Marauder, tank question?

Hi, I started ff14 the other day and am up to lvl20 marauder, I thought I was going to be a damage dealer because of the axe, how wrong was I, so iv done the 2 first dungeon quests a few times but am not sure if am doing a good job, Iv played ff11 as a pld/war but you only ever fight one mob at a time in that game, ff14 dungeons your up against 4-5 mobs and it gets hectic and confusing when there is tons of animations going off at once, I can't make out what going on half the time.

So basicly ill cast "foresight" and "bloodbath" every time they run out
Then ill hit closest target with "tomahawk"
Then let's say 4 mobs run at me, straight away ill cast "overpower" (aoe) and normally aggro all of them with red triangle symbols
Then ill do "heavy swing" "skull sunder" combo, then "overpower" then repeat
If I lose aggro with any one the targets or a new mob appears ill target that mob and use above combo
Also use "brutal swing" if mob starts a aoe attack

Does this sound ok?

I don't use maim or fracture too

No one has died in my party's but there has been a few fights we're I seem to lose agro on 2-3 mobs at same time and I need the try an "overpower" them but it's a cone attack so it's hard because some times I can't see jack shiit.

Iv been told to mark targets but am on ps3 and it takes ages I don't see the point why I have to do it anyway, I'll just attack mob closest and if I lose agro on a mob ill attack that one till I get red triangle then go back to the first target.

Also should I lvl up gladiator so I can get flash, will this help if I lose control in the dungeon?

Thanks

I tank as Paladin so I couldnt possible comment if your doing a good enough job, but on the subject of marking targets easily I can help.

Make your self a macro, somewhere along the lines of this,

/enemysign attack1 <t>
/ability Tomahawk <t>

Stick that on your x-hotbar where you usually keep your Tomahawk ability (you can use the tomahawk icon to make it easier). This will then mark the enemy that you use Tomahawk on with a massive #1 sign.

This way, your whole party know which one of the group your attacking, and can focus fire on it. Thus helping you keep emnity on the rest of the pack with the occasional Overpower.

First I'd look at this thread about turning off effects on PS3. That'll help you by making it easier to see what's going on.


Second, learn to love the threat meter. It's on the left of the screen. All the mobs attacking your PT will show up there. You want all the icons to be solid red. If they start fluctuating that means someone else is pulling hate off you, and you can switch over to that mob and get hate back.

Next go into your menu. In the list above Emotes (I forget which category it's under) you'll see Signs. You can press square and add markers here to your crossbar. I'd recommend it. This will allow you to quickly mark mobs at the beginning of a fight before you pull.

Make sure your PT is attacking what you're attacking. Make sure no DD is running in front of you in the dungeon. I've seen DDs do this. They run in front, the healer Cure bombs them, pulls hate, starts screaming at you cause they're getting hit. Basically you're a bad tank because the DD is an idiot and for some reason the healer felt the need to not let them die to teach them a lesson.

What I try to do is turn the mobs so that their back is to the mages. That way any special attacks won't get them. They're soft and squishy and take lots of damage. Also, some DDs have attacks that do extra damage from flanks or the back, so positioning the mobs in advance will help. It will also keep the mobs together in the cone shape you're looking for. Some fights are just crazy and it's not possible, but do it whenever you can.

Make sure you get out of the red of any special attacks. If the healer has to cure bomb you because you got hit because you didn't move, that adds to their hate and makes it harder for you to keep hate. This is especially important in Copperbell when you'll fight bombs that can explode and if you get hit you will get one-shot.

Marking shouldn't take all that long. You really only need to mark one mob at a time, the one you're going to be focusing on. You can switch the mark when the first one dies and you move on to the next. That's one slot on your hotbar.

You've got your opening rotation down fine. You didn't mention whether you're switching targets for the single-target enmity rotation, though, apart from when you lose aggro. You need to spread single-target moves out as a matter of course. Overpower alone isn't enough to hold out for the whole fight against most trash packs. I'll generally Overpower > combo target 1 > Overpower > start switching the combo around among targets (Heavy Swing 1, Skull Sunder 2, Heavy Swing 3, Skull Sunder 1, etc.). But part of that depends on how your DPS are behaving. With lots of AOE DPS, I start spreading the combo out a little earlier. With focused DPS, I do an extra combo on target 1 before I start spreading it out. Or I'll use Heavy Swing on the side targets and always switch back to the main target for Skull Sunder. That's something you just kind of have to develop a feel for, IMO.

Flash is very handy. For one thing, it can help you save a little TP, since it uses MP. You can't spam it much, but a little helps. It also doesn't interrupt a combo like Overpower does. So you can Heavy Swing > Flash > Overpower > Flash, for example.

And make sure you are using Main and Fracture once you have enmity established. Especially on bosses. Especially Maim. Keeping Maim up increases your enmity. It's not such a big deal before you get the traits that increase their durations, but once you do, try not to let them drop.

(I can't work out how to quote multiple people on ipad)

rhoddodduw: thank you, I will defo use this macro, I just have one concern if I use it in place of just tomohark, If I need to aggro the 2nd or 3rd mob just for aggro reasons and I use the macro, then I will remark a mob with "1" when I don't want team to hit it, I want them to keep hitting the original target don't i, I guess I would just use combo anyway and not tomohark

Naberrie: I'll look in to that, even if I could just tone down the effects it would help a lot. Also iv been reading up on the hate Meter and iv moved it so it's on the left, so it's easier to see, I don't under stand now I can lose hate anyway if everyone is attacking the same target, does healing me creat tons of Argo or is the dps probably hitting wrong target?

Bixby: no I have not been switching targets to keep hate, I'll start doing that

Cheers for all the help people

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jayprice

I don't under stand now I can lose hate anyway if everyone is attacking the same target, does healing me creat tons of Argo or is the dps probably hitting wrong target?

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At your level, I don't think it's AOE from the DPS, though that's one culprit. Healing (including overhealing) does create noticeable enmity. The modifiers aren't nearly as bad (See these charts if you want to really understand it), but if all you use on secondary targets is Overpower, it's not hard for healing enmity to overcome that. Especially since overhealing does generate enmity.

It's generally pretty easy to tell if the DPS are attacking the wrong target. Its health will drop pretty quickly compared to the sliver that Overpower does. But that's why marking is encouraged so strongly. From what I've seen, DPS who don't follow marks are the exception rather than the rule.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bixby

At your level, I don't think it's AOE from the DPS, though that's one culprit. Healing (including overhealing) does create noticeable enmity. The modifiers aren't nearly as bad (See these charts if you want to really understand it), but if all you use on secondary targets is Overpower, it's not hard for healing enmity to overcome that. Especially since overhealing does generate enmity.

It's generally pretty easy to tell if the DPS are attacking the wrong target. Its health will drop pretty quickly compared to the sliver that Overpower does. But that's why marking is encouraged so strongly. From what I've seen, DPS who don't follow marks are the exception rather than the rule.

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Ok thanks bixby


Ill starting doing what you said about rotation the target to keep hate from every mob, also am gona use the tomahawk/mark1 macro too

Yes, it will mark the next target (and remove your original mark)
What I do to compensate this, just cycle back to your original target and pops the macro again.