Why do tanks exist?

The end game dungeons, like Kugane Castle and The first are pretty fun, until you get a Red Mage. So far this jib, for whatever reason seems to be the highest offender to ripping hate from a tank, and I never had issues in heavensward with this. 90% of the group's I get in have 1 or 2 red mages, sometimes you have to get in the middle of spawned mobs to wait for them to group up close enough for the radius of scorn or even flash (PLD) and by the time that happens one strays off to the (Insert Ranged dps) and especially red mage having some ridiculous aoe I'm fighting the entire fight just to pull hate back that I never got to begin with, when dps are on separate targets you just can't win, the global cool down from flash effects everything else, your shield bash is also shared in that same gcd.

What do you even do, what's the point of tanks anymore if red mage can generate so much threat so fast that you have to focus on one mob to lose the rest to someone else. With my rant over of a beautiful idea of a tank, I lay down my sword and shield and will gladly take a 30 minute queue over an instant headache.

Ps. And let's not forget moving out of range to hit because of radial attacks while they can still hit it. I dread every queue

Dont have the problem myself i already Tanked over 250 Stormblood Dungeons since Release and i didnt Remember a single time when a dps stole aggro from me even 2 Rdm are no problem maybe i only get bad dps xD

This happened to me on a run when I had 2 red mages, I was really shocked lol. I literally asked them "How did you do that" I haven't lost hate since Haukke manor normal (I had not unlocked paladin). It was kind of interesting having to actually work at keeping hate.

I never had this issue as a tank but have torn hate off tanks as a DPS.

Causes were often the following
1. large gap in gear level
2. tank not using tank stance
3. tank not using tools effectively
4. Excessive procs of crit + DH during boss fight opener.

One other observation to note is there are a lot of DPS players out there that seem to think they have to try and frontload everything they have as soon as possible on every pull, often taking the initial hate due to being the first person to actually engage the monster either by hitting it or getting too close and this seems to make the monster stick to them more than usual. If a DPS does this too much I don't bother pulling the enemies off them so they get it in their head that if they pull something they're going to tank it.

Tell them to use diversion + lucid dream.

If they refuse, let them die. Aggro is a shared responsibility.

I've never had any trouble keeping aggro on packs unless they're just single targetting something like an idiot, though.

Optimally the DPS now should use aggro-reducers (Diversion and Lucid Dreaming) as often as possible, especially RDM because it basically just chains high potency spells and oGCDs very fast right at the start of the fight.

Not saying that it's impossible to hold hate to a RDM who doesn't use aggro-reducers but tanks sacrifice DPS to use extra useless aggro combos, while DPS don't sacrifice anything to use aggro-reducers. So the priority is pretty obvious here in terms of efficiency.

The issue lies more in that I mobs will spawn too far apart and run to you but before they even get in your aoe radius the dps has already taken 1/4th of its health and gear wise I'm in the 290s on Kugane. Not taking much dmg, buffs are fine, it's literally not having an opportunity to generate the hate to begin with, fighting to get that one mob off them and it sacrifices the rotation of the rest. I'm not saying it's all the time, but it is with red mages, they seem to have so kind of burst in the beginning that only provoke helps with and they just keep dishing it out the whole time, if you don't hate combo that one mob after provoke you'll lose it again in less time than it takes to even finish the combo at the same time you've been neglecting the other stuff for almost 10 seconds and it'll get bored with you too, even faster of the second dps is hammering it hard enough

It's definitely a gear level thing, I never lose aggro in dungeons but I did originally when Stormblood first launched. It's even more noticeable now because a lot of people are in way better gear than before. It'd be like in Heavensward trying to tank with ilvl 230 vs a dps with 270, gear was always some form of a factor.

In terms of losing aggro off the bat, I usually don't even give them a chance by sprinting ahead between pulls. That being said stick to AoE threat generation and don't worry so much about trying to pull the mob back as those dps should switch targets (and when they do it'll suck if you're focusing on one).

Now to answer why tanks exist...

Poor AI in general (for any mmo really), as they'll often switch targets or bounce around if there's similar enmity bouncing. There's no body blocking in this game so you can't really have a "real" tank via melee. If there was, you would probably see dungeons of 5, two melee for tanks, two ranged, and one healer. That being said FFXIV doesn't work like that so we get enmity meters.

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...acter/2182265/

This is what I'm currently working in, but I could also argue if I have that gear from tomes, I have no reason to really run the dungeons anymore making the whole experience rough regardless

Yeah, considering most people are item level 310 - 320 and are now approaching 330, it might be a combination of both gear disparity and the really, really nasty burst the RDMs do. I recommend you stay in shield oath for a bit longer and flash a few times more often to really secure hate before you start working your damage combos into the mix, at least until you receive some better gear. Fear not, it should be easier to hold hate once you upgrade your gear a bit (: