A majority of players prefer DPS classes. Urban Legend?

ignore_me

This is a recurring theme in threads, but is it true?

Sagasaint

most likely yes. I prefer healer classes myself

Kyleran

I've always preferred to play Hybrid Healers/Support, i.e. DAOCs Minstrel class

MsGamerlady

I normally play healer or hybrid roles. Being the alt nut that I am though I normally have a few dps characters in my roster

The sad thing that I've found and maybe it was just the guild I was in ( in AOC just after the f2p opened), is that most folk opted for dps classes and refuse to play a healer. So, I had no shortage of groups but sadly they had shortage of healers, only if I could run multiple instances of myself to help everyone and take care of my questing and soloing needs myself ( kidding of course)

Nixish

I enjoy dps the most out of the holy trinity, but I enjoy grouping more. Dps tend to have a harder time finding groups in games because theyre a dime a dozen.

For that reason, I play a hybrid if possible.

cc170

I typically play all 3, but I find healing and tanking way more interactive and fun in PvE. I only usually play a dps role in PvE if I am burnt out on the other two and just want to chill out. I personally was kind of disappointed when I heard GW2 will not have healers or tanks. 

WBadger

Of course.  It's because it's easy for people to blame a death on a healer or tank.  Most of the DPS people don't want to take responsibility for the fact that a group going into the ground might because of them, so instead they opt to go "The healer wasn't healing." or "The tank lost aggro."

 

In short, there's a lot of people doing dps because there's a lot of people that are simply cowards.

 

Oh, and before someone tells me that there are a lot of people that play dps because they find it the most fun since someone IS going to say that to cover them, that is mostly false.  Every person that you ask why they play dps will say they do it is fun because nobody wants to admit that they are afraid that they caused a group to wipe.

astoria

I usually play a hybrid. I usually play a hybrid because I'd rather group if I'm going to play online. A hybrid allows me to fill multiple roles more easily. Thus, allowing me to get into a group faster. Also, in most decent games, especially PvP, situational awareness is more important than the classes you have assembled. If I can switch 'roles' quickly, I can react to more situations.

 

KenFisher

Usually a hunter or ranger class lately.  With a strong pet the soloability is very easy.

 

I used to roll healers or hybrids, but now grouping is so screwed up it's not woth the hassle.

Revivial

I loved to tank and heal in EQ, and it carried over to DAoC and ended in Warcraft.

 

At the end, i would only heal and tank for friends.  The DPS in Warcraft always seemed to know how to tank better then me, and would let me know.  The DPS in Warcraft always seemed to know how to heal better then me, and let me know.  Didn't matter if we wiped or not. 

After Lich King released, I respec'd into DPS talents, looked up some rotation theories and gave it a try.  I found i was getting praised in almost every group for my awesome DPS. I was topping charts constantly, and when i hit 80 and started to raid, i still was top of most 10 mans, and top 3 in most 25s. It was great.

Instead of being constantly told how to play, I was being praised for being able to read and follow a rotation.  Easier work, less responsibility, and more praise, why would anyone want to go back to Tanking or Healing after that?

ignore_me

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Originally posted by Revivial
I loved to tank and heal in EQ, and it carried over to DAoC and ended in Warcraft.
 
At the end, i would only heal and tank for friends.  The DPS in Warcraft always seemed to know how to tank better then me, and would let me know.  The DPS in Warcraft always seemed to know how to heal better then me, and let me know.  Didn't matter if we wiped or not. 
After Lich King released, I respec'd into DPS talents, looked up some rotation theories and gave it a try.  I found i was getting praised in almost every group for my awesome DPS. I was topping charts constantly, and when i hit 80 and started to raid, i still was top of most 10 mans, and top 3 in most 25s. It was great.
Instead of being constantly told how to play, I was being praised for being able to read and follow a rotation.  Easier work, less responsibility, and more praise, why would anyone want to go back to Tanking or Healing after that?

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Wow, that's sad. And I'm not being sarcastic

wolffin

Tanking in DAoC was fun, tanking in WoW is a pain the ass playing dps is more fun

Neverdyne

It is not a myth, you can easily prove it by queue times. When you join a dungeon queue as a tank, you get in instantly, as a healer you wait 10 minutes or so, and as a DPS you wait upwards of 40 minutes. Think that the majority of casual players, who don't visit these forums, usually play DPS. So even amongst what you could consider hardcore players (those who voted here) DPS is prefered; and it is much more so among the casuals. 

