New to tanking

[Claire_Pendragon]

(1) For MP, u figured out DA is taking it away. But, some DRKs dont know to use the MP combo ONLY! At the start 1-3 powerslash combos is all u need, and then focus on MP for the rest of the fight.

(2) 2 forms of mitigation people forget to use effectively are you stun, and reprisal. Reprisal an enemy thats got a lot of HP still, so u get the full effect of it, and stun a mob who will live for 6 seconds, but is quickest to die. (so for example, I would start a fight stunning my primary target, and then reprisaling the 2nd target. When stun comes back up, it would either be placed on the 2nd mob (my new primary target) or the 3rd, if its about to die.)

(3) Dark Passeger with DA can act as a form of mitigation when you're out of mitigation, and so can abbysal drain (as it obviously heals you)

(4) If a mob is going to crit you, you can not parry it, so awareness stacked with Dark Dance will increase the number of times u crit.. (very low chance this happens though)

Also, if you dont know of this, but you cant evade/parry attacks if they are from the side/behind, so try to make sure all mobs are in front of you.

Lastly, think of Scourge as a poison. (IMO do it after ur threat combo, not before)

[Urthdigger]

I have another question: how doeas scourge work? I don't really get how these poison-type actions work at all o.o

A guildmate of mine always says to do unmend>scourge>powerSlashCombo>...>scourge>etc.. but i dont really get what happens if i use it or not use it XD

Scourge is, straight up, extra damage. These "poison" skills (referred to as DoT for Damage over Time) tend to be THE most damaging attacks in a player's arsenal as far as damage per action/MP/TP.

First off, only use it if the DoT will last the full duration. So, not when the foe is at 1% or so.

Secondly, take the duration of the DoT and divide it by 3. This is because DoTs deal damage every 3 seconds. With enhanced Scourge, this turns out to be 10 "ticks" (Term for when an over time effect does something)

Finally, multiply the number of ticks by the potency of the effect, in this case 40. So, you wind up with a 400 potency attack for a mere 60 TP and no combo required.

That said, Scourge doesn't get an enmity multiplier to it, so only start using it after you've cemented hate. Also, while using it on an enemy that already has the effect up is worthless, you CAN spread it around to multiple targets to keep doing a 400 potency attack round after round. Though, once you get to 4 or more enemies it starts becoming better to just spam Unleash.

[Pixelmancer]

2. I was doing some raids level 50, but sometimes the other tank says "swap" "switch" or "get it off me" and I dont really get what he really means, I mean i try to get the monster away from him but it only happens aafter 3-4 combos of my power slash or when the other tank is dead.

You need to level gladiator to get Provoke as a cross class skill. It's pretty much mandatory for endgame content.

[Mirch]

Thanks for the answers! I kind of start to get the tanking world!

I has another question:
When I use white mage I used gears with just critical hit rate and determination sub stats, then melded these 2 if possible, else spellspeed, then i was told to meld vitality on accessorizes. As a tank, which sub stats should i focus on and what should i meld, like now ive got pretty much everything balanced, i'd like to know how to "build" my tank (dark knight) because leveling it is reaaaally fast!!

[Tint]

the stats are Critical Hit > Determination > Skillspeed > Parry

Crit and Det are the only really good ones. Skillspeed has it's uses, but you will drain your TP faster and it doesn't affect your magical attacks (Unmend, Unleash, Abyssal Drain).
Parry is completely lackluster. It has a low scaling (getting tons of parry doesn't affect the actual parry chance noticeable), it is random (but you need to mitigate, so you have to use def-cooldowns anyway) and you can only parry physical attacks (so it is useless against magic attacks). parry is also useless as Off-Tank, because to get a use out of parry you have to getting hit. so Parry is the worst stat, you should avoid it.

as a tank you also want to meld Strengh into your accessorys. because tank accessorys only have Vitality, but your damage scales from Vitality and Strengh (you can't overmeld main-stats, so you have to put the Strengh materia into the first safe-slot).

[Claire_Pendragon]

the stats are Critical Hit > Determination > Skillspeed > Parry

Crit and Det are the only really good ones. Skillspeed has it's uses, but you will drain your TP faster and it doesn't affect your magical attacks (Unmend, Unleash, Abyssal Drain).
Parry is completely lackluster. It has a low scaling (getting tons of parry doesn't affect the actual parry chance noticeable), it is random (but you need to mitigate, so you have to use def-cooldowns anyway) and you can only parry physical attacks (so it is useless against magic attacks). parry is also useless as Off-Tank, because to get a use out of parry you have to getting hit. so Parry is the worst stat, you should avoid it.

Everything said here is pretty much it for Materia, though I wanted to clarify a few things as well.
For DRK, parry is pretty much slightly better than not, IF you are MT, because of reprisal. (Im almost always MT in my raid groups, so its better for me than when I join pugs, where its pretty 50-50 if Im MT or OT. Plus a lot fo content atm is physical heavy atm, and i needed some parry procs until my gear got better.)

Speed stat is in tiers of 60. The tooltip says your GCD is lowered, but tests have show only once you reach 60 speed will your GCD decrease by 1%
I forget how much crit/det you need for a 1% DPS increase, but it is also in larger amounts. (But Crit effects 2 important things, which is what gives it an edge over the other stats)

So, the only time you want Skill Speed over Parry, is if you've hit the current tier of 60 speed, and arent even close to another tier of 60.

(In case you're not sure, take your speed stat and divide by 60)
If you are a few points away from a new tier, put points into speed, if you're too far away, make ur last 1-2 materias parry.

This becomes pointless once u upgrade to new gear, as your speed stat will change.

So most people who arnt worried about perfect stats, will just slap it into speed, since they know their gear is going to change quickly.

EDIT: I should have mentioned speed also effects your DoTs dmg.
Which is another reason its ok to go over 60, as a DPS increase, how ever small, is still a DPS increase.

[Tint]

EDIT: I should have mentioned speed also effects your DoTs dmg.
Which is another reason its ok to go over 60, as a DPS increase, how ever small, is still a DPS increase.

i am curious if Salted Earth's damage is affected by Skillspeed. Since magical attacks are affected by Spellspeed, not Skillspeed, it should not?