Patience as a Tank

[Ashkendor]

I think you should respect the healers more than anything. They're the ones having to actually fix everyone's stupid. Tanking is a drop in the ocean of Healer woes.

There's plenty of threads detailing healer woes over in the healer forums, though...

[Bubba_Drunk]

Trying like mad to break into tanking myself, wanted to for YEARS. Yes its a pain; you're under scrutiny all the time and never get the credit bad DDs do, I consider some tanks to actually be masochistic, but respected none-the-less. Props to those who can deal with the crap with a smile though.

I main heals, always have, I never understood healers who go off on tangents about how bad players can be, to me its probably the easiest class (may just be the experience talking, hell I dunno).

Good players are good, bads are bad, get over it and enjoy the game I say.

Took a break since 2.5, appearently I didn't miss much hahah.

[KorenA]

Tanks set the mood for dungeons, if I move quick and get aggro and swap to dps, I watch the healer and see what he does, if he can keep up I'll continue moving faster but if he can't I'll take my time. I don't call people out for being bad unless you are truly bad to the core, and even then I won't cause I don't care about how the dps perform in a dungeon group, if you are in my static I'm calling you out. If I'm on my monk I try and give advice to tanks to perform better cause it's my main class, but some are idiots so a lot of the time I just do me and force the tank to move faster or perform better

[Klamor]

I think it's more the fact that when you're tanking the boss there are fights where you can't help the party with mechanics. That means just standing there tanking and watching a horror scene unfold behind the boss without being able to do anything about it.

Amen, sister!

[FinaSel]

As a healer, I don't complain about tanks who run through pulling everything unless the tank dies.
If my heals can't keep up with the number of mobs the tank is pulling, then I look at the tank's equipment. 9 times out of 10, their equipment is way below their level or sometimes even missing completely.
That is when I speak up and suggest equipping something in an empty slot, or, if there is a black mage in the group, asking them to sleep some enemies if possible. (If there is time before healing is required, I try to sleep some.)
The other 10% of the time, the tank isn't using cooldowns.

Some tanks can run through and pull everything and there is no problem. Others can't.

But I am happiest when a tank already knows his / her limits and decides to take it safe and slow from the beginning. If the tank goes slowly, I can help DPS and clear the mobs faster.

It's important to know one's limits.

[Koenignovi]

I wish more people had your mind set on this. Last night I ran an Expert where in the healer and blm were insisting I do a speed run of AntiTower. I did not reply to them and just pulled at the pace I am use too. Instead, they start to speed pull for me after the first boss and that's when I spoke up. If they pulled another set like that, I'll let them tank it while I continue my pace. They didn't like that notion and played it as cool as they could by saying they "auto-ran" into the mobs and they were sorry. At the last boss, they pulled out of the fight to let me wipe solo to miss dolly and then kicked me from the duty... gawd I hate people some times.

[Kitfox]

...and that's when I spoke up. If they pulled another set like that, I'll let them tank it while I continue my pace.

Please realize that this is an extremely hostile thing to say, no matter how you word it. If the healer is fine with more mobs and there's a DPS that wants to pull more, you should try to accommodate that. Weight on the word try.

Even if you can't do it perfectly, the people who wanted you to do it, or did it on their own, will most likely try and help you the best they can to make it work. Flat out refusing your role and letting people die is a very undiplomatic approach. You can let them know that you're not confident in handling pulls that big, if they're still fine with it, just go for it, their fault at that point. Wiping is not the end of the world anyway.

I have a major problem with tanks that are uncooperative if everything doesn't go exactly as they want. Eg. someone aggros an extra set of mobs, accidently or on purpose, the tank has the resources to grab them, the healer is fine with the load, the aggroer even brings the mobs on top of the tank so it's easy for him grab them, only to be yelled at by the tank "You aggro, you tank!" Like, would it really hurt your pride to just press a button a couple of times to grab them off? This whole mentality of "teaching a lesson" when the tank is the only person (or at least the minority) in the party not fine with the situation just pisses me off to no end. If you can do your job, and people even make it easy for you, just freaking do it instead of being prideful. Tanks aren't the only people in the game that can keep an eye on resources and determine if the party can handle a bigger load and be more efficient. Just... cooperate and don't be a princess.

That being said, if the people in the party are in fact not making it easy for the tank, running in circles far away making it hard to grab mobs, healer letting people die left and right, no crowd control and so on, that's a different scenario. I also don't condone kicking anyone before the final boss, that's just an asshole thing to do.

But bottomline, if you can do you job, please do so, or at least try your best.

