Fear of the Dark Knight

Can anyone give some positive advice. I love tanking and really like DRK but in this game I find tanking really intimidating. Nothing is ever right, pull to fast or to slow, take to much damage or don't deal enough. The way this game is set out its so important that tanking is done well with very few chances to correct an error. Does anyone else feel like this? I don't really raid but i'm far to worried about screwing something up and the consequences and abuse of other players that I've never really tried...

Am i the only one?

Just do your best and don't worry about it. You will make mistakes while you are learning to tank, no one starts out tanking perfectly, it takes practice.

In most content you'll only really worry about cycling defensive abilities and just maintaining aggro on everything that exists. And let your party do the rest of the work for you.

If you are new to tanking start with small pulls until you feel comfortable with your current party. Good players versus bad players will make a difference.

Survivability as well as damage per second is a team effort. Tanking gets easier as you get better on the job but don't feel anxious to try it out. Watch and read a few in depth guides and practice a bit in fights you already got the hang of, and you will become better as time goes on.
As a tank you're the one that sets the pace of a dungeon, just go the way you're confortable with and communicate with your teammates, you may surprise yourself with how many people are actually very understanding when you say beforehand that you're new to tanking.

edit: see, as i was writing this very short comment, two very nice people already gave you their support (:

Start training ur dark in low level dungeons start from the beginning. I find the best dungeon to practise in is Brayflox. It's where I have been train my PLD. And let players know from the start that ur new to tanking and that ur training. People will be really nice when they know ur new. They will give you great advice.

Take advantage of the mentor system. Ask more experienced DRK's how they handle things. Join together with friends and take on easier content like dungeons, and when you get more comfortable, work your way up to primals and so on. Practice rotations on a dummy and the Stone-Sky-Sea dummies also for the content you are engaging in. In time it will feel natural to play and you are worrying about the content itself more than your bar.

Thanks for thr advice. I'm already lvl 60 on drk and pld but I've just done dungeon roulette or fates to get xp. I want to do more different content but I find it way to nerve wracking.... more than a few end game people are unsympathetic to the casual gamer trying to breach out...

I feel a bit pathetic in even saying how intimidating I find trying to tank new things due to other player opinions etc

I was the same way when I started leveling DRK. Sure I'd leveled up gladiator and marauder for the applicable cross-class skills, but I had never tanked any duties. The best thing I could have asked for was a friend mentoring me on DRK as I leveled up--giving me advice on using CDs and how to do pulls in the different dungeons, which mobs to get rid of first, best place to use certain CDs/combos (Delirium combo), and how to incorporate my skills as I learned them. Now I consider myself a fairly decent DRK. I rarely lose hate, even when DPS intentionally try to play the DPS game and rip aggro from me (my mentor friend being one of them lol). Best thing is just practice. Let people know that even though you're level 60, you're still learning how to be the best at your job.

It's okay to be intimidated when it comes to new things. We've all been there. And you will meet people that won't be so nice in duties. How you deal with them is key to your learning experience--do your best not to let their attitudes affect you. If they want to be jerks, let them. I'm sure you do a fine job tanking. If you need any advice on DRK, I'm not an expert, but I think I can give you some solid advice on the job. It is my secondary job I play, and tied for favorite along with Bard. So just hmu if you want some advice. :3

You're not pathetic, this is a WAY more common thing than you'd think. To be honest i'm with you in this. I have leveled up my Marauder to ALMOST 30.. and That whole time, I only play it when i have a full preformed party of people that i know will be supportive. That's what you need.

I have my White Mage up to 60.. and I love healing. But it didnt always start that way. I was intimidated by it at first, it was just way too much pressure.. But i went in with some of my friends from my FC (one of which mains a healer) and they helped me get comfortable with it. Now I can heal without even breaking a sweat.

