healers is that they are only viable in a raid or dungeon environment. If you are a casual doing open world gameplay or PvP then you can only play DPS because healers and tanks deal such piss weak damage and take forever to kill anything and have boring damage rotations. In FF14 tanks and healers deal a lot more damage and can be viable to do questing and open world stuff with. The fantasy of a being a sword and shield paladin or a bear druid is appealing, but normies who only do open world stuff can't play that.

[Relapses]

Vengeance would like to know your location.

This is the final encounter of SoO and you have to scroll to rank 96 before you see something that isn't a tank.

[Ezyah]

I mainly play dps because I find healing, and especially tanking too much responsibility. That simple. : |

This is the real reason.

[potis]

One of the big problems with tanks and healers is that they are only viable in a raid or dungeon environment. If you are a casual doing open world gameplay or PvP then you can only play DPS because healers and tanks deal such piss weak damage and take forever to kill anything and have boring damage rotations.

Tell me you are terrible at WoW without telling me.

Wait, i will stop pulling 30 mobs and cleaving them down the last 10 years because you said so on mmo-champion.

Oh wait, we are gonna pretend a "casual" doesnt get item levels to do the same to boost your argument, k?

[Strand NE]

Most people play DPS because they are "easier" for solo content, less responsibility in group content and more headroom for failure.

[Demsi]

Vengeance would like to know your location.

This is the final encounter of SoO and you have to scroll to rank 96 before you see something that isn't a tank.

Oh man those were the days, as a prot paladin i had the most fun tanking during ToT and SoO

[loras]

It's a multiplayer game and people instinctively want to beat others in multiplayer games; they want an objective mean of being able to say to others "see? I beat you"; if that is missing they lose interest very easily.
Tanking and healing heavily lack that; DPSes can be considered bad if they only look at meters but they are the only ones who CAN use meters in some fights ("Patchwerk" ones); tanks almost never have that.

Or, and hear me out on this one, it's about a sense of control.

Have you ever fought perfectly along with your healers as dps drop left and right due to their own amazing retardation? And then the boss enrages because of course it has an enrage timer.

Yes, a poor tank will break any fight, but a good one won't win it. The same is true for healers, if to a lesser extent.

[Lochton]

It's a multiplayer game and people instinctively want to beat others in multiplayer games; they want an objective mean of being able to say to others "see? I beat you"; if that is missing they lose interest very easily.
Tanking and healing heavily lack that; DPSes can be considered bad if they only look at meters but they are the only ones who CAN use meters in some fights ("Patchwerk" ones); tanks almost never have that.

Healers do that often? Nothing new there.

Back in the days, Tanks would do so with blocked/mitigated damage, or whether they could solo tank something not meant to be, or such, but not much anymore.

To be honest, nowadays, even the dps "brag" isn't a thing unless they do that behind their screen.

To myself, I believe most roll DPS because you have less responsibility, less focus, less demand, and less expectation - all you have to do is do big numbers and don't step in the bad - heck, even the last comment isn't much expected because many DPS expects healers to cover for them messing up in the first place. That is just from my own experience through raiding and M+ the last few expansions. Tanks and Healers are the doting parents, having to watch out for the little ones while they run around the room playing with scissors.

[KrayZ33]

I think most people will actually be comfortable tanking raids.
But I can understand why most people won't like to play M+ as a tank, as everything is on you.
You decide what packs to pull and when, you decide if the group can handle it or not, you have to position them properly, you have manage your cooldowns and keep in mind what and how you want to do the next pull.

DPS? We just play for ourselves. Sure we support a little. But I'm just reacting to what the Tank does. The tanks are the ones that *act*.
All I do as a DPS is complain when something is wrong.


It's not about Tank-DPS. WoW tanking has a lot of DPS stuff in it anyway.

[Megitsune]

I disagree, I think it's simply because DPS generally is seen as having the least amount of responsibility. Tanking is usually seen as a more leadership type role, most people don't want to lead or have to do certain things that can cause a wipe if not done correctly sometimes. Healers are responsible for keeping everyone alive along with being a support role that a lot of people don't want to do because they'd rather be doing the BIG DEEPS.

Both healers and tanks also take blame for stuff that isn't even their fault half the time, which doesn't help.

[Lochton]

One of the big problems with tanks and healers is that they are only viable in a raid or dungeon environment. If you are a casual doing open world gameplay or PvP then you can only play DPS because healers and tanks deal such piss weak damage and take forever to kill anything and have boring damage rotations. In FF14 tanks and healers deal a lot more damage and can be viable to do questing and open world stuff with. The fantasy of a being a sword and shield paladin or a bear druid is appealing, but normies who only do open world stuff can't play that.

Pardon me, what? I can agree with Holy Paladin to a point but even they can with world gear only, solo rares on Zerith Mortis, and let's not even talk about tanks, who can basically put out much more, and handle much more than the healer. Some healers need their damage buffed but both roles can handle themselves without issues in the open world if they follow the gearing curve for a world player.

[pahbi]

Healer is sooooo boring to play.

You just sit and stare at health bars while using click casting to keep the bars full.

Tanking is probably the most difficult role to play IMO. Not only do you have to lead the group through the dungeon or raid, but you have to put up with all the shit DPS talk whenever you make the tiniest mistake. Honestly, I don't know how full time tanks do it.

But I will say tanking raids for my guild is the most fun I have playing the game, but unfortunately, there just my guild usually doesn't have enough folks on to sustain doing lots of mythic+'s for gear. So I'm forced to pug, and pugs just plain suck. If I tank and make the smallest mistake, some DPS or healer will bail on the key and then I'm screwed.

So I just mainly DPS.

[Sanguinerd]

Tanked for years but cba anymore, as othes have said too much responsibility and with WoWs pug-scene being what it is too much bullshit to deal with as well. Also raid tanking is tediously boring with only a handful of fun tank-fights but not nearly enough.

DPS is just easier, less stress, less crap, just show up do your thing and leave.

[Ashana Darkmoon]

It's a multiplayer game and people instinctively want to beat others in multiplayer games; they want an objective mean of being able to say to others "see? I beat you"; if that is missing they lose interest very easily.
Tanking and healing heavily lack that; DPSes can be considered bad if they only look at meters but they are the only ones who CAN use meters in some fights ("Patchwerk" ones); tanks almost never have that.

This is massively overthinking it imo, same with most replies here.

Most people don't even consider group content when making a class decision in any game. They play a class fantasy, which is almost never a support class. Heroes in fiction are almost always the badass characters who blow everything up, not the person mitigating damage.

[LordVargK]

Healer is sooooo boring to play.

You just sit and stare at health bars while using click casting to keep the bars full.

Since BfA that's not your only job in m+. You are a DPS that also can heal and will not get flamed for doing less damage.