In your marvelous opinion what's the most difficult role to play? [Tank vs Healer]

MLGProPlayer · May 2019

1. DPS
2. Tank
3. Healer

This is why players who can't hit competitive DPS get relegated to support roles. It has a much lower skill ceiling due to not requiring as much hand-eye coordination (thanks to animation cancelling). Lag is also much less of a factor in healting/tanking because precision isn't important and there is a lot of room for error.

That's not to say no tank/healer could DPS. Plenty of them choose to tank/heal because they enjoy the role more. But in terms of just comparing difficulty, DPS is definitely ahead of the other two.

If animation cancelling wasn't a thing and combat was slowed down, you could make a case for healing or tanking being more difficult.

Linaleah · May 2019

max_only wrote: »

Dps is the hardest. That’s why I only play tank or healer in group content.

Tanking and Healing is a yes/no activity. Dps is done on a scale, one gamers as a community judge others harshly on that scale.

this basicaly. I find healer a bit easier then the tank, becasue while with both positioning is important, there is a bit more room for error so to speak with healing, and aintaining healer buffs, again in my opinion is easier then making sure you are taunting the right mobs at the right time.

but all in all, effective dps in this game IMO - is the hardest role.

Ertosi · May 2019

Tank

BrianLovesLisa wrote: »

yRaven wrote: »

I was thinking about it, sure most healers are made of paper and need to stay behind, and also making sure everyone are ''healthier'' but God... Tanks do a lot of the work taunting all enemies and SURVIVING THAT
But in your opinion what do you think, and if you want post a funny story that happened with playing the Role

Biased Poll you forgot DPS tank and heal is easy

To be blunt, anyone who thinks DPS is the difficult role is the type of player who completely disregards what the other roles bring to the table.

Look at it in reverse and ask which roles are the most sought after (i.e. harder to find, difficult to fill). Tank is the most sought after, followed by Healer, while DPS are a dime a dozen (and that's being generous). This tells it true which are really the more difficult roles.

Ertosi · May 2019

Tank

Linaleah wrote: »

max_only wrote: »

Dps is the hardest. That’s why I only play tank or healer in group content.

Tanking and Healing is a yes/no activity. Dps is done on a scale, one gamers as a community judge others harshly on that scale.

this basicaly. I find healer a bit easier then the tank, becasue while with both positioning is important, there is a bit more room for error so to speak with healing, and aintaining healer buffs, again in my opinion is easier then making sure you are taunting the right mobs at the right time.

but all in all, effective dps in this game IMO - is the hardest role.

Here's the problem with the perspective many are approaching this thread with. You're comparing "effective" dps to general tanking or general healing. The thread's premise isn't effective tank vs effective healer, it's straight up tank vs healer. So if you want to throw DPS into the mix, it needs to be a general comparison and not effective/top tier DPS vs general tank vs general healer.

Runkorko · May 2019

Ackwalan wrote: »

The thing about tanking, is that the DPS expect the tank to get all the mobs together, do the interrupts and any mechanics that need to be done. It is frustrating as a tank when we get pinned and NO ONE will bash the boss. Come on DPS, you don't need a shield to bash that boss so we can move again.

This happens only in normal. Which doesnt matter, because most normals are soloable...

siddique · May 2019

Healer

I think healing is the more difficult among the two. Tanks can eat lunch while tanking most of the stuff. But the worst feeling is when your tank dies, I can almost see a group wipe. It's a lot of responsibility.

And yes, if your dps is top notch, healers and tanks job becomes much easier. In the end it all depends on your group's fire power.

Linaleah · May 2019

Ertosi wrote: »

Linaleah wrote: »

max_only wrote: »

Dps is the hardest. That’s why I only play tank or healer in group content.