You'll get comfortable with it, and you'll get comfortable doing harder content with it. The main thing you need to remember, is that dieng isnt bad. There's this massive stigma attached to death in this game, but every fight is different as a different role, and it takes time (and sometimes a little death) to learn exactly what you're supposed to be doing. Find some people to run with you when you try out something you've never tanked before so that they can support you, and offer tips for improvement. Fc members, or people you feel comfortable with. With a little practice (in a group that wont put pressure on you) you'll get the hang of it in no time.

Mistakes can and will eventually happen no matter how good you are.

"Nothing is ever right, pull to fast or to slow"
Pull at your own pace, if you don't think you can handle it don't overpull because someone else tells you to, until you start learning your limits do as you feel.

"take to much damage or don't deal enough. "
First things first, impose your agro and don't overthink about damage, that's what DPS' are for. When you feel like you wont lose agro you can do other combos, in this case you have Dark Arts, which makes it easier if you open with dark arts into the emnity combo giving you a pretty good boost on it.

Don't be afraid to pop CDs if you feel damage taken is too high, better safe than sorry. I personally try to keep 1 CD up at all times, excluding specific cases of tankbursters and alikes.

If randoms try to shut you down just ignore them, some people will bash you or just be dicks in general, but don't let them stop you from doing it. You do you and don't worry about it.

*Take a second and breath* For tanking threat is very generous in this game.

I've never had someone complain when I enter a new dungeon and say: "first time".



Your going to mess fights up at some point if you continue to try tanking. The party will adapt or give feedback if it kills everyone. Just don't take personally. It's not that you wiped everyone on purpose!

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Originally Posted by addz3

I feel a bit pathetic in even saying how intimidating I find trying to tank new things due to other player opinions etc

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Not really, FF14 community is pretty toxic so it's a natural fear ^^
My advise would be to start with friends or FC mates first. Practice will help you to know how to play it but first you need to feel confident :)

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Originally Posted by Cinno

You're not pathetic, this is a WAY more common thing than you'd think.

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This right here you'd be surprised how many people are intimated by tanking because everyone generalizes it with a leadership role and that you have to take command 100% of the time, which is untrue. You decide the pace of the dungeon not dictating and organizing a raid, my best advice would be to:
-Run dungeons to get practice for the bigger challenges we all started somewhere so don't be scared just play like you normally do.

- Stance dancing and how to execute great DPS while maintaining threat, I haven't checked your gear lvl but if you're undergeared and not doing raiding it's not that big a deal it'll come with gear once you're up to snuff with DPS that can grab aggro like crazy.

- Communicating with your healer: this is really important if you're not communicating well and not covering their butts (using CD's, how much you're pulling,) it'll make you feel uncomfortable having macros for your Living Dead ability helps healers, especially WHMs with Benediction.

-Cycling your CDs and knowing when to use them is huge using them when you're at 10-30% HP is not a good time to pop CDs, using them when you know you're gonna take huge spike dmg, a tank buster, and even sometimes getting hit by a giant AoE making yourself go "D'oh! got hit by that but least I have CDs up while i'm tanking this mob pack!"

-Knowing your DPS; if you know that your DPS isn't up to par (it happens!) and you pull too much making the healers job and your job harder watching them and being attentive of everything will make you a better tank, trust me. If you see that pesky BLM just spamming Blizz II or that silly MCH spamming Hot Shot and not AoEing take a bit to tell the group that you need to adjust to your group makeup an extra 5 mins won't kill anyone compared to a headache of wipes or even more time wasted, compared to a group set up that's BLM/SMN destroying the dungeon.

-Positions and movement are key in tanking moving the boss around too much or those adds are paramount to your groups teamwork if you see your melee DPS struggling to move to the flank/rear position so that they can reach them, for casters SMN is pretty mobile but be kind to your BLMs! Make sure that they don't have to move they'll love you for it!

I hope this helps always try to spread the message about DRK tanking it's really fun and has so many possibilities with great rewards, welcome to the family! Also if PUGs (randoms) say "omg this tank is soo bad blah blah" ignore them people will always find a way to complain about something take all tha with a grain of salt, get some thick skin and you'll be fine.

