7 Reasons You Should Be Nicer to Tanks (And People in General)

[Izsha]

This was posted before tank stance enmity buff. Before flash buff. Before circle if scorn buff. Before war stopped ducking revamp/buff. Before speed runs were remotely 'standard' because most people were ilvl 60ish.

Everyone was a newby. The avg skill of players was just plain lower because even the best players only had a few months under their belt.

Things were very different for tanks back then. It was a rough life. All those complaints about loosing threat are long gone. Healers aren't having constant heart attacks in run of the mill dungeons anymore. Cue times aren't nearly as horrid as they were. Every complaint from the OP im 2013 has been eliminated or reduced significantly.

[SpookyGhost]

7 Reasons You Should Be Nicer to Tanks (And People in General)

Tanks are horrible people and I hate all of them.

<3

Edit: Oh, whoah, this thread IS ancient. Didn't even notice. I remember when every PLD had to Cover BLMs because their threat game was just 2 strong. Now you just press Flash a few times and the highest crit Flare can't even touch your aggro lead. Ah, the good ol' days... okay not really good and things are a lot better now, but the... ol' days.

[PrimeEvilPanda]

I wouldn't necessarily say not marking is a bad tank habit. The tanks I've ran with don't generally do it -everyone just seems aims for the mob the tank is currently whacking.

This was posted before tank stance enmity buff. Before flash buff. Before circle if scorn buff. Before war stopped ducking revamp/buff. Before speed runs were remotely 'standard' because most people were ilvl 60ish.

Everyone was a newby. The avg skill of players was just plain lower because even the best players only had a few months under their belt.

Things were very different for tanks back then. It was a rough life. All those complaints about loosing threat are long gone. Healers aren't having constant heart attacks in run of the mill dungeons anymore. Cue times aren't nearly as horrid as they were. Every complaint from the OP im 2013 has been eliminated or reduced significantly.

I hear it's still rough. Or have we finally peaked with the current playerbase without newish people?

[myahele]

Yeah, tanking is still pretty rough even if you're a casual tank like myself. I'm currently i113 that has to compete with people in fully upgraded poetics and dreadwyrm.

I have to work extra hard in those cases and it's really not fun after a while.

[Zfz]

A good enough DPS in 130 with Zeta versus a tank in 110~120 using Novus is still a good match. It won't be easy to out-threat the tank even in this situation, but if both DPS are so and they focus fire on different mobs with the WHM spamming Holy, then it takes some concentration to keep the mobs stuck to you and to maintain a good pace in the dungeon, unless the DPS are helping out with your MP/TP.

For tanks with even worse gear, then DPS in top gear will have to lay back some to avoid over-taunting the mobs.

So some of the complaints are still valid. We should not be talking about things as if 99% of the population are in full 130 with Zeta. They're not.

[sayafrost]

I try to be always nice to all people, doesn't matter if it's tank/healer/dps. But I'm sorry if it irks me so much when they just plain ignore you.

Yesterday snowcloak, the tank was new (as I went in with two friends), and we asked him if he needed help explaining the bosses. He didn't acknowledge anyone, and at the second boss, we had to take the boss down without the snowballs, even if we told him to turn the boss toward the spirggans. I don't freaking ask you to be perfect never lose aggro do fast runs or whatever, I do ask you to follow mechanics. I was once new in that dungeon too, and I welcomed someone telling me best thing to do at the bosses.

(EDIT: and yes I asked politely if he wants me to explain the mechanics)

So it's not about being nice to the tanks, it's about being nice to everyone. Because tanks can be quite rude too, and sometimes to much. But I also meet some really nice tanks around (last time in my expert roulette, the lalatank was awesome and nice - and we had fun, even if we had some minor problems during the run with wiping)

[Clarkamite]

Snip

Because you're hilarious, and I too am on Cactuar, you can bet I'll be sending you a friend request.

[KenjiChan]

Kudos for this thread. I'm ashamed to admit that I used to be a DPS who turned a stinkeye at my tank if s*** went to all hell (though they were pig-headed at times), but out of boredom, I decided to take up the Gladiator class and see what it was like.

I instantly regret any and all things I said to any and all tanks (except the a-hole ones. Bah).

It's hard. Perhaps I have no right to say this because I'm only a lvl 29 Gladiator, but I'm multi-tasking aggro, dodging, positioning, etc. My first words as every duty starts is 'Still learning to tank so please bear with me.' Thus far, I've been lucky and gotten teammates who were friendly and given me advice on how to tank, as well as forgive me when I can't collect/keep aggro despite all my efforts.

So yeah. Treat your tanks nicely, try to be understanding, and work with them as much as you can. Of course, if they're prima donnas, then... Well, perhaps there'll be others.

[LTEvil]

Lol thank you for the necro. One reason to be nice to me when I tank.
If you don't I'll have balmungins outside your house.
Or inn if You don't have a house!
/Sunglasses

[Nerael]

I have a WAR, SMN and WHM, all at respectable Ilvl's (116,116,109)

All three quite thankless jobs if you ask me.


The WAR is expected to be flawless, not to eat AOE, dodge the proper mechanics, explain the mechanics to the group, use mitigation skills perfectly and if you don't hell breaks loose.

SMN? Even if I'm carrying half the raid, Top of the DPS list, Ressing multiple times per fight and dodge every AOE perfectly? "N00b you should be letting the healers Rez! We need those Deepz!". Dude, i'm already in the top of the dps list, the healers are the ones I was ressing, my heals suck so I can't take over that job, all i can do is get them back up. (Keep in mind my DoT's are still eating away at the boss as well as Garuda)

WHM? Doesn't matter what happens or if the tank is taking 8k damage per hit. You should be healing him up and it's always your fault for the wipe. Ofcourse we will ignore the fact that you managed to keep him up for 5 minutes while tanking 5 mobs yourself as a squishy healer, but that is beside the point.

People need to learn to be patient, friendly and helpful. It's the only way we will learn and grow as a community. Instead of being the ultimate keyboard warrior, how about trying to help people? Give them advice (In a friendly manner), explain how they can make more effective use of their skills and why. It takes just as much time, is less stressful and god forbid you actually finish the run with the same group.

It is for this very reason I try to stay away from DF as much as possible and help the lower people in my FC to get to 50 and geared so we can stop using it altogether. Sure there are some really cool and friendly folks in DF, the majority however...