Want advice on "how to tank"

[Raestloz]

What if healer draws aggro (maybe I don't manage mine properly) and provoke is on cooldown? should I best?only shield Lob and hope for the best?

[Bamboofox]

If I don't have Provoke and someone peels aggro, I (after hoping the person doesn't run away) usually Shield Bash the target to stun it and hold it still long enough for an uncombo'd Rage of Halone. That seems to work in most cases.

[Paikis]

What if healer draws aggro (maybe I don't manage mine properly) and provoke is on cooldown? should I best?only shield Lob and hope for the best?

Fast Blade -> Shield Bash -> Spirits Within -> Savage Blade -> Rage of Halone

Stuns the mob in place and lets you wind up an Halone combo as well as using Spirits Within if it isn't already on cooldown.

[Zfz]

Fast Blade -> Shield Bash -> Spirits Within -> Savage Blade -> Rage of Halone

IIRC Shield Bash will reset your combo. So that RoH is very weak.

When healer draws aggro, it's mostly easy to just respond immediately by dumping your next enmity combo skill on that mob. Enmity needs to be managed pre-emptively anyway. So first put emphasis on that.

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Shield Swipe is for TP conservation and damage mitigation, not for enmity. Using Swipe will lower your total enmity output. Use it whenever you have no trouble with enmity.

Regarding the problems listed in the original post:

1. Forgetting to use Flash means you're not actively checking on the enmity levels on your secondary targets. You need to tab-target to them and take a peek at the enmity situation. This is best done during your GCD. Beware when there are targets asleep around you, it's perhaps best to click instead, unless you have learnt to know your autoattacks. (Once you become familiar with the attack animations of your PLD, autoattack motions stand out and gives you a precise window of opportunity when you are free to tab to sleeped targets to check on enmity, to do markings, etc., without waking them up. I do it all the time.)

2. Never leave any target outside your melee range unless it is under crowd control (Sleep/Repose/Bind). Bind is special because you still want it close for Flash to hit, but not close enough for it to do melee attacks. Not that many people use Bind anyway. (Sleep/Reposed targets do not escalate healing enmity, but Binded targets do.)

In a pack with one ranged target mixed in, you need to move all the melee targets to the ranged target. Remember, melee enemies follow you everywhere, you don't have to tank everything exactly where they were.

In a pack with multiple ranged targets, you can use line-of-sight. For example, that last room with a coffer, in Haukke, just before the last boss. The room has 3 ranged wisps(?) and a wolf. If you shield lob any one of them, then exit the door back into the passage, and stand snug against the wall on either side of the door (not across the passage), then all those targets will follow you (ranged targets will move if you are out of line of sight).

It used to be worse in beta when absolutely all the ranged enemies would do only ranged attacks. They changed it during beta such that many of those enemies now will move towards you in-between casts. Although the archer-type still won't move, which means you should move.

3. Moving = problem for melee

Yes, that is a problem, but only if you keep on moving nonstop. If you get into position during the pull, i.e. the first two GCDs of the pull, it's not a problem at all. In fact, any melee who wants to go all out during the pull is causing the problem, not you.

4. I usually forget to use Convalescence. When do you use it?

When the healer is capable of healing, you can use Convalescence. Use it when you know the healer is having trouble healing you. For example in stone vigil with the pack of 3 dragons, any bit helps so you should have Convalescence and Rampart both up as you pull.

5. AoE

You cannot win AoE enmity against a higher level and better geared damage dealer. In that case, all you can do is spam Flash and then recover using Riot Blade and spam more flash. You should tab target and drop that Riot Blade combo where it's most needed. Beyond that it's not your fault that you're lower level, using a lower level weapon. That's just how the game is designed.

When that happens and after the fight you're sitting at 0MP, just stop and wait for the MP and tell your party you're waiting for MP to recover. That would be a big enough tip to the BRDs to sing a song. Other than that, just work towards always having the highest damage weapon you can have at each level. If PLD is your first class, then the story quests will give you all the level appropriate gear you ever need. If it's an alt class, then you need to pay attention and never enter a dungeon holding a weapon that's 5+ levels below your character level.

[Lord_Zlatan]

Fast Blade -> Shield Bash -> Spirits Within -> Savage Blade -> Rage of Halone

Stuns the mob in place and lets you wind up an Halone combo as well as using Spirits Within if it isn't already on cooldown.

shouldn't shield bash come first because it breaks the combo?

