Done that too often now, here and on now defunct eq2flames. If you have any questions, then please post under "class" section of the forums and I will see if i can share a few points.
Yes, I'd never call someone that in the game, I just mean this is how people feel when they try to play with their friends/guilds/PuGs who are actually geared properly for content, and they are not (because its such an insane checklist to take care of before you can really start playing the game). Even if the group members don't criticize them or make fun of them, they will often come to the conclusion themselves that they are holding everyone back and feel bad about it, EVEN after weeks or even months of effort to try catching up. I've seen it so many times when someone in my groups is being carried. Nobody will be making fun of them, in fact more often than not I notice people are very accommodating and friendly about it and shrug it off as long as the content can get finished, but the un-geared players themselves will be very self-deprecating about the whole thing and I just know they are feeling like garbage.
It is simple really, if you have enough experience as a main tank about your class and happen to land in a group with friends/strangers and see a lot of backseat driving then just ignore them. I usually do that. You will come across non tank players who have tank alt bots who they gear by looting on their main and they just don't shut up because they think they know it all after being asked to tank once in a raid fight or happen to bot their own group around as tanks. They may be good at their non tank classes but far from qualified to comment on your tanking capability if you have put in time/effort to learn how to play them. I hate players who run infront of me and pull things more so if they are decked out buddies. I simply don't ever bother snapping mobs off them or put any sort of defensive. With the odd occassion they die, all i hear is "oh i lost aggro" and i retort with a condescending "yeah you are so OP mate" etc etc. /case closed not worth losing your sleep over as a tank. You will find these types of people all the time and in every online game. I have very little respect for these players. It just speaks volumes about how they are in real life so humor them, have pity and ignore is your friend. If you are a tank by choice and stuck around long then feel good about yourself. It takes courage and grit to play one. Let see these "self-proclaimed wannabe tanks" tank and grow naturally during an expansion. They cannot handle it.
This is particularly bad if it happens to a tank, they will likely not return to tanking when, really, the problem is solvable.
Yeah... This can be exacerbated by various mechanics to boot... Like, a Tank's main role is to hold threat right? That and stay alive. That's generally what you look for in a tank. However, you throw other things into the mix, for example, tactics or navigation. Knowing a "Good" tank knows every route through every area, knows how to pull every encounter, how to skip all possible skippable trash, how to tackle engagements, how quickly they can pull (I.e. Getting a feel for how stressed the healer is with the ultimate goal being chain pulling without leaving combat...) This all puts stress on a tank player, when initially the required things are so simple even a DPS can do it! In addition, you then have to put up with the fact that a lot of your threat comes from damage. You know what that means right? Not only do you have to keep in mind how well you hold threat, how you pull, how you stay alive (While also minimizing stress on the healer so they don't get miffed), you now also have to hold yourself up to DPS parses. Both with actual DPS and also with other tanks (Which, if you're playing a Guardian and you have seen comparable geared SK's parses...) I mean, I get why Tanks get focused on DPS so often in games, it appeals to DPS players to entice them into tanking and also makes solo content nicer. However, it does throw in that mess of DPS meter watching, both from yourself and you KNOW everyone else in the group will be watching too (DPS watch because they wanna be #1 and healers watch to see which DPS they need to care about least...) A whole host of things that you can compare yourself to and get depressed when you know you're sub-par (For whatever reason, gear, experience, class choice)... Which does come back to my initial point of "Make Tanks appealing to play". There's a butt load of reason to NOT play a tank, but very few reasons to ACTUALLY main one in this game. Like, I only play them because I tank, that's just what I like to do, if not for that, what's drawing me to the mediocre DPS, highly competitive (You join a guild? Well, the 1-2 tanks needed for raids are already covered by the guilds 3-4 tanks already... Yaaay...) and majorly stressful class? Like, Healers? You get visceral feedback of saving people from death constantly. You're often beloved (Any death generally gets blamed on the tank...) and no-one really cares what you do, so long as you keep them alive (Also, res them when they are stupid) DPS? You punch stuff. Maybe you step out of fire. Maybe you let the healer heal you up. So long as you're not stupid low DPS then no-one cares about what you're doing. But given how people are fond of big numbers and high parses, everyone tends to naturally go towards playing well anyhow. You solo quickly, you push out the big flashy numbers, you watch as you chunk down enemies health. But for Tanks? You get hit. Hopefully. Provided your group doesn't massively outgear you and make you redundant because A) You can't hold aggro over their massive DPS and B) 'cause things die before they do much...
Kind of, but a guardian cant go in with no gear and survive a raid. This tank could, as long as the group was strong enough. This tank on its own couldnt kill a gnoll in Black burrow. A player could create the tank and be raid action instantly. I like playing Paladin, but hat tanking because everyone expects a raid tanker
