Who is at fault for the tank/healer shortage?

[kanzei]

Obviously less than 40% of players are willing to tank or heal. So much less that dps wait 40 min - 2 hours for a queue.

Why?

Obviously it's a combination of the items in my poll, but choose the one you think is MOST at fault please. And if possible, let's not turn this into QQ.

[Rakydei]

there's no poll, but for me its mostly stupid DPS standing in shit, getting aggro, not interrupting, not CCing and breaking CC, and the list goes on

[Crush]

It's cause you people do not obey the god damn tank, or healer!

If healer says "Get out of the fire" it means, Get out of the god damn fire

If a tank says "Sheep that mob" it means, Sheep the god damn mob or your tanking the mob your self!

[Leeuwke]

The reason why many people hate healing/tanking is because the DPS barely appreciate what the healers and tanks do and if it's a wipe either the healer or the tank gets blamed (usually the healer).

[Nukeleo]

Blizzard is at fault for making pure DPS classes at all. Not that the ones we have aren't fun (they are), but 3 specs to do virtually the same thing is redundant. Rolling the play styles into two trees and then making the third spec tank or heal would have been great with the launch of BC or, maybe pushing it a bit, WotLK. By now they've spent so much time emphasizing the classes and styles that it can't be done. There's no going back.

"Not everybody wants to heal or tank!" And that's why you have the other specs to fiddle with, like every other class in the game. It means as a pure you had BETTER be doing your job better than the rest because that druid over there is about a 10 second cast and a gear macro away from replacing you if we let her. No excuses.

Not fun.

[Deleted]

i chose this "people know they will make mistakes and think they can 'blend in' as dps" because that's why I play as dps

[Palcica]

I think its because people don't want to feel responsible for other people,rather than just themselfs.Blizzard kinda fixed that system with creating more challenging heroics (not harder),and making DPS die if they are not paying antention as tank and healer are.Many boss mechanics now require DPS involvement,when lives of other people in group depend on DPS (like 1st boss in Halls of Origination),and not entirely on tank/healer.Many people are realizing that,and changing roles.

Also,i think DPS is less stressfull than healer and tank.Unlike healing or tanking,where you have a task you are expected to fullfil certain task (to maintain aggro on enemy or keep people alive),with DPS you can always do better.That way,with raid gear these days you can make 10k DPS while watchin' TV or reading something,even if you can make higher when you concetrate.Nobody will flame you for doing 10k dps,as people usually dont expect more.

[xStevooo]

There's probably many factors as to why depending on the individual themself and their background.
A brand new player in WoW (i mean they haven't ever played an MMO before) are probably not exposed to "end game" activites so their class choice is based off what sounds good at the time. I wanna be a Hunter with a cool pet tearing mobs down!! Or i want to launch crazy looking fire spells at the enemy raaaah!!

So when it comes around to them actually reaching end game stuff, they learn more and want to branch out more - a percentage of them might then roll a healer/tank alt. Where-as the majority of them "the average player", will not want to take on such responsibility, and are happy with playing the role of a casual dps. It probably depends on how you are as a player, are you hardcore, casual etc. How confident you are in your abilities, how quick you learn things etc.

TL ; DR - The average gamer tends to stick with dps classes (requires little or no responsibility) in the casual world.

[Deleted]

There are more dps speccs than healers and tank speccs...there I found the problem. I don't see how you can't understand that. :P

[ComputerNerd]

DPS not being responsible for their own survivibility, nor performing their role.
DPS or Damage is a misleading description of the role which consists of a lot more than putting out large numbers, yet that is the very problem with the role, in that many are unwilling to do anything other than that or do anything which will jeopordise it.
Tanks unless stated otherwise should dictate a pull, not the impatient DPS.
Healers should focus on healing damage which is unavoidable, or at least unexpected.
It is not the job of healers to heal DPS who stand in the fire because moving hurts their position on the damage meters, nor those who will not eat/drink/bandage.
Yet both of those are expected to do above and beyond what are already roles requiring greater responsibility.
Until DPS learn their job, tanks and healers will be less willing to do theirs.

[sicness]

The reason why many people hate healing/tanking is because the DPS barely appreciate what the healers and tanks do and if it's a wipe either the healer or the tank gets blamed (usually the healer).

It goes both ways though. Tanks and healers I've noticed are extremely critical of the dps they're with and expect them to play perfectly since their role is considered 'easier' so when one dps makes a mistake they'll leave because they don't want to deal with it.

So in reality it's not a single group of players playing a certain role, it's everyone. A lot of people's mentality with this game is entirely stuck up because they think they're better than others yet that they're too important to take 5 minutes to teach someone how to play the game. The community is what's wrong with this game. And while it has improved a bit since the release of cataclysm, it still has a long ways to go to get better. This is a MMO, and no other MMO I've ever played has had this elitist group of mediocre players who are so inconsiderate and selfish. It's not blizzard's fault that these people aren't willing to help the rest of the community, it's the player's fault in thinking that it's blizzard's responsibility to teach people how to play the game in every aspect.

[Neichus]

I voted for #3. I say this with no malice, but people prefer to be followers not leaders (which is a good thing really; a world of leaders would be a terrible one).

Being a tank in most groups is tantamount to being the leader. You're expected to mark the mobs, set the pace, and generally keep things going. I think it's why we've seen the number of tanks plummet from WotLK to Cata. It's not because of some huge skill increase in the heroics. It's because WotLK tanking went something like, "Charge in -> Spam your AoE while the DPS spam theirs -> run to next group." Now you're actually expected to direct your group, know when to pull and when to rest, what to kill and what to ignore, etc. It just really is a high profile position in most parties.

Similarly being a healer is one of those jobs where everybody's life is in your hands. Now the complex reality of course is that success is the result of everybody's efforts, but I think the average LFG party regards group survival as the healer's job and nobody else's. It's just one of those things: success is the result of everybody being awesome, failure is the result of one person sucking. And most often it's the healer who is first questioned, tank next.

Again, I say these things with absolutely no malice. "DPS players" aren't somehow mentally deficient relative to the rest of the human race. Just that when push comes to shove people would rather that they can take a role in which they can't take direct blame for failure, and unless you had a very specific job ("interrupt X" "dispel Y") you can just act deaf when the group wipes and asks what went wrong.

[Roose]

Because, for the most part, DPS in LGD are horrible and only in LFD because they do not have any tank/healer friends to run with. Any good DPS is running with guildies or friends, for the most part.

If DPS has a problem with ques, they need to join a guild with ppl to run with or they need to learn to heal/tank or live with the decision they made to be DPS only class and wait for their call.

It is not like people are randomly assigned classes or roles. Everyone has a choice. You choose to try and DPS in LFD you are choosing to wait. Plain and simple.

[xotrem]

I'm gonna guess more people like playing DPS and put out huge numbers

[frownface2000]

Well, I've been a mainspec healer up until Cata, and recently switched my DK to my main. I had originally planned on going Mainspec tank, but wasn't really able to follow through on that decision until just now.

And the reason for this is that running as a Tank or a Healer and being able to do your job well requires a better gear level than running as DPS.
My Tanking set just reached Item Level 349, and only now am I comfortable tanking heroics.

Tanking when undergeared just isn't fun. It's stressful and makes you want to ragequit.
I, personally, don't feel the same way about healing. However, my new healer isn't 85 yet, so I'll see when I get there
[ RIP my old Resto Druid ='( ]

[aGit]

Thread: Who is at fault for the tank/healer shortage?.

The dps only wanting to play a dps role.

[Darkdruidelf]

healers especially get blamed for everything.

L2PLAY NOOB. OMG WHY NO HEALS?

Thats essentially all I get when I tell people; dont stand in hurricanes, avoid damage, stop being a tool.

[Iracor]

Not everyone enjoys being one of the two roles who are blamed for every wipe known to man. If anyone dies to spell damage it's instantly the healer's fault. If anyone dies to being hit in the face by something it's the tank's fault.

Playing a dps is just far more rewarding. You get to see big numbers and are actively doing damage to the thing that later dies. I know it's kinda obvious, but you have to actually kill the boss to get its loot, and the people that actually do that damage are the dps. Throw on top of that the fact that you don't have to accept any blame -ever- for a wipe because nearly every dps simply blames the tank or healer if they die to anything.

To get the same satisfaction from being a healer, you have to save that retarded dps that can't figure out 'fire = bad', and with Cata making that far more difficult with the new style of healing a lot of healers probably switched to dps.

Unfortunately it takes a special kinda person to only tank. Tanking is probably the least rewarding of any role. There is no satisfaction of big dps; you can't really save the idiot from the fire. Your only job is to position the mobs in the most optimal place. The closest you'll ever come to getting the same satisfaction as a dps or healer is taunting the random mob that's running off to go kill some dps that can't figure out 'skull = kill first'.

[sharpy]

Well most players dont like to be the one to be blamed for a death tanks/heals have the most if you make a mistake someone will die where the dps can make a mistake and still be fine.

[Deleted]

DPS are selfish people who care only to measure their own success in numbers and don't care for the success of the team