The misery of starting out with GLA

[Risvertasashi]

I'm having some trouble with GLA here, currently in the early twenties, and I'm hoping maybe someone can help me troubleshoot...


1. Current gear in all slots. Mostly whites, but a few greens. Most of that is not HQ, because HQ gear at these levels is very hard to find
2. Popping Fight or Flight at the start of encounters when it's not on CD.
3. All optional points dumped in STR.
4. I've tried both Fast Blade ⇒ Savage Blade and simply spamming Flash until out of MP. Flash spam actually seems a bit better even for single target aggro, in terms of how fast enmity is generated.

And... Unless they're not level sync'd (kinda rare), I just cannot hold aggro, even on a single target. It makes me feel like a terrible DPS more than anything. Only thing I can think of that might help is hunting down a crafter to make me all HQ stuff, but with how fast gear obsoletes that doesn't seem all that viable to do over and over again...

I know it gets better with Shield Oath, Circle of Scorn, etc etc... but is there anything I can do now to get mobs locked down? (Just fate and leve leveling with my choco in the mean time...)

[Rbstr]

It's not so much a gear thing (though you really want to be up-to-date on your weapon, the rest of your gear matters proportionally less). At low levels its just harder to keep hate. Rage of Halone should help quite a bit when you get that.

All you can really do is mark a primary target, hit it with the shield lob, flash a couple times (to keep the extras from peeling off to the healer), and go into the hate combo on the marked mob.

At the end of the day it's going to be hard to keep hate against level-synced players when you're not. Just do your best, losing a mob here and there isn't the end of the world in those dungeons.

[Gorvi]

How are you starting your pulls? Run into a group with a shield lob, throw out 3 flashes immediately, then rotate between targets in the group with your combo. Do you have Marauder leveled at all? Foresight and Bloodbath will help keep you alive, every little bit helps.

One thing that can be a problem at these levels is that it may just not be your fault. Until you get Shield Oath holding hate can be an issue at times, especially with DPS that actively try to steal hate.

[Risvertasashi]

How are you starting your pulls? Run into a group with a shield lob, throw out 3 flashes immediately, then rotate between targets in the group with your combo. Do you have Marauder leveled at all? Foresight and Bloodbath will help keep you alive, every little bit helps.

If I stick with a tank-role job I'll get those cross class skills, but I don't have Marauder leveled at all yet. But the issue isn't staying alive; I'm in no danger of dying. It's just really hard to keep even a single mob on me. I've tried spamming flash a lot more than 3 times, and using Fight or Flight at the start with the FB⇒SB combo. From watching the enmity meters Flash spam gives me more hate, faster, than FB⇒SB... But it's still just not enough. I do usually open with a shield lob as I run in.

Sounds like maybe I should just solo level for a bit, until I get these later abilities to help...

[Mykll]

When you get Rage of Halone at 26 that helps some, and when you get Sword Oath at 30 that helps some more, and then really no additional until you hit 40 for Shield Oath. Not counting any cross class skills. Just going to be a little hard for now especially if you have 2 range DPS standard apart and adds start peeling away in different directions. Fun times. If they are not going all out on different ones, then your Flash only needs to keep up with healing done, as well as you swapping out attacks on different mobs, unless you are really close to losing enmity on a single, then keep going all out on that one and let your Flash hold the others.

I'll run with you if you like. Hit me up.

[SpookyGhost]

Get Raging Strikes (lvl 4 Archer), helps a lot for bosses before you unlock PLD.

Don't spam Flash until out of MP, Flash twice then alternate Fast - > Savage, splitting your combo between targets depending on what needs more enmity. Flashing until OOM means you won't be able to Flash for the next pull unless everything lives long enough for you to do a bunch of Riot Blade combos and not lose enmity... which it likely won't.

Wear DPS accessories for more STR if possible.

One more important thing to remember is that nothing really hits that hard in lower level dungeons, so if you happen to lose hate it isn't the end of the world. GLD is rough but once you get access to Rage of Halone things go a lot smoother as others have said.

[Martin_Arcainess]

^ Aye pretty much what Spookyghost said.

What I do is Mark Mobs before engaging the enemy. Shield Lob Mark 1 and then as soon as all mobs are in range Flash them once or Twice then do your Aggro combo on Mark 1, then each time you move onto the next Mob do a Flash for Save measures.

Equipment: since lower level dungeons don't require your VIT to be at Max you can easily give your character STR gear on the Accessorizes side.

Now about putting your Stats into STR maybe later on if you do stuff like Coil you might want put stats back into VIT.

[Synestr]

I'm having some trouble with GLA here, currently in the early twenties, and I'm hoping maybe someone can help me troubleshoot...

(words and stuff)....

