Whats your opinion on what the easiest role is?

[taishar68]

Everyone will likely have a different opinion based on what they normally play, but in terms of quantifiable performance, I would say that DPS take much more criticism because their performance is rated on a statistic that does not always correlate to the final outcome.

If the tank keeps the bosses attention and we kill the boss, they did their job.
If the healers keep their targets alive and we kill the boss, they did their job.
If the DPS doesn't have (insert # here that should be easily achieved by your class, noob), and we kill the boss, they are a drain and will be talked about in officer chat.

[Rabka Uhalla]

As someone who plays all 3, I have to say it's a tie between tank and healer. Idk. Both of those roles I find easy. But DPS is hard, man! At least, doing GOOD dps is...I do alright on my Warlock, but I think that's less because of skill and more because of OP class. But tanking and healing I AM skilled at...or, like I said, they're just easy.

[Agoonga]

Ranged DPS is the easiest role for me, and I love it.

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Tank is by far the easiest, without question, responsibility =/= difficulty.

I would rather have a difficult job than an important one in case I eff it up for other people.

[AeneasBK]

Depends on the quality.

Being an "average" DPS is no more difficult than being an "average" tank or an "average" healer.

Being an amazing tank is easier than being an amazing DPS or amazing healer imo. The game just doesn't tax tanks enough really so I guess its more a lack of opportunity to do something "wow". I mean, doing awesome DPS as a tank is a great help but it kinda gets lost when you raid 25 man.

Amazing healing is the hardest role; things like solo healing Ultraxion 25 heroic or Garrosh 10 man HC first kill (that was solo healed, right) simply because of the changing nature of the role compared to DPS where you can practice to a point where RNG is making more of an effect on your numbers than performance.

[Tekkommo]

Overall, at the moment it is Tank.

The easiest roll to carry is a DPS.

However, if you are trying to kill a boss with a tight enrage timer, then you can't carry a DPS.

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Depends on the quality.

Being an "average" DPS is no more difficult than being an "average" tank or an "average" healer.

Being an amazing tank is easier than being an amazing DPS or amazing healer imo. The game just doesn't tax tanks enough really so I guess its more a lack of opportunity to do something "wow". I mean, doing awesome DPS as a tank is a great help but it kinda gets lost when you raid 25 man.

Amazing healing is the hardest role; things like solo healing Ultraxion 25 heroic or Garrosh 10 man HC first kill (that was solo healed, right) simply because of the changing nature of the role compared to DPS where you can practice to a point where RNG is making more of an effect on your numbers than performance.

This guy gets it.

[Razorice]

Tank and DPS tied for me. Tanking used to be harder, but it was dumbed down.

[Ryuji]

Can't judge one as easiest in general. As it is currently in MoP:

DPS: Easy to learn, hard to master. As in top meters(or go all out when needed/when you can and have the stars align for optimum oomph in your damage to kill the boss faster. The most competition in PvE is from DPS, and being able to beat others that are going all out just as much as you are is a very satisfying feeling knowing that the competition ended up helping down the boss A LOT quicker. Then again, maybe that last bit's just me; I get very competitive over DPS, provided there are similar gear levels between me and the other DPS in raid. >_>

Tank: Medium to learn, medium to master. Once you get the jist of taunting at a certain amount of stacks of something or when there's a debuff on the other tank, not standing in bad stuff, running to good stuff if necessary, keeping aggro on stuff and popping defensive CDs when either you expect to take a crapload of damage or you're holding out while you and healer(s) bail each other out.

Heal: Hard to learn, medium to master. This is the role I play least, but for me, once you get into a groove, it's basically whack-a-mole and trying to to it in the most optimum way while being aware of other healers' influence on said whack-a-mole bars and doing the standard "don't stand in bad" thing.

Hearing there will be a lot of changes for tanks and healers to make it a more...interesting experience, to say the least. Not sure what that exactly entails but I'll be sure to check it out. Probably will end up as DPS on my main as I've always done.

[Deleted]

Tanking is by far the easiest these days, shortly followed by DPS. Healing only provides a real challenge on 10-man though.

[Mormolyce]

Played all three. The answer is: tank by far.

[Brazen]

DPS is generally the easiest people will say. But that being said you are also the most replaceable. Do a few K under what someone deems acceptable and goodbye in many cases. People are more likely to replace and wait on a new DPS than healer or a tank, but then again a bad tank or healer is more of an immediate and problem. I suppose it comes down to what the group is willing to put up with either way.

[chibichibiko]

DPS is easiest by far. I judge this based on the fact that so many dps don't ever learn fight mechanics--even in heroic raiding. They just keep their numbers up and try to not stand in obvious crap.
Healers and tanks are by design more proactive, which means they need to plan ahead more.

