I got vote kicked for the first time today (or, how do I keep nin from taking aggro?)

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Originally Posted by Kaes

-OP-

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So in true internet stalker fashion, I searched your character info. If what I am looking at is your current tank gear, take a moment to reconsider running dungeons. Your left side is what you must upgrade first. ALWAYS try to have the highest possible gear for your left side possible. You are level 47... do your Job quests to level 45, where you get your Artifact Armor, and then get a belt and chest piece until you hit 50 when you replace your chest piece. This gear will be sufficient enough for dungeons level 47 and below.

Now, consider carrying two sets of trinkets. One Vitality set and One Strength set. Agro in this game doesn't work on just damage + a flat amount of enmity. It works on a multiplicative formula based on damage. Even Flash from a higher geared tank will cause slightly more enmity than the lower. It is generally believed that Rage of Halone has a multiplier of x5 on it, and that Shield Oath has a multiplier of x2. So if you do 100 damage with a Rage of Halone without shield oath, it should equate to approximately 500 points of agro instead of just 100+ a set amount. This is why, quite often, I find I take agro from high ilvl tanks using Shield Oath, when I'm in Sword Oath myself when I run DPS trinkets and they use Vitality trinkets.

Also, others have stated, and I guess I'll reiterate. Provoke has no duration, it's simply a one shot effect where it puts you at the top of the charts by just a fraction. To handle this, use Provoke in certain situations and combined with certain skills in different situations. It's generally a good idea to use Fight of Flight before popping Provoke, since your damage out put will be increased by 30%, and thus your enmity out put will be boosted even more. For obvious reasons, the active skills you will want to pair provoke with will change. At range? Shield Lob is usually the skill of choice. In melee? Wait for (depending on level) either Rage of Halone of Savage Blade. So it should look something like this from range. Fight or Flight -> Provoke -> Shield Lob. In Melee, something like this. Fight or Flight -> Fast Blade -> Savage Blade -> Provoke -> Rage of Halone.

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Originally Posted by Kaes

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also while your at it consider dropping that tin can armor. trust me there is much better than that stuff that is all seperate pieces and most of the tanks I know loathe that head/body, legs/feet combo armor relic crap leftover from 1.0
having all seperate pieces gives you more room to work with for stats as well.
not to mention your AF will all be 5 seperate pieces(you get the body at 50) so you wont be able to use that body without sacrificing the head which is much better than what you have

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Originally Posted by Kaes

I was leveling very slowly until a week or so ago, when I just recently discovered the magical roulettes, which give 150-200k EXP daily. When you add in Challenge Log with 120k for both dungeon challenges, 140k for FATEs, even 50k for commendations... I basically gained 10 levels without a single quest.

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Take some of the bonus *gil* all that stuff is giving you and buy some gear.

Haven't seen anyone say this..... but Flash is only for AoE enmity generation on multiple mobs. If you are doing only a couple mobs doing the normal enmity combo works way better. If it's just 1 mob you should never be using Flash. If it's 2-4 mobs Flash a couple times at the start then switch to enmity combo and rotate between the mobs, maybe occasionally throwing out a flash if it's needed.

OP I'm on Excal, just drop me a tell and I'll craft you the top item you can equip for every slot.

As a tank Vit and Def are your two main stats for gear. However for pld adding str and determination "materia" onto vit accessories can help as they should be about capped on vit stats. Do all your class quests and job quests every 5 levels.

1. Make sure all your current gear is about 5 levels from your max level. Accessories are an exception between the mid 30s and mid 40's or until electrum is available. Check the stats on the next couple gear sets within 5 levels ahead of yours to see which ones are going to give you better overall stats to your max level. While Heavy sets means less stuff to lug around. I stopped wearing them past steel.

2. Level your Cnj to 34 for Stoneskin. and Mrd to 26 for Foresight, Fracture, Bloodbath and Mercy Stroke. Protect is only for soloing with Chocobo. Cure if you don't have one or if it cant cure yet. In a party your healer has better Stoneskin, Cures and Protect. But you want access to Stone Skin for those moments. Especially in lower levels since Pld can use it early.

3. If you are going to level GLD then you might as well level Mrd as well as they can both use the same armor until you get your JSE.. In your case you really need to do your Pld quests once you get Cnj and Mrd leveled. You'll get your level 50 hands, feet, legs, and head. All can be equipped at lv 45 and will hold you through lv 50 farming. Desynth that body unless your farming it for materia or equip the whole High Mythril set or farm the Atherial version. At 47 you should look into Mosshorn Scale, Tortoiseshell (hq), Sentinel's Cuirass or Aetherial Cobalt Cuirass to carry you until you get your lv 50 JSE body piece.

Keep your weapon up to date. It should be no less than 5 from your level and ilevel. Right now it looks like you speed leveled your char and just started using it. At best it doesn't look like it'll do anything past Haukke Manor. Brayflox's Longstop if your really lucky.

