Tales from Duty Finder: Some make you laugh, some make you cry. Let's vent.

[Tiaque]

I've been a tank main for 4 years now, and I'll say this as a tank: this mentality needs to go away.

The <group> sets the pace, not anyone in particular. The only time a single person should dictate the pace is if the tank or healer are extremely undergeared. If the healer can handle wall-to-wall pulls and the dps know what the concept of aoe skills are, having a tank (Thats actually geared) that wants to go slow is the most frustrating thing.

But I also don't understand how any tank who's geared could actually stand doing anything less than wall-to-wall. All level-cap dungeons hit so weak that the only time tanking is fun in a dungeon is when you gotta play DDR with the mobs. Only leveling dungeons (and even then, 51+ dungeons can be wall-to-walled with a decent party) should discretion be advised.

I've been a tank main for 17 years now, across many mmos. In FFXIV, since 1.0 release. Tank sets the pace because if you have healers or dps going off to pull mobs that you do not know or do not trust, half the time, it can cause a wipe, people get frustrated, point fingers, then it becomes wasted time.

Tank decides what he can handle for pull size, Healer dictates what he can heal for max pull size, DPS dictates how fast they can potentially kill the pull size before tank and healer runs out of cooldowns. So if I do a run with random strangers, have a Sam DPS, RDM DPS, Healer is a scholar who says pull full max. I pull 3 groups in the first pull and barely survived it to where I did perfect cooldown rotation and had to still pop my long CD buff, all because the Scholar didnt maximize his healing, or the DPS was bad since well, SAM aint too good with AoEs and the RDM was instead of AoEing was trying to burn things down one at a time, or a combo of both, then I will start pulling two groups at a time, and if any of them griped I will tell them straight up this group cannot do massive pulls, deal with it.

The problem with a majority of Tanks these days, and why they get yelled and harassed at to a point they give up being tanks instead of persisting and figuring it out, is because tanks are the pointman, they are the leader, they set what can and cannot be handled. Been like this since Antiquity *Everquest* and will be like this till the end of days or the Holy Trinity is completely done away with in mmos. Most playing tanks just are not cut out for it. They get nervous, or paranoid on making mistakes, or simply don't have any confidence. The best tanks are those with a Clear head, Calm, is willing to accept mistakes and do better, willing to be the leader, and most of all, are Humble.

So I will point this out for all the dps and healers out there. Do not rush your tank, do not force him into bad situations, and do not blame him if its something that is your fault, do not chastise him and insult him if he messes up badly, when you should be giving him advice, or very least, ask him if he wishes to know anything if you got the experience to share. Otherwise, the Tank shortage will just get worse and worse, and you will keep getting these healers and dps who get fed up, and tries to then main a tank, and most of them give up after a month or less when they realize it is just not for them.

Their are awesome players out there who has the mentality to play all 3 *some mmos 4, like FFXI* roles and do exceedingly well in them. Their isnt many of these players who can. A role you enjoy can speak volumes on your personality. I know being a tank can seem easy to most, and you are right, it can be a pretty easy job to do. But it requires a certain personality, a certain psyche to do well.

Anyway, ranted enough. But Tanks ultimately set the pace based on what he believes his group can do. And that mentality will always stay.

Its also why I get 2 to 3 commendations, every, single, run.

<- 17+ Year Main tank veteran of countless mmorpg's.

[Miste]

Yet you're advocating to assume the Tank is sprinting for that reason, and not trolling. What is the more likely situation?

No, I am advocating that you adjust by using the same tool the tank has, Sprint, and do your job to keep up and heal like a healer is supposed to.

There is such a thing as being neutral. Don't make any assumptions. Don't assume they are trolling, don't assume they aren't trolling, just do the role you signed up for:

Healer

1. Stay with the party (IE: keep up)
2. Heal the party
3. Do a bit of damage if you have some downtime/feel comfortable
4. ??? profit

None of this list requires assumptions, it is what every healer should be doing when joining a DF run. If you don't like how the party is doing the content then you leave or you speak up and ask for what you want or need from your party members for the run to be smooth and successful for you.

You said you purposefully don't use Sprint and it is for no legitimate reason except your negative assumption about the tank. It's one button. Just use it if you fall behind or if the tank uses it.

Likely situation? They are just using a beneficial buff because...it is beneficial. Your assumption that a lot of tanks are trolling just because they utilize sprint is really absurd.

