Most stress filled position to play.

[wariofan1]

I can imagine it being healing. I have tried DPS and a little tanking in the earlier days, but just the thought of how stressful healing could be...

[Torched]

As someone who plays all 3 roles (Main is healer 2 alts 1 tank 1 dps) I can say that for me healing is more stress full,then comes tanking and followed by dps.

Yes I raid with all 3.

[Fatowlkinidiot]

A lot of people don't understand how stressful playing DPS in a hardcore guild. Our officers go through logs like politicians go through prostitutes. Every number is scrutinized and if you are not performing where they think you should be they will make sure to let you know.

[Takkobella]

Healing for sure, especially if you're incapacitated and can't prevent a death

[Knightsun]

Being a Tank/Raid leader in a 25-man guild with at least 3 bad players, and another 4-5 bad to mediocre ones. Made me want to /wrist, and actually made me /quit for a while.

As for individual role, I've only tanked and healed in 5-mans(I DPS in raids), but I would have to say healer. The big issue with it though was not the actual healing it's self, it was because of the people I played with. With a good group it wasn't bad and was actually very engaging. With bad players though, it's extremely frustrating because you're tasked with trying to make up for their bad play. I hated blowing my entire mana pool because the DPS couldn't avoid the avoidable fight mechanics(fire, whirlwinds, aggro off adds the tank isn't focusing on). And of course if you're a DPS that's dumb enough to stand in fire until you die, you're usually dumb enough to automatically(and wrongfully) blame the healer.

The times when I could loose a DPS and still kill the boss though, that was fun. If they were playing poorly, I wouldn't even heal them ;D "OMG I didn't get any heals! What's your problem?!?", "My problem is you make no effort to avoid damage that is avoidable. You're a waste of mana."... oh they loved hearing that one.

[Triggerfish]

Having played all three roles, they all have their stressful moments.

Playing in a good guild, dps can be very stressful. Yeah, you really only have responsibility for yourself (assuming you’re not in interrupt duty) but you need to avoid damage and do your job VERY WELL to keep your raid spot. When content is new, exceptional dps makes fights infinity easier to down. If you’re slacking at all, you’d be asked to fix it. If you didn’t fix it, you’d more than likely be replaced by one of many others who can perform better.

Healers always have to react to others mistakes and pick up others slack. This happens even in a very good group. I’d say healing is the most stressful role as it is always going to be the most unpredictable.

Tanking really isn’t that bad. Once you know the fight it’s a cake walk. However, I always hated learning new content as a tank. There’s lots of personal responsibility as a tank and when learning new mechanics I could never help but kill a few people while figuring out what I needed to do (that stressed me out quite a bit).

[Fenixdown]

A lot of people don't understand how stressful playing DPS in a hardcore guild. Our officers go through logs like politicians go through prostitutes. Every number is scrutinized and if you are not performing where they think you should be they will make sure to let you know.

Do you honestly think the 67 people who voted DPS so far play in hardcore guilds? Because I certainly do not.

[Deleted]

A lot of people don't understand how stressful playing DPS in a hardcore guild. Our officers go through logs like politicians go through prostitutes. Every number is scrutinized and if you are not performing where they think you should be they will make sure to let you know.

I will admit if you're in a hardcore guild clearing heroic content then all 3 roles are going to be just as stressful because everybody has to play their class as well as it can be played, but I seriously doubt all the people who chose DPS are in that sort of guild.

[Krystal]

Ugh I can't really choose. Healing is only stressful when people are standing in crap they aren't supposed to be standing in. Or when the raid/tanks are both taking unavoidable stupid amounts of damage at once. Otherwise I can multi-task easily while healing lol.

I've only found DPS to be stressful when I just can't get the numbers even after researching a class. You're expected to squeeze out every bit of dps, and when those numbers show up on recount, you'll get mocked for being the lowest. You need good dps or else you risk having healer mana being depleted or hitting an enrage timer.

