Why There Are A Shortage Of Tanks, 2 Fixes

I know this is a heathen idea and even thinking about it causes people to violently retch, but have you tried talking to your party? You know, to make sure they attack your target or target order that you set up? I know it goes against everything gaming stands for, but asking nicely and calmly works most of the time.

Oh... and if you're a GLD, remember that flash is your friend... that's the only reason you have MP. You are making it a lot harder for everyone, including yourself, if you don't use it and, instead, do 1 or 2 of your aggro combo on mob 1, then when mob 2 starts to focus the healer, you switch on that mob and completely forget the first mob that the DPS are still focusing (I had such a tank in party yesterday... made my assist macro useless: he even complained that keeping aggro was hard on GLD)

First dungeon, first time tanking, only 1 wipe because the healer was too busy dpsing and not healing the tank. It took the dps complaining to the healer to get him to heal more.
Flashed like crazy that whole run cause the healer was more interested in dpsing.

It's pretty much impossible to wipe, and nothing really does that much damage, so when a DPS gets aggro, practice different techniques to get it back. They're basically just testing grounds, so don't get so annoyed - bad DPS at the lower levels when it doesn't matter can make you a better tank for when it does.

A lot of people that complain about dps aggro or carbuncle just need to learn to tank better. Case in point, the guy streaming for MMORPG. I've also grouped with a lot of tanks who don't flash/overpower or only use them once in a fight.

For what it's worth, as somebody who has primarily healed for a decade, I find tanking to be pretty fun.

I'm enjoying a lot my gladiator (level 20 atm). Must confess that it took me awhile to figure out how to properly use all the abilities like for example Flash (you have to spam it and that's the reason you have a recovering mp combo).

Just played the first 3 dungeons and the game makes me stay focused as I must maintain aggro keeping an eye to the aggro meter, do some dps, set priority kill order... I just love it!

My only complaint is about shield bash being part of the GCD. It is a pity to run from AOEs instead of interrupt them because you just used a combo...

After lv26 it gets better, but still.... My biggest problem is when an ARC/Caster gets aggro and they run everywhere AND keep generating aggro (yeah archers, we are looking at you) and then I either have to spend all my TP on Shield Lob or waste Provoke on the mob ( I like saving it for when the healer gets aggro or for bosses). On a personal note, I hate when THM/BLM goes crazy on Fire 2 / Blizzar 2 instead of sleeping the mobs. But thats just because I like sleep, xD

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Originally Posted by Besbeset

My only complaint is about shield bash being part of the GCD. It is a pity to run from AOEs instead of interrupt them because you just used a combo...

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Actually that comes with experience. Once I was doing Haukke Manor's boss and stoped her AoE atack, only to see her do it again 2 more times in a row (me stoping them) and then I realized I was out of tp. So I came to the conclusion that was better to avoid then to stop that atack. But sometimes its worth it, like Ifrit's Radiant Plume. Even if I had to auto-atack for a few seconds.

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Originally Posted by FrogDog

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As someone who's played tanks in MMOs for 6 or 7 years now, there's a lot of tanks that are not doing it right. There's a lot of tanks that pretend they're DPS in the sense that they only stick to their highest threat rotation on one target, forget or don't use their other utility skills, or don't rotate between targets to place DOTs or use other threat skills.

A tank's job is to keep the highest threat in the group, yes, but there is functionally no difference between having just a little more threat, twice the threat, or ten times the threat as anyone else. That mob that you just hit three times with a Rage of Halone combo? It's going to stay on you. You can switch targets to something else and build threat on those too, or you can do some Riot Blade combos and spam Flash.

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Originally Posted by Hikozaemon

the reason there are a lack of tanks is because the tank classes arnt fun to play and have hardly any true dmg migation or hp replenishing skills that actually work and matter. Also loot for the 2 tank classes suck as they cant need on alot of things they can use.

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Okay, people really need to stop saying this. This is not a proven fact, it's completely subjective.

Tanking is objectively more fun because I get to be in charge. :>