[AxHell]

So something happened in Sigmascape V2...something very rare.

Queued as DRK and other tank was also a DRK. And at the same, in perfect synchronicity, we activate Grit.

The edginess was at its fullest it was beautiful.

[Skivvy]

Who knew sprint was such a troll skill?

As a healer main, I have no issue with a tank using it and I'll just pop mine as well if need be (I'm assuming this would be the reaction for most people).

[bustamanteverde]

As a PLD tank I have resorted to using a macro when the final boss of a dungeon is at 30% HP and limit break bars are full. Macro: "It's over 9,000!!! Punch it in the face with limit break!" since I have noticed a trend of DPS not using LB or waiting till 5% to use it.

Also if it has a full bar and is almost to the 2nd bar but boss will die before the 2nd bar fills up, please use it anyway!

After my macro though DPS use it immediately which is fantastic

[Lilseph]

Who knew sprint was such a troll skill?

As a healer main, I have no issue with a tank using it and I'll just pop mine as well if need be (I'm assuming this would be the reaction for most people).

It actually baffles me when people don't use it at all. It speeds up things and it's free.

[Ursa_Vonfiebryd]

No, I am advocating that you adjust by using the same tool the tank has, Sprint, and do your job to keep up and heal like a healer is supposed to.

There is such a thing as being neutral. Don\\'t make any assumptions. Don\\'t assume they are trolling, don\\'t assume they aren\\'t trolling, just do the role you signed up for:

Healer

1. Stay with the party (IE: keep up)
2. Heal the party
3. Do a bit of damage if you have some downtime/feel comfortable
4. ??? profit

None of this list requires assumptions, it is what every healer should be doing when joining a DF run. If you don\\'t like how the party is doing the content then you leave or you speak up and ask for what you want or need from your party members for the run to be smooth and successful for you.

You said you purposefully don\\'t use Sprint and it is for no legitimate reason except your negative assumption about the tank. It\\'s one button. Just use it if you fall behind or if the tank uses it.

Likely situation? They are just using a beneficial buff because...it is beneficial. Your assumption that a lot of tanks are trolling just because they utilize sprint is really absurd.

If they sprint off before getting protect or just to cover ground with no pull (causing me to waste a sprint to keep up) or sprint on the last half a chain pull when my sprint is still on CD from 'catching up' then they can eat floor. Im at maximum caster range unless its holy spam or miasma 2 ast heal bubble. I know my job. Its not catering to tanks without sense or care for their group.

On the flipside, I dont have patience for dps or healers who rush a tank who's trying a moderate pace for whatever reason. Whoever gets aggro can keep it but only the tank is getting heals (unless its an accident of course).

[Mixt]

Ugh, that was horrible.

I put up a PF for HOH for going up to floor 50 with the purpose of farming gold sacks.
Trying it on 51+ is not very efficient.

The healer it turns out has very, VERY low aetherpool, as in she only has 11k HP and can barely heal 5K with her strongest spell.

No problem i think, up to 50 is not that bad.

But when we get to 50 the group does not want to stop, they want to keep going, and they nag me into going along even after i protest that it's not going to work.
The two DPS had like 40 to 50 Aetherpool each by the way.

We had so many near wipes, and each set of floors took like 40 minutes each.
And only got 1 more gold sack out of it, compared to the 5 each for 31-40 and 41-50.

But by some miracle we made it to floor 70, where we promptly wiped to the mini-cerberus boss, the healer got outright one-shotted by the party-wide AOE and the DPS got eaten by the insta-kill mechanic, while i ran out of MP for clemency and died last.

They also wanted me to use Pheonix Down to raise them after they got munched on, despite the fact it cannot be used in battle, and i had already used the one i had earlier on floor 63 when all three other party members were down.

Can you believe they actually thought we could get all the way to 100 like that?

They were also splitting up a lot and running all over the place.

I AM NOT HAPPY!

But hey, it's partially my fault for letting myself get dragged into something i knew for a fact was never going to work.

[Doozer]

Got LotA yesterday for alliance raid roulette and there was a mentor ninja that died to every single meteor during King Behemoth. Not sure how they didn't know what to do there.

[Ilenya]

Got LotA yesterday for alliance raid roulette and there was a mentor ninja that died to every single meteor during King Behemoth. Not sure how they didn't know what to do there.

I imagine some people forget that meteors too close to the boss do not protect you from the Meteor. If you can still melee the boss, you are going to die.