How to get people to tank!

[Awful]

GW was really fun, but had similar problems though. Not enough healers. They combated this with heroes / mercs, but that imo isn't a very good solution, replacing real people with AI.

It was fun I miss the open world of GW2 and before the first xpac it was all about just exploring what the world had to offer. Finding those secret events, jump puzzles, getting my first legendary weapon crafted was just a joy to me, and of course for me the PvP THE PVP to me it's my favorite PvP in an MMO to this date. I loved walking into a group of 3 people in WvW and killing them all, having a 4th jump out of nowhere and kill him too and just having that satisfaction. I miss it but it's a shell of it's former self now.

[Breidr]

As a new tank, I just wanted to pop in and say this is a very interesting read. I haven't come across anything THAT bad. The only real failure I've had was the lack of shield oath in PotD. We wiped because I couldn't exactly put it on my bar. I wasn't used to having it so I couldn't really slot it mid combat. Other than that it's mostly been the "fear" of what's being described in this thread that eats away at me. Granted I'm only a level 35 Paladin.

I mostly picked up this role because the other person I play with is a main healer in most MMOs, so I kind of got "forced" into it :P. No plans to change anytime soon. Right now I just have to tough out Paladin to 60 and see what happens.

[lujate]

Most of the talk in this thread is about end game.

[seekified]

Addressing this at an endgame level won't work. I think lots of newbies who try tanks either don't know that their class is actually a tank, or even what a tank is. The game is terrible at explaining this stuff, and the optional Hall of the Novice doesn't do enough to help.

There's also the fact that tanking is really annoying and hard until you get your tank stance. This is wrong - holding aggro in Sastasha/Tam-tara/Copperbell shouldn't have to be a challenge at all, because it's the first time these newbie tanks are exposed to the enmity system in any real way. Playing a DPS job is fairly straight forward as an abstract concept - you just deal damage. Playing healer is very clear, and I think most newbies understand what a healer does. But I don't think the intricacies of tanking are properly explained during the early leveling process of these classes, which is a huge problem.

tl;dr - Tanking at a low level in FFXIV isn't explained as a concept or taught well enough by the game itself, and is too hard in early dungeons where there's no tanking stances. Of course, aggro management in early dungeons doesn't matter because nothing hurts, but it's still a fact that a tank that isn't holding aggro will get negative attention anyway.

[Culfinrandir]

Best way to get people to tank is to queue as a tank yourself. I can guarantee that at least two others of a four person Light Party will try to tank too, regardless of the class they're playing. XD

[MistakeNot]

tl;dr - Tanking at a low level in FFXIV isn't explained as a concept or taught well enough by the game itself, and is too hard in early dungeons where there's no tanking stances. Of course, aggro management in early dungeons doesn't matter because nothing hurts, but it's still a fact that a tank that isn't holding aggro will get negative attention anyway.

I'd say both the Hall of the Novice, and the lvl 10 GLD quest both give a decent introduction to tanking. Even in the early dungeons I don't think I have seen any tank who does not have at least some clue on how to play it.

[seekified]

I'd say both the Hall of the Novice, and the lvl 10 GLD quest both give a decent introduction to tanking. Even in the early dungeons I don't think I have seen any tank who does not have at least some clue on how to play it.

Well, Hall of the Novice is optional and not everyone starts with GLD, though I'm sure the early MRD quests touch on the subject in some way. I've run into a few MRDs who didn't even know they were a tank when they queued up for Sastasha, and I can honestly say I didn't really know either when I randomly started leveling it three years ago. Thing is though, even if you know what you're supposed to do it very often ends with Overpowering/Flashing yourself dry of resources just to keep up with the aggro output of the DPS players. It shouldn't have to be that way in the very first dungeon that people tank.

At this point I'm a WAR main who's been tanking for years, but even I struggle to keep up with my BLM girlfriend when we end up in Halatali for our leveling roulette. Imagine someone in much worse gear, no experience and with zero crossclass skills in the same situation.

[Venjenz]

tl;dr - Tanking at a low level in FFXIV isn't explained as a concept or taught well enough by the game itself, and is too hard in early dungeons where there's no tanking stances. Of course, aggro management in early dungeons doesn't matter because nothing hurts, but it's still a fact that a tank that isn't holding aggro will get negative attention anyway.

Tanking in later instances isn't that much easier, because DPS coming in for the DF roulettes are wildly overgeared like 7-8 times out of 10. Even in tank stance and spamming every enmity combo perfectly, losing enmity to overzealous DPS happens all the time. I stopped worrying about on the way up to 60. When I get to end game and everyone is more or less equal in terms of gear and experience, then I'll go back to properly stressing about how perfectly I am pressing my buttons.

[IntrovertAnt]

Well, Hall of the Novice is optional and not everyone starts with GLD, though I'm sure the early MRD quests touch on the subject in some way.

It is not optional. As a new GLD I had to go through 5 levels of tank specific training at novice hall to do my first dungeon, which is part of MSQ.
MRDs have to do the same.

[ADVSS]

It is not optional. As a new GLD I had to go through 5 levels of tank specific training at novice hall to do my first dungeon, which is part of MSQ.
MRDs have to do the same.

This is good to know, actually. HoN is alright, for the tanksm uts a little stranger for the other two roles. Tanks are still really squishy in this game though, surprisingly squishy