Tank or Heal?

Hello as long term dps player who never really did much content besides weekly vault, what in your opinion is better to pick up for next patch? Tank or Heal? For the record I do not have stable guild/group so mostly asking from Pug perspective.

Tank if you want an easier role, at least that’s my take. I feel that healer is generally harder than tank when you’re pugging.
I have tried both roles and I usually get more progress as tank, though I gotta say that I suck at healing and I find it very hard.

Tanking is an easy transistion from DPS.

Healing is its own whack-a-mole game.

I’ll both agree and disagree with this.

The issue with pugging is that your greatest challenge are your teammates. If you have considerate teammates, you will find both tanking and healing to be easier than dpsing. If not, you will generally have a harder time with either, and I can’t even say which of the two roles has a worse experience when pugging M+

Then I’d say it depends largely on how comfortable you are with having leadership role, because that’s sort of “baked into” the tanking. You’re sort of expected to know dungeon layouts, set the group’s pace etc. This can get a bit dodgy with PUGs.

If that’s fine and dandy, then I’d personally suggest tanking. It’s a load of fun. Healing isn’t to be scoffed at either, but there’s something about having a boss try to take you down, and failing, that delivers quite a fun experience.

Although I think the bit about pace-setting is actually quite good for dipping into tanking. The cadence and pulls are in your control (other than when a DPS player gets impatient) and I find it results in more predictable play. Pick up a healer and you’re never quite sure whether you’re going to get paired with a tank who thinks they’re Rambo…

Plus pew pew laser bears are cool. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

As a tank I feel way more pressure in a key, since if I fail, the group fails. As a healer, there is also some pressure, but it s less, or a different pressure, not sure.

DPS usually don’t feel that I guess, but when I play DPS, I also try to make sure I do my job well.

It’s always easy to shout at someone, I personally don’t care, esp. if it’s one of those pugs where I think “how in God’s name did you get that score ?”

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I’d would say Tanking is easier to pick up than healing.

Tanking is just DPSing while cycling defensives. You do the same positioning stuff. You remain mostly on the same target. The worst thing you have to manage is a dungeon route - everything else is just the same but “slower.”

It’s not a walk in the park and has some major responsibilities to consider. If you die, the group tends to wipe. You are the main tempo holder of any fight, but that isn’t the worst as long as you know how to hold agro!

Healing has you monitoring the bosses health, the tank’s health, the DPS’s health and your own health. You have to focus a lot more on learning individual encounters because you have to know when your healing is needed or it will be wasted. Only healers have a finite duration in fights - mana.

You have to try and DPS while also making sure that heals are targeted on specific allies when they need. Chances are you may need to swap targets even if you use mouse-over macros. If it all goes to hell and people die, you can bet that you’ll be the first one complained about. No matter how good you’ve been doing.

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Personally I have a harder time with healer than tank. For example as tank I have to consider my team positioning but if a DPS is far away and dies I can’t really do much; as healer you have to run towards them and try to save them, might not be your fault 'cause maybe that DPS didn’t use anything but still you could have done something more for them as healer that you could as tank.
Having a good healer is more impactful in a key than having a good tank imo.

As healer you get more punished by people not using their personals than you do as a tank - that alone, for me at least, makes the role harder and more frustating.

Mind you, I haven’t done any high keys as healer and I have far more experience as tank than any other role so my take might be hyperbole.

I would also like to note that I struggle a lot with mouseover macros and stuff like that, as tank you really have a few if any (unless you’re playing prot paladin I guess) - as healer I think mouseovers are more or less a must.

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I haven’t done any m+ this season, but I normally do enough to get the mount. Personally I far prefer playing a healer and I find it less stressful than routing a group through a dungeon as a tank. Good luck with whichever you decide on.

Tanking is probably easier role wise , but its harder “game knowledge” wise . U pretty much need to know everything , what groups of mobs to take, pacing , route , adjusting based on group on the fly , idealy watching not only yours but also theirs CDs as that means u can pull more , chain pull or dont based on on spec u play with etc etc .

Both dps and healer have it easier in that regard , u just whack a mole follow tank and thats it , but as soon as something bad touches you , u are done as tank u can make more mistakes , to some degree .

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