Another thing to keep in mind is that tanking duties is sometimes easier than tanking dungeons, especially if you are off tanking... When you are the only tank in a 4-man, you're the only one to point fingers at, but having another tank with you, especially one who is more experienced in any 8-man duty can take a lot of the pressure off. There are typically fewer adds to pull and it's easier to hold aggro on a single target boss. Plus ready check before the pull means you'll always know when it's time to get things started.

Like other people have mentioned, communication was the big key for me. I used to be terrified of tanking, like shaking in my shoes terrified, but now I love it, and that's mostly because I actually started talking to other tanks in my FC, gathering up their advice, and telling people in my party when I'm new or still learning something. You will still get jerks expecting perfection, but most people will be accommodating and willing to stick things out with you if you are honest and upfront with them.

Dark Knight was my first tanking job. At first, it felt clunky and all over the place (still is to an extent) and then I tried Warrior. Warrior abilities seemed to have a more common theme however, for some reason, I just enjoyed playing Dark Knight more. I took it all the way to 60 and I agree that the community at 60 is (as someone else said) "toxic." There are a lot of elitists in this game (and other MMOs). Do not let their negativity and obsession with pixelated life over real life have any effect on you. They were new too once. Not to mention, I personally don't care what some random on the internet thinks about me.

Fear of the Dark Knight? Is that anything like Fear of a Black Planet? Public Enemy? Chuck D? Flava flav? Brothers gonna work it out? Anyone? No? No. Well, okay then.

Listen, tanking comes in three flavors: Fun, boring, and stressful.

Fun: Is when you're enjoying yourself. This is easy to achieve. Stop worrying about shit. There! Now you're having fun.

Boring: Boring is when you're better than your party is. This occurs when you're playing with a group that does low DPS. Boring sucks. You will be bored often.

Stressful comes in two varieties: A and B. A: is when your dps vastly outgears you and you have to work like a dog to hold threat on them. This is usually brought on by monks, but Dragoons and Black Mages can pack it on too. Hooooo boy, there's nothing quite like a boss getting lit up before you can so much as lob a shield at him, y'know?

B: is when you have a healer that lets your health dip real low. This is actually worse than A by orders of magnitude, since you're completely helpless and have no say on if you'll live or not. It can be exciting too, in the same way that sadomasochism is exciting with someone you met on Craig's list, it's like, "Whoa, I'm saying my safe-word, I'm tapping out, I'm clearly asphyxiating, can I like breath now? Hello? Hey?"

Honorary stress mention goes to people who're new to dungeons but don't ask for directions on how to beat them and get mad at you for their dying.

But the most important thing to remember about tanking, is that specializing in tanking is the worst decision you've ever made in your life but now that you've done it you'll NEVER be able to be anything but a tank, because from now on, whenever you load into a dungeon, every duty finder tank you'll ever meet will be an incompetent scum suck wasting your time and things would be SO MUCH FASTER if you were the one tanking. Because that's the kind of guy that tanks are.

Tanking really isn't as bad as a lot of folks make it out to be. There's a lot of responsibility, sure - but tanks have plenty powerful tools to maintain that responsibility. Tank hate tools are so powerful in this game; once you get a small lead over your DPS, they pretty much never catch up again.

I'll admit, though, that the fact DRK starts at 30 means you're pretty much diving into the deep end right off the bat. Haukke Manor is the dungeon you'll likely be doing at that level, and it has a lot of relatively advanced tanking mechanics. You have the free-wandering Handmaidens waiting to ambush your party while fighting other mobs, the second boss consists of two enemies (one of which should preferably be stunned when it uses its aoe), and the final boss has some scarily powerful adds that can ruin your day if you don't get them under control swiftly.

If you're brand-new to tanking, I might actually recommend trying out running through the earlier dungeons, one by one, before trying Haukke Manor. Many of them tutor you in how to manage multiple boss enemies, and Halatali introduces the concept of "patrolling" mobs that ambush you (bombs which are only troublesome if you get caught in their explosions).