Czelaw

I always roll a tank as main toon then a dps for alt

Castillle

Sad to say that the guy wi the long post is true. Whenevrr im a healer i always get told how to play even if im doing fine. Same with tanking. Healers do get a "good job" and pat on the back but tank? Never happened.



itslike a caste system. Dps are upper class, healers are middle class, tanks are thankless slaves. "MUSH U TANK" folloed by a whipping wif words

Panther2103

Well, the main reason I have always preferred DPS classes to Tank or Healing classes is because I don't know how to play them. When I do bad in an instance, or in pvp, and I'm a healer or tank, everyone always talks about how I should reroll, or play a different class. With DPS nobody really says anything, and I know I'm doing a pretty good job as a DPS. So I kind of just stuck with DPS.

Kyleran

Was talking to my son and his friends who all play WOW and they said none of them will tank anymore (some used to, including my son) because they tired of being screamed at and even kicked from groups because they didn't do something correctly as a a tank

Now they just scream at the tanks from the safety of their DPS chairs.

Revivial

Originally posted by Kyleran

Was talking to my son and his friends who all play WOW and they said none of them will tank anymore (some used to, including my son) because they tired of being screamed at and even kicked from groups because they didn't do something correctly as a a tank

Now they just scream at the tanks from the safety of their DPS chairs.

Only difference with me is I am more empathetic towards tanks and healers. 

I can say that while playing on EQ's Darkpaw progressive server, i did not witness any bad treatment of healers or tanks.  Maybe because its less complex? Dunno.

Sulaa

Playing as tank is rewarding yet stresful due to people beign ass. If someone in my group started to be an idiot (whining at me or healer and f.e. pulling mobs as dps instead of leaving pulling for tank) I just did not took mobs of from him and let him die. Him alone. Repeadetly if needed. Taking mobs from all the others.

 

But I agree this is frustrating and while I was playing dps it was much more chill.

What other non-tank and not-healer people do. If you're dps/support/cc/whatever and you see some punk screming at poor tank/healer - react. Ostracize. If there is no choice vote to kick abuser from group.

There is no other chocie. If you PERSONALLY won't do something about it nothing will change becasue everyone think's that his perosnnal behaviour or lack of disaggrement for bashing people don't change anything because millions of people play a game - they you're wrong. That is really no brainer.

Revivial

Originally posted by Sulaa

Playing as tank is rewarding yet stresful due to people beign ass. If someone in my group started to be an idiot (whining at me or healer and f.e. pulling mobs as dps instead of leaving pulling for tank) I just did not took mobs of from him and let him die. Him alone. Repeadetly if needed. Taking mobs from all the others.

 

But I agree this is frustrating and while I was playing dps it was much more chill.

What other non-tank and not-healer people do. If you're dps/support/cc/whatever and you see some punk screming at poor tank/healer - react. Ostracize. If there is no choice vote to kick abuser from group.

There is no other chocie. If you PERSONALLY won't do something about it nothing will change becasue everyone think's that his perosnnal behaviour or lack of disaggrement for bashing people don't change anything because millions of people play a game - they you're wrong. That is really no brainer.

This is good advice, but I was vote kicked out of a group for trying this.  It left me feeling really bad, and was another reason why i only put myself out for people i know or like. 

It can backfire, sometimes it seems as a tank you are the enemy in pugs.  Its better, in my opinion, to just befriend the cool people you meet and only put yourself out there for those people.  Let the tough skinned alpha's handle the pug tanking.

just1opinion

Originally posted by Castillle

Sad to say that the guy wi the long post is true. Whenevrr im a healer i always get told how to play even if im doing fine. Same with tanking. Healers do get a "good job" and pat on the back but tank? Never happened.







itslike a caste system. Dps are upper class, healers are middle class, tanks are thankless slaves. "MUSH U TANK" folloed by a whipping wif words

 

What the bunny said ^^^^.

Yup.

Tsk tsk.  We are cruel to those who TRY to take care of us.  It's shameful, really.

angerbeaver

Originally posted by Mike221

Of course.  It's because it's easy for people to blame a death on a healer or tank.  Most of the DPS people don't want to take responsibility for the fact that a group going into the ground might because of them, so instead they opt to go "The healer wasn't healing." or "The tank lost aggro."

