Why is tanking so rough for new players?

[AldoVonAlexandros]

really? it was pretty easy for me back then, I used to spam flash the do the combos

[Lemuria]

Here's my thoughts. Low level Marauder tanking is HORRIBLE.

To not be a giant MP sink, you want Convalescence. To be effective you want Flash, and you NEED Flash. To be good, you want Provoke. To be able to do all of this you need to have at least 3 slots available and a level 22 Gladiator. Which sucks.

The purists will say 'use overpower more' blatantly ignorant of the fact that at low levels this burns through TP faster than wildfire. This means more waiting around for TP regen instead of pulling the next group. Flash is necessary because it's using an otherwise meaningless stat - MP. So you can continue using your other aggro-building combos.

MRD suffers from this most because they have two major combos. One to increase their damage (Maim) and another to deal damage (Sunder). This means that some of the time they're not actually getting an enmity boost from their skills beyond the basic damage, which sucks. This is WHY many rely on Overpower and eat their TP like it's Halloween candy. And running out of TP means less combos too!

GLA, conversely, has ONE single combo which means they can endlessly chain up aggro building skills and use Flash to easily build group aggro without compromising their TP. Well, they have Riot Blade too but that serves a singular purpose and isn't needed as often as Maim. This means it's very rare for a GLA to run dry on TP in lowbie dungeons unless they're using Shield Lob/Bash a lot.

Gladiator is definitely the better tank for lowbie dungeons, whatever anyone says. Better for the healer since they have defensive cooldowns, better for the aggro since they can spam Flash instead of burning vital TP they need for combos. Having played both jobs to death, I can totally understand where the OP is coming from and have been equally frustrated about Marauder's user-unfriendliness for newcomers.

[Edli]

I noticed that holding threat is not as easy as some tanks make it seem especially if your playing marauder because we don't have a provoke.

Overpower, overpower, overpower ... take a nap on the corner while the dps is killing them.

Marauder has it almost too easy. Is the gladiator that suffers a bit.

[Lemuria]

Overpower, overpower, overpower ... take a nap on the corner while you wait for TP to regenerate before the next pull.

Fixed that for you!

[Edli]

Gladiator is definitely the better tank for lowbie dungeons

No is not, don't be ridiculous. I leveled them both at the same time only doing dungeons. Marauder was easy mode. Does overpower eat TP, sure it does but you don't really need more than 3 of them on a group of mobs. Flash is (or used to be before buff) much weaker and loses potency the more is used.

Fixed that for you!

I can indeed sit and wait for TP to regenerate and you will still not get aggro from me.

[Parodine]

I don't think low-level tank quests do a good job of introducing dungeon-style tanking. So unless people are getting tips from players that are willing to explain mechanics, they'll just keep face-rolling things as bad tanks.

[Fornix]

I don't think low-level tank quests do a good job of introducing dungeon-style tanking.

They don't really introduce any style of tanking mechanics. All the tank quests are really just DPS oriented quests.

[Gardes]

What I'd do is to always mark my targets and make sure BOTH dps follow the marks. Start the pulls with the usual lob and flash and maybe a couple more flash and start the tab combos. Pay attention to the enmity bars on the party list and adjust, adjust, adjust. If the DPS is indeed dangerously strong, start reducing the flashes you use in between combos and focus on the mark of yours while skirting by on the enmity list for the other mobs. Start gauging enmity bar on the marked enemy versus their hp bar and start working on the 2nd mark as soon as you think the 1st mark will die facing you even if you stop playing rock paper scissor with them.

[Parodine]

They don't really introduce any style of tanking mechanics. All the tank quests are really just DPS oriented quests.

Yeah, I do agree. I remember some of the GLD quests, well, 1 of them where you have to keep this other GLD alive to win so grabbing hate and keeping him out of the directional attack...but that seems to be it.

[Invision]

I found tanking and holding aggro easy, I would pull mob with shield lob and flash for every enemy. Then I would start combo on one enemy and finish combo on another enemy, then 1 flash, and repeat on the next enemy.

I would encourage people to purposely try to steal aggro from so I learned how to mob control better. Now it's impossible for you to pull aggro from me even if 2 blm are aoe crazy and sending off triple flares.