Edit: also, tank has every challenge that dps does, plus managing the boss mechanics. I have no idea why anyone would consider them the easiest unless they are under the illusion that dps isn't also a tank's job.

[Trolandw]

As a tank, you just kinda use everything within your disposal to keep the target(s) on you, so there's no rotation to learn like in dps. And when you need to switch targets sometimes you can just tab, same for dps. The only hard part of tanking for me was making sure multiple mobs were attacking me, but I never did tank much, just heroics at the end of wrath. Dps need to get rotations down, which I struggled with. Healers gotta be precise with the mouse because they are constantly changing targets and they've got a lot if judgement calls to make which can sometimes result in mistakes. I'd say easiest to hardest in that order. (This is based off my experience during cataclysm though, so it could be different now). Maybe tanks and dps are interchangable, depending on the encounter. It can get kinda tricky positioning a boss as a tank.

[Mormolyce]

Tanking is by far the easiest these days

Agree except for the "these days" part.

Used to be even easier.

[chibichibiko]

Agree except for the "these days" part.

Used to be even easier.

Naw, tank damage is important. If you aren't judging a tank's dps just like you do a dps's numbers, then you're letting them off easy.

Edit for clarity: Every character can be judged on putting out numbers as close to 100% of what they're capable of while not standing in fire. DPS just have the most predictable means to achieve that, so people are confident in judging them on the meters. Healers and tanks can also crank out numbers, but they have other responsibilities, so people just aren't as comfortable saying 'pick up the deeps, tank' or 'heal that much, but also get some deeps in there, healer'.

[Tojara]

Been tanking and doing DPS since vanilla, with very occasional spurts of healing (but nothing serious).

I've been maining as a tank for years now and I'd have to say tanking is probably the easiest role. Don't get me wrong there are times where it's the most difficult role, but a lot of encounters essentially boil down to incredibly mundane tank swaps. At least it's sort of interesting now with tanks having to maximize DPS and it making a difference though.

That said while I think tank is the easiest, I mostly say that because I think it's the easiest to effectively raid lead from. You can auto pilot a lot as a tank because their are breaks often, and the more effective you are at turning your attention to what other people do, the smoother your runs usually are. It largely depends on the encounter and what specialty job is offered, sometimes it's for tanks, healers, DPS and sometimes it's universal.

Tanks is what I would go with. They can certainly have the most pressure because they are in control of the flow of the instance (generally) but you can stand around and auto pilot a lot, and sometimes getting hit by stuff is beneficial considering it gives you more vengeance! Tank damage is important though, and if a tank ever tells you that it isn't important or you aren't considering your tanks damage you should likely look for new tanks.

Old era tanks were even easier, especially in raids. Your damage honestly didn't matter and the only thing you had to do was mash your buttons for the most optimal threat, which eventually wouldn't matter at a certain point. Much like my point below, tanks were only difficult pre-WoTLK in 5 mans because AoE tools were limited and you were forced to (GASP" tab target to things!

Most of what I say is alluding to raids, and not 5 mans. In 5 mans or challenge modes, your runs are effectively carried and 90% of the difficulty is put on how good your tank/healer combination are, especially the tanks.

[Deleted]

I'm currently playing all 3 roles and swapping between them.
DPS is by far the easiest.
Not so easy to judge between tanking and healing, one requires more coordination and knowledge of a given encounter, the other swift reflexes and good knowledge of the spec. That's all in pure casual range. When you start progressing normals, there's suddenly a job for everyone unless a typical Patchwerk fight.

[Anzen]

I wouldn't be misconstrued by the question to think that DPS is easier than tanking because of the lack of responsibility. As someone above me said:

responsibility =/= difficulty.

I play each role, and have progressed the entire tier on heroic as each role and without question tanking is by far the easiest role in my opinion. You are limited to "taunt at X, move this away" for the entirety of the tier, and spend a lot of your time twiddling your thumbs. Undoubtedly making a mistake whilst tanking has a far greater impact than making a mistake whilst DPS'ing, but that doesn't make tanking itself any more difficult.

[Revi]

As a tank, definitely tanking when it comes to gameplay and tactics. The difficulty with tanking is not what you do while playing, it's (in pugs at least) taking responsibility, knowing tactics, leading and being aware of the rest of the group.

[Mongoose19]

DPS because if you fail no one will whine about hypotetical numbers, everyone will blame either healer or tank for deaths.

[Daez]

Are we talking to play or to play well. Because none of them are extremely easy to play well. All of them are pretty easy to play. I don't think there really is a best choice for this poll.