DRK/Tanking tips in general would be appreciated! :)

Sup guys, I'm pretty new to tanking in general as this is my second MMO ever and I was wondering if some of you veteran tanks wouldn't mind lending me some tips to help me git gud in the future lol. Recently got my DRK to 60 and loving it, now working on my WAR though with school kicking in I only have enough time for dailies then I'm off. But yes I digress, only recently started doing Expert Roulette and just a few issues. I do big pulls and with usually with a BLM they tend to rip aggro off me, but most of the time the mobs are pretty much almost dead anyways. I usually cast Unleash 3-4x in the beginning and during mid combos yet they still manage to pull aggro. Is there any way I can minimize this for future runs? I plan on going 2 VIT and 3 STR once I get most of my eso's on my leftside. But yeah any tips would be appreciated!

Str accessories. If threat is an issue they're most likely not using Quelling Strikes properly(as dps) or your healer isn't maintaining heals properly. A general rule of thumb I use when tanking roulettes especially is that if your party is AOE dmg centric you should use full str set and use unleash as much as needed because the mobs will be dying much more quickly. If your party is lacking in AOE capabilities or your aoe dps are just bad you won't have the enmity issue. Instead you'll have a sustainability issue between your hp/mp and the healers ability to keep you up before running out of mp. In this case full VIT may be the way the go to ensure survival. With Pentamelded accessories these are a nonissue and you should be able to spam unleash as much as you want while rotating your siphon strike combo. :)

Also use your best judgment in regards to cool downs. As people have noted in the str accessory thread a lot of unsuccessful tanks are simply not using cd's. A lot of tanking cd's have surprisingly short cool down timers in the grand scheme of things so you can afford to burn through quite a few on trash pulls. You'll have at least 1/2 ready again once a boss is using his "tank buster" but having mentioned you're gearing up ESO on the left side these are really a bit of a joke on roulette runs and you can favor pushing dps almost always unless your healer is inexperienced.

Like Kemas said it very true to his words. Also if you like when I run DRK I have this pattern of attacks I like to do for AoE monsters for example.

Unmend, Then next get near between the monster if there two or more use Unleash, Then grab more if you handle it by using Unmend and follow it up with other unleash. Then Put BloodPrice on use Syphon Strike with SoulEater. When you see your Bloodprice is 6 to 7 sec on it's Duration use Dark Arts with Dark Passenger(Dark Arts Effect: Blind. Duration 15s.Dark Arts fades upon execution.) at 1 to 3 use Dark Arts with Dark Dance(Dark Arts Effect: Evasion increased by 20% Dark Arts fades upon execution.). You be Dodging like pro you won't be taking as much damage. But it only work if you handling more then three enemies.

I usually pop my defensive cooldowns before every big pull,(that's how you do it right? Sorry still pretty scrubbish) I now use 2 STR and 3 VIT accessories and it does make a bit of difference for me when I'm trying to keep hate. Had 2 BLM for my roulette today and I barely had to spam unleash back when I was using full VIT to practice. I need to make Dark Arts and Dark Dance into a habit, I barely use it since I'm pretty over geared now and the Healers are always on it lol.

Never hurts to to engage more damage lol

First, what accessories you use should depend on your healer, and how comfortable you are with your tanking skills. If you can afford them then yes, Crafted i150 pentamelded accessories are the best, but they tend to be rather expensive. Personally, unless the healer says something I go with full slaying now. If my healer wants me to have more HP, all he/she has to do is ask and I'll swap - I have a "Savage" set that's 2 Fending + 3 Slaying and provides about 16k HP and a 4F/1S set that gives me close to 18k now.

Second, before you decide on how much to pull for a dungeon overall, do the first pull - the entire first island in Neverreap, or the entire first room in Fractal - and judge what to do from there. If the mobs die extremely fast and your healer is at least decent, max pulls are probably a go. If the speed is decent, but not stellar, double pulls at most. Slow dps? Single pulls unless you think someone's gonna try to pull something for you to "speed things up" (hint: pulling for the tank usually doesn't speed things up, and it can piss the tank and/or healer off). As an aside to this, I almost always pull the entire second room in Fractal as well, but that's mainly because that one consists of 2 bigger mobs and a bunch of "light trash" that dies really fast to any AoE, even my own.

