Quote Originally Posted by Hoglan View Post
Wow, as a tank, I feel really bad that people have had such bad experiences.

A couple things I make sure to do:
First, if it is my first time in an instance, I tell the group "Hi! This is my first time, so bare with me." Usually, I find 1 or 2 others that are new.
Second, upon reaching a boss pass gate, I ask "Any tips for this boss?".
Third, mark your targets!
Fourth, keep your eyes open during battle. For peels and adds.

Next, macros. You have to use them as a tank.
My survivability and pulling have improved so much since I have dialed them in.
Here is 1 that I use almost every fight.

Macro 1 - "Pull!"
/micon "Flash"
/ac "Flash" <t>
/wait .25
/ac "Provoke" <me>
/wait .25
/ac "Rampart" <me>
/wait .25
/ac "Convalescence" <me>
/wait .25
/ac "Awareness" <me>
/wait .25
/ac "Sentinel" <me>
/wait .25
/echo Recast Pull!
Don't encourage that macro, reacting to the situation is more important than...whatever you think that is doing for you. For instance, if the healer is casting a raise, that's a good time to Sentinel.

Also, there's no reason to be using provoke like that, save provoke for if someone pulls hate and I've never had anyone pull hate off me in a single target fight.

Stacking some abilties is good. A standard thing for tanking is that you want steadier damage taken, so abilties like Rampart and Sentinel are good all on their own, but you want want to stack Awareness and Convalescence simply because Convalescence since neither are your strongest CDs.