I’m beginning to wonder whether it’s a FF thing. I remember white mages being an iconic thing in the single-player FFs that I played (which is not a whole lot of them), and their role translates into the MMO area very well: it’s a healer. I’m not sure I can remember any real “tanky” class in single-player FFs. After a short look into some online resources, the only class remotely resembling a tank (outside of FFXI, which is an MMO) seems to be XIII’s sentinel. The white mage has a much more illustrious pedigree, being available in almost every FF game. So, FF players (as opposed to MMO players) who came to FFXIV might have been more interested in a role they already knew. That’s all speculation, though.

What level are you at the moment? It seemed to me that after the simple introductory dungeons, they first became harder, before they became easier again, maybe due to my toolbox or the very worst players being sorted out. For example, in later dungeons, not moving out of ground effects can sometimes be fatal even to a tank. I think for me, the tipping point were either Brayflox’s Longstop or Cutter’s Cry. I’ve now done all the non-level-cap dungeons, and all the later ones felt easier. Maybe I just got lucky with groups…

1:1:3 or 1:1;3:1 mean that three DPS can have a group for every one healer who enters the queue. 1:1:2 means that only two DPS can have a group for every healer. I.e. if there are six DPS waiting in WoW Dungeon Finder they need only two healers to form five-man groups, but if there are six DPS in FFXIV Duty Finder they need three healers to start four-man groups. That’s 50% MORE healers required for the same number of DPS under FFXIV’s setup, i.e. LESS favorable for the DPS. I don’t know if the real story here is that Square has managed to solve the healer problem or that they have somehow managed to have a tank situation so bad that even healers have a long wait.

(The healer queue is still faster, but once it’s over 20 minutes I don’t really care that much if it’s 25 as a healer and 35 as a DPS, because either way I’m only queuing when I have two plus hours.)

I actually healed my first group as an ACN in the game’s first dungeon because the healer either DC’ed or refused the queue or otherwise did not show up. At least that’s still a caster and most gear has both int and mnd at that level, but I didn’t even have an AOE heal to work with and I managed over half the dungeon fine until we got a replacement. Nowadays I’m healing on a CNJ and I feel that dungeons are getting harder in terms of damage to the full party. I’m also pretty sure that I’ve seen both good and bad tanks. I’ve had players – usually mauraders – who won’t move out of ground effects and take a ton of damage and I’ve had tanks that were taking so little damage that I went into DPS stance. I’m sure there’s some level of my own skill as well, but it’s happened enough that I do think it’s a real thing – not even counting the GLD who apparently did not know or care how to grab more than one target.