Why do so many tanks never seem to use their defensive skills these days?

[RyuDragnier]

I know what you mean, Zohar. It's seriously foolish and makes it much harder on the healers to keep you up in most circumstances. Worst offenders of this are the tanks that don't pop anything and proceed to try to speed run. Yeah...that's not going to end well for anybody there.

I suspect they do this because they think they can handle it along with the healer (why take this chance?), or they're fools that don't know how to play the class.

[Seku]

Same reason there's a "Why don't people tank" "tanking is hard" threads.

[Edewen]

Saving it for when you need them is the main offender. Something I am personally guilty of. However I'm finding on my DRK that I need to use something on pull or else bad things happen. So i usually use my 20% every other pull. The problem, especially with DRK right now, is they are so dam squishy they always need them.

They released this expansion and the new tank DRK and the new healer AST are both a bit weak. The only time I seem to have issues is when I am paired with an AST which simply doesn't have the throughput the other 2 healers have. Combined with Drk's Weaker mitigation we feel ridiculously squishy and healers jump the the conclusion it is due to lack of cooldown usage. However, if they were with a Paladin or Warrior, there wouldn't be a second thought. My paladin Certainly doesn't need to cd on pull.


PAL 60 DRK 57

[Akei]

I rotate through CD's constantly when tanking. About the only two I really *save* are Hallowed and Sentinel on the paladin, that's usually b/c I've run the content before and have a solid idea of when I'll want them, be it for a large pull or a specific mechanic. Hallowed has the 7min CD which makes it a more valuable resource and Sentinel's 3min cooldown means I'm more likely to try and time that. I find Vengeance a little more forgiving with its 2min CD.

Pretty much I use cooldowns in a proactive way to try and *flatten* incoming damage and make like easier for my healer, allow them to throw in some more DPS and just make the run a little smoother.

I've healed many a dungeon with tanks who seem totally unaware of cooldowns though, I've explained to more than one tank what various cooldowns do and offered advice on how to use them in various situation. Some tanks have been very receptive and thats great .. some tell me to *get gud at healz* and thats fine too, I'll heal them through the instance blowing healer CD's as needed and just not sweat it ..

[Krocodile]

You said it was mostly DRK?

General consensus says that DRK are currently "squishy" as a tank, so perhaps they are popping them, but it's just difficult to notice.

[AriaEnia]

I have mixed feelings with Foresight, so i dont use it often.
it will block you from getting critical heals and especially critical adloqium.
Or did they change it now?

edit, it's awareness i forgot.
Foresight is really good, 20% defense is nothing to scoff at

[Malevicton]

Oh man, slightly relevant story from leveling whm: I had a drk for Dusk Vigil. Used nothing but Blood Price (the mp recovery cd). Before we pulled the last boss I asked him why he didn't use any cooldowns. Instead of answering, he asked why he would use cooldowns. I told him it'd make my life easier and I'd have more time to dps. He fed me that crappy "you're here to heal not to dps" line, still without giving any particular reason why he wouldn't use cooldowns.

This went on for a bit, so I gave the mnk a warning and just let the drk drop. Managed to heal my mnk tank through the last boss and still had some time to dps, all while our drk just threw a barrage of insults around. I normally don't like it when healers play god instead of compromising with the group, but damn it felt nice.

tldr; in general I have no idea why people don't use cooldowns. But apparently a few of them don't use them because "I shouldn't need to" and think that that's a remotely acceptable reason.

[SpookyGhost]

Saving it for when you need them is the main offender.

This. Used to do it all the time back in 2.0, really bad habit to get into. Now I choose which CDs I'll use on which pull so that everything is organized neatly and I take as little damage as I can. Eventually, every tank gets into this mindset, but it takes a lot of time for most.

I have mixed feelings with Foresight, so i dont use it often.
it will block you from getting critical heals and especially critical adloqium.
Or did they change it now?

edit, it's awareness i forgot.
Foresight is really good, 20% defense is nothing to scoff at

They changed that a long time ago, heals will crit under Awareness but attacks against you won't.

[Sarkile]

This went on for a bit, so I gave the mnk a warning and just let the drk drop. Managed to heal my mnk tank through the last boss and still had some time to dps, all while our drk just threw a barrage of insults around. I normally don't like it when healers play god instead of compromising with the group, but damn it felt nice.

tldr; in general I have no idea why people don't use cooldowns. But apparently a few of them don't use them because "I shouldn't need to" and think that that's a remotely acceptable reason.

Wow, that sucks for him! IMO both tank and healer need to look out for each other and try to make the other's life easier; a lesson this Dark Knight apparently didn't understand. As a newbie to FF14 tanking I occasionally get a rude healer, but I still try to accommodate them.
On not using cooldowns, I try to as much as possible, but with my hotbar set-up sometimes it takes a little while during the more hectic fights.

[Galgarion]

More like, 'Why can't you shut up and heal me faster, healer?"

Ha ha ha ha! Amirite fellas? Huh? Amirite?

...Fellas? Uh, amirite? Fellas? Hello? Helloooooo? Anyone?

>.> <.<

So alone. *Sob*.