New To Tanking, Need Tips.

Ok, so after seeing a LOT of posts about lack of tanks/bad tanks in this game i decided to give it a go.
I'm usually the dps type, but what the hey, lets give this a shot.

I have a legacy char that i managed to get mrd to 30 in alpha and beta without tanking in pts, and now i need serious advice.

What i'm after, from all the good to great tanks out there is advice, from tanking initial
dungeons onwards. Any and all advice on positioning, rotations, actions, what to use, when to use, macro's, whatever you have throw it at me..

Thanks in advance guys

Well, first and foremost one big piece of advice I have for starting any new role is to start from the bottom and work up. Pop into the level 15 dungeons to start, then work your way up through the likes of Halatali and Cutter's Cry. By starting with a smaller subset of tools and then building upon them (and focusing on trying to get the hang of your new tools each dungeon), you avoid being paralyzed by choice.

Now, for a few more specific pieces of advice, get shield lob/tomahawk ASAP, and use it to pull groups of mobs. If possible, go ahead and macro it so you tomahawk and mark a mob with a single button. Once you pull the group to you, use Overpower/Flash a couple times (enough times as there are mobs is a good rule of thumb), then focus on the main target. If your DPS are spamming AoEs or just ignoring your mark, you have two options: Switch targets a lot and make good use of overpower/flash to keep high enmity on all monsters, or just say "fuck it" and let the mob be a lesson to the careless DPS. I'm a fan of the latter, but in endgame dungeons you may want to do the former and encourage AoE spam for speedruns.

Ok, so once you have the monsters on you, position them. This is decided on a case by case basis, but you basically don't want to point it at the ranged folk, while also giving yourself room to dodge (don't hide in an alcove), and allowing the DPS to reach the mob's side and back. Also, if there's any ranged units, you'll want to either run the melee mobs over to the ranged ones, or find a handy corner or pillar to duck behind so they run to you.

Once all that is done, you basically spam your enmity combo until you're done. If you're feeling fancy, go ahead and make use of your cooldowns that can increase damage, especially early on to cement damage, and keep your defensive cooldowns in mind for if it gets dicey.

Main thing to always remember is your not a dps. Also flash is not as good as people think. Make sure your changing targets with rotations if there is aoe dmg. Earlier dungeons drain tp much faster so if your running low faster then you think you should don't worry about that. People will also always give you a hard time attacking targets you aren't.....in that case make sure to keep the hate. In higher dungeons I let them take the hate and get attacked sometimes they learn.

You're in the driver seat, Tell them to "shut up and listen, this is how I do it." That can go a long way, maybe not in those words but you get what I mean. I pug a lot of things so know your dungeon well, and if you don't know just say something. I rather have a Tank who needs help, then one that never asks for it.

You have your initial mark macro, I use it and only mark 1. If they don't know rotation they can stfu or ask. Aggro is your next thing. I thought I was supposed to do damage at first, don't worry about damage, just aggro. Pali flash flash roh combo. If you're having trouble flash flash riot combo flash flash. War is better for dungeons, pull big mobs then hit CDs and overpower till youre out. If the mobs not dead try and get flash and either flash for aggro or combo. As OT use stone skin as Pali and buff the boss as war with storms eye and path. Also provoke only gets the boss attention, for a vote to work you have to hit him for aggro right after

Remember to keep the healers/dps facing mob/boss back all time so they will avoid frontal cone attacks (except crocodiles in qarn temple which do a backward attack).
Also remember to watch your back all time (char will be facing towards mob and team, but camera should be turned to where your back is facing) to avoid patrol mobs (which can easily wipe the team).
Keep in mind marauders can overpower everything. If you ever notice you are loosing enmity to someone - just pop a berserk and overpower everything until you are out of tp, and then everything should be fine again (why save tp if you can overpower more instead).
Also if you tank in DF - many of people you meet will be the kind of people you do not want to meet again. If they yell - just remember it is because they are rude and ignorant, and continue learning your role.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RegentP

You're in the driver seat, Tell them to "shut up and listen, this is how I do it."

