Very much a tank shortage here too. So nope dps is not the needed role. Sorry.

Lacking in tank numbers, but not quality.

Lacking in DPS quality, but not numbers.

Yes that's still an issue RE dps queuing as a tank, but not as much this patch (last patch you could select all dps/tank/healer and instant q pop for any role, now you can only select one).

Tanking can be fun if you have a decent group, otherwise it's horrible. I've had the best dungeon run in a PUG vBRF, we even did hardmode when I was tanking. I've also had a vet coa2 which took about 2 hours and I had to basically solo the last boss... again I was tanking.

Guppet wrote: »

Joxer61 wrote: »

Guppet wrote: »

Very much a tank shortage here too. So nope dps is not the needed role. Sorry.

Not a problem...tanking is/was what I have done for most of the MMO's I have played, so be good to fill a hole!

On the massive plus side, it’s very fun here as you have to actively block and dodge. You also get to interact with all mechanics.

When it comes to aggro, there is no AOE taunt, don’t be put off by this, it works well. You basically just taunt bosses and heavy hitters, so don’t need the AOE taunt.

For trash packs, your main role is to group them up while taunting the hard hitters and your dps will AOE them down.

I hope you enjoy your tanking journey. Have fun

Yea I'd say my biggest "fear" is queing up and not having a clue, mechanics - wise. I know how to tank, and whats required of the role...just don't know any of the runs as I have done zero dungeons. Ah well, jump in head first!!!

I have a high level healer and a high level tank.

The healer is fun to to pug with because she is all about being 'reactive' to what her team is doing. She doesn't drive the train, she simply tries to support it - so pugging is a good exercise of her abilities.

The tank, on the other hand, is not fun to pug. With a coordinated group up in voice, he is the one leading the charge. He does the initial pulls and shapes the battlefield before the dps unleash their torrent of damage. It is a blast and clearly reinforces the force multiplier that a tank is - if used properly. The twin harvester bosses in (I think Banished Cells II) that are spread apart but within range to support each other are a good example. If the tank is given a moment to do his job, he can get and hold both of them side-by-side in his face off the side of one pillar - allowing the the dps to focus on one combined killing zone instead of two ranged bosses and two simultaneous fights. With most pugs, however, he is just another knucklehead (only with pitiful dps) trying to keep up with others who are racing through the dungeon and creating messes.

Dps on my tank is not the problem - that is not what he does. In fact, if I catch him doing more than about 5k dps, I adjust things to trade any surplus dps for more mitigation so he can spend less effort staying alive and more effort chaining in foes and holding them in a tight killing zone for the dps players.

SilverWF wrote: »

All other time (actually 90% of your play time) you will be 1v1 with just overland content and tank there suck as much as he only can. So to lvl up your tank in the more or less acceptable speed you'll need to have a set of medium armor and DPS weapons.

For leveling up tanks, I found the best way was to use the daily random dungeon and daily random battleground. Use the experience scrolls from leveling up or from log in rewards right before the final boss on your dungeon, then jump right into a random battleground. You've now used maybe 25 minutes of your scroll. There were times where my tank would go up 5 levels from these two activities if you get a 150% scroll, never having to go overland.

Then to save the rest of the scroll, I would log out and into my second tank and do the same. I wasn't sure if I would like a warden or a DK more, so I worked on them both and they will both have different niches now that they're done. If you can work it out right, your second tank will ideally now be at the end of their scroll and can bank their loot, PUG, work the main quest for skill points, etc. without wasting xp. Then the next day, do the opposite. If both tanks had scroll left, I would either get crafting work done, farm gear for them, or do whatever else on my main.

The only issue I ran into was setting up my bars so I didn't confuse myself. Have to make sure you have your self heals, cc, etc. in similar places on each character so you don't lose track of where your skills are when you switch. I found it way easier than trying to poke things to death in overland activities.

@OP If this is your first character (hard to tell from your op) and you're looking to play through the standard overland content just to experience it, definitely don't start as a tank. Maybe turn your character into a tank after, or create one separate, but I accidentally played as a tank overland through two faction areas and until about CP 180 (max health attributes and heavy armor to stay alive while solo, I thought) and I wouldn't wish that on anyone. I just thought it was really hard to kill things for like a year and didn't realize my mistake until I googled why I couldn't kill even a single monster in Maelstrom Arena. Oops.

But now I find tanking way more satisfying than DPS in group content (partially because I'm not very good at DPS).

Short answer Tank. I suspect the tank population to be about 0.5%. Experience? I've tanked hard content for years, usually good tanks also make good dps and good healers as you become very familiar with the mechanics.

If you're planning on doing dungeons through the group finder (pugging), having a tank is great because it's almost always instant-queue. Queue time for healers isn't bad, but I've found it to be very inconsistent. I haven't tried queuing as DPS because I hear it takes forever. The downside is that in a PUG, the group (rightly or wrongly) expects the tank to know what to do, lead the way, and (if necessary) explain the mechanics to others. So it's wise to do some homework before stepping into a dungeon for the first time as a tank. (Maybe less so in normal dungeons at low level, though, where presumably you'd be starting out.)

I see calls for tanks in PUG trials often. But usually in a PUG call, there are slots open for DDs and healers too. I don't often see "Need 1 tank for ___then good to go" (unless it's "Need 1 experienced tank for vet ___ hm then good to go"). And as someone else said, there are only 1-2 slots for tanks in trials, so your opportunities are limited if that's all you do.

Based on my experience, I'd say that's somewhat true in guilds as well. Established guilds may have more tanks than they can accommodate already. This is contrary to my experience in other games, where even in established guilds, tanks were usually in short supply.