Please Help (Tank Advice)

My friend is playing a marauder, and we have run all the dungeons through halatali, and for some reason he just cant seem to keep aggro on him.

We have beat all of the dungeons, but he keeps getting yelled at because he is not keeping aggro. He is on the phone with me and is spamming all of his spells, including over power, yet the mobs constantly go after our healer.

I honestly dont know how to help him. Besides suggesting that he reroll a new class, please help us out and give us some advice on what he should do.

maybe some steps when engaging mobs, or a skill rotation perhaps. Please anything will probably help.

Dang Nothing?

It could very well be partly the healers(s) fault. Duty Finder healers pre-30 or so seem to over heal like there's no tomorrow.

A couple of pieces of advice:

1) Start every fight with tomahawk and then overpower as they run to you. Starts with very nice head start especially on tomahawked mob.
2) Mark your targets (1, 2, 3) (keeps dps focused)
3) Make sure you are using flash from gladiator. As a Marauder you should maybe use it every 3rd or 4th rotation. Use and abuse Heavy Swing > Skull Sunder combo.
4) Throw in an overpower once in a while as long as you keep the mobs in front of you.
5) If one does run away your best bet is to tomahawk it. Running after it isn't that effective because you are wasting time running while the healer is gaining more aggro. Tomahawk and overpower when it gets back in formation.

Just did some read up, didn't know that Marauder gains Flash as a cross-class skill. Although this means you need to put in effort to get to Lv8 Gladiator.

I'll assume it'll probably be the same as Gladiator pre-30 then.

As Organization XIll has mentioned,
1) Tomahawk > Overpower is something like an inferior version of Shield Lob > Flash. Since Flash affects a 360 degrees around the tank, but Overpower only affects a cone shaped area. If you're not using Flash, you can try to re-arrange the enemies in a cone in front of you, then Overpower them once. Use it every now and then to maintain enmity.
3) Use Heavy Swing > Skull Sunder, it gives the same effect as Gladiator's Fast Blade > Savage Blade. Try alternating your Skull Sunder hit on each mob you are thinking once in a rotation, to maintain enmity on each of them.

Sounds like healer overdoing his part. Of course if all party is killing one mob, rest of them will sooner or later go to heal. If heal can not deal with this fact well... it is his fault...
Around lvl 26 conjurer gets "Repose" spell which puts one mob to sleep. Usually normal heals use that on mob that has aggroed on him if tank is not critically dying.

I am playing heal for some time and had no problems with mobs coming at me. Of course there are some tanks that are doing it wrong but rarely heal will die even though 1 or 2 mobs will go to him.

If smth, just contact me ingame (dunno if it is possible if u are from different world) - maybe I can see if that is rly tank's fault ;)

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Originally Posted by juniglee

Just did some read up, didn't know that Marauder gains Flash as a cross-class skill. Although this means you need to put in effort to get to Lv8 Gladiator.

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While its not a requirement, I think you are not doing yourself any favours if you don't cross class Gladiator and the same for Gladiator's cross classing for Marauders. I use my MAR skills on my Paladin all the time.

It's everyone's job to make sure they are not grabbing aggro from the tank. There are little bars for each party member showing his/her enmity. Players need to keep an eye on the Threat Meter to make sure they're not pulling aggro.

Let the tank solo a little bit before healing. Especially at low levels, the tank should not be on the verge of death after just a couple of hits. (If he is, he can use Foresight and/or Bloodbath.) Especially at the beginning of fights, don't keep the tank's health topped off. Just enough to keep him out of danger.

For longer fights, after his enmity building combo (Heavy Swing --> Skull Sunder), he can use his DPS combo (Heavy Swing --> Maim), which will increase his damage 20%. So when he switches back to Skull Sunder, he's grabbing even more hate because he's also doing more damage.

And Gladiator for Flash (level 8) and Provoke (level 22). Those are huge.

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Originally Posted by VydarrTyr

It's everyone's job to make sure they are not grabbing aggro from the tank. There are little bars for each party member showing his/her enmity. Players need to keep an eye on the Threat Meter to make sure they're not pulling aggro.

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36 levels into the game and I never noticed that. I just used old fashioned observation. I watch the boss, I watch the party, I watch the adds. While helpful, I prefer my method. Its helpful if you are not used to tanking or need to find out who keeps grabbing agro. But I just prefer to pay attention to the fight like I am.used to.

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Originally Posted by Jaminos

36 levels into the game and I never noticed that. I just used old fashioned observation. I watch the boss, I watch the party, I watch the adds. While helpful, I prefer my method.

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I agree with you. It's easier for the tank to just watch the mobs. The tank should be the only player in front of the mob, so it's really easy to just watch which way the mobs are facing. If one turns away, or starts running after the healer, you can just grab that mob.

I think the Threat Meter is most helpful for the DPS/heals/support jobs. Without the Threat Meter, there's no real way to know if you're close to pulling hate. You only find out about it when it's too late, and you've actually pulled hate. The Threat Meter tells DPS/heals/support to slow down before they've crossed the line.

Vydarr makes excellent points, but I also want to add that your friend should make sure his gear is up-to-date and not broken. If his weapon is weak or broken, your friend will do terrible damage and therefore not be getting good hate at all. If his armor is weak or broken, he will be taking more damage than he should be and the healer will need to cast a lot more to keep him alive, which will cause them to get hate. High Defense gear is very noticeable so he should be careful and make sure he isn't picking up gear with low defense that is intended for DPS.

It's best to let the tank take some hits at the start of a fight because not only do you get full hate for overhealing and will probably outpace the tank if you start doing so, you actually get rewarded with a larger limit break boost if you heal the tank when they are under 50% HP. If you are running with healers spamming Cure right as your friend pulls, you need to let them know because at that point it is there fault.

Aside from that he just has to make sure to use Flash and/or Overpower every so often to make sure the enemies stay on him, if his gear is fine the healer should have no problem keeping him alive even if he has 3-4 enemies on him.

Well I just wanted to give an update. We ran all of the Guildleves up to level 30, and did the next dungeon Thousand Maws, and my friend was able to hold aggro the whole time. No one yelled at him. He was telling me he finally figured out a nice rotation for him and how to make the most out of over power and tomahawk. Was a good sign and some good runs.

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Originally Posted by Estellios

I also want to add that your friend should make sure his gear is up-to-date and not broken. ...

It's best to let the tank take some hits at the start of a fight because not only do you get full hate for overhealing and will probably outpace the tank if you start doing so, you actually get rewarded with a larger limit break boost if you heal the tank when they are under 50% HP.

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So much wisdom from this dude that his name should be Esmartios.

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Originally Posted by Orbital-Dragon

Well I just wanted to give an update. We ran all of the Guildleves up to level 30, and did the next dungeon Thousand Maws, and my friend was able to hold aggro the whole time. No one yelled at him. He was telling me he finally figured out a nice rotation for him and how to make the most out of over power and tomahawk. Was a good sign and some good runs.

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Glad to hear it. Tell your friend to keep after it. The more he does it, the better he's going to get.