Need Advice Tanking.

Hello,

New to the game and really enjoying myself so far. I needed some help understanding the guildhest. It seems that no matter what i try to do I always seem to lose Aggro on one of the creatures of the mob. What i do is i start with Fast blade, and then move to flash, and then savage blade the main target. For whatever reason i always seem to lose aggro on one of the creatures in the mob.

I know this is the First instance and may not really matter but i was hoping to see what i am doing wrong now so i can fix it before i start doing dungeons and harder content.

Thanks!

I'm not a tank main but for what its worth:

Fast Blade does not have an additional effect for enmity on it. If you are not going to combo it (Fast Blade -> Savage Blade) then you should start with Savage Blade, which does have add effect enmity on it. The Fast Blade -> Savage Blade combo will produce more enmity. I'd open with Shield Lob -> Flash -> Fast Blade -> Savage Blade -> Flash. You can throw Fight or Flight in there before the combo if you feel like you need more hate.

Gear is going to matter a lot for this. The most important stat for enmity is your weapon damage, so be sure to have the best weapon that you can. What the quests give you is probably not going to be good enough, I'd buy an HQ weapon off the AH or farm a green/pink one from dungeons when you get to them. If you are tanking against others that have been synced down in the Duty Finder, chances are they out gear you massively and you will have to really work for hate. At that level if an archer/bard or thaumaturge/black mage decides to go full out from the start or an arcanist is using Topaz Carbuncle there is not much you can do. Leveling pugilist and archer for Raging Strikes and Internal Release to crossclass will help up your damage some and keep hate as well while still a Gladiator. Marauder will give you some useful defense abilities as well. You get more hate tools as you level and get your job crystal, so if you are struggling right now just keep in mind it does get better.

I don't believe you are high enough levelwise to post there yet, but you might also want to check out the tank forums for more advice. Stick with it and welcome to Erozea! :)

Thanks for the Reply!

I Have been using the Fast blade > Savage blade combo to get more out of Savage blade. I think it may just be a matter of that instance. I just tried the second guild heist and i was able to handle pretty much anything. I was able to intercept the minions and for the most part keep aggro on the boss.

I think if i can i may just ask in the tank forums just to be sure.

Appreciate the help and best of luck in your adventures!

When ever I start off a fight I will use shield lob, its ranged so you can start while running in. Provoke is useful for this as it has a longer range (though you don't have this yet). Once in the mob, flash a couple times, then use the Riot blade-Savage blade combo. Its more effective using it as a combo instead of alone the combo is the key. Use that combo and flash every 2 or 3 combos and you should be ok.

It gets more interesting when you level up and are in dungeons. If you are new to the dungeons, let people know, most will offer you help, but there will be haters, luckily I haven't encountered too many of those. Learned alot from people just in the game.

the problem here is other people.

If they don't wait for you to establish aggro before attacking (and if they don't attack the mob you're focusing on building aggro on), they can easily make your job a lot more difficult.

You'll run into that problem quite often. If it is easy to see which mob to attack (if you've marked it), or if they otherwise act stupidly and start kiting the mob, or knocking mobs back, I always let them handle the mob in question, until it dies. Sometimes I even continue to pull new mobs while ignoring that particular one, just to get the message across.


Being in a dungeon together is about accommodating for each other. As a dps, they should give you room to get aggro, while you should make it easy for them to do dps and heal, and the healer should also watch their threat early (this will especially be a problem for you, once they start casting regen on you before you pull), as well as expect you to take any aggro off them quickly and not knock the mob out of your range, binding it for enough time for you to lose aggro on it after provoking and shield lobbing it, to bring it back.

Which guildhest are you talking about? If it is the first one about enemy parties, you will lose aggro on that large group. The general advice at low levels is to use flash the same number of times as there are enemies (usually 2-4).
Shield lob -> Flash -> Flash -> Flash -> Fast Blade/Savage Blade combo rotated among enemies
If your dps are focused on the same target and you aren't taking much damage (so the healer isn't pulling aggro) then you can skip some of the flashes and focus on one target but you should still throw a flash in there every couple of rotations.

I will second Sagittarian's advice. As a GLA/PLD you will want to open up with a Shield Lob (from your level 15 class quest) then a few Flashes before working on your combo. At low levels you can throw out another Flash at the end of every combo to make sure you outpace healing enmity on the other enemies.

