[Guide] A basic primer on party play and dungeons

[Soukyuu]

0. Foreword
This guide is aimed at people new to the game and MMOs in general. Using the dungeon finder, I often meet people who don't seem to know some of the basic stuff about the game mechanics, and instantly improve once you tell them what they're doing wrong. Since the class quest don't really explain your role in the party, I decided to write this guide. Feel free to post feedback so I can update this with more info.

1. Party roles
Once you reach level 15, the story quest will lead you to Sastasha, your first dungeon. Depending on the class you play, you will be assigned a role in the party. Currently, we have the following roles:

• Tanks: Gladiator (Paladin)/Marauder (Warrior). Is the first one to run into mobs and is to hold their attention at all times
• Healers: Conjurer (White Mage)/Scholar. Keeps the party alive while throwing some debuffs (damage over time/crowd control) at the enemies and buffs (healing over time, more defense, barriers, etc)
• Damage dealers (DPS/DD): The rest of them. As the name suggests, your job is to deal damage to the monsters and, should they go for the healer, take the monster's attention from them.

2. Enemy nameplate colors and their meaning for you

• White: idle monsters. Depending on the icon to the left of their name, they will engage you if you come close or ignore you. All monsters in dungeons will engage in combat upon sighting you.
• Orange: Monster is engaging combat with your party. The next member who causes enmity to this monster will pull it's attention
• Red: Monster is claimed for your party - you will get exp and the item(s) after defeating. Also counts a kill if you need it for a quest.
• Purple: Monster is claimed by someone outside your party - you will get exp and kill counted, but not the items. Example in a dungeon would be a quest npc defending against a monster.

3. Ways to generate enmity
There are 3 ways to generate enmity I know of.

• Dealing damage: the most direct way of causing enmity is to hit it. 1 point of damage = 1 point of enmity
• Crowd control skills: Skills that generate a set amount of enmity upon execution. Gladiator's flash is one example. Conjurer's Repose (sleep) is another.
• Healing: heavily underestimated most of the time. 1 hp healed = 1 point of enmity!.

The consequences are not always obvious to new players, so I'm going to give you some examples.

Following scenario: Your tank has engaged 3 monsters

Case A: A tank claims one out of three of them. Tank's HP drop, healer is forced to heal. The two unclaimed (orange) monsters will run to the healer.
Conclusion: Tank has to make sure to claim all the monsters.

Case B: A tank claims all the monsters, then concentrates one killing one of them. The healer will generate enmity by healing the tank, stealing attention of the two remaining monsters.
Conclusion: The tank has to continue to generate enmity on all monsters.

Case C: A tank claims all the monsters, keeps their attention but takes a lot of damage. Healer is forced to spam high potency cures, stealing the attention, getting attacked, forced to heal themselves, thus generating even more enmity... eventually leading to a wipe if the tank is unable to generate enough enemy to pull them away.
Conclusion: Tanks have to use damage mitigating skills to reduce the damage, and also make sure to have appropriate gear for their level.

Case D: Regen is a buff white mages get which heals the target over time. Those so-called "ticks" generate enmity just like regular healing does. This means even before the tank can run to the monsters to claim them, the healer will generate enmity and pull all of their attention!
Conclusion: Tanks have to make sure to let Regen run out before engaging the next group. Healers should try to not cast Regen towards the end of an encounter. Alternatively:

A tip for tanks so you don't go murdering Regen-happy healers: You can turn off Regen manually by right clicking it or selecting it with the gamepad by hitting Select enough times for your cursor to go up to the buffs/debuffs section.

Case E: Tank has lost 100 HP, healer drops a Cure II which heals for 1152 HP (critical). Unlike some other games, in FFXIV you will end up generating 1152 enmity points not 100!. This is the so-called overhealing
Conclusion: Only heal as much as you need. It will not only reduce your enmity generation, but also save you MP

4. Enmity and enemy lists
The game gives you two lists to check your enmity status for each monster.

• Enemy list: this one lists all currently engaged enemies with a colored icon to the left of their name. a green circle means you are at the bottom of the enmity list, while a red blinking square means you are the target of a monster's attentions.
• Enemy list: this one is less obvious and only shows your position on the enmity list of your current target. This means it's only available to tanks and DDs normally. If you look at the party members list while fighting, you will see numbers 2-8 and an 'A' in the left lower corner of a party member's class icon. 'A' stands for Aggro, meaning your are this monster's top priority.

Tanks should always strive to have an 'A' (red blinking square), while damage dealers have to balance their position to be above healers, but below the tank. Healers have to stay as inauspicious as possible (see case E above)

No matter the role, try executing a skill and see how the enmity display changes. This way you will know when you have to pause/slow down your attacks as a DD and be more careful as a healer (this is better than taking aggro from the tank!). Tanks can better judge how often they have to spam their enmity skills to keep up with the rest of the party.

5. Hints on party play
The success of your run depends on all the party members and how well you work together. The most important part is the teamwork between the healer and the tank. If these two work together well, they can make up for mistakes done by the damage dealers. But if they don't a DD won't be able to fix much.

Before engaging the enemies, make sure everyone is ready, and everyone has all the important buffs - especially protect. This will cost you a lot less time than running in unprepared, wiping and having to run back. Apropos running back; make sure the healer is back at your side before engaging again. I had several tanks run in without waiting for me, wiping again.

If you are engaging multiple enemies, mark the order you want to take them down. You can do this by adding the "Signs" action to your hotbar, target a monster and pick a sign for it. Usually, it's the tank who picks targets. It's preferable to first kill the mobs that are dangerous, for example Bees from the Temple of Quarn. They have a self-destruct skill called "Final Sting" which usually manages to either kill you, or leave you with very little HP.

Depending on the encounter, you might have to not concentrate on the boss, but on the additional monsters called by the boss (adds for short). One example is the Pelican in Brayflox Longstop. The adds cause sleep, and sleeping on the battlefield is a guarantee to continue doing so for the rest of the eternity. The adds usually have pretty low HP, so it's the DD's jobs to switch from the boss and get rid off them. Don't worry, the healer is able to sustain you for the short time you will be getting hit. Just make sure to not tank ALL of them at the same time, that's why there are at least 2 DDs in a party!

[ruskie]

Thanks for the great guide. I mostly learned stuff like this on my own through the game. With some tanks giving me some suggestions along the way.

[Bixby]

Nice. This is a pretty good overview of the way enmity works. I'd suggest throwing in some DD-centric examples, too, so it's not all healer/tank. (e.g., the case when the tank has engaged and is focusing on the group, but a DD is focusing on a different target from the tank.)

[16bitBounty]

Fantastic.
Damage Dealers, make sure to watch that Enmity, it's okay to stop attacking long enough for the tank to rebuild their enmity if you're getting close to pulling away.

[CrisGer]

very helpful thanks a lot for this. very useful.

[Estellios]

A tip for tanks so you don't go murdering Regen-happy healers: You can turn off Regen manually by right clicking it or selecting it with the gamepad by hitting Select enough times for your cursor to go up to the buffs/debuffs section.

Regardless, the best solution is to let your healer know that Regen before fights is a bad thing and why.

[Soukyuu]

Nice. This is a pretty good overview of the way enmity works. I'd suggest throwing in some DD-centric examples, too, so it's not all healer/tank. (e.g., the case when the tank has engaged and is focusing on the group, but a DD is focusing on a different target from the tank.)

I'm mostly playing a healer role nowadays (despite my main saying MNK) so no examples come to mind. Feel free to write your own if you have some, I'll add them to the first post.

A tip for tanks so you don't go murdering Regen-happy healers: You can turn off Regen manually by right clicking it or selecting it with the gamepad by hitting Select enough times for your cursor to go up to the buffs/debuffs section.

Didn't know that worked, adding to the first post, thanks

[Tomiangu]

am not a Healer nor Tank but find it very helpful to understand the other classes, thanks

[Soukyuu]

Back to top. Too many still don't know the mechanics, and the game does a poor job of explaining them.

[IrishMacLeod]

As a Healer and someone new to MMOs, this is very useful. Communication goes a long way, and understanding enmity (which was incredibly baffling to me at first). Thanks for the info!