Tanking, need some advice?

[Meenesfeja]

Thanks Meenesfeja! The healer I play with uses Physik (sp?), not medica, at this time, so it's safe there.

Speaking about Scholar, it is usually fairy (Eos or Selene) that pulls aggro. Whitemages are more aggro building healers, specially when they cast aoe heals. (Here you can ask your healer-friend to explain differences between both healer classes - she should know ^^)

I'm lucky to have my healer in the same room as me when we play together, haha. She alerts me *before* I lose aggro that I'm losing aggro, which gives me the impetus in time to switch targets in her defense.

Yeah, I know the situation. I was playing as dps while my bf was tanking. As I was always in healer range, I told him when some mobs run astray
Generally it helps but you still should try to build aggro properly in order not to loose aggro on healer at all (in end game fights it could sometimes be deadly issue that healer pulls mob off tank).

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Yeah, I know the situation. I was playing as dps while my bf was tanking. As I was always in healer range, I told him when some mobs run astray Generally it helps but you still should try to build aggro properly in order not to loose aggro on healer at all (in end game fights it could sometimes be deadly issue that healer pulls mob off tank).

I'll definitely be practicing some of these strategies and employ the advice I've gotten to become an independent and effective tank. I guess starting out it's a bit like trying to see the forest through the trees. I understood what being a tank meant, but the mechanics and the combat have layers that I have to really get down to be a good tank.

And that's exactly what I want. Committed myself to it wholeheartedly.

[JeniLinsky]

And that's exactly what I want. Committed myself to it wholeheartedly.

That's step one.

So, let's talk about Damage Dealers (DDs) for a moment. The melee types, who are the most likely to pull agro from you in that first rush to the monster, are not as heavily armored as you are, but they're armored better than the casters. They can take a little bit of damage while you re-establish enmity with your first full combo.

Also, there are self-heals that monk, for instance, has. And many players have at least a few levels of CNJ so they can get protect and cure as cross-class at low levels. (Only a couple of jobs can cross-class these, but all the classes can). So it's not as big a tragedy if your melee DDs get some agro splashed on 'em.

But by all means, keep the monsters off the casters if you can.


One thing that may help... when you zone into the dungeon, don't be afraid to say, "Hey, gang, I'm a new tank. Give me a moment on each pull before you pile on, so I can establish aggro." Then, if they still rush ahead, it's on them, not you.

I love being a tank. There's something very powerful, psychologically, about saying, "I will stand between you and danger, because I AM THE PAPASMURFING TANK!" I hope that you come to enjoy it as well. It does take practice, and thought, and you have to be on your toes. But when it comes off right, it's very rewarding.

Or at least, that's my girl-gamer perspective on it.

[Sapphic]

Ifrit got nerved, so you can't stun every eruption anymore.

Ifrit wasn't changed. how resistance diminishing was changed to resetting it after every stun. Not as it was before where the counter started and stayed from the first stun. Also, plumes are easy to dodge, only ones to watch for and stun are after nails after the central plumes.

That's step one.
So, let's talk about Damage Dealers (DDs) for a moment. The melee types, who are the most likely to pull agro from you in that first rush to the monster, are not as heavily armored as you are, but they're armored better than the casters. They can take a little bit of damage while you re-establish enmity with your first full combo.

Problems there is you are constantly chasing them instead of building up a decent amount of enmity first. Chasing the DD on enmity on the mob they decided to jump the gun on, whilst trying to prevent the other mobs from eating the healer XD Especially at a level where you dont have provoke XD. Also with voke, if they manage to get in a hard hit between voke and RoH.....

DD get hate, instead of trying to nuke harder, they should stop until tank has dragged the mob back to smacking the tank around the head again ^^

But, best advice whilst learning and low leevl is to mark targets in the kill order you want which lets you focus more enmity generation on one mob instead of trying to divide between many and possibly losing when 2 DDs are nuking 2 different mobs As you get more tools it does get easier to manage multiple mobs as PLD against heavy AE.

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I love being a tank. There's something very powerful, psychologically, about saying, "I will stand between you and danger, because I AM THE PAPASMURFING TANK!" I hope that you come to enjoy it as well. It does take practice, and thought, and you have to be on your toes. But when it comes off right, it's very rewarding.

All good advice, thank ya!

We definitely see eye-to-eye on. What drew me to tanking was the obvious challenge, but also the fact that as the tank you're essentially a party leader. Others have to take your cues. But at the same time if you misstep others will suffer for it. It's all really quite exhilerating/frustrating/fantastic all at the same time. I'm moving toward level 30 now. In the last few levels I've had both my best instance run and my worst. The worst I was forced to leave with my healer because the DDs were running ahead, ignoring cues, pulling all of the mobs, and then running back to me. We wiped several times before we both just shook our heads and humbly left. But the best was smooth as it could have been. And from that experience I got onto the primals, and my first? Ifrit? We went to town on, a huge success, no hiccups.

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Following on from all of the great advice here already, some of you have touched on Marauders. I decided against a Marauder > Warrior for my tank and put my chips into Gladiator > Paladin instead. Are there any skills a Marauder has that might be useful to a Gladiator / Paladin that're worth leveling the Marauder class to get?

[Bixby]

Are there any skills a Marauder has that might be useful to a Gladiator / Paladin that're worth leveling the Marauder class to get?

Foresight, Bloodbath, Mercy Stroke, and situationally maybe kind of Fracture sometimes. Skull Sunder is the only one with absolutely no use.

If nothing else, you want the Marauder skills largely because the Conjurer skills PLD can use, with the exception of Stoneskin, suck. You can't Raise in combat, which is the only time Raise would really be worth taking. You don't have enough MND to make Cure worth the time it takes to cast. You'll always have a healer, so the only time you'd use Protect is when someone's been Raised in combat and somehow the healer doesn't have time to recast Protect, but you somehow do. Stoneskin is awesome, though.

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Foresight, Bloodbath, Mercy Stroke, and situationally maybe kind of Fracture sometimes. Skull Sunder is the only one with absolutely no use.

If nothing else, you want the Marauder skills largely because the Conjurer skills PLD can use, with the exception of Stoneskin, suck. You can't Raise in combat, which is the only time Raise would really be worth taking. You don't have enough MND to make Cure worth the time it takes to cast. You'll always have a healer, so the only time you'd use Protect is when someone's been Raised in combat and somehow the healer doesn't have time to recast Protect, but you somehow do. Stoneskin is awesome, though.

At the moment I have cure on my gladiator as a replacement for pots (as they have a cooldown I can't stomach when I really need health). If my health drops below 50% I get on the cure wagon ASAP. At the moment Cure gets me a relatively quick 120ish HP back, and the casting time isn't actually that long at this level. But I imagine later in the game I'll have to give it up.

Thanks for the heads up on those skills, I'll study them and get on the Marauder class soon. Protect I really only carry when I'm going solo for a while (hunting logs, etc), because yeah, my healer buffs me plenty.