what'd i do wrong?

so ive had this game for only a couple days. i was doing my second story line dungeon when i was cussed out by a white mage for not tanking "properly". understand that being the tanker means i take all the hits for the party, but every so often, a creature would break off of me and attack the white mage ONLY. id stop what im doing and shield bash it or flash and itd lock back on to me. eventually, he stops healing me and i end up dying, followed by the rest of them. am i still at fault? if it is, what can i do to prevent it? i use flash every 5 to 6 hits and i link my combos. do i have to target the creature i want with flash or does it just work for all creatures around me? im a bit new to this enmity thing.

You probably didn't do anything wrong. The white mage was probably the highest level player....even though the dungeon will sync your level back somehow the game knows. Most likely because of the gear level the character is wearing. Those critters will attack the mage more often, they should have been prepared for it. But now you know...be on the lookout for strays :)

First off, don't take it too hard when someone gets in your face. Some people are overly aggressive. Some people especially have it in for tanks, some for healers, some for DPS. These same people are also often fairly clueless about the jobs they rag on. Don't let it get to you.

It's hard to say who's at fault here, since we don't know just what the healer was doing. It's not difficult for a healer or DPS to pull enmity if they're doing things wrong. It's also not difficult if the tank is doing things wrong. It sounds like you have a pretty decent grasp for the middle of the fight and onward, but you didn't go into what you were doing to open fights, so here goes.

Flash works for everything around you as long as it's in range. I've seen a lot of new tanks who seem to think Flash has a pretty large range; it doesn't. So be aware of that.

What I'd suggest is to start with Shield Lob, then once all the mobs have gathered, Flash at least as many times as there are mobs (e.g., 3 mobs = Flash Flash Flash before you start your rotation). Then do your threat rotation on the main target once. Then start spreading your single-target hits around. Fast Blade mob #1, Savage Blade mob #2, Fast blade mob #3, Savage Blade #1, Fast Blade #2, Savage Blade #3, and so on. If something breaks away, Shield Lob it and then either Flash or threat combo it.

In another level, when you get Provoke, use Provoke > Shield Lob to get something back. Provoke gives you 1 more enmity than the person with the highest enmity, so it 1) doesn't do you any good if you already have enmity and 2) isn't enough to keep the mob's attention without a follow-up, but it does make sure you get the mob off whoever it's on with one move (and then you have to keep it off them).

If you feel more comfortable weaving Flashes into your rotation, go ahead as long as you've got the MP to support it, but starting with a few before you start your single-target rotation is a good idea.

The stun on Shield Bash can prevent a little damage, but it's not a high-threat move, so it's not so great for getting something to get back on you.

Also, don't save your cooldowns for boss fights. The recasts on most of them let you have them up for most trash and still have them ready for the boss, too. Using defensive CDs on trash packs mean less healing, which means less enmity for the healer.

Flash doesn't need a specific target. As long as the monsters are within a certain range of you, they'll be affected so that shouldn't be a problem unless you're hitting it just a little too soon. Is the enemy breaking off at the start of the attack?

Also, which combo are you using? One generates a lot more emnity than the other.

You're not entirely at fault. The white mage chose not to/didn't know how to teach you what you could do differently, and instead decided to be a jerk.

You don't have to target a specific mob to make Flash work. The hate in this game works differently than in other games; in WoW, for example, you only needed to hit a mob once to keep aggro on it, as long as no one else hit it. That is not the case here. The healer still generates hate as he or she heals, so you need to spread your enmity generation around the multiple mobs you may be tanking. I would recommend cycling through the mobs you're attacking with your skill chains; the enmity bar can be helpful with this.

Let's say you're fighting 3 mobs: A, B, and C. Once you hit them all, you should get the little vertical bar that displays their name, health, and enmity status against you. The enmity is displayed as a shape on the left-hand side. A red square means you have the most hate from the target, an orange triangle means you have less, a yellow triangle even less, and a green circle means you have almost no enmity against it. I keep this in a convenient location, in case my tab-targeting jumps to something I don't want or to click on a mob that switches targets. The only downside to it is that by the time the shape changes, it means someone else has pulled hate from you. However, there is another place you can look for enmity status. When you have a mob targeted, you can look at your party frames and see a white progress bar under the class symbol. This is the percentage of enmity that person has against the mob; when the bar is full, the mob will switch to that person. The person with the highest enmity against a target will have an "A" next to the bar.

So you start your combo on mob A, then tab to mob B and use the next skill in your chain, then the same with mob C. I keep one eye on the enmity list so I know I'm targeting a mob I want and not one on the other side of the room or just out of my line of sight.

Are you also using defensive cooldowns? It would ease the burden on the healer, which reduces the amount of hate he or she generates, making it less likely for him or her to pull hate from you.

You most likely did nothing wrong. Dependent on which dungeon this happened in, seeing your 21, i am going to assume Halitali, it is easy for an over geared/over level WHM to pull from an at level tank, it comes with the territory, as several people said, try to keep your rotaion up, and if all else fails spam fast blade>>Riot Blade>>flash a few time to ensure you keep the mobs on you til you are comfortable rotating your emitity attacks through targets

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Originally Posted by HEC

@Seezur: Your sig always makes me chuckle when I encounter your posts here in the forum :)

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Thankies =D! If it makes one person chuckle, it has done its job

Actually - it could be easilly caused by the very same player who blamed you - the White Mage / Healer. Not every Healer knows (or even cares) that over-healing is bad as it takes over the enmity and based on your description of the events you were trying to take it back when lost so simply don't worry - you'll encouter some jerks here and there when using Duty Finder but that's the "tax" for the comfort. As tank you'll have minimum troubles to find another party right away if the situation get really bad and some one will rage quit on you. Don't let anyone to upset you - after all it's a game and we play to enjoy it not to worry.

@Seezur: Your sig always makes me chuckle when I encounter your posts here in the forum :)

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Originally Posted by Bixby

If you feel more comfortable weaving Flashes into your rotation, go ahead as long as you've got the MP to support it

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As a follow-up to this, the Riot Blade combo is a great way to help get your MP back up if you're weaving Flashes into your normal rotation. Just don't use it too often, as you will be wanting to do your main threat combo on everything most of the time.

Contact me ingame Rasler. I can probably show you a few tricks to get better at tanking. I'm by no means claiming to be the best tank, just offering some tips for newer tanks having a hard time. :P

@Rasler -- also, feel free to ask Lemon to join the LS we have that is for newer players to help them out while leveling/learning ^^ It is a fun group!