An Earnest Plea From Your Dearest Friend, The BLM In Your Party OR Precasting And You

[SkeletonDad]

Hello, it's me, your Best Buddy, a Black Mage! I've been running into a few miscommunications with the tanks I've been running roulette dungeons with recently, so I thought I'd post to clarify a few fun facts about the role I play, and how we can work together to bring out the best in each other!

So as you know, it's my role as a DPS job to do as much damage as I can in as little time as possible. The purpose of this is the same as why you have a DPS rotation in addition to your threat rotation, and why healers also have damaging spells - to meet mechanic checks and to end the encounter quicker so less time and resources are used. More DPS means quicker clear times means a smoother and better dungeon for everyone