What to expect when playing the Tank role and what other players expect from you!

What to expect when starting to play the tank role in MMO's

And what players will expect from you when playing the tank role

Tips on making it as a tank



Any contribution would be great, do so in the comments below!

what i expect:
follow my mark
dont agro first

what they expect:
idk, ask them

but too bad, here tanks are squishy jelly, hp drains like water, healer need constant attention, im feeling like not being a tank

What to expect Tank role in MMO

-Make it clear that I am Tank, not drunkard playing game atm
-You will not steal my target no matter what and I don't need to tell you do not steal my target, do that and this iron bat goes on your head
-I must be the first to lead, not others
-I expect target to die asap

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DeeJayImut

but too bad, here tanks are squishy jelly, hp drains like water, healer need constant attention, im feeling like not being a tank

---

That is why I actually like this game, I'm not invincible. It is part of the fun when a party comes together like little gears and all works well. I keep the bad stuff on me, healer keeps me on the bad stuff, dps ensures things die in a timely manner not to strain either me or the healer. Yeah I know a lot of games use the trinity system, but I have seen so many where the tank isn't needed, the healer just has to occasionally toss out heals, or the tank has no chance of loosing aggro. By making everything feel weaker SE has brought some base party mechanics back.

There are two sides to tanking. What you have described applies mostly to FC groups. DF groups are a different animal.

What players expect from me as a tank .

1. I pull entire zone including bosses if possible , and not die , not need heals , do decent dps and hold agro to everything while stunning mobs and silencing them .
2. I also will let DPS pull mobs and take agro off them before they take a single pixel of damage.
3. The healer will DPS and never have to heal me .
4. Every run will be a new world record speed run .
5. In Coil no one will ever die , if they die its tanks fault .
6. Even on content no one even the tank has not done , nor anyone in the world , you must know fight regardless.

Yep probably missed a lot more but that sums it up I guess

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Grailer

What players expect from me as a tank .

1. I pull entire zone including bosses if possible , and not die , not need heals , do decent dps and hold agro to everything while stunning mobs and silencing them .
2. I also will let DPS pull mobs and take agro off them before they take a single pixel of damage.
3. The healer will DPS and never have to heal me .
4. Every run will be a new world record speed run .
5. In Coil no one will ever die , if they die its tanks fault .
6. Even on content no one even the tank has not done , nor anyone in the world , you must know fight regardless.

Yep probably missed a lot more but that sums it up I guess

---

And this is the other half, what PUGs want their tanks to do.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Paikis

And this is the other half, what PUGs want their tanks to do.

---

This so much. When people use DF, they should not expect the others players in the party to adopt their own personal playstyle. I don't expect anyone to adapt to me, but I ask for the party to play logicaly.

I.e: Do not start firing/hiting while I run with aggro.
-- Do not cast things such as "Stoneskin" when I start runing to aggro the mobs around.
-- If you are a DD that use mainly single target attacks please stick to my target. (That one should be obvious.. if everyone hit one mob its life will go down faster & then we take the next one, I saw some DDs argue with me often about that & call me a bad tank over it. Dunno if it was for pride or if it was just them being stupid.)

i'm a jerk to derpy tanks in DF when leveling, it's doing them a favor cuz they need to learn their rolls though. if i'm pulling smaller groups because your dps isn't quite on par and you attack off target and get hate. i can get the hate and will if it is the first few offences but after awhile and inform the healer not to heal them, and pull hate when the dps dies. this normally gets them to pay attention. although this is pre level 50 stuff, also pre level 50 if a healer is blowing all mana every fight on dps i don't take kindly to it. i toss out alitlte dps as healer myself cuz sometimes the healing really isn't needed but when you are in a dungeon that has roamers and whatnot and your healer has to wait a minute before fighting antoher fight it is promlematic

the problem is u cant please everyone .

healer hates me pulling too much . DPS hate me pulling too little .. not going fast enough, healer cant keep up . DPS whine because you can't hold agro even , tank angry dps on wrong target . Didn't stun , didn't sleep , making stupid remarks in chat.

Tank rages and has to go for toilet break , 30 mins later tank still on toilet break ... rage rage rage .. people leave tank magically comes back , gets more party members, run goes sweet . rage rage rage . .

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Grailer

What players expect from me as a tank .

1. I pull entire zone including bosses if possible , and not die , not need heals , do decent dps and hold agro to everything while stunning mobs and silencing them .
2. I also will let DPS pull mobs and take agro off them before they take a single pixel of damage.
3. The healer will DPS and never have to heal me .
4. Every run will be a new world record speed run .
5. In Coil no one will ever die , if they die its tanks fault .
6. Even on content no one even the tank has not done , nor anyone in the world , you must know fight regardless.

Yep probably missed a lot more but that sums it up I guess

---

7. You also need have best gear, otherwise you are undergeard. If anything happened,all your fault.

All raging aside, things expected:

From Tank:
1) Mark targets; hold aggro - This makes your party understand that you are leading and that you can lead by holding aggro.
2) Be mobile - if you pull more than 1 enemy, rotate onto different mobs, so that everything is on equal ground for threat. use AOE enmity abilities often. Flash/Overpower.
3) healers generate a lot of enmity but once you have rotated a few times on mobs its hard to pull off of you.

From DPS:
1) follow the mark.
2) follow the mark.
3) follow..

From Healer:
1) do not cast a heal on me while i'm grabbing threat.
2) do not cast a heal on me while im grabbing threat and then throw aero on all the mobs
3) do not cast regen on me and then big heal while im at 70%.

Some sarcastic ones, some well-intentioned ones so far. Here's my go at a realistic one:

From Tank:
- Mark target, if relevant
- Lead, don't wait (if some reason why not, explain)
- Hold enough agro to overcome common actions of groupmates. Applies for all targets engaged unless otherwise stated.
- Dodge relevant AE abilities

From DPS:
- Follow a rational target order
- Dodge relevant AE abilities
- Don't agro new foes

From Healer:
- Say if you're going AFK
- Heal at a reasonable rate
- Dodge relevant AE abilities
- Don't cast beneficial effects that cause newly agroed foes to immediately target you (before tank can corral them)
- Don't agro new foes


Some people have already mentioned marking and following a kill order. This is OK of course, but it's a very basic strategy which can be improved upon sometimes. For example SMN may DoT multiple targets to maximize damage. MNK can Rockbreaker. Etc. Or there are places where the plan is to use AE attacks - not much point having a kill order then. As a tank I will often mark only the 1st out of a pack. Single target DPS can focus that one (and I'll make sure enough agro is there), and by the time it's dead the remainder will have enough tank agro that it doesn't matter what order.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RhazeCain

snip

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Techro

snip

---

And yet the two of you forgot a really important one in the DPS section, which most DPS tend to ignore &/or forget depending convinience, and which is:

-Don't start attacking while tank is pulling.

I see this one nearly everyday and get called incompetent tank upon that lol.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Gandora

-- Do not cast things such as "Stoneskin" when I start runing to aggro the mobs around.

---

The flip-side to that is - Tanks, please don't run off and pull aggro if I haven't finished buffing you. Especially not if I'm in the middle of the actual cast, that's going to end well for neither of us.

From myself the Tank:
-Don't need to mark target cause you can try to grab it and you won't
-AK runs under 22 minutes.
-Swapping to offensive role when damage isn't intensive.
-Dodge every single avoidable skill be it red indicators or moving behind mobs to stunning/silencing them.

From DPS:
-Do your job and DPS as hard as you can, make my life miserable.

From Healer:
-I want to see every GCD used. Be it for heal or for DPS
-For learn to Cleric Stance dance.