In my experiences, tanking is more stressful in heroics when you have dps not really caring and going crazy on everything.. so you have to AoE tank in the first seconds of the pull which can be hard (if they would just give me some time then it would be easy). Once I get a grasp on one, there's always another that I've loosened my grip on because of dps splitting targets. If dps know what target to focus on though.. then tanking flips over and becomes the easiest role for me.

I can't choose! T_T

[Deleted]

Seriously stop talking about dungeons when you want to discuss how stressfull a dps' roll can be.

Fights like Halfus, Council in BoT and Omnitron are fights where good dps will make the fights a joke, bad dps will make them impossible, so please think beyond 5 mans please.

If dps was so easy everyone would be doing 20k+ in and make dinner at the same time right?

*Edit spelling.

[njorde]

Healer is probably more stressful due to it feels its your fault for not keeping the raid up, all raid deaths are due to healers not having enough heals.
Dps could be tough since everyone is looking at recount and its easy to notice if someone is doing bad, especially melee since you have so much movement.
Tank is hard since you have to have placement right on the dot while keeping decent threat

[Deleted]

are fights where good dps will make the fights a joke, bad dps will make them impossible, so please think beyond 5 mans please.

Now imagine doing any fight with bad healers, or bad tanks.

[draxanlee]

If you find any role stressful why are you playing it? It's a game, it's supposed to be enjoyable and stress releaser. How I see it anyway.

[Pappahealar]

Healer > Tank > DPS

[SerenitySaz]

For me, hands down tanking is the most stressful. I don't do well with PuGs in heroics when tanking (I've had troubles with wannabe Panzerkins, Mage tanks, the "go go" guys, and their healer buddies that won't let them die when I let them tank the mobs they pull), and even though I don't terribly mind raid tanking on 10 man, I just feel three times as drained by the end of the night from tanking as opposed to healing or DPSing.

On occasion I can stress myself out pretty hard with DPS competition. Healing only becomes stressful for me if two healing in a 10 man is involved, and really it was only a big deal when we were going for Undying in our guild (two healing the Four Horsemen fight = stress). At the end of the night though, neither of these roles seem to ever compare to the drain of tanking for me.

[Deleted]

DD.

Only job where you are always forced to push your limits, to get more and more.

[iceberg265]

Tank>healer>>>>>>>DPS

[Sentreenay]

in wrath it was at the start at least how i have been told it is: Healer > tank > rangedps > meledps but it progresed towards tank > healer > meledps > rangedps at the end of wrath, and now with cata its goten to Healer > tank > meledps > rangedps, although I have found from personal expirance its more like Healer > meledps > tank > rangedps at curent though, back in wrath it was along the lines of Tank > rangedps > healer > meledps. This kind of thing general comes down to your expirance, and though many dont think dps is stressfull it can be, having everyone constantly telling you that you are crap, your dps is low you fail and such and then spending weeks on the target dummy and not seeing any improvment no matter what you do, and yes this is what tanks and healers get its a lot more frustrating for dps as its generaly the only thing they want/can do.

[Deleted]

Healing > Tanking (with stupid DPSer) > DPS > Tanking (with pro DPSer)
I've played everything and tanking became so easy in Cataclysm again, it's just faceroll. If you hold the aggro the first 10 seconds you won't lose it anymore... Positioning is not stressful at all, that falls under movement and all players need that.
Healing obviously is the most stressful, no doubt about it...

DPS is completely depending on the class though - there's classes that have nothing to do in a raid environment (hello melee DPS) and other have to do lots more (offensive disspells on focus targets, hunters have multiple jobs, perfect movement to not lose any dps, etc...)

So if everyone plays on 100% skill to me it's definitely
Heal > DPS > Tank

[Kellytm3]

people claiming DPS is stressful...LOL,get over it and quit.DPS are a dime a dozen and so easily replaced.DPS out number tanks and healers combined,if DPS is so stressful,why do so many people play it?