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

[Kallisto]

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

Blood DK tanking was also fun back then. Especially on some bosses where one well timed IBF would bug certain bosses out of hitting any debuffs (including tank swaps), which meant you could also hold some extra adds, get more Vengeance and hit harder.

[Loveliest]

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?

You don't need to be this agresive about it. Yes, tanks deal plenty damage but ilvl does indeed play a role. When leveling in a new expansion, my prot pala melts everything, having gear from previous expansion. My naked warr alt for example that has heirloom gear on (still 146) in which I have invested no time has a harder time. So this person you are talking to can have a different perspective, especially depending on the focus of their gameplay. Every opinion is valid.

[KrayZ33]

Not even low key this is the absolute reason

new players don't make a warrior because they get to yell obscenities' at a dragon and keep their attention while a rogue stabs it in the ass. They want to be the bad ass giant sword wielding cloud strife wanna be and cleave the dragon in too. Remember when Illidan sat there and kept Artha's attention while his friends shot magic into his back? Or when Arthas popped Death Strike and kept his health up while his undead minions killed his enemies? NO they want to be that Demon Hunter Ninja or that Rampaging unstoppable Death Knight just laying waste to all they see

probably the ONLY classes that have any sort of tank fantasy more associated with it is maybe the Paladin and the Monk since Pally's are seen as stalwart protectors and Brewmaster Monks were the first and up untill MoP the ONLY monk we've ever seen.

That only goes as far as character creation... after that, class fantasy doesn't matter in the slightest in terms of what you do in game and how you play the game in group content anymore. Only the slightest amount of players actually care about that in content where tanks are missing. Or rather, the fact that they are missing in "high level"-content as well shows it's not just about that.
If I'd ask my DPS-friend if he would tank this week's +15/+20/+25 or whatever he wouldn't say "b-but my class fantasy"... he would shit his pants saying "I've never tanked before, I don't know what I'm doing, I don't think I can handle it."
Same with healers.

I mean... you reduced the tanking specs artificially to taunting boys and grills getting their heads smashed in, in the first place, even though none of the tank classes actually play like that at all and their spec fantasy are hardly about them smashing their sword on their shields to get the enemies attention.

[Ihazpaws]

For me reason is that tanks are shit in every other aspect than.. well tanking in pve. Wotlk tanks are great because they do alot dmg too, can die in pvp and have some cool group utility. In retail tanks die in seconds, do no dmg and can't do anything special what dps/healer could not do. OW2 is great example of how tanks should be. They are scary, do dmg, can stand alot dmg but without using their skills correctly they die quite fast even in 1v1 against dps/healer.

Tanks should be the ones that rush in front lines making everyone focus on tank because they can block alot dmg that would be coming to healer/dps. Tanks should have skills on short CDs to stop/slow the dmg intake and be only ones with MS effects/purges and high CC. Dps / healers can have CC too but those should be short, focus on getting away while tanks should have brutal stuns and other CC that makes the plays happen.

Tanks: Hard CC (stuns etc), MS effect, Slow but hard to get past, Very CD heavy dmg, Very tanky.
Dps: Soft CC (slows, roots, poly/fear), Constant High dmg, High mobility, Medium tankiness on some classes and some can run away better.
Healer Soft CC (slows, roots, poly/fear), Can dispel friendly targets, Very low dmg, Alot ways to run away, Weak survivability on their own, Some specs more tanky and some run away better.

[Baine]

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.

It is not because I only play DPS. I do it because I like to pew pew pew basically. To make damage. Gameplay based on damage mitigation or health restoration doesn't look fun to me.

[Raisei]

M+ has made tanking an incredibly stressful role

Yup, I stopped doing that when SLs spend it's first patch introducing the Kiting Meta, in which the role of the Tank basically was "Grab aggro, then run as fast as you can so nothing hits you" while I was playing a Blood DK.

The horribly low mitigation and incredibly high damage from mobs plus the lackluster mobility and the fact that the active mitigation needs melee attacks to work made it incredibly unfun and stressful to Tank dungeons.