Tanking and Healing is a yes/no activity. Dps is done on a scale, one gamers as a community judge others harshly on that scale.

this basicaly. I find healer a bit easier then the tank, becasue while with both positioning is important, there is a bit more room for error so to speak with healing, and aintaining healer buffs, again in my opinion is easier then making sure you are taunting the right mobs at the right time.

but all in all, effective dps in this game IMO - is the hardest role.

Here's the problem with the perspective many are approaching this thread with. You're comparing "effective" dps to general tanking or general healing. The thread's premise isn't effective tank vs effective healer, it's straight up tank vs healer. So if you want to throw DPS into the mix, it needs to be a general comparison and not effective/top tier DPS vs general tank vs general healer.

still counts though. this game is incredibly weird in that its easier to tank or heal then to dps. unless we are talking selecting dps role and then just sorta light attacking in a general direction of a mob.

it also works in terms of effecting tanking and effective healing vs effective dps. i STILL personaly find dps to be the hardest, requiring the most focus. personaly.

and btw, I play almost entirely healers in group content. I occasionally tank, and i only "dps" when soloing unless a guild normal run needs a warm body in a dps spot. I generally prefer healing in every MMO I've ever played, but in this game EVEN with all the responsibilities that are on healers and tank shoulders... I personaly STILL, in this game find them easier to play then dps. this is one of the few MMO's that i have personaly played where there is far more more required from dps then parsing the boss.

Runefang · May 2019

Ertosi wrote: »

BrianLovesLisa wrote: »

yRaven wrote: »

I was thinking about it, sure most healers are made of paper and need to stay behind, and also making sure everyone are ''healthier'' but God... Tanks do a lot of the work taunting all enemies and SURVIVING THAT
But in your opinion what do you think, and if you want post a funny story that happened with playing the Role

Biased Poll you forgot DPS tank and heal is easy

To be blunt, anyone who thinks DPS is the difficult role is the type of player who completely disregards what the other roles bring to the table.

Look at it in reverse and ask which roles are the most sought after (i.e. harder to find, difficult to fill). Tank is the most sought after, followed by Healer, while DPS are a dime a dozen (and that's being generous). This tells it true which are really the more difficult roles.

In vet trial guilds the tank and healer roles often fill first. Obviously there is less of them needed but I find its the dps roles are the hardest to fill up, at least when the bar is 50k+ dps.

In pugs tanks and healers are heavily sought after because nobody wants to do pugs in the support role. That's because its the dps role which is the hardest and you're more likely to find bad dpsers by pugging.

Ertosi · May 2019

Tank

Linaleah wrote: »

Ertosi wrote: »

Linaleah wrote: »

max_only wrote: »

Dps is the hardest. That’s why I only play tank or healer in group content.

Tanking and Healing is a yes/no activity. Dps is done on a scale, one gamers as a community judge others harshly on that scale.

this basicaly. I find healer a bit easier then the tank, becasue while with both positioning is important, there is a bit more room for error so to speak with healing, and aintaining healer buffs, again in my opinion is easier then making sure you are taunting the right mobs at the right time.

but all in all, effective dps in this game IMO - is the hardest role.

Here's the problem with the perspective many are approaching this thread with. You're comparing "effective" dps to general tanking or general healing. The thread's premise isn't effective tank vs effective healer, it's straight up tank vs healer. So if you want to throw DPS into the mix, it needs to be a general comparison and not effective/top tier DPS vs general tank vs general healer.

still counts though. this game is incredibly weird in that its easier to tank or heal then to dps. unless we are talking selecting dps role and then just sorta light attacking in a general direction of a mob.

it also works in terms of effecting tanking and effective healing vs effective dps. i STILL personaly find dps to be the hardest, requiring the most focus. personaly.

and btw, I play almost entirely healers in group content. I occasionally tank, and i only "dps" when soloing unless a guild normal run needs a warm body in a dps spot. I generally prefer healing in every MMO I've ever played, but in this game EVEN with all the responsibilities that are on healers and tank shoulders... I personaly STILL, in this game find them easier to play then dps. this is one of the few MMO's that i have personaly played where there is far more more required from dps then parsing the boss.