 

In short, there's a lot of people doing dps because there's a lot of people that are simply cowards.

 

Oh, and before someone tells me that there are a lot of people that play dps because they find it the most fun since someone IS going to say that to cover them, that is mostly false.  Every person that you ask why they play dps will say they do it is fun because nobody wants to admit that they are afraid that they caused a group to wipe.

 What you find fun and what I find fun is different. I love my shadow priest, why? because it is super easy. click click click click in most fights, whereas tanks and heals need to worry about timing and position. I like easy. Granted I won't say a lot of people are like me but that's why I like DPS (hunter in Lotro, SP in WoW)

Sulaa

Originally posted by Revivial

Originally posted by Sulaa

Playing as tank is rewarding yet stresful due to people beign ass. If someone in my group started to be an idiot (whining at me or healer and f.e. pulling mobs as dps instead of leaving pulling for tank) I just did not took mobs of from him and let him die. Him alone. Repeadetly if needed. Taking mobs from all the others.

 

But I agree this is frustrating and while I was playing dps it was much more chill.

What other non-tank and not-healer people do. If you're dps/support/cc/whatever and you see some punk screming at poor tank/healer - react. Ostracize. If there is no choice vote to kick abuser from group.

There is no other chocie. If you PERSONALLY won't do something about it nothing will change becasue everyone think's that his perosnnal behaviour or lack of disaggrement for bashing people don't change anything because millions of people play a game - they you're wrong. That is really no brainer.

This is good advice, but I was vote kicked out of a group for trying this.  It left me feeling really bad, and was another reason why i only put myself out for people i know or like. 

It can backfire, sometimes it seems as a tank you are the enemy in pugs.  Its better, in my opinion, to just befriend the cool people you meet and only put yourself out there for those people.  Let the tough skinned alpha's handle the pug tanking.

That is another problem with dungeon finder. Not only it changes game to graphical lobby with all people sitting in city waiting 40 minutes (if dps) for a group. But it also make it that there is no leader in group.

No leader in group mean = vote kicks, bitching and moaning. With dungeon findeer especially crosss servver one people seem to feel more anonymous and that brings worst in them as well.

With leader he decides to kick someone or not. Of course it happens that he himself can be an ass but my experiences seem worse without him rather than with.

Really whole "sitting in cities and using dungeon finders to teleport to instance and grind tokens" system is flawed. I think it partially is responsibile for people acting bad.

Icewhite

Huh, why is off-tank given a seperate listing?  That's weird.

Revivial

Originally posted by Sulaa

 

That is another problem with dungeon finder. Not only it changes game to graphical lobby with all people sitting in city waiting 40 minutes (if dps) for a group. But it also make it that there is no leader in group.

No leader in group mean = vote kicks, bitching and moaning. With dungeon findeer especially crosss servver one people seem to feel more anonymous and that brings worst in them as well.

With leader he decides to kick someone or not. Of course it happens that he himself can be an ass but my experiences seem worse without him rather than with.

Really whole "sitting in cities and using dungeon finders to teleport to instance and grind tokens" system is flawed. I think it partially is responsibile for people acting bad.

I agree.  I remember before the Dungeon Finder, having a tank drop mid dungeon cause the hunter kept pulling extras.  Without the dungeon finder we were stuck trying to find ways to communicate with other tanks that might be looking for a group in a dungeon half done.

Or we would have to restart, time permitting.  Usually, i am sure i'm not alone on this, i would switch to my main and just finish it up for the group if they were in there for quests, or had limited time and wanted to at least finish.

That is probably the biggest pro to the Dungeon Finder, finding people who wanted to group faster.  The cons seem to outweigh it for me.

Short-Straw

I like tanking but, I'm really looking forward to GW2. Let the people who've been dps'ing their way through games learn some situational awareness and maybe, just maybe, a little patience.

Not playing anything currently but, when I tank, I refuse to PuG. Maybe my group will pick up an extra body if we need it (met some good people this way) but, if their rude, their gone (me or them mentality, non-negotiable).

 

Some people have touched on in this, LFD. Horrible idea. Reduces investment in the group since you don't have spend time getting there or even take the time to get a group together. No investment in social aspect since you'll never see the people you're grouped with again. If you're a rude d-bag, no penalty for getting kicked, just get in the line again. Another reason I quit WoW.