Question for Tanks.

Hi, I just wanted to ask Tank mains out there how is it like?

In most games I played I play a healer because the way I think is:

Dps - Long queue times
Healers - Short queue times
Tanks - Short queue times but hard to play

But it seems like now at least for me the healer queues has gotten longer so I was thinking to start leveling a DRK because it started at 30 and tanking while leveling doesn't seem that hard. I want to know how hard tanking in endgame content is. Is it hard to learn? Like when to use cd's and other mechanics. Because as a healer its just heal anyone who isn't full health and dps if you can. (also for anyone who plays dps also how bad are dps queues?)

Hiya \o
Tanking can be quite easy in dungeons it's all about holding Aggro, well in any content really lol but that is the main job of tanks.

In dungeons, Def CD's aint really a must to have, you can go through out all the dungeon and not pop a single one unless the group wants you to do a big pull if you do end up doing a big pull just make sure your geared for it ok and don't pop all your CD's at once! The most easiest job to pick up tanking in is PLD, Physical Defence wise he's quite sturdy, simple and easy to play and has quite a few good CD's.

Holding Aggro is they key thing for a Tank to do, for AOE PLD's Have Flash, WAR has Overpower and DRK has unleash. Spaming these once or even twice during pulls should help keep the aggro on you but if you notice you have a BLM or SMN who like to do AOE damage best to throw in a few more Flash/Overpower/Unleash etc.

Marking, If you mark the mobs killer order it makes the whole run got a whole lot easier as the DPS know which mob to focus on and for you to keep aggro on.

Put your Bonus stats into STR or VIT. Some people will say put your bonus stats into VIT but I prefer STR, reason beining is that the extra STR will help you hold Aggro more easier and if your a WAR can restore more HP with your bloodbath/ innerbeast etc attacks.

That's the basic of it if you choose a Tank Class I can give you some more tips hints on it.

Any tips for DRK?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DAYvonte

Any tips for DRK?

---

Hi!

DRK is all about MP management, though it doesn't really become a problem until you get Dark Arts at 45 (Dark Arts amplifies certain abilities and makes them more useful).

If you want to be a really good tank, you'll get in the habit of marking your targets. I have a few macros that I use, depending on how many mobs I'm facing, which I adapted from the first reply here. I've actually got two whole action bars that are central to my UI that have all the markers available, since the interface can be finicky sometimes.

But yeah, everything is about keeping aggro. For the first few runs, and as you're leveling (if you're not confident), let people know that you're a new DRK, so if the mobs decide they look tastier, you'll do your best to get them back.

When talking role difficulty I think healer is the hardest. They can be so busy juggling a lot of things at once. Tank can sometimes be the easiest, especially for certain bosses where they can just stand in one place while all the dps and heals run around.

Regarding tank enmity, you need provoke from gladiator on your bar to grab enemy that attacking another party member. At endgame full party encounters, you can use it to pull a boss off the other tank (tank swap mechanic). All 3 tanks need provoke just like all 3 healers use cleric stance.

I have had my DRK lv up to 38, so I could be wrong on something but so far, my experience with DRK are, speaking from a long period tanking:

1/Similar tanking style with Paladin for group tanking as in, spamming Unleash ( in case of Pal: Flash) and use Syphon Strike combo to regenerate MP (much like Riot Blade combo with Paladin)
2/ Use Blood Price as soon as they are off cool down when tanking to regenerate more MP.

And I found myself having no problem holding hate :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DAYvonte

Any tips for DRK?

---

The tips I would give you:

1) Keep Darkside up 100% of the time if possible. It's a direct dps increase and gives you access to a bunch of other abilities.

2) Don't be afraid to spam Unleash, especially if you need AOE enmity generation. Holding aggro gets easier and easier as you level DRK up, and enmity generation is one of DRK's strong points.

3) Syphon Strike and Blood Price are going to be your main tools for regaining MP, use them as often as you can.

4) I would actually put all your points into VIT starting out, as you will need to learn to tank and it gives you more room for error at the start. Once you hit 50 or 60, you can swap your points to STR if you feel comfortable doing so. You will eventually want all of your points into STR, but there's no hurry while you are still learning.

I won't go in to too much detail here, just some basic tips to get you started :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Litegrace

The tips I would give you:

1) Keep Darkside up 100% of the time if possible. It's a direct dps increase and gives you access to a bunch of other abilities.

2) Don't be afraid to spam Unleash, especially if you need AOE enmity generation. Holding aggro gets easier and easier as you level DRK up, and enmity generation is one of DRK's strong points.

3) Syphon Strike and Blood Price are going to be your main tools for regaining MP, use them as often as you can.

4) I would actually put all your points into VIT starting out, as you will need to learn to tank and it gives you more room for error at the start. Once you hit 50 or 60, you can swap your points to STR if you feel comfortable doing so. You will eventually want all of your points into STR, but there's no hurry while you are still learning.

I won't go in to too much detail here, just some basic tips to get you started :)

---

5) Learn your combo's its important don't just spam a single ability when it has a combo attached to it. I have come across this very often when I was leveling my alt dps. More often tanks are not using rotations correctly. Maybe this is because they just fate leveled and never really learnt to play there job in dungeons etc.