I started off maining DPS. I completed just about all vet content on multiple DPS alts. Eventually I got bored of the queue waits and started playing with healer and tank. Vet content with DPS is faceroll easy. I've done most of it now on Healer, but to be honest I'm just back-barring resto staff and helping push the total DPS to keep it all a faceroll. I've been tanking for a while now and I still don't like taking my tanks into vet cause of all the stuff you've got to juggle to ensure the run doesn't fall apart. When comparing roles with each role at the same difficultly level it's no contest: Tank is by far the hardest and DPS is the easiest.

I still feel like you're comparing Top-Tier X to Average Y. Of course when you logic it that way X is always going to win over Y.

idk · May 2019

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

1. DPS
2. Tank
3. Healer

This is why players who can't hit competitive DPS get relegated to support roles. It has a much lower skill ceiling due to not requiring as much hand-eye coordination (thanks to animation cancelling). Lag is also much less of a factor in healting/tanking because precision isn't important and there is a lot of room for error.

That's not to say no tank/healer could DPS. Plenty of them choose to tank/heal because they enjoy the role more. But in terms of just comparing difficulty, DPS is definitely ahead of the other two.

If animation cancelling wasn't a thing and combat was slowed down, you could make a case for healing or tanking being more difficult.

This philosophy might work for 4 man dungeons and the trials that are not challenging but it is not how they do things in the competitive raid groups.

It would be interesting to read the context of the comment above. I guarantee the dps in the top raid groups do not look down on their tanks and healers as you seem to. Especially when they often have to watch more targets than dps do.

Ingenon · May 2019

For me, playing healer, tank, or DPS with PUG for dungeons, or trials with a social guild, it really depends upon the group that shows up. Neither is harder.

Skua · May 2019

Tank

For me tanking is harder than healing. I feel like you need to know mechanics and boss tells really well for hard dungeons and if you have a low DPS group you often have to self-sustain and keep yourself alive and taunt all the things and sometimes pick them all up off the floor while doing so. For healer, I keep burst heals that aren't ground based on my heal bar so people running around is a non-issue and I can often add enough DPS to make up for a low DPS group.

russelmmendoza · May 2019

Nightblade.

mocap · May 2019

Again and again Op didn't state for what content his question.

If we speak about PUG, then it is realy situative. In Ruins of Mazzatun i'd say healer is harder. In Scalecaller tank is harder (you actually don't need healer in Scalecaller). In MHK both roles are hard.

For static group tank ofcuz. You don't need healer most of the time in static groups. Better have 3rd DD with burst heal (bird or BoL).

Jhalin · May 2019

Tank

Tbh I would call dps the most mechanically difficult, as far as peak potential goes. It’s much harder to improve as a DPS (rotation practice and experience) than it is to improve as a healer or a tank (primarily experience)

However, I’m basing my answer on how hard it is to compensate for insufficiencies in the group.

Healers can slot extra damage and interrupts to assist in damage if dps is low. If a tank is struggling they can adjust skills to help them survive. They can even help with CC usually, in some areas they can slot a taunt

DPS can slot self heals and use defensive abilities to survive some enemy fire if heals are lackluster and tank doesn’t get all the adds.

Tanks already stack themselves heavy on self heals and mitigation. Their stats are already heavy into survivability. Adjusting to get more damage to make up for poor dps means they have less survivability, there’s not much more healing they can really get by changing skills if the healer isn’t providing resources. They can’t give themselves shards or synergies.

FierceSam · May 2019

Healer

Both Tanking and Healing are highly skilled roles which are massively underappreciated, mainly because success in either cannot be summed up in a single Idiot Score.

However, with Tanking, you can at least see what your Tank is doing and judge how much control and impact they have over a specific fight. The more focused the situation, the better the tank.