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>_>

Please don't follow this advice. Always be polite. Don't rage. Explain things politely and if people don't want to follow orders, do the best you can anyway. You do want to complete the dungeon after all and just because one person is being a jerk doesn't mean you should leave two people in the lurch. If the whole party is giving you flack you can threaten to leave and if that doesn't work, actually leave.

Make sure to rotate through targets. Healers generate universal enmity amongst mobs so even if your DPS are focused a baddie might pull away and go for the healer. I agree with the advice to start at the bottom and work up. You'll get a hang for combos and the general flow of battle, as well as which classes will give you the most problems maintaining aggro (hello BLM, BRD and WHM).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by givemeraptors

>_>

Please don't follow this advice. Always be polite. Don't rage. Explain things politely and if people don't want to follow orders, do the best you can anyway.

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His post is semi-valid though worded really really badly. I've only been tanking in this game for a few days because I joined a few days ago. However the role of tanking and it's rough experience stays the same from game to game that uses the trinity. DPS can end up getting upset if they make a mistake, or if you make a mistake and go off on a rant. This is probably because of the huge wait times they have to get into pugs, that much wait, and then encountering problems, and they snap. It will happen to every tank eventually. You need to shrug it off, if you made the mistake, say, "oops that was my fault" and move on. Tanks and Healers are usually the least common in the population partly because of the abuse they sometimes take in parties when a wipe happens.

This place has good advice:
http://www.daevaofwar.net/index.php?...sjob-analysis/
This one is also nice:
http://eorzeareborn.com/tanking-basics-communicatio/
There are threads on the forums too with lots of information.
Remember dealing damage is not the number 1 priority. The class quests usually need you mostly to deal a lot of damage, but once in a group, your job is completely different.

Tanking is a long subject, and you'll find more elsewhere, but let's see if I can cut to the very most basic level:

In a group, the tank's job is (almost always) to be higher agro than all other people on all enemies. Agro is a score. Every enemy keeps track of a score for every person in your group. Highest score is the person that gets attacked. That score changes all the time.

Your abilities increase your score (good). Some more than others - it is important to know which ones. Your friends abilities also increase their score (bad). So for example you do Heavy Swing for 100 damage. You gain 100 agro. Then you do Skull Sunder for 150 damage. You gain 450 agro (150*3). Healer heals you for 500 health. Healer gains 250 agro (500/2). The numbers and multipliers here may be slightly wrong.

One of the basic challenges of a group tank is matching your agro creation to your groupmates' agro creation. If DPS is attacking Enemy1, you should also attack mostly Enemy1 and maybe only a little on Enemy2 and Enemy3. Overpower and Flash are abilities that agro all enemies in an area. But the agro amount is less than some of your single target abilities.

Standard opener if 3+ enemies: Tomahawk > Flash or Overpower > Flash or Overpower > anything. 1 or 2 enemies you would go Tomahawk > Heavy Swing > Skull Sunder > other stuff.

Common mistakes beginner tanks make:
1. Do your class and job quests. They give you abilities. 1 per 5 levels.
2. Get cross class skills. For MRD that means get GLD to *at least* 22. That gives you access to Flash and Provoke and other skills.
3. Provoke skill makes you the highest on any 1 enemy's agro list...by the tiniest possible margin. So if you are already at top of agro list, using it does nothing. You want to use it when someone else is getting attacked, followed immediately by a different ability (like Tomahawk).
4. Abilities come in 2 forms: Global cooldown (GCD) a.k.a. "Weaponskill", and off-GCD. Abilities with GCD can only be used one per 2.5 secs. Off-GCD abilities should be used ideally 1 between Weaponskills. 2 kinda OK, but less = better. Example: Heavy Swing > Foresight > Skull Sunder > Bloodbath > Butcher's Block.
5. Overpower is really good currently. Fracture is relatively bad (uses a lot of TP for little increase damage). All the combo abilities are good.