Why is tanking so rough for new players?

[baopee]

Losing aggro is not only caused by bad tanks, the dps might be at fault too, especially when running low level dungeons, dps should always pay extra attention on aggro gauge, if it is yellow, target the one shows green. instead of biotching how bad the tanks are, learn how to play your class better and work as a group.

[Wizhard]

Because tank low-level skills do not generate enmity fast enough in proportion to the amount of damage (and therefore enmity) generated by dps (or healing by healers). Also because a level-synced player will rip hate off a lower-level, lesser-geared tank (almost) no matter what, unless they purposely slow down and watch their own aggro.

This is not true, if you know what you are doing they wont be ripping hate off unless they start dpsing it before you even engage. On low levels it is cutting it close tho.

And because a tank is expected to lead the way in a dungeon and know the mechanics even if it's his first time there.

This IS true though but people will just have to bear with a tank if its his first time and help him out until hes comfortable with the dungeon.

[Fyce]

This is not true, if you know what you are doing they wont be ripping hate off unless they start dpsing it before you even engage.

False.
I did Haukke Manor yesterday, with a fresh fellow tank. I was synced and he was at the bare minimum of level requirement to enter the dungeon.
As a BLM, I had to constantly stop casting, because my enmity bar was 1 pixel away from being filled.

The tank was doing a good rotation and his gameplay was fine. I just had a few more levels and his gear wasn't great... but that's completly expected in low level dungeons.

So yeah, saying that "you can hold aggro if you know what you're doing" isn't true.
You have to be at the maximum level with the best available gear for that. Especially for a GLA/PLD.

[Ultimatecalibur]

False.
I did Haukke Manor yesterday, with a fresh fellow tank. I was synced and he was at the bare minimum of level requirement to enter the dungeon.
As a BLM, I had to constantly stop casting, because my enmity bar was 1 pixel away from being filled.

The tank was doing a good rotation and his gameplay was fine. I just had a few more levels and his gear wasn't great... but that's completly expected in low level dungeons.

So yeah, saying that "you can hold aggro if you know what you're doing" isn't true.
You have to be at the maximum level with the best available gear for that. Especially for a GLA/PLD.

But what was that tank wearing/wielding? Was he wielding a NQ Elm Macuahuitl (i28) and a NQ Iron Kite Shield (i27) while wearing a NQ Heavy Iron Armor(i25) set? or was he wearing a mishmash of Plundered (i17), Iron (i20 to i23), Doctore's (i22) and Thousand Maw's gear (i26) with an Iron Spatha(i24) and a Warded Round Shield(i17)?

[LeCard]

tank not wearing Level-appropriate gear

Yes but if the synced level is 18 and the tank level is 15 because they are new, even the best level 15 tank gear may not be enough and that is assuming that a new player just learning the game that decided to play a tank would know that having anything less than perfect gear when your that far under the DPS level is going to be impossible to keep agro. If you want to do your story missions as a Dps/healer then queing at level 15 the second you get the mission is doable, but try that with a tank and you will be left wondering why you have so much trouble holding hate, only to find out that tanks need to burn gil on gear when no other class does and probably be 1-2 levels above the min.

The problem most newbie tanks will encounter is that tanks require alot more attention to gear than any other class and there is nothing to warn them about this before entering their first dungeons.

[Adamm4231]

Low level is much tougher than higher levels if you play it the same but overall its not that difficult. As Maruader you dont need to have provoke for the low levels. You have overpower which i find is much better skill overall to hold hate. Also marking targets for attack priority helps immensely because the DPS will attack the same target(most of the time). Plus as an awesome bonus, you get defiance at level 30 whereas paladin gets shield oath at 40 and once you get that ability tanking becomes GG ez mode.

[NyarukoW]

Learning a new instance, dungeon, trial by itself is a challenge. Learning to tank at the same time just made it exponentially harder. The only comparable to it is learning to heal while learning a new dungeon, because in both the case of the tank and healer if either one fails the odds of wiping rapidly approaches 100%. But ultimately, it is harder on tank, because the tank must lead or initiate the encounters. So DPS do yourself and the tank a favor, learn to throttle your DPS and control your aggro, and do not verbally abuse the tank.

[Giantbane]

In levelsync gear drops down to the equivalent of NQ of the synced level. In Hakku Manor, all of an i110 DpS' gear ends up with the stats of NQ i31 gear.

NQ & HQ gear both have the same stat caps. It's just that HQ gear is already at that stat cap (primary stats at least) while NQ gear will need some primary stat melds to hit the cap.


Anyhow, low level tanking is significantly more difficult before you get halone/butcher's block and shield oath/defiance. It's not impossible by any stretch, but it is noticeably more difficult. Combined with the lack of direction by the vast majority of the class quests for GLD/MRD is why new tanks often struggle. It also doesn't help when level sync'd dps do silly crap like blowing all their cooldowns before the tank has established agro.

I think they should consider boosting the enmity multiplier of savage/sunder to 5x from 3x. Would help out the new tanks a little bit, and put low level tanking a little closer to on par with what they will experience after they have their primary enmity abilities.

Also has the minor benefit of making skull sunder a slightly more useful cross class ability for DRG/MNK if they ever feel like playing pseudo tank.