advice for a first time tank?

[Kukajoo]

title pretty much says it all
im looking to level a tank class next but in all my MMO's i've never picked up the tank position before
please give me and maybe other newbie tanks reading some knowledge bombs

[MageBlack]

I found MDR/WAR to be the best for learning.

This was the first game I Tanked in and I picked the Marauder. I found the AOE moves that generate threat, along with the health pools made things easier. Once I got to 30 I went and leveled Gladiator to level 22 for the cross skills (Provoke and a few others) and it only made things better. Plus I like the look of the big honkin axes!

[DracotheDragon]

don't die
and learn when to use your cool-downs effectively

once you hit level 50 with your tank you should know what most of your skills are and do :3

[Saseal]

There are some awesome newbie tank threads in the tank forum They're just spewing tips/info xD
I definitely don't main tank, other than a low level alt, so I can't give any experienced, tank-perspective info D: But here's some things I dug up

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...king-for-tips.
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...How-to-Warrior
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-tips....go%21

Other:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-High-ilvl-dps
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ittle-question
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...h-50-Tank-Tips
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...din-Warrior%29
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...etiquette-tips

[Luvbunny]

Don't assume everyone will want to do speed running, EVER, unless you communicate before hand and if all party members are ok with it, especially your healer. Duty Finder random group, play conservatively, do whatever you want with a pre made party if you want some challenge. Always wait for your healer, and never assume everyone will play at your speed. You lead as tank, but you also manage the party expectation.

[Kosmos992k]

Gain and maintain hate (aggro), learn to stop worrying about your damage numbers, learn to watch the mobs and rotate targets between attacks so that you can maintain aggro if needed.

At the start of every encounter select the toughest enemy as your first target, and use a ranged attack if possible then follow it with your attack combination. Use an area of effect aggro skill to get the attention of the other tartgets, and then use that same move in conjunction with your attack combinations to maintain aggro on all targets as best you can. If something makes a break for the healer, switch to it and get it's hate back.

I learned to back off my camera and pan the camera around so that I can see the healer, and therefore know if anything has targeted the healer.

Learn to read the hate (aggro) meters on screen.

Learn the cool downs (defensive and attack buffs) that you have, and use them wisely.

Find a good healer, and make friends.

Talk to the party in a dungeon, and be open about your own errors.

Be aware that sometimes your greatest challenge will be "tanking" against the conduct of a minority of players who believe that not only do they know your job better than you, but that you suck and they have the duty to make you miserable by telling you so, all dungeon long. A thick skin and tolerant personality is a plus.

[Brightshadow]

Tanking is a bit stressful in my opinion especially if your used to being a healer. But everyone opinion is different. This is what I recommend when tanking.

1.) Keep an eye on your enmity bar (The bar next to your health/class icon)
2.) Make sure to build AOE agro by either using 2-3 overpowers/flash
4.) Number your targets to make your life easier, and use your enmity moves on the main target when you get comfortable use your alternate combos.

[EdwinLi]

As I always say "You got to spank not punch"

Rule!

#1 - Always or try to keep aggro for all or majority of enemies. (Some enemies are designed to be killed easily with their low HP and defense by DDs and Healers while the Tank is focusing on the enemies with High HP and usually they spawn in mass so you can't always grab all their aggro due to the large amount spawning at once.)


#2 - keep eye on your aggro bar. (It is easily to not notice that enemies aggros are growing to max for another party member if you only focus on 1 enemy so switch between enemies a bit to build back some aggro on them while the DDs and/or Healer focus on taking down their target or targets.)

#3 - Manage your TP and/or MP. (Yes it is easy to build aggro when spamming massive AoE aggros like Overpower and/or Flash but draining your TP and/or MP too fast can make thing difficult to manage aggro if something unexpected happens. Not to mention both Paladin and Warrior do not have a TP regen skill.)

#4 - Tank mobs in proper location. (Some Mobs have AoEs attacks that they will only use on their main target so standing in a location not facing your group can save them from taking a AoE to the face that is meant only for you.)

#5 - Do not be Mr. Needy. (If there is anything wrong with a certain amount of the Tank Community it is the lack of respect for other players because they are the Tank of the Group. Don't be rude and remember to respect other people at a tolerable level. Also being a Tank does not mean all players in the party are required to follow your rules and demands. The people that are in your party are other players like you so do not treat them like they're hostages.)


#6 - Do not let other players get to you! (If there is one thing that is a heavy burden of being a Tank Player is that players may have strange expectation for you. They will complain, they will be needy, they will tell you how they would have done it if they were playing as a tank, they will wine about every single thing you did, they will blame you for their own mistakes, they will cry and company about making the dungeon run too slow because you could not handle tanking 8 or more mobs, they will say they have more important things to do and your wasting their time by not aggroing larger mobs, they will say they tank better than you and brag about it while complaining that they would have played as a tank if they wanted to, and other random complaining. Do not let this get to you! It is a burden a Tank player must face. Taking up the task of a Tank is like becoming a Hero that saved the world. The Hero saves the world but people may not thank them for saving the world. Only complain about the damage the Hero done and how he or she didn't save everyone.)

#7 - Use Cooldown buffs to stay alive or relieve some tension off the healers. (Healers can keep you alive but even they have a limit. Using cooldowns can help reduce the amount of damage you take and help keep yourself alive longer so your team can kill the enemy while helping the Healers reduce them amount of healing that have to spam in a certain amount of time so they can regenerate their MP or add some DPS to the enemies to reduce their HP faster.)

#8 - Keep your Gear up to date. (Tanking is a demanding job and one of the demands for tanking is to have proper gear. Keeping your gear up to date will allow you to survivor longer, take more hits, and keep your aggro more easily.)

#9 - Know your limits. (Tanking is about taking hits and keeping aggro most of the time but one thing a Tank must always know is their own limit. Knowing how many enemies you can tank, keep aggro, damage you can take, and how difficult you have keeping control of those enemies will help you go through content as a tank more smoothly. Avoid overestimating your limit to prevent yourself and your team from getting killed by the massive mob.)

[Eye_Gore]

So some decent advice. Now some sad reality. Some issues one may encounter in low level dungeons. Now is everyone is so overgeared, even with level synch. If using the DF for dungeon runs, and you get high ilvl players. Until you start getting into lvl 45 or higher dungeons you are going to have a b*&ch of a time maintaining aggro on anything, and you'll go nuts for trying, especially if you don't keep up with your gear. Alot of people who get into the DF at high ilvls are just there to get it over with. Alot of people no longer care about waiting for tanks to lead the way. Hardly anyone will care about marking as it wastes time ( I don't even bother with the wandering aevis anymore, mob is dead in seconds) and the party will most likely steamroll the dungeon. You may get some practice at using rotations and CD's, but by the time you figure out whats going on the mob is dead.

This is just something you may run into and be prepared for it. Pre-50 may be a bit discouraging and stressful. But if you get through it, tanking is alot of fun, or atleast I think so. Good luck.

[NyarukoW]

If level-synced moron insist on grabbing aggro from you, let them eat the mob they get. Do not mass pull and speed run without coordinating with your party.