Jjnnyrr wrote:
being a bit more on-topic, I brought up my discontent with the nature of parties lately. I don't think its a difference in tanks, I believe its that the DPS community (which I know is a broad generalization) has pretty figured out that they don't have to adhere to any of the old party mechanics anymore.
In fact, I've noticed a trend in instances at all levels that DPS seem to view it as a mark of skill to make fights as chaotic as possible and survive. Or feel that established party mechanics are too slow. Regardless, the result, seems to be a downgrade in party group quality. At least in my opinion.
I can definitely see where you're coming from, and I agree with you that sometimes you'll get a DPS that's just doing their own thing. But as someone who plays mostly DPS, I'm not sure it's something that happens necessarily because DPS culture is lazy or ignorant.
I think the way most people out-gear the High-Level dungeons (at least on my server) has had a big impact on the way people look at dungeons in general. Not only is it possible to simply AoE/Multi-DoT/ Zerg most of the High-Level dungeons, but it's usually much faster to do so. Pair that shift in philosophy with the fact that it's usually quite difficult for most DPS to pull hate from a competent, equally geared tank during normal dungeon pulls (outside of things like triple flare, which kills most things anyway), and hate management has become mostly a non-factor. That mentality trickles down into Low-Level Roulette and to the leveling dungeons when people are leveling their alts, and sometimes you just forget that you need to slow down.
In that same vein, most of the complaining I hear about DPS in endgame has to do with not doing enough damage -- to the point that you hear stories about people getting kicked over it. And all of that probably feeds into the idea that DPS needs to be all out Pew Pew all the time.
Additionally, the leveling dungeons aren't tuned to be so difficult that they really punish sloppy play. Whether or not that's a good thing will probably depend on who you ask. Just as an example, once, when I was doing Low-Level Roulette on my MNK, I got Cutter's Cry. My tank decided it wasn't a dungeon he wanted to do, and he left before we even started pulling things. Just to get things moving, I offered to pseudo-tank with Fists of Earth, and we started clearing trash mobs. We ended up clearing the dungeon without ever getting another tank. And certainly, to your point, that group was quite organized. But I think it also illustrates that there's really quite a lot of wiggle room when it comes to dungeon content.
But overall, PUGing dungeons tends to remind me of driving a car. Anyone going slower than you can't drive, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac. Anyone running a dungeon slower than you want can't play their class, and anyone going faster is being a jerk.
To the OP's comments about different attitudes toward different Jobs/Classes:
Though I play mostly DPS and can't comment on the WAR vs PLD conversation, people do seem to treat me differently based on the DPS Job I'm playing. When I play SMN or BLM, people tend to use my name and are pretty polite.
When I play DRG or BRD, though, it's entirely different. Instead, people just call me "BRD" or "DRG". They also seem to feel the need to give me a lot more unsolicited advice -- stuff like "MOAR MANA SONG NAO DUM CAT BRD!!!11!1 I'"M ALMOST OOM!!!1!1 92% LEFT!!11" It's pretty interesting to me since I think BRD and DRG are actually my better Jobs.
Edit: For spelling
Edited, Mar 12th 2014 3:17pm by CrazyLegzMcGee