The misery of starting out with GLA

[SpookyGhost]

Don't need a lot of health @ low level, dungeons are designed around you having the minimum gear to begin with. Nobody pulls big and there aren't any tank busters, so you can go with full STR accessories 30/30 STR. STR also equals threat, which is the usual issue with low level tanking. That said, you don't need to go all out if you don't want to, just know that to gain more threat you need more STR.

[Synestr]

Don't need a lot of health @ low level, dungeons are designed around you having the minimum gear to begin with. Nobody pulls big and there aren't any tank busters, so you can go with full STR accessories 30/30 STR. STR also equals threat, which is the usual issue with low level tanking. That said, you don't need to go all out if you don't want to, just know that to gain more threat you need more STR.

I would say this holds more true for MRD/WAR that it does for GLD/PLD. Just my thoughts though.

[SpookyGhost]

MRD/WAR definitely gets more out of it, yeah. GLD/PLD struggle the most at the start (pre-RoH) and then again @ 30 due to only having Sword Oath. STR helps the most in both cases and is actually a huge boon with SwO as opposed to stacking VIT.

[Nyalia]

I would say this holds more true for MRD/WAR that it does for GLD/PLD. Just my thoughts though.

Most people seem to think that VIT helps PLDs more than WARs, but that's just not true. PLD and WAR have the same exact eHP except during levels 30-39 (due to WAR getting Defiance ten levels before PLD gets Shield Oath). Except during that period of time, each point of VIT helps PLDs exactly as much as it helps WARs. STR is the same - WARs may generate more DPS than PLDs as MT (less clear when OTing due to Sword Oath and Defiance mechanic), but that really means that PLD needs STR *more* than WAR because they generate a bit less threat naturally.

STR on PLDs is exactly as valid as STR on WARs. VIT on WARs is exactly as valid as VIT on PLDs. Don't get fooled by the smaller HP numbers on PLDs! The eHP of an equally geared PLD and WAR are exactly the same (+25% HP == -20% damage). If anything, PLDs have slightly MORE eHP since non-fixed heals are 4% more effective on PLDs than WARs, though WAR gets a bunch of self-heals that make up for that difference (fixed heals and fixed healing equivalents (Lustrate, Benediction, Stoneskin) are exactly as good on both PLD and WAR). If it wasn't clear, the reason for this difference is that WARs get +25% HP, but only +20% to healing; if it was +25% to healing, then healing would be the same on both.

[PinnyAerani]

It's going to suck unless your DPS are really good at following your mark order and jump back and forth between the other targets to make sure your healers don't get aggro. There's no science to low level gladiator tanking; if you're level 26, pull a group of enemies, flash flash flash w/e alternate targets with your Halone combo and still lose threat, there's nothing you could do because that's ALL YOU HAVE. Unfortunately there is no "good player" enmity boost. Your opening combo, from now until the end of time, is going to be: Shield Lob, Circle of Scorn, (if AoE), flash x2+, Halone combo while alternating targets/weaving in flash/CoS off cooldown. Since you don't have CoS you just remove that from the equation. If you're still losing aggro despite that...Well, you have provoke + Shield Lob on the stray mob, but that's really all.

Marking and DPS who can follow mark orders help low level paladins a lot more than low level warriors.

[Nyalia]

One thing that you can do if you can't keep aggro on everything is prioritize. Focus first on keeping the healer's aggro bars below yours, and then on keeping two or more enemies from attacking the same DPS. The lower level you are, the lesser the difference in tankiness between a Tank and a DPS. I'm not saying that DPS are as tanky as tanks, just that it matters much less at lower levels.

Your AoE threat generation just from Flash should be much higher than any DPS's AoE threat generation. Overhealing healers can generate more AoE threat than you, but if your healer is overhealing that much (and it takes a LOT of overhealing to trigger this problem), that's something they really need to work on and there's nothing you can do but explain that chain-healing while the party is fully healed does nothing to benefit the party.

So, if you're facing four targets at once and you do your thing, but the ROG pulls aggro on one of them, well, you're still tanking three times as many hits as they are. You're still performing your roles as a tank, and the healer should be able to keep up unless the ROG is naked save for weapons. While the DPS is focusing down something like that, don't try to get aggro on it, focus on establishing solid aggro on the other threats. That way, when the current DPS target dies, they won't be able to get aggro on any of the remaining enemies. Plus, if they get low on health, you can always Provoke their target and instantly make up all the aggro they had over you. If you follow the Provoke with a Shield Lob, you'll peel the enemy off of them and even if they get aggro back immediately, it'll still run to you before turning around and running to them. That'll give the healer enough time to heal the DPS and the DPS likely enough time to kill the weakened mob.

If your DPS split their focus and won't follow marks, then focus on the target of the DPS who generates the least aggro. HP is an indication of ilvl - you can use HP differences to tell at a glance which is most likely to generate the most threat, and you can treat that one like mentioned above and focus on the mob the other DPS is targeting.

So, really, in early dungeons, you don't HAVE to tank everything to be a good tank. You just have to tank enough that you kill the enemies before they kill you. If people call you bad for not keeping aggro on everything in early dungeons as a low level tank, they're just wrong. In those cases, it's not the tank who's bad, but the DPS. A good low-level DPS will switch targets when their threat indicator goes orange and let the tank/other DPS finish off the threat while they get started on a new one.

Also, on a side note, when you have Rage of Halone, try to hit a different treat with it each combo if you can. The STR reduction increases everyone's tankiness. Obviously, ignore this if you're having trouble maintaining threat on a primary target - Rage has the highest threat multiplier in the game.

[Ceodore]

IMO, as long as he is keeping agro off his healer in the low level stuff, he's doing fine. The mobs in the young dungeons aren't going to turn and one shot a dps. A healer can generally keep a tank and two dps up who are all taking damage from one mob. Pull small, mark targets, make sure to focus on keeping aoe agro up off your healer, and if the dps split one mob off you, trust in your healer, but always keep them safe. If nothing else, the dps will die and will cause their agro to reset anyways, but if your healer goes, you all will usually go.