Class, Job, Role... Help?

Grats on the successful run :D Glad to hear it went much smoother!

And yeah, you'll get healers who have trouble managing their enmity. As a WHM main I can attest to having ripped hate from the tank unintentionally. Sometimes healers can get cure happy and overheal; Other times their equipment isn't updated enough for their level and they need to cast more cures to keep everyone topped off. The latter happened to me, I usually don't have enmity issues now aside from the occasional iron giant aggro in the final boss of CT =p (They love me so much that they run across the whole arena just to let me autograph their blades with my blood!)

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Originally Posted by File2ish

The latter happened to me, I usually don't have enmity issues now aside from the occasional iron giant aggro in the final boss of CT =p (They love me so much that they run across the whole arena just to let me autograph their blades with my blood!)

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Hahah! Loved the autograph part. It does seem to be an odd mechanic. Somehow healing causes Hate, something that doesn't directly impact enemies. And I'm sure it wasn't intentional but it actually helped me recognize my role better to have that healer making a few mistakes.

As for posting about a successful run and my horror story, I'm sure no one wants to hear my stories. lol. They are pretty mundane, and likely nothing someone else hasn't already seen. Plus, if some of those people were new I wouldn't want to shame them like I got: "worst tanking ever". lol

Hi APyralis. Welcome to FFXIV.

I was in the exact same boat as you. I've been a Final Fantasy geek since day way, and in fact still own nearly everyone game out there on each system made. However, like you, this was my first ever MMORPG.

And, like you, the first role I took was Gladiator, leading into Paladin. I'm definitely more of a Sword and Shield kind of guy, and I love the idea of a Paladin. So, tanking I took on to the full woes and successes of the role.

I learned a couple of things very fast (and it sounds like you have already run into it as well) that the tank takes a lot of blame for things when something goes wrong. But after a few months, trial and error, reading up on the forum here, and asking a lot of questions, I found out a couple of things I'm going to share. Some of this you may already know, other points may be "duh", but hopefully it helps:

1. Ask questions, and don't be afraid of pointing out at the start of the dungeon that you aren't familiar with the dungeon (if that's the case) and you're new to being a tank.

This can be frowned upon by others, and in fact, I was told a couple of times that it was stupid of me to ask so many questions in party chat. I didn't care. Its those questions that made me into a better tank. And I would ignore or brush off the criticism.

2. At the beginning of being a tank, no matter what is happening with the DPS or healer, do everything possible to get hate (aka aggro, emnity) on each mob you guys are attacking. Use Flash (Flash is your BEST friend being newer to the role, and spam it like there's no tomorrow. Even though "Blind" stops working, it is still generating hate). You will then learn the mechanics even better; having an overzealous healer = more flash used; DPS taking hate, Flash and throw a shield lob, etc. Only when you really start doing everything you can to generate hate on each mod, will you then start to understand if it is your mistake or someone else's that is causing a problem should one arise.

At the start of tanking, being lower level and until you get such abilities as Shield Oath and Circle of Scorn, it is good practice to use your flash as much as possible, then do Riot Blade Combo on each mob (giving you more mana) around you, using flash into between each combo used.

It may be overkill on hate gen, but until you really have a handle on the mechanics and start getting in good correct estimations on if you're losing hate on the other mobs, don't worry about the overkill of aggro gen.

3. The tank role is expected to lead the progress of the dungeon. You really determine the progress of the dungeon raid happening. Your actions of pulling the mobs will keep things moving, or in the case of only pulling 2 or 3 mobs at a time, will move things at a slow pace.

At the start of your tanking, and unless the healer you're paired with is WAY overgeared, there is no real choice in the matter of only pulling one set of mobs at a time. Otherwise, you die, and the team wipes. Soon, though, you can do multiple pulls at a time and keep things going at a really good, fast pace.

4. Even to this day, I always ask in party chat if everyone is ready to go. Sometimes I get no response. More often then not I get a good "yes". But most importantly, I never just charge off assuming everyone is good to go, even if I have the perfect party set up for a speedrun through the perfect dungeon. Some people don't care if I ask; others get aggravated. I don't care. I always ask, no exceptions. If I am expected to lead the party or team through the dungeon, then I will make sure everyone is ready.

5. Good luck. Have fun. Ask questions. Read the Forum. Learn the area attacks (AoE) of the mobs and bosses, ask about the mechanics of the fights you're about to do. Become awesome.

For learning Flash's range, I found it useful to practice it solo on some easy landscape mobs.

Of course, Flash doesn't matter to the solo fight itself, as any mob you're engaged with will be focused on you simply by the fact that there's nobody else for them to focus on. But on the landscape there are mobs that don't aggro simply by being too close, and will only fight if you engage them first. That makes them useful for learning just where Flash's range really extends. Get near some of these non-aggroing mobs and try a Flash. If you're within range, they'll react and start to fight you. If you're not in range, they'll continue to ignore you.

Try this multiple times at varying distances until you get a feel for just how close you need to be to get their reaction. Then the next time you're in a dungeon where Flash actually matters, you'll know how close you need to be to those mobs in order to use Flash effectively.