I know it gets better with Shield Oath, Circle of Scorn, etc etc... but is there anything I can do now to get mobs locked down? (Just fate and leve leveling with my choco in the mean time...)

1. Current gear in all slots. Mostly whites, but a few greens. Most of that is not HQ, because HQ gear at these levels is very hard to find
HQ is not necessary at those early levels. You get a little boost but nothing drastic. ALWAYS keep your weapon up to date. << Very important. Weapon DMG plays a big part in our threat generation. If you are part of a FC or have crafter friends, maybe they can help you with HQ gear / Weapons.
2. Popping Fight or Flight at the start of encounters when it's not on CD.
Wait a few on using that CD. At your current level it lasts 20 secs, next level it will extend to 30. You want as much up-time with that as possible. So if you are popping it before the encounter, then running in with a lob, then flashing, etc...around 7 seconds have passed before you actually engage your first mob to start your threat combo. I usually don't pop FoF till after Fast Blade. This way my first enmity boosting WS (Savage Blade) has the boosted DPS as well. Needless to say, Sword Oath should on at all times until you get your other oath.
3. All optional points dumped in STR.
Hmm, interesting. Personally I would change those back to VIT. Heals could be stealing your aggro due to having to over-heal your lower HP pool. The boost we get to DPS from STR isn't much until the later levels, so ATM, IMO, VIT would be more beneficial to you.
4. I've tried both Fast Blade ⇒ Savage Blade and simply spamming Flash until out of MP. Flash spam actually seems a bit better even for single target aggro, in terms of how fast enmity is generated.
Where is Rage of Halone? That could be a large reason as to why you are loosing aggro. RoH is the big enmity builder to our 1-2-3 combo. For lower level runs, I usually rotate the Weapon Skills on the mobs. So it looks like this, give or take: Lob, run in and flash pack (usually 3-5 mobs in lower level duties), Fast Blade, FoF+Flash, Savage Blade, RoH...(this is all on the mob that I lobbed at start). Flash again > Fast blade on first mob > (select second mob) Savage Blade > (select third mob) Flash > RoH. Keep rotating that way. If you see the DPS is not focused on your main target, switch to their target and give it a full RoH combo. Flashing will keep the rest with you until you can start rotating again. I am hoping this is making sense.

Now if one of your monster friends decides he doesn't wanna hang out anymore and go visit a healer or DPS, Provoke + Shield lob that sukker. He will realize the error of his ways and return to you.

In the event you are lucky and get a group with a BLM or two(of any AOE class) then more flash spam, using a Fast Blade > Riot Blade combo to supplement mana (Fast Blade > Flash > Riot Blade > Flash etc.)

And... Unless they're not level sync'd (kinda rare), I just cannot hold aggro, even on a single target. It makes me feel like a terrible DPS more than anything -- See Rage of Halone comment above. This should help end that ripping off you, over/under geared or not..

Only thing I can think of that might help is hunting down a crafter to make me all HQ stuff, but with how fast gear obsoletes that doesn't seem all that viable to do over and over again...
Yes. I kinda touched on this and you are right. A lot of times the greens you can get from the duties are better that the quest and HQ crafted and they can last a while too.

It does get better once you get Shield Oath. I hope I haven't convoluted anything and made some sense.

Good luck to you shield brother! Smash faces with boards and stab with swords!!

Syn

[Giralus]

As a Tank you should also be vocal in groups, if people are repeatedly pulling agro off you, than watch to see if they are attacking the mobs in the order you mark them, watch to see if they are Spamming Aoe on the pull

All classes have an Agro bar for a reason,Yes Agro is the Tanks primary focus but that does not excuse the other classes from keeping an eye on their own agro

Be polite, But Firm ,tell people "Please don't AOE on the pull, wait till i build a little hate on all the mobs, then go crazy with AOE" Or " Please attack the targets in the order I have them marked "

Im not saying be Rude or Mean, Just speak up, most people will control themselves a little better if a Tank Speaks up in group without actually blaming anyone.

its also good practice for higher level Tanking for you to Speak up and get comfortable Leading the group in both pulls and in Chat with whats going wrong, how you want to fix it , how you want to do the mechanics on certain bosses, etc..

[Sleigh]

GLA is fun if you have a whole bunch of cross-classes, like Raging Strikes, Death Blossom (more for FATEs than anything), Perfect Dodge, Goad, and stuff like that. Both times I leveled my GLA, I had a bunch of things to do outside of 12 12 12 12. I could see it being really boring going in plain.

Also, something to consider when certain classes steal aggro from you in low level stuff ... GLA aggro was originally designed against damage numbers in 2.0. Certain classes have been buffed including their low level skills, namely DRG and BLM, which can be really annoying to aggro battle against with the limited tools GLA has. It gets much better later on, just keep in mind if those guys pull from you pre-Rage of Halone, it's usually not your fault.