Finally, my MO on any pull with 3 or more mobs is something like this: Unmend -> Plunge -> Unleash -> (run to where I'm gonna tank, unleashing packs as I run by them) -> Unleash + Shadowskin + Blood Price -> Unleash (or Abyssal Drain if there's enough incoming hits to support it) repeatedly until Blood Price drops, using Salted Earth, Reprisal, and Low Blow (in that order) as well during this time. When Blood Price drops, It's a good idea to pop Dark Arts + Dark Dance and Dark Arts + Dark Passenger (if using unleash, you might pre-prep the first DA a couple of GCDs in advance so that you can do DD->DA+DP), then go into your single-target rotation on the most dangerous mob still standing, or whatever's health is lowest if none are any more dangerous (I admit, I'm not very good about popping DA+DD or DA+DP at that point, tho).

With the above opener/rotation, if incoming damage is still too high with just shadowskin, I might pop Awareness, Foresight, or even Shadow Wall for more mitigation, and I might pop Convalescence as well to increase incoming heals. Always save DA+DD and DA+DP for after Blood Price drops, tho - you don't want mobs to miss while BP is up, you want them to hit you for low damage so that you get MP from it. The only thing that can throw a monkey wrench into the machine is a holy-happy WHM. If I get one, I usually ask them to wait for me to swap to my single-target rotation to spam holy. If they refuse, I'll make due...Holy's a lot of damage and mitigation, and is gonna get the dungeon done faster, but you have to watch your MP more closely if your WHM doesn't feel like cooperating with you.

I hope this helps. :)

--Erim Nelhah

AoE pulls are pretty simple and I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned, but Abyssal Drain is godly for AoE pulls. You can pop a CD as you're running in, grab mobs with Abyssal Drain/Unleash/Unmend, whichever is easier as you're running. You can Dark Arts Dark Dance as you're running as well. Once you get them where you want, pretty much pop Blood Price and spam Abyssal Drain primarily, but Unleash for quick aoe aggro without the need to target first if you want. You can alternate Dark Arts on every other one and the mobs hitting you with Blood Price up will keep your mana up while the DA powered attack will help keep you healed up. Feel free to weave in Dark Passenger with DA if you want.

Abyssal Drain's higher potency along with the higher cost than Unleash being negated by Blood Price is what makes this attack so good, and you will not lose enmity, while easily keeping yourself healed up.

If you're a fresh 60 there's a good chance a lot of your aggro issues are tied to people overgearing you. try to prioritize weapon upgrades. they have a lot of vit and the weapon damage will do wonders for your aggro.

In general abyssal drain is better than unleash for AoEing iirc, the main exception being when you have the free unmend proc. If you're doing large pulls you shouldn't be comboing at all at least until toward the end ideally.

AD does more damage than Unleash, while generating the same amount of enmity and having the option of restoring health as well. All things being equal, this would make AD better than Unleash - but all things aren't equal: AD costs ~22% more MP before taking Dark Arts into account. I've found that unless I have at least 4-5 mobs on me, that's enough to make AD spam unsustainable even with BP up. Depending on what the mobs are doing, it might not be sustainable even then. If you have the incoming MP from BP to support it, tho, AD is way better than Unleash.

--Erim Nelhah

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...zPkgCDpAbkIeZf here's a video series guide.

I usually do Unmend -> Plunge -> Unleash + Salted Earth -> Shadow Skin or Dark Dance -> Dark Arts + Blood Price + Abyssal Strike -> Abyssal Strike -> Dark Arts + Abyssal Strike -> ....

You throw Defensive CDs as needed and Soul Survivor on something. Eventually you get low on MP and start doing single target on low guys. That's when you use Bloodbath and try and Mercy Strike to get the HP.

By spamming Abyssal and Unleash while Blood Price is up, you shouldn't have too many issues holding aggro.