The nice thing about tanking is that it's hard to design a fight where the tank has to tank something and then also do some other extraneous thing. So for the most part, once you get over Tanxiety™ and embrace the responsibility that comes with it, it's mostly just standing there, watching out for the enemy's attack bar, using cooldowns in response, and moving when you need to. Tank combos are ridiculously easy to memorize by design, so that you can dedicate your free time to looking out for very time-sensitive things like that. Overall it can be intense, but it's not incredibly complex.

I'm leveling a DRK myself and coming up on level 50 I was wondering if tanking HW dungeons is more difficult than tanking the lower levels.

To be honest, most of the combat I've done in this game has involved tanking. I just can't stay away from it for too long. In most of the content prior to extreme/savage content, the tank is the real initiative-driver of the party. Players (usually) let them take the front and their positioning tends to dictate the positioning of the rest of their party. They are charged with judging how much their party can handle.

In mid-early game you can get some plebs that will take pulling into their own hands without warning instead of throwing a suggestion your way (doesn't matter if you're learning the job or dungeon). At the top of the content you'll get a load of girly men swinging their handbags at eachother over how much DPS tanks can churn out. If you're with people that remember that they're playing to enjoy themselves, you're good. But those former-mentioned sorts can make you develop a sort of pre-queue anxiety which will only hurt your progress if you don't have thick skin.

That's right. You need to take the same personality towards queues as you do towards trash and bosses. Dive head first into danger. Tank personalities as well as mobs if necessary.

But seriously, don't start tanking at 30, even if you're a veteran of MMOs. You really need to get a feel for the potency of enmity-grabbing abilities and it is certainly best done while getting some of the necessary gladiator abilities. There are a ton of light-party dungeons where you won't need your provoke but if people find out you don't have it... boy that's embarrassing.

Tank isn't a hard role to play, but it is the most transparent role. Since what you do affects the party in a more profound way, it makes the mistakes you make seem more glaring then if you were on DPS. That being said, once you understand a fight and its mechanics then generally it becomes a pretty easy thing to do.

BUT, the caveat for tank is that you have to have an awareness of whats going on around you. Mobs turn, tank busters need to be taken, mobs have to be move etc. This becomes second nature with time, but you have to lose the tunnel vision that sometimes comes with being a DPS.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DAYvonte

Any tips for DRK?

---

While leveling, keep your weapon upgraded at all times. Your damage output directly ties to your threat generation, as well as your MP recovery through Siphon Strike. Having a more powerful sword means less enmity combos to establish hate on bosses and groups, and having more windows to use your damage combo which, in turn, refills your MP and allows you to fight forever.

There's no need to break the bank doing this. Your GC offers top-notch green-quality greatswords for relatively few company seals that are far more damage and better stats than buying crafted gear every 2 levels at outrageous gouge-prices, and is your best resource for gear while leveling. There is also a chestpiece from your GC that requires level 30something that is useful well into your 40s and a worthwhile investment.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ElanVelius

Your damage output directly ties to your threat generation, as well as your MP recovery through Siphon Strike.

---

This is true for threat, but not for Syphon Strike. Syphon's Strike MP restoration is a flat percentage of your total MP, regardless of how hard you hit.

Sorry for late reply just been busy playing the game lol. Right.

So let's break it down bit by bit.

AT LV30 is your newbie DRK skills. You'll have your standard Aggro Combo for keeping Aggro on you from 1 enemy. Hard Slash -> Spinning Slash -> Power slash. Use this to keep Aggro on one of your enemies.

Now Grit and Darkside.


Grit is your Tanking stance and if your new to tanking I recommend you keep this on at all times. What Grit dose is reduce the damage received and delt while also increasing the amount of Aggro you emit with each hit on the enemy.

Darkside increases your Damage by 15% but drains your MP slowly, if your MP hit 0 it will be removed. Try to keep this one during Battle but in between mobs switch it off. Your MP will still be drained even outside of battle so it's a good idea to turn it off so by the next set of mobs you'll have a better amount of MP recovered.

Unleash is your AOE Aggro skill, cost MP so about 2-3 tries should help keep the mobs on you.


Put your Bonus points into STR, one of the DRK skills Souleater will transmit damage delt from SE and convert 50% of it into HP for you and later on you'll get a trait that converts 100% of it into HP so more STR = more HP restore per SE. Not to mention you'll keep Aggro easier with more STR.

That's pretty much DRK but once you get to LV45 on wards you'll learn Dark Arts and this will change how you play DRK in a good way.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kumori_Kumo

The nice thing about tanking is that it's hard to design a fight where the tank has to tank something and then also do some other extraneous thing. So for the most part, once you get over Tanxiety™ and embrace the responsibility that comes with it, it's mostly just standing there, watching out for the enemy's attack bar, using cooldowns in response, and moving when you need to. Tank combos are ridiculously easy to memorize by design, so that you can dedicate your free time to looking out for very time-sensitive things like that. Overall it can be intense, but it's not incredibly complex.

---

One thing that should be rather easy to do once you master that stuff (aka "the basics") is TANK dps. Any decent tank also does decent dmg.