Just as tanking is so much more than just applying a taunt and looking cool in heavy armour, so healing is about more than simply having a healy stick and spamming Healing Springs. And as a dps (or tank) it’s often hard to tell what the healer is up to.

If a healer does their job right, the only thing you will notice is that you are alive, fully buffed and, probably, have significantly better performance than usual. Which for your usual self-obsessed dps stats bunny simply means they are continuing to “play awesome”.

Supplying an endless number of heals, buffs and debuffs to a group of constantly moving players, who remain largely ignorant of your actions, don’t have any situational awareness and often prefer to stand behind their healer is a thankless task, which is made to look simple by players who are good at it. I wish I was half as accomplished as some of the players I’ve had healing me.

Runkorko · May 2019

FierceSam wrote: »

Both Tanking and Healing are highly skilled roles which are massively underappreciated, mainly because success in either cannot be summed up in a single Idiot Score.

By idiotic score you mean dps meter right ?:)
And hows this idiotic ?
To find the righ skill combo and to execute them perfectly. Do you even try it ?
Yes you can go get some "meta" builds from guides/ but this wont help you much.
Healer is no brain here/ tank it requre more skills to play but not even close to those needed to dish good dps.
And by good dps i dont mean 30k or under (ST)
You dont need to be ofended only because you play tank or healer!!!

AbysmalGhul · May 2019

Both roles are pretty easy to play. The better question would be; who receives the most grief for making mistakes?

VDoom1 · May 2019

Tank

From my own experience I pick tank. It can be a total nightmare. x.x

Not saying healing isn't difficult. But depending on the group healing can be a walk in the park. I've been in groups that had healers who could focus on doing damage instead because the tank was doing a great job.

If the tank screws up, everyone dies. Healer screws up everyone dies. DD screws up, someone will rez him/her.
Bottom line Tank and Healer are both very essential, but I have to say that going as a tank can be more difficult.

A lot depends on the group and the situation.

ccfeeling · May 2019

Tank

Tank without suitable kits are freaking hard in this game .

Such as Templar and NB tanks .

ZOS created Psijic Order line that provide more options for the tanks , healer and DPS .

But the performance is really bad , they have no idea how this game run .

AbysmalGhul · May 2019

ccfeeling wrote: »

Tank without suitable kits are freaking hard in this game .

Such as Templar and NB tanks .

ZOS created Psijic Order line that provide more options for the tanks , healer and DPS .

But the performance is really bad , they have no idea how this game run .

I know. That's why most tanks are always stuck using the DK class. It would be nice to have more options, but DK has the best options in my opinion.

Jeremy · May 2019

yRaven wrote: »

I was thinking about it, sure most healers are made of paper and need to stay behind, and also making sure everyone are ''healthier'' but God... Tanks do a lot of the work taunting all enemies and SURVIVING THAT
But in your opinion what do you think, and if you want post a funny story that happened with playing the Role

I don't know if "hard" is the right word, but I consider healing to be the most frustrating role to play right now. It's too dependent on the actions of other players, who tend to go out of their way to make themselves difficult to heal. Trying to run around healing a group that is spread out all over the place is so annoying it drives me nuts.

As far as tanking goes - how difficult that is depends greatly on which dungeon or trial you are doing. So I would say it fluctuates depending on the content.

AbysmalGhul · May 2019

Jeremy wrote: »

yRaven wrote: »

I was thinking about it, sure most healers are made of paper and need to stay behind, and also making sure everyone are ''healthier'' but God... Tanks do a lot of the work taunting all enemies and SURVIVING THAT
But in your opinion what do you think, and if you want post a funny story that happened with playing the Role

I don't know if "hard" is the right word, but I consider healing to be the most frustrating role to play right now. It's too dependent on the actions of other players, who tend to go out of their way to make themselves difficult to heal. Trying to run around healing a group that is spread out all over the place is so annoying it drives me nuts.

As far as tanking goes - how difficult that is depends greatly on which dungeon or trial you are doing. So I would say it fluctuates depending on the content.

You're doing it wrong... You don't have to run around healing groups/people. As a tank or healer, you are the boss of that dungeon or trial that you're participating in. You have to take control of the situation, do call outs, and make sure people are doing what they are supposed to be doing.

You have a kiting DD? That's a DD who isn't going to get healed and is going to die. No point is neglecting the rest of the team because of the bad habits of one player.

MaxJrFTW · May 2019

Tank

Tank > DPS > Healer. I'm a healer main, healing takes absolutely 0 skill in ESO.

Uviryth · May 2019

In ESO? DPS, no doubt about that. Tank has its moments, and Heal is pretty easy going. But DPS with their insane rotation and their animation canceling is a whole other level of difficulty.

Jeremy · May 2019

AbysmalGhul wrote: »

Jeremy wrote: »

yRaven wrote: »

I was thinking about it, sure most healers are made of paper and need to stay behind, and also making sure everyone are ''healthier'' but God... Tanks do a lot of the work taunting all enemies and SURVIVING THAT
But in your opinion what do you think, and if you want post a funny story that happened with playing the Role

I don't know if "hard" is the right word, but I consider healing to be the most frustrating role to play right now. It's too dependent on the actions of other players, who tend to go out of their way to make themselves difficult to heal. Trying to run around healing a group that is spread out all over the place is so annoying it drives me nuts.

As far as tanking goes - how difficult that is depends greatly on which dungeon or trial you are doing. So I would say it fluctuates depending on the content.

You're doing it wrong... You don't have to run around healing groups/people. As a tank or healer, you are the boss of that dungeon or trial that you're participating in. You have to take control of the situation, do call outs, and make sure people are doing what they are supposed to be doing.

You have a kiting DD? That's a DD who isn't going to get healed and is going to die. No point is neglecting the rest of the team because of the bad habits of one player.

Like I said - it's too dependent on the actions of other players. Your post is basically confirming what I was attempting to say. No role should require that people "take control" of the situation or do "call outs' simply to perform their basic function. That's why when you do trials you almost always see the healer begging for people to "stack please". Because it really is the only way they can effectively heal people. It doesn't help that so many fights on this game encourage players to run all over the place either.

Also: anyone who thinks they can "take control" of pug groups either doesn't pug very often or has remarkably good luck. Because that's pie in the sky right there. You probably have a better chance of herding cats.

Thoragaal · May 2019

Healer

As a healer you have to pay attention to what other people are doing and make up for their mistakes. You are being judged on the basis on how well other people stay out of AoE and other nasty things. Your job is basically to baby sit others players.
As a tank your biggest concern is when the DPS interferes with a mob you yet haven't taunted and then runs away with the mob. Or a healer that doesn't heal/ provide synergies.
As a DPS you only have to think about yourself and the mob.

I'd say healing is the most difficult job.

However, if everyone is doing what they are suppose to do and we exclude the human factor, then the tables are turned and DPSing becomes the most difficult task to do. As DPSing is about timing every single individual skill, and having a constant delay between abilities being used has a huge negative impact, it's far more easy to do a poor job as a DPS than it is as a tank/healer.

But then again, the game doesn't require you to do insane damage numbers all the time in order to "win" (killing said boss fight). So the amount of DPS "needed" becomes an abritrarily measurement thing we as players have attached a value to.
Unless we're exclusively talking about timed runs.

What scenario are we talking about again?

TheNightflame · May 2019

Healer

healer is hardest to play well, tank is the hardest to play functionally

Dragneel1207 · May 2019

Tank

spam the springs and earthgore as a healer its enough in most cases.
Tank job gets difficult and easy based on group and coordination.

Juomuuri · May 2019

Healer

I can tank and heal just fine but if my group members die, I have failed as a healer, but tanking only fails if I die (to put it shortly). Much more room to fail with healerino, so voted that!