A Healer Talks About Tanks

[Glyini]

I agree tanks get alot of flak. I think everyone should learn dps classes better so you can tell when a dps slacks or sucks that way everyone will get the same amount of flak. Its easy to find basic things like the blm blizzard spamming at full mp, an archer that does not keep his dots up, a drg that doesnt keep his heavy thrust up, or a monk thats not dancing around the side and back of the target. Just watching the buff or debuff bar for a little bit and you can tell which dps are slacking. Its easy to tell when the tank is slacking due to lack of aggro but a dps you actualy have to watch.

The few amazing tanks really spoil us dps. The game should really put more focus on teaching how important a tanks gear is. An under leveled weapon is a giant loss of threat even flash scales its threat on your weapon damage. That and a tank with proper gear can take the damage for the normal 3 mob pulls so you have your dps spread its dots and aoe among the targets to down it faster overall and a good tank can hold aoe threat, atleast from non blm. They made aoe attacks and dots have enough potency where just having 2 targets make it more total dps than focusing a single target. Even then a marked target is still nice for those single target attacks we have to do to keep our buffs up to do max aoe damage is on the target with the most threat.

[seekerofpower]

I am usually agree with this, but there are a lot of people picking tank classes to get short queues, but really are bad at the role. Some are not. If you are a new tank, that is fine, but take advice from people who know what they are talking about.

Accept when you screw up, because, yes, even the tank can screw up. A good tank will admit it, a bad tank will say, "I don't know what happened there, but it wasn't my fault."

As I healer, I admit when I screw up (it happens on occasion.)

All I am saying is, it isn't so much about the role and whether they are doing a good job, it is about the player and whether they care enough to take advice and improve.

[Melithea]

I bite my tongue a lot, since I know most tanks have egos make of rice paper and soap bubbles. I didn't even say anything to my Garuda tank wearing a mix of level 40 white gear and 34 pink gear who still couldn't dodge AOE attacks.

The fact is, most people have good runs and bad runs. I've screwed up a lot of stuff before, and I've also pulled off some pretty damn impressive saves. But we do dungeons as teams for a reason. Everyone is important and we're only as strong as the weakest link.

Healer determines whether you win or lose.
Tank determines whether you win easy or win hard.
DD determines whether you win fast or win slow.

All three of these need to be working well in order to have a "good run". This happens by communicating and working together. Not by screaming and rage-quitting. Not by treating other players like NPCs who are only there to get YOU through the instance.

[Steeled]

snip

I think this person started off on a bad foot but people, and Pixie too, are missing a key point.

Tanks will switch target, but honestly, they should be able to generate enough aoe hate that they can establish single target hate on their curent target before they switch. As a Paladin, at least, it's not important to switch and stay switched.

I'll basically Shield Lob, Flash, FB, RB, RoH, Flash, FB, SB, Flash, RoH, FB, SB, (switch subtarget)RoH. By this point I usually have enough hate on the main target I can switch entirely to a third target while tossing some enmity at the secondary target. It works with 4 targets, it works with 5. Honestly I can crank hate for a long long time. The most important thing is that I'll always mark something to attack and that's what you should be attacking. It's my job to keep my marked target off of you, and all targets off the healer (of course, it's also my job to out-hate aoe damage from dot classes too.

It is not my job to let anyone attack whatever they want.

[Hed]

As a paladin of 42 levels I have never once had a dps act as some of you are describing. The only time anyone did question what I was doing was a dragoon in the sunken temple who was dead from standing in the aoe constantly one the golem boss. I told everyone that he randomly runs around hitting and aoeing other party members. The entire fight I had full hate on the soulstone and the golem itself. Yet he wanted to tell me mid fight that I did not have aggro. Not that it was a huge deal because after wiping 3 or 4 times due to lack of dps we were running short on time anyway and disbanded.

For the most part everyone has been pleased with my performance and I've received many compliments which makes me happy to do my job. Of course I like to give my healer credit because without them I'm just a dry paper sack waiting to get wet and ripped apart. If anyone did happen to yell at me for losing aggro on a target for one second and they got hit a couple times I'd just ask them to collect their tears so they can drown in them.

There is a simple way to keep your DD on target. MARK YOUR KILL ORDER! It's the simplest most effective way to keep everyone on track. It also keeps the DD from getting confused if you have to switch targets and throw out an enmity combo.

It is a group effort however. I know from a tank/healer perspective it's easy to tell the difference between well geared DD and not so well geared DD.

Everyone also needs to remember that not every player has the best latency. For some reason the Chimera fight in Cutter's Cry lags so horribly that I would get hit by the close up aoe even though I was twice the distance needed from the boss to avoid it. Looks pretty strange when that icicle is popping up 20 ilms outside of the rest of the ice.

[AridElf]

Had an archer in Halatali while I was running as archer with my girlfriend healing. I kept explaining to the other archer that they need to wait a few seconds for the tank to get aggro on all the mobs, otherwise the tank needs to chase what the archer pulled and the healer pulls everything else because the tank couldn't Flash before needing to regain that lost target. He told me "I've played tank I know how it works", checked out the archer's search info, level 2 Gladiator lol.

[Rhas]

Ummm you can't stay on tanks target as a dps as they are constantly changing in order to keep hate.

That's what the markings are for. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, don't attack 1, 2, etc. Everyone should know what target they need to focus on

edit: I guess you covered it in a later post ;P

[Waeksyn]

I love tanking but I'm not a fan of the abuse. Each dungeon boss has very different mechanics, positioning and tactics that need to be learned. In the level 50 dungeons, it seems many English players on their 20th farm run feel it is their right to belittle, abuse, rage-quit a tank who is experiencing the instance for the first time.

Here's a secret for everyone. Patience goes a long way.

All you ragers, is that really the way you want to play the game? Get all angry, uptight and stressed out? Take a breath. If someone needs to learn,park your ego and calmly help them to learn. The entire party will benefit, focus and get better. Everyone expects the tank to lead the party. Leadership is something that all party members can exhibit in the manner they choose to communicate.

[Zfz]

...okay, I'm confused about what you're trying to correct about what I said when (1) we're both tanks (2) talking about doing the same thing.
<3 you.

Oh I thought you meant the DDs could just attack whatever the tank is attacking if there's a marked order.

Well, in the end, the markings are like traffic signs. DDs should follow the signs because it is a clear and unambiguous communication from whoever's trying to make everyone work together.

[Arcturius]

DEMON wall .................why are Tanks just tanking the wall ?
Seen soo many Tanks just leave the Bees to attack whatever (HEALER) Player they can ..............The Wall hits Random People , Rarely the Tank........................TANK THE BEES PLEASE !
I know ...........DPS need to LB the Left Bee...............seems in the PEW PEWING they get lost on Strat and MOST TANKS can think outside of tanking...........

If I was your tank I'd protect you <3