Even if you do decide you're ready for Haukke Manor right off the bat, just let your party know that you're inexperienced, and they'll tend to be forgiving!

DRK is fairly complex as far as tanking jobs go, but it has fundamentals that are shared between all three tanking jobs: A "pull" ability (Unmend) for starting encounters from a distance and also for picking up mobs that stray from the pack, an aoe hate ability (Unleash) for building hate on numerous enemies at once, and an enmity combo (Hard Slash -> Spinning Slash -> Power Slash) for building massive hate on a single target (or shuffle the components among multiple mobs to spread that massive hate around). Once you have these three elements down, you will be a very effective tank in low level dungeons. Once you have them mastered, you can start working on the bells and whistles that make DRK more versatile and unique.

From personal experience learn from your mistakes and just go for it who cares what people think. Ive been playing a long time so I don't remember if I was scared to tank, but I know I didn't care what people thought. My end goal was to keep all aggro on me, make sure healer has a easy time healing/DPSing and make the run as quickly as I can by pulling lots of adds while everyone burns them down. I'm usually a quick learner so I pick it up real fast. Out of all 3 tanks I enjoy playing DRK. I love the fact that I can sprint the entire dungeon in between pulls ★⌒Ｙ⌒Ｙ⌒Ｙ⌒Ｙ⌒ ヾ(⌒∇⌒)ﾉ While providing high DPS and aggro. With WAR and PLD I cant sprint without using up all my TP, but then i need it for the adds :(

With DRK I sprint to the group of adds and pick them up with Unleash (AOE ground attack) or target one add and use Unmend or Plunge followed by Unleash. Make sure Grit is on before you pull. After I have full control and lots of aggro I turn off Grit (if DPS is low and they cant take away my aggro) and help DPS. If I take lots of damage with Grit off and healer has a hard time healing I turn it back on. Also if healer has no problems healing me and my health stays up I turn Grit off while maintaining aggro.

Don't use all your defense cool downs at once unless you are pulling an insane about of adds (even here use them wisely). Rotate them and use 2 at the same time if needed, but having to use more than one at the same time means you're pulling large amount of adds or you're doing an EX Primal like Nidhogg EX. More than likely you are going to be farming the same dungeons over time so test what you can pull. If you know you can pull one set of adds at a time. Next run try 2 sets of adds and adjust if needed. Know your adds, knowing what adds are coming up and what their attack are can give you a hint on if you need to use more than one defense cool down. Don't worry about healer most likely they're are really good at their job and will be burning their MP trying to kill the 3 sets of adds you pulled because they want to go fast.

As someone who has Healed, DPSed, and Mains Tank (DRK specifically because DRK is awesome and cuuuuell). You should be able to pull all the adds in every section of the dungeon at the same time 99% of the time. Example Neverreap lvl 60 dungeon, you can pull all the adds in each area at the same time before having to kill them because the game wont let you continue. Depending on the gear you have on, judge for your self and test it out what you can do. The Tam-Tara Deepcroft lvl 16, pulled all the adds to the first boss/orb. We killed them all. With the gear we had I knew it wouldn't be a problem and it wasn't. Again Copper Bell Mines (hard) pull all the adds every section until game stops you because you cant progress until they die. Hullbreakerer Isle (Hard) Pulled every add. Sohr Khai pulled every add in each section (except with the 3 rocks at the end before the first Moogle boss fight, pulled everything but the 3 rock adds). The Aetherochemical Research Facility 150 ESO dungeon (Anima farm hell) its add pulling heaven especially the 2 orb parts after the first boss. So many adds to pull ヾ(⌒∇⌒)ﾉ

My point is play around with what you can do and don't be afraid to take risk just go for it. its not like if you die in the game you'll die in real life... right (◎_◎; ) ?

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Originally Posted by HyoMinPark

I If you need any advice on DRK, I'm not an expert, but I think I can give you some solid advice on the job. It is my secondary job I play, and tied for favorite along with Bard. So just hmu if you want some advice. :3

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What server are you on because I'll take you up on that ☺