Tanking problems

Just started with the game, it's awesome for many - many things. But now I'm kinda stumbling on really annoying things.

I play a gladiator, the tank class and I did a dungeon run now, worst experience ever. The whole group went ahead of me all the time, attacked mobs before I had the chance to even reach em .. and the most shocking thing, I couldn't take aggro back. It's like whoever attacks first gets the aggro, spamming enmity skills did not help ANYTHING!

Further in the dungeon I realized the Arcanist had been using his red pet, which is a tank one, and did not want to change to his dps pet. Funny thing is, that enmity the pet gets is apparently ten times better then mine, he had most of the aggro (and I couldnt take it back) and it seemed to practically have replaced me to the point I was just /following the group around because I was just REPLACED.

What's going on here?!

Another thing, why can I only post with 1000 letters here? Kinda defeats the purpose of a forum discussion if you can't even write down what you want to say.

But out of all the most shocking is how enmity does so little and how a silly pet can replace a tank. I hope this is only the case for low level (which is already bad on its own) because this just put a huge dent in my will to play any kind of tank in this game.

As for the tanking part: You may have been grouped with higher level, better geared players. Even with level sync it can influence. And yes, low level dungeons are so easy that even a mage can tank sometimes. I started with Gladiator and was my first lv50, my advice is use flash in between your weapon enmity skills rotation. retaking enmity with no a lot of enmity skills in low level dungeons is a pain, but it gets better/easier.

As for the forum limit: Yup sucks, but there is a loophole. Just write everything you want, if you get limited, post it anyways, and edit it asap, on the edit post yoh won't have the 1000 character limit. : )

You're not doing anything wrong. Especially in low level content DPS will just do whatever they want because mobs don't usually hit hard enough to kill them. Additionally PLD is a little gimped tanking wise at low level (It's doable if you've got experience) so once DPS have started pulling and grabbing agro all over the place it's unlikely you'll be able to get it back.

Just keep at it. I'd also recommend marking mobs to help direct DPS to the mob you're going to maintain the highest threat on.

Welcome to Eorzea! Tanking is an artform that does take some getting used to, and especially early on. Luckily though, GLA is actually quite easy to learn to tank with, as the abilities it gets to do this are very straightforward in how they're used. The first thing I have to ask though, is have you done your level 15 class quest from the GLA's Guild in Ul'dah? If you have, then you would have gained an ability called Shield Lob. This ability is very useful for tanking, specifically, 'pulling' the enemy ('mob') right at the start.

Once the enemy has reached you, use Flash when it's close. Flash, despite it's name, is very similar to FFXI's Provoke - it is your main hate generating tool, along with your weapon skills. Then keep alternating between Flash, and the weapon skill combo Fast Blade-Savage Blade or Fast Blade-Riot Blade (the former generates more hate in itself, but the later one restores MP, which is very helpful if you're using Flash a lot, because Flash is a spell).

After three or four rounds of Flash/Weapon Skills, the enemy should be well and truly focused on you (your character should have the letter A over their name in the party list), if not already dead. Then simply rinse and repeat on the next enemy. Your buffs like Convalescence and Rampart are also useful, but they're better saved for a tough enemy like a boss.

The ACN you had in your party might have also just been trolling your party sadly - most know not to use a tank pet in dungeons unless absolutely necessary for that reason - so don't take it to heart.

As for the posting restrictions on the forum, a lot of that was because of trolling on the Beta forum got really bad and thus had to have similar restrictions added, and I assume SE just didn't want to take any chances with the proper forum as well. They might remove them in the future, but the restrictions aren't too hard to get around (the 1000 character limit is anyway - just post your first paragraph, then immediately go back and edit it.).

Anyway, hopefully this has helped - asking for help here is already the first step done, as we all had to learn the game sometime (some of us are still learning ;)).

As a 50 warrior and 23 gladiator if I run a low level dungeon and someone else wants to aggro adds and attack first that's fine by me, anything to speed things up is good. I will just DPS as much as I can, which as a by product will generate the most enmity, unless DPS are overgeared. Basically it comes down to the healer if he can heal while the DPS go crazy that's fine, if he can't and they die it will be their fault and they won't do it again or they will rage quit. O and when a DPS does rage quit I laugh, a lot, because 8-10 seconds later you'll get another 1.

I think a lot of low level arcanists don't realize Topaz will steal aggro from the tank. They just know it is safer for them. They also don't realize their pet doesn't appear on the party list for the healer - which is important to point out to them.
You may have gotten people running alts who knew the dungeon or people who knew nothing about aggro. Low level dps spamming aoe's or conjurer's spamming medica is a common problem.
I don't consider myself a great tank but I don't normally have any trouble holding aggro.

Make sure you are doing your class quests for their extra skills and keeping all your gear up to date, it is incredibly important for tanks.

Your weapon is especially important as it determines how much enmity you get not just through damage but through enmity bonuses and even how much enmity you get with Flash.

Some people are dumb and don't know their roles. If they're running ahead and aggroing everything, they aren't letting you tank and, yes, it can be incredibly hard to get a mob back once someone else has been attacking it first. Even in higher level dungeons, it can take me half the fight using Flash and Overdrive to get something back on me. Sometimes the entire fight goes by, I'm all out of TP, and all I can do is just try to keep it stunned to do less damage to the healer or whoever decided to tank.

You can have all of your gear and levels and skills up, and this situation can still happen to you. Some people just don't know how to play.

Contrary to their role in a party, it is not the job of a DPS to do as much damage as fast as possible. They need to let the tank run ahead. Always. Never be in front of the tank. And they need to wait for the tank to get a hit or two in first. And, they need to watch their own enmity. If they are about to take it they need to slow their own damage to make it easier on the tank to keep it. Unfortunately arcanists and summonses using tank pets doesn't stop with the first couple of dungeons. Just let your party know you are new, ask the party to please let you pull first, ask arcanist to bring out their dps pet, etc.

You may have gotten some higher levels in the daily Roulette and they just want to plow through to get their reward and be done. They should know better than to aggravate a tank. Don't want that tank to quit or play another class, when they are stuck in DF for over an hour wondering where all the tanks go.

Just keep at it, keep learning, do your class quests (and later your job quests, etc.) and know that not all groups will be frustrating.