Tanking multiple enemies becomes quite a bit easier as you get higher level as you get more tools to build enmity.

PLD is my main class and I agree, Shield Lob > flash 2-3 times > combos. I only use provoke (when you get it later on) if you somehow lose aggro on a monster.

Good adive from others. I recently just got my Plly to 50.
At the low levels Pally tanking is harder, and Flash is definately your friend. It doesnt affect rotation, so I would ShieldLob, Flash, FastBlade, Flash, SavageBlade, Flash...by then you should only need a couple more Flash now and then.
Also, if you see agrro dropping, give that beastie your Savage balde
Also Mark. I marked my way (and still do when I have aoe dps - BRD/BLM/SMN) through every dungeon

And if one of you mob runs off, and within range - ShieldLob and Flash (until you get Provoke). But if you've marked and your DPS are respectful, this isnot such a problem

As I said, until later levels, Gladiator/Paladin is a bit rough on holding hate

A good tip i can give you is to look at the enemy health bars.
The colored circles there are indicators to aggro.

Green = No aggro built up on that target
Yellow = Medium aggro built up on that target
Red = You have aggro

As a tank always keep everything RED (You holding aggro)

Combine that with the enmity/hate bars that show up next to the party status list (tiny little bars to the left of the party member)
It will show you how much enmity you have on that specific enemy in comparison to the rest of your party.

Below is a link from youtube I watch on Tanking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSSLEsdZYxU

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nerael

A good tip i can give you is to look at the enemy health bars.
The colored circles there are indicators to aggro.

Green = No aggro built up on that target
Yellow = Medium aggro built up on that target
Red = You have aggro

As a tank always keep everything RED (You holding aggro)

Combine that with the enmity/hate bars that show up next to the party status list (tiny little bars to the left of the party member)
It will show you how much enmity you have on that specific enemy in comparison to the rest of your party.

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Great tips from a lot of people.

There is also an orange color, means you almost have hate, not quite, but more than yellow.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mykll

There is also an orange color, means you almost have hate, not quite, but more than yellow.

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I think it's:

Red = You have primary aggro, with a substantial lead on everyone else
Orange = You have primary aggro, but are on the verge of losing it
Yellow = You don't have primary aggro, but are on the verge of getting it
Green = You don't have primary aggro, and are not even close to getting it

So both tanks and everyone else gets a warning level of when aggro is on the verge of going the wrong way.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Niwashi

I think it's:

Red = You have primary aggro, with a substantial lead on everyone else
Orange = You have primary aggro, but are on the verge of losing it
Yellow = You don't have primary aggro, but are on the verge of getting it
Green = You don't have primary aggro, and are not even close to getting it

So both tanks and everyone else gets a warning level of when aggro is on the verge of going the wrong way.

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Nope. Red is the only color that means you have the monster's attention. Any other color means it's targeting someone else.

Though you will sometimes seen an enemy that goes orange momentarily appear to stay on the tank; enemies will finish attacks on whatever they're targeting before switching targets for the next attack, so there are times in between red dots where the dot goes orange, but the mob stays in place.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Niwashi

I think it's:

Red = You have primary aggro, with a substantial lead on everyone else
Orange = You have primary aggro, but are on the verge of losing it
Yellow = You don't have primary aggro, but are on the verge of getting it
Green = You don't have primary aggro, and are not even close to getting it

So both tanks and everyone else gets a warning level of when aggro is on the verge of going the wrong way.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bixby

Nope. Red is the only color that means you have the monster's attention. Any other color means it's targeting someone else.

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as a healer, i learned this pretty fast, and its helped out a lot as a tank. i am colorblind, so i dont know the colors they really show as, and i am also on ps4. when you dont have any aggro, it shows as a dark dot next to the monster name/health bar. i then moves to a yellow? up arrow, meaning you have built up som aggro, just not a lot. then its a downward facing orange? arrow, meaning that you are about to take #1 spot. and the red? dot means you are #1 and will be the target.

also, you can get a good idea on what monster you need to focus on builing aggro by how much damage is being dealt to it. i can usually hold aggro between 2 different mobs aand counteracting the healer aggro.

Pull with shield lob then flash a few times. Do NOT pull packs with provoke (level 22 GLA). It will not give you any hate on them.