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

[rayvio]

there is no one explanation for everybody
sure, some people want to beat the meters and have a big high score to brag about
but not everybody is competitive and especially not in PVE where the aim is co-operation rather than competition

[pahbi]

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.

So we have to flame the healers now to?

<sarcasm>Awesome</sarcasm>

[Maruhman]

I play healer because its the most chill for me. When I do keys (20s-22s is my area) and I play dps, I constantly feel the need to perform perfectly to achieve high numbers for myself. As a healer, I dont really care if I have 4k or 5k as long as I keep everyone alive, and neither does the group. I can sip coffee and follow the group and chill. Thats especially true for longer sessions of keys.
I also do like the agency I have over the result of a key when Im healing. I dont like when healers suck or focus too much on dps and let a dps die. Creating environments for smooth keys is what is fun to me.

[Ealyssa]

It's a multiplayer game and people instinctively want to beat others in multiplayer games

As a tank player I can safely say most people don't give a fuck about their performance. Between the MM hunter too lazy to get his pet out for heroism to the mage who don't know what the f is spellsteal to the druid who never knew he could disenrage NPC to the priest who never heard about Mind Sooth

And that's some shit you'll see happening at least up to +22/23, so not even your weekly +15 run. People just don't care.

Most people play DPS because they are lazy and can hide in the mass. That's it, playing with the least responsibility, nothing else.

[dragonflight10]

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.

at higher levels you might be right how ?? no one says see i beat you in any high end content xD

[ceall]

I mainly dps because it is the least stressful.

Once I'm familiar with the dungeons (and outgear them), I even start tanking them (as weekly 15's in pugs, up to even 20+ in pre-mades).

However, I'm playing this game since late wrath, and I have never healed in a dungeon (unless I was at that time at least normal raid ilvl for random heroic dungeons). I've never healed anything above m0 and only ever did the 5th heal in raids that was nice to have but not necessary (sunking in CN for example).
Personally, I think healing is the hardest role in the game because healers need to heal their group/raid, dps in off-times, need to press their big throughput CDs at perfect Timings all while still looking out for themselves while needing the most UI space of all roles and thus having the least visible space because they need to look out for 4-29 other people at all times.

Dps just need to do their thing, while Tanks to me are just dps that gather the mobs and take hits.

[Xilurm]

This is the real reason.

Yep, there's too many people who get anxiety by playing a Healer or a Tank. You have way more responsibility and you stand out. It's more likely to be called out if a mistake happens. These are the complete opposites for DPS.

[taliey]

Simple explanation: what do we expect of our DPS? And what do we expect of our tanks/healers?

We just expect our DPS to have a pulse and to not stand in the fire, with occasional DPS checks.

As for our tanks/healers, they are responsible for ensuring the run is completed, regardless of any setbacks, and with no regards to how those setbacks will impact the run. Tank/Healers is not just a role where you show up, but also a responsibility that DPS aren't expected to fulfill.

And then we have DPS wondering aloud why they wait for tanks/healers.

[cuafpr]

nope, DPS is easier and just pew pew compare to healing/tanking.

[Tentim]

at higher levels you might be right how ?? no one says see i beat you in any high end content xD

You know nothing of parses...

[Tyris Flare]

Yep, there's too many people who get anxiety by playing a Healer or a Tank. You have way more responsibility and you stand out. It's more likely to be called out if a mistake happens. These are the complete opposites for DPS.

It's far easier to hide in most raids as a bad healer. People will barely even check the meter unless bad things happen, but everyone knows who the lowest dps is.

Tanking mistakes are usually quite obvious, but it's also the easiest role to play in raids by a wide margin. Half the fights consist of "hit taunt." You barely even need to do a rotation effectively in anything but the hardest content (and again, nobody will care if your dps is low even though they should)

[Kokolums]

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.

healers were dpsing in vanilla. its not new to BfA.

[varren]

M+ has made tanking an incredibly stressful role

[schwarzkopf]

There is a simple reason most people play dps, it is the only spec you can play and practise on your own. Tank and healer specs require you group up to learn.

Nothing more complicated than that.

[LordVargK]

healers were dpsing in vanilla. its not new to BfA.

Yeah, no. Only if they were incredibly overgeared for the content they faced (which to be honest was any vanilla content). Otherwise you would not have had the mana to do so.

[Utok]

the dps put people off tanking/healing, they make the job of learning roles harder than it needs to be because they have no patience.

[Dakara]

M+ has killed Healing and Tanking for me.
Raid Healing/Tanking is boring AF after progs done.

Assuming I play DF, I might not even bother with Keys anymore and just do my guilds Sunday Alt runs for group content... if most of my time is spent solo, why bother with a Heal/Tank spec.

[Ludek]

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.

What about many „normies” playing open world in tank spec because difference in killing a normal mob as a tank is marginal compared to DPS, but as a tank you are basically immortal in open world pve stuff, no matter if you pull 30 mobs, or a „big scary elite”?

[Echo of Soul]

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.

So if we didn't have DPS meters we'd have more tanks and healers? Seems like a fair trade to me.

[Sorrowseer]

In games like SWtoR you can do 5(4?) mans without tanks or healers, it sucked at the start, as it was too hard obviously, but with some refining it was doable, from that I find it a bit of a shame that dungeons cannot be tweaked the same in wow, I want tanks and healers in raids, but I feel they are a limiting factor for dungeons.

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

This sums it up succinctly.