[Maelwys]

What if healer draws aggro (maybe I don't manage mine properly) and provoke is on cooldown? should I best?only shield Lob and hope for the best?

Option 1: If you can move, stun it. This gives the healer 6 seconds to be able to dump their hate and get into a better position, and gives you 6 seconds for your provoke to recharge or for you to hit that mob with a few flashes (or nearly a full ROH combo)

Option 2: If it has only JUST gone for the healer and you can't move, spam "shield lob" on it in order to get it to pingpong back to you (you will NOT have solid hate but might just about beat the healer's hate). Then spam flash a few times when it gets into range (and/or stun it).

Option 3: Ignore it. The healer can kite it towards you for you to catch it in your flash spam, or Knock it back or sleep it. Or a DPS can pick it up off them.

The ideal, obviously, is for you to lock down hate so that this doesn't happen. At higher levels you'll usually want to mark mobs in such a way that the most dangerous ones get targetted first (those with cones or AoEs or annoying stuns or summons or whatever), so that if something silly happens then it's only the trashiest of the trash mobs that run a little bit wild.

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Any advice is appreciated

Whilst exact fight mechanics will depend on the circumstances... I tend to lean towards quite a similar playstyle for most encounters:

Typical standard trash mob pull for me: Mark everything. Flash, CoS, Flash, then spam RoH combos, swapping targets so that hate generated from the combos is spread amongst mobs as-needed. Use Spirits Within on cooldown if nothing needs silenced. FoF is used on cooldown, every cooldown. If I start losing too much HP and there's only a few mobs left, I'll Stun things rather than use cooldowns. Foresight and Rampart get used first when needed, but on trash mobs I'll very very rarely need them. Stoneskin is used towards the end of the fight so it's ready for the next pull.

Typical LARGE trash pull: Stoneskin pre-pull. Flash, CoS, Sentinel. Flash, Flash spam (until @20% MP), then Riot Blade Combo -> Flash. Pop Rampart when Sentinel Wears off. Can substitiute Bulwark plus Awareness + Foresight for Sentinel, or use Hallowed Ground in real "uh-oh" cases. Convalescence is used for additional healing where needed. Start rotating RoH combo and/or Stuns when only a few mobs left.

Typical Boss pull: FoF when running in. RoH once, uncomboed, to grab initial hate. Full RoH Combo, weaving in CoS (and since usually bosses don't need silenced, also Spirits Within). FoF used on cooldown every cooldown. CoS and Spirits used on cooldown as well if the boss does not need silenced as particular times. Stoneskin used when appropriate before a big hit. Shield Bash (Stun), Shield Swipe (Pacify) Flash (Blind) and Spirit's Within (Silence) saved and used to help mitigate certain abilities if the boss is not immune. Mitigation cooldown order rotation is usually Rampart -> Foresight+Awareness -> Sentinel -> Bulwark -> Rampart, but these rarely need to be popped back-to-back. Convalescence and Bloodbath can be used in place of lighter cooldowns or saved in order to counter any Healing Debuffs. Hallowed Ground is saved for dire emergencies. Abilities that can be dodged such as Cones or single-target spells are avoided, Undodgeable AoE moves are stunned/silenced if possible.

Naturally part of the fun is learning just which abilities can be silenced/stunned/dodged/etc and at what points in a boss's attack rotation is the best time to pop cooldowns or cast Stoneskin... but the above should be a reasonable guideline as long as you are watching the aggro meters of your teammates closely and keeping half an eye on your enemy's cast bar!

Once you get to certain points of a few encounters at endgame, you'll need to be able to learn to predict where and when adds will spawn - positioning becomes vitally important to generate hate on them before they head for your healers - "Flash" is invaluable here, even as a WAR, because it's a PBAoE and you can use it to generate hate on mobs prior to being able to target them!

I only really use Marking Macros and a few party alerts. "Pulling enemy over, please wait" (for pulls) and "WARNING - Beware of enemy <t>" (to warn of particular abilities) being the two that get the most airtime... but having seperate alerts to let the party know you've just used Provoke, Spirits Within (Silence) and Hallowed Ground are also very useful at endgame.