World of Warcraft®

In reaction to someone stating their roll was the most stressful I wanted to put out there - Who has the most stressful roll; Tank, Healer or DPS? Discuss

Depends a bit on the situation (pvp, raiding, etc) but overall I'd say healers in general.

DPS without the doubt. Just remember what you said to the worst dps in the last raid.

Do you want to be that guy?
Do you?

That said the reward is great as well. Epic mocking!

The one that gets beaten by 1 by some gnome for an ultra rare item.

Oh, you mean role.

It very much depends on the situation. I always used to say that tanks have the easiest jobs in raids and the hardest in 5-man dungeons. That has see-sawed back and forth over the time, but I think it's very much back to that.

DPS should always be stressed; if they're not then they aren't trying hard enough.

Healers' stress entirely depends on how well (or poorly) other people behave themselves.

Healers. No doubt.

It depends on the fight.

Usually it's either tank or healer, sometimes DPS like on heroic rag with dread flame.

Healing, in pvp. It's great fun being yelled at for "being responsible" for the death of the idiot leaping into a gang of enemy players whilst not bothering to check if their own healer is incapacitated (or even close by) ^^

Or getting screamed at because someone died whilst they were ignoring that fact that their own healer was chain cc'd.

Or fighting to keep dps alive who promptly mount up and leave you with all the aggro you just saved them from as soon as they are out of combat and ride off into the distance. That one is always a a peach for me ;)

Depends on the situation.

There are encounters where doing eminent dps is crucial, encounters where healers are put on the ultimate test, and encounters where tanking must be executed perfectly.

Then there's encounters where everything has to be done perfect, be it dps, healing or tanking.

So it really comes down to the situation.
Most of all tho, I would say DPS, since they are getting hated on when being too low for theire gear level.

Depends, usually the one for the new weapon or trinket, especially in heroic.

(Note that I've never experienced raiding content so this is all based on regular dungeons)

Tank. Tank Tank Tank Tank all the way.

I'm sorry guys, I know some will disagree until the cows come home but tanking (especially at lower levels) is tough and highly stressful. You need to be constantly alert.

DPS is easy. Know your rotation, fire it, sit back and relax. In lower level instances it's even easier. You can just follow the back and toss the occasional spell or whatever. Someone's always gonna be top dps and someone's always gonna be bottom. Stressing over recount tables is ridiculous and self-inflicted.

Healing can get stressful if you're with a bad group and they're making it impossible to keep up. However, if the Tank and dps do their jobs well/properly you sometimes hardly have to do anything and it gets easy. Also you don't have to know your dungeon geography to be a healer.

Tanking is more stressful because the lives of the others often depend on you. In my experience you're blamed for more than any other class. Also if you die you usually can't wait for a res like a dps class cause you're the tank. You need to get back in the and get the enemies on you.

I've spent a little time with every roll (mostly dps though) and by far the most stressful for me has been tanking.

Forum trolls, when they get juicy threads like this one all over the screen.

healing in pvp, for pve its healer and dps because they need to put out top-notch performance (talking progression raiding here, if you outlevel/outgear the place noone should even be remotely stressed anyway)

tanking just seems boring nowadays.

08/08/2012 13:30Posted by Dantro

Tanking is more stressful because the lives of the others often depend on you. In my experience you're blamed for more than any other class. Also if you die you usually can't wait for a res like a dps class cause you're the tank. You need to get back in the and get the enemies on you.

Well I think this is purely subjective. I play the three rolls mostly tank and healer

I can say the roll as a tank isn't as stressful as it used to be. Back in the days you needed to keep a lot of things in mind. Threath generation wasn't as evident as it is today. You had to focus on your rotation, get the mobs on the right spot and you we're lucky if you only needed to tank one. Tanking two or more mobs required high focus as a warrior tank.

Healing though isn't as evident either. Get in mind that healers mostly also need to dispel debuffs and keep everyone's life up.

Difficulty of each roll depends on te set up of the group, doesn't matter if you're tank, healer or dps.

DPS surely isn't the most difficult roll, but depending on the situation I can say tank or healer.

In randoms: Tanking & Healing.
Tanking simply because people tend to have no patience what so ever and ninja pull if things don't go fast enough. Even if you are in fact rushing.

Healing because regardless fo what you do, you can't improve other peoples gameplay, if they suck, you're either still screwed, or in for a long, dreadful battle.
Healing is also rather stressful in PvP for the same reasons, you might be able to keep others alive, but if they're 'bad', you're still in for a world of hurt (lack of assistance, anyone?).

DPS can be stressful if you're carrying, but at other times you it's the least stressful of all roles.

Personally, I find a roll of over 10 d10s to be more stressful, as fitting them all in one's hands becomes an issue. Also, a roll of d4 is difficult, since it doesn't really roll in your fist before the throw.

Pre-charging the dice with best possible numbers beforehand is of course always recommended.

Tanking low level is stressful because people act like morons as the content is now so easy it doesn't even require a 'tank'.

With raiding, which role is most stressful depends on so many variables there's not really any answer - It depends on the fight, the people you are with, and some RNG.

In PuGs I'd saying healing is the most stressful - worst case scenario you've got to struggle to keep up all the idiotic DPS standing in the fire doing 5k DPS making the fight drag on forever, while the horribly geared, badly played tank, is getting his face smashed in while using no cooldowns... and if anyone dies you're going to get the blame.
With worst case scenario as a tank, the DPS's health isn't really your issue, it's easy enough to pull aggro off stupid DPS if you have the inclination, but if they still die it's obviously their own fault, and at the end of the day if your healers some Paladin in ret gear, it won't really matter what you do unless you can solo that content.

I've never found DPS especially stressful outside of certain raid enrage mechanics - the win/fail is on your tank staying alive / your healers keeping anyone up through mistakes / raid damage.

Depends what people you group up with, really.

10k DPS in a heroic? GTFO NOOB! Votekick this idiot!

1 mob slips the attention of the tank? OMFG look this noob tank, votekick ya?

DPS draws aggro from a group of mobs while the party is busy with another group and causes a wipe? ZOMFG healer, WHAT THE F**CK IS SO HARD ABOUT HEALING?!

But if we are talking in a non-rage, sterile environment, id say healer. Needs a certain level of awareness the other roles dont need as much.

Roll is not stressful you just click greed or need, DON'T WORRY.

08/08/2012 13:30Posted by Dantro

Stressing over recount tables is ridiculous and self-inflicted.

If you have never raided then you should know that someone not pulling their weight can wipe the raid, even in DPS. Some are DPS races before the boss enrages.

I would say healing PUGs and LFD is most stressful, especially in the 80+ 5 mans. You get some tank in DPS gear or in Wrath gear and in 3 hits they are dead and they have pulled a group of 5.