I tried for a time with my Monk, which has been my fall-back option for years since usually you could depend on it's ability to control damage through stagger. But it was only mildly better. In some ways it was even worse, since you are much more dependant on your healer and can do little to bring your own health up, but at least you don't have to go into a pack basically naked and only apply mitigation after 1-2 seconds.

It really was stressful and I hated the idea of the Kiting Meta. I was playing a Tank to be a wall of steel, immovable and unbreakable, not to be a running distraction.

I understand this has been improved somewhat, at least the Tanks I play with (Pala and Warrior) are doing much better and I have seen DKs doing twice the healing of a good healer. But I am still not going back.

After that experience I started playing a Healer again (I did in the past until my Guild needed a Tank urgently) and I discovered that I was pretty good at it. Focussing on filling bars instead of balancing my awareness between a mad scramble for aggro and keeping my health above 0, was a quite relaxing.

There still is stress in high damage enviroments, but I can heal +20s and higher with relative ease these days. The annoyance now comes more from overlapping mechanics that should not overlap (like high damage intake spikes + forced movement, great fun for a healer that can't cast on the move) or terribly designed raid fights.

I am sometimes thinking that maybe playing a DPS would be a good idea, but I just haven't found the class I enjoy for that. My main is a Priest atm, but my Shadow is terrible. I just can't make it work, despite reading all the guides and having all the gear. Tried others, but the fun factor is limited.
Gonna try out the Evoker in a few weeks, kinda hoping that it is fun to play as both Heal and DPS, but if not I will switch to Shaman probably. Hopefully that one will soon be allowed to go Velf.

[Niwes]

Shred things down fast, one or two at a time, vs beat them down slower, 5 or 10 at a time. It all equals out.

since we are in Retail forum and not in Classic forum:

in a world, where the amount of mobs is capped for dps classes, because if the dps player pulls more than that amount, it would kill the dps player… you are totally right.

sadly, in reality, a dps can take 15 or 20 or 25 mobs (or the same amount as the tank can pull) without dying, or even going under 50% health. in fact a range dps can even pull more than the tank, because the only limiting factor is „how much mobs can i reach at the same time?“. because in retail, since a decade or so, literally nothing can ever kill you, because 98% of all mobs hit like a wet noodle. open world content, or quests, is that piss easy, you have to be a moron player in green gear, to ever die to mass pulling.

in short: in 2022 (and since over a decade before) your argument has zero value. a range dps pulls 30% more mobs as a tank, at the same time. and kills the mobs 3 times faster than the tank.

end of story.

[KrayZ33]

since we are in Retail forum and not in Classic forum:

in a world, where the amount of mobs would be capped for dps classes, because if the dps pulls more than that amount, it would kill the dps… you are totally right.

sadly, in reality, a dps can take 15 mobs (or the same as the tank can pull) without even dying. in fact a range dps can even pull more than the tank, because the only limiting factor is „how much mobs can i reach at the same time?“.

in short: in 2022 (and since over a decade before) your argument has zero value. a range dps pulls 30% more mobs as a tank, at the same time. and kills the mobs 3 times faster than the tank.

end of story.

Don't know about that. A tank just throws shit everywhere just like a DPS does it. Doesn't necessarily deal any less DPS either, the kill times are a joke compared to how they were 10 years ago at the start of the expansion
If anything, the amount of mobs you pull is more about how fast you are as a class and how many movement abilities you have available.

Later during leveling when gear can't compensate, you can't just pull everything anymore as DPS.

[Niwes]

Don't know about that. A tank just throws shit everywhere just like a DPS does it. Doesn't necessarily deal any less DPS either, the kill times are a joke compared to how they were 10 years ago.
If anything, the amount of mobs you pull is more about how fast you are as a class and how many movement abilities you have available.

i dont know how many classes you play. on what difficulty level. i can just talk about my own experience (and the ppls around me ingame). i play wow since 17 years. played all classes at a competitive level on mythic raiding or m+ around +20, besides monk and DH. for 1 xpac, or at least 1 season.

i just can talk tank wise about DK, Warrior and Prot Paladin. when i jump into a bunch of mobs, lets say 25, over an areal of 100 yards, with my hunter spamming multishot, or with elemental shaman with active storm, spamming instant CL and earthquakes, or with a blinking mage, hammering Arcane Explosion, or even with my Sub Rogue spamming Shuriken Storm…. HOW in the world will you compete, just even for the mob tagging, with a DK or Warrior? Pala at least have 1 Righteous and 1 Consec every x seconds. but never ever ever ever ever you can compete in the slightest, even for the pull rate. and the only real factor is, that there are not even enough mobs at all.

so, no offense, but sorry, no. in no absurd daydream a tank in SL pulls, or even kills, mobs faster than in example a BM hunter.

[Lex Icon]

i don't care about dungeons and raids or competing. there's no need for me to play a healer or tank unless i somehow find the spec fun but it's highly unlikely as they're designed for crap i'm not interested in doing.

[Raisei]

new players don't make a warrior because they get to yell obscenities' at a dragon and keep their attention while a rogue stabs it in the ass. They want to be the bad ass giant sword wielding cloud strife

Well, DKs use giant swords for tanking. So that still works. In fact it was one of the things that I liked best about them.

wanna be and cleave the dragon in too. Remember when Illidan sat there and kept Artha's attention while his friends shot magic into his back? Or when Arthas popped Death Strike and kept his health up while his undead minions killed his enemies? NO they want to be that Demon Hunter Ninja or that Rampaging unstoppable Death Knight just laying waste to all they see

Funny thing. One of Arthas WC3 abilities was Death Coil, which literally functioned as a heal on his troops and an aura that supported them, so the class fantasy can be both.

Personally the picture I always had when playing a DK was not from WoW, but from Diablo. The cinematic for the D3 expansion had Tyrael confront Malthael and being pushed back by the winds of death (or whatever it was called) and he rammed his giant sword in the ground to form a shield for all behind him.

Plus the whole idea of the DKs a Tank makes a lot of sense. They are dead, so they are hard to re-kill, they can replenish their own vitality by stealing their enemies, they command Blood, Flesh and Bone and form barriers and shields from them.

It is a very intriguing concept on paper. Sadly the ingame reality does leave them rather weak. They should have the strongest defenses in exchange for being slow, while a DH in comparion should have rather weak defenses and can escape damage by using their insane mobility.

[wushootaki]

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.

I'm selfish all the time as a healer

If you are garbage dps, I will heal people doing actual dmg and that understand their class first.

Same for if you are a dbag tank. I just won't heal you and then pipe in about how squishy the tank feels until replaced ;]

[KrayZ33]

i dont know how many classes you play. on what difficulty level. i can just talk about my own experience (and the ppls around me ingame). i play wow since 17 years. played all classes at a competitive level on mythic raiding or m+ around +20, besides monk and DH. for 1 xpac, or at least 1 season.

i just can talk tank wise about DK, Warrior and Prot Paladin. when i jump into a bunch of mobs, lets say 25, over an areal of 100 yards, with my hunter spamming multishot, or with elemental shaman with active storm, spamming instant CL and earthquakes, or with a blinking mage, hammering Arcane Explosion, or even with my Sub Rogue spamming Shuriken Storm…. HOW in the world will you compete, just even for the mob tagging, with a DK or Warrior? Pala at least have 1 Righteous and 1 Consec every x seconds. but never ever ever ever ever you can compete in the slightest, even for the pull rate. and the only real factor is, that there are not even enough mobs at all.

so, no offense, but sorry, no. in no absurd daydream a tank in SL pulls, or even kills, mobs faster than in example a BM hunter.

Nah m8. I start every expansion with mythic gear as well and that's like the first 5 levels before 2-3 mobs start hitting so hard on you that you die.
To the point where I usually switch out of MM and let my tank-pet do all the work.
Mobs are usually so far between that you can just throw some shit to tag stuff as well.
CL and the like only does so much and is basically no different from a tank hitting something for 1 damage by throwing his axe or something.
Again, it's way more important to have movement instead of abilities that can tag stuff.

Lots of people are actually playing tanks when they level because it's easier and just as fast.

[Venziir]

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.

I play whatever I prefer or think suits my character. For example, my Alliance paladin is protection, because I envisioned him as a classic knight with a sword and shield. My druid is usually Guardian, because that's just fun etc.

[Arkura]

Tanking is by far the easiest to play in solo content, you can just pull huge amounts of mobs and just burn em down without losing any hp at the end of it. Its all about the fact that theres less responsibility and dealing with random people is less of a hassle while dpsing tbh. I have done all roles and tanking and healing can get frustrating having people just pull for you, or stand in shit thats so obvious you shouldnt... dps you have yourself to worry about, and you use the group utility you have in mosr cases.

[chiddie]

Shred things down fast, one or two at a time, vs beat them down slower, 5 or 10 at a time. It all equals out.

Nah. You make it sound like dps can’t AoE.

I used a Blood Death Knight for a good portion of BfA and every time I switched to one of my dps that were even less geared it always felt better time wise.

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Nah m8. I start every expansion with mythic gear as well and that's like the first 5 levels before 2-3 mobs start hitting so hard on you that you die.
To the point where I usually switch out of MM and let my tank-pet do all the work.
Mobs are usually so far between that you can just throw some shit to tag stuff as well.
CL and the like only does so much and is basically no different from a tank hitting something for 1 damage by throwing his axe or something.
Again, it's way more important to have movement instead of abilities that can tag stuff.

Lots of people are actually playing tanks when they level because it's easier and just as fast.

Yes, if there’s an aspect where tanks have really the upper hand in open world - besides soloing rares to an extent - is leveling in the current expansion. Gear is so bad while leveling that tank skills really helps a lot.

Of course this also depends on your ilvl when you start a new expansion, if you’re above 290 as dps you will probably breeze throughout the first 5 levels no matter the spec.

But since I’m not doing any grouped content my warrior will start DF at about ilvl 250, it’s likely I’ll go prot while leveling and switch to fury once at cap.

[Inci]

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.

There are many reasons other than that and it starts with the highest one which is simply because DPS is the entry lvl spec with almost no responsibilities, naturally, people will just stick with what they are familiar with, which is DPS.

You will rarely find someone who is willing to try and learn something new.
Sure people like to feel superior and feel that they are somehow better than everybody else, that is the nature of humans nobody can deny that but some don't have that as a priority.

However, as you keep progressing through the game and the higher you go up the ladder some of those will prefer to go a different path because you cannot really "chill" as a dps role when you progress into higher content, the role is demanding and it almost has no limit, healer and tanking can be a relaxed role the higher you go up the ladder.

[Soikona]

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 your take, not everyone’s. If I want to be compete, I will play a PVP game. Not a PVE. PVE is for cooperative. This mindset you have, imo, is what is wrong with raids atm. People get too focused on their logs to a point that that is all that matters. Not the thrill of the kill.

[Squigglyo]

I think the kind of person who actually cares about their DPS number is in the minority.

I have raided for years, at a mythic level. Even in pugs, ive barely run into anyone who cares about the numbers.
The only time DPS numbers are brought up is when theres a wipe and your trying to find who to blame.

In a raid, you might find one person who gets joy in being higher than other people, but out of 10+ dps, its a minority, albeit a loud one.




The main reason people DPS instead of tanking... is because they like to DPS.
Tanking is a 'leader' role.
Healer is a 'helper' role
DPS is a 'fun' role

Personally, if my main class had a tank spec, I would tank. But im not gunna change mains after 18 years.

[epigramx]

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.

That's a bad metric of tanking though. They have very simplistic rotations and good tanking is almost always not just damage.
It's a bad metric for DPSes too in many cases but it CAN be a good metric in many more cases (simplistic fights).

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Healers do that often?

It's a bad metric for healing, especially because they usually overheal.
It's a bad metric for DPSes too in cases but it CAN work in a few.

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Tanking is probably the most difficult role

It's the easiest role to rank and hence give the delusion to others you are better than you are, because nobody wants to play it compared to DPS so it's in demand.
The difficulties of it are mainly in carrying the strategy of a whole group but: if you play ONLY that role it's nothing (it only seems hard if you multi-role).