[Sida]

The problem is, if dps keep pulling for you, and it doesn't go so splendidly, it's the tank who is blamed. More so if the tank let it slide earlier, because then the rest of the group assumes it's fine in every case, even if it's not. Now if you're a tank and have a dps buddy with whom you are used to do that, then roll for it while with them. But I'll keep my stand of "if you pull it, you tank it" when I'm with randoms and frankly, I feel it's lessrude than what the dps players who pull are doing. If they wanted the talk pull more they have a fine little chat line for that purpose. Instead of forcing their own view to the rest of the group mid fight.

[Malicewolf]

Please realize that this is an extremely hostile thing to say, no matter how you word it. If the healer is fine with more mobs and there's a DPS that wants to pull more, you should try to accommodate that. Weight on the word try.

Even if you can't do it perfectly, the people who wanted you to do it, or did it on their own, will most likely try and help you the best they can to make it work. Flat out refusing your role and letting people die is a very undiplomatic approach. You can let them know that you're not confident in handling pulls that big, if they're still fine with it, just go for it, their fault at that point. Wiping is not the end of the world anyway.

I have a major problem with tanks that are uncooperative if everything doesn't go exactly as they want. Eg. someone aggros an extra set of mobs, accidently or on purpose, the tank has the resources to grab them, the healer is fine with the load, the aggroer even brings the mobs on top of the tank so it's easy for him grab them, only to be yelled at by the tank "You aggro, you tank!" Like, would it really hurt your pride to just press a button a couple of times to grab them off? This whole mentality of "teaching a lesson" when the tank is the only person (or at least the minority) in the party not fine with the situation just pisses me off to no end. If you can do your job, and people even make it easy for you, just freaking do it instead of being prideful. Tanks aren't the only people in the game that can keep an eye on resources and determine if the party can handle a bigger load and be more efficient. Just... cooperate and don't be a princess.

That being said, if the people in the party are in fact not making it easy for the tank, running in circles far away making it hard to grab mobs, healer letting people die left and right, no crowd control and so on, that's a different scenario. I also don't condone kicking anyone before the final boss, that's just an asshole thing to do.

But bottomline, if you can do you job, please do so, or at least try your best.

I have a slight issue with this. I am one to do big pulls and am perfectly fine with it, however, the tank should be the one to do the pulls and decide what he/she can handle. When healers or DPS constantly pull for me, it's quite annoying. Not because I can't handle it, but because it's unexpected. Now I have to grab aggro on those enemies, redo my positioning to stack them nicely infront of me for mitigation and if there is already an AoE DOT on the ground from someone, try to reposition them into it. AND if I don't grab them, guess what? They stay on the healer and the DPS that pulled them. I'll take it the first time and I'll ask them not to purposefully pull for me. If I'm not grabbing them, there's usually a reason I'm not doing so. If I know some enemies are extremely AoE heavy, I will not pull huge mobs of them so I'm not spinning around them like crazy having AoE's fly in every which direction.

I'll forgive a mistake. I will not condone uncooperative play. If you pull mobs FOR me everytime, then I agree, you can tank it since you seem to eager to do so. Queue as a tank if you want to set the pace yourself. Now, I will say, if your entire party says they are up for a big pull, a tank should give it a try.

But regardless, to start a fight and leave a player to die before kicking... that's just rude.

[Kitfox]

AND if I don't grab them, guess what? They stay on the healer and the DPS that pulled them. I'll take it the first time and I'll ask them not to purposefully pull for me...
...I'll forgive a mistake. I will not condone uncooperative play. If you pull mobs FOR me everytime, then I agree, you can tank it since you seem to eager to do so. Queue as a tank if you want to set the pace yourself.

My point is, as soon as you stop doing your job as a tank because of one asshat, it pretty much ruins the whole thing for the whole party. Like you said, mobs go for healers, or aoeing DPS, and it'll most likely just lead to a wipe and then everyone is having a bad time 'cause you can't progress at all. It just erupts into a bigger fight, because now there's two people having a confrontation. That's what I mean by doing your best and going the way of least harm, even if it's slightly inconvenient for you personally. I mean, given the difficulty of dungeons, you can probably duo anything with a competent healer. Don't have to go ruining it for the one behaving DPS, or even a bigger group of people if it's 8 man content, because of one rude person. If I'm are able to finish the duty despite the inconvenience, I'd just go for it.

Even if there's only one well-mannered person in a party off assholes, I'd probably suck it up and try to keep going just for them, especially if they're a DPS with longer queue times.

I mean, why do we have to ruin it for everyone because of our pride? Why do we have to be so hateful and purposefully engage in confrontations? A little patience goes a long way.