4. Back to gear.. Tank and healers on duty roulette are two decent ways to farm gil. With gear. If you can't farm it and you cant buy it, then craft it. I learned late in the game on FFXI never fall behind or ignore crafting.. Also gathering is a lot easier here than in XI you just need to keep gathering levels just ahead of your Arm, Bsm, Gsm, Leather, Weaver, and cooking. Those should be craft jobs to make all the gear for tanks, Crp if you are using the wooden Aztec swords or wood for Mrd's axe. Farm ventures and always keep your npc on farming crystals or take a chance and have one do 1 hr ventures for a small chance for gear that's over lv 50. You have a lot of work since Gld (47) and Cnj (18) are the only things you put time into. Once you do start crafting craft each item from lv 1 to lv 40, and farm every "???" in your field log. Do the GC supply quests and Leves, and watch this Video on how to HQ craft most items to ~ lv 50. That should get you your lv 50 rings to reduce gear decay by 10 on those jobs. Ask your FC to help if possible. If you're desperate, do combat leves lv 35, then 40, then 45 that'll give you weapons and gear about that level range and occasionally a coffer will give atherial pieces you might use.

Once all that is started, then you can worry about hate control and how to start farming for the i100 ~ i120 gear.

Probably people have mentioned this before, but as a BLM what I do to not get aggro is:

1) Do not start attacking soon as the monster is pulled. Tanks may need positioning and during this, aggro is frail and easy to snag.
2) Keep the enmity pool (top left corner of the screen, over your Job Icon in the party list. if it's 2 or higher, you're okay. If you see it's approaching the tank's aggro % (Tank should always have the 'A' in the enmity pool), SLOW DOWN your attacks, skip a rotation, auto-attack for a bit, it doesn't matter. Just as you must dodge AoEs to help the healer keeping the party alive, you must control your aggro to help the tank keep the party safe. Don't ever think enmity management is not your responsibility just because you're a DPS. It requires teamwork.
3) This goes mostly for bards than anyone else. If you DO get aggro, for the love of all what's fluffy, don't run in circles while keeping shooting your strongest attacks at the monster. Your tank will not get aggro back like that. Stand put, eat damage if you must, healer got you, and let tank do his Provoke/Cover/Holmgang or whatever thing. If healer's efforts are not enough to keep you alive during this, sorry to say but you asked for it by not keeping your aggro on check.

All beforementioned suggestions of course do apply in the case of a tank that is doing their job and is simply losing aggro because you have a stronger weapon than them or they are lagging.

Do this, and at the end of duty maybe the other DPSs will think you suck because they got aggro and you didn't (seems getting aggro is a way to measure how cool you are these days), but the tank will love you, trust me. If everyone helped tanks and gave them less headaches like this, we'd have a lot more people willing to play tank.

Hello Kaes!

First of all, it's good that you're asking for advice and I hope you'll get more useful tips from here in addition to those you've already gotten. The most important advice is, as others have already said, that you need to improve your gear. As PLD, the enmity from your abilities as based on the damage you do with them, and especially on your weapon stats. Having a sword as high item level as possible should be your top priority. Use this site to look for gear upgrades. If you only look at the Market Boards, you'll miss many items that are sold by NPCs, bought with seals, dropped from dungeons and offered as quest rewards. For example, this sword is sold by NPCs for 6577 gil. This sword is optimal for your level and it drops from a dungeon (Aurum Vale). This search lists all items you can buy from your Grand Company with seals.

Before going into a dungeon, make sure your gear level is up to or very close to the level of that dungeon. At least your weapon, shield and all your left side slots. To hold enmity, pull with Shield Lob, then Flash the whole pack a few times. If the group doesn't have AoE damage dealers (mainly BLM and SMN), you can mark the primary target and use your Rage of Halone combo on that. Start doing the combo on the next target before the first one is dead. If the DDs are doing AoE damage, just Flash away and use Riot Blade combo to get your MP back. Don't forget to use your defensive cooldowns in between your abilities. If you lose hate on a single target, Provoke + Shield Lob and you should get it back. Using Provoke by itself is useless.

Edit: Didn't even realise you get AF (your job armour set) from the level 45 job quest. Doing that and getting those pieces already helps a lot.

Skimmed through this thread and this wasn't mentioned :


While leveling use STR accessories and put all your stat points into STR. This will help tremendously with enmity. As people also mentioned your gear sucks.
STR is even beneficial at 50 if you can get good enough left side pieces to make up for it.

The reason they told you to put on sword oath is because it will make you do more dmg, which directly affects how much emnity you put out. It's better than nothing until you get shield oath.

And the post above me provides a good suggestion. Just then instead of having DPS bark at you for not holding aggro, you might have healers diss you for not being tanky enough.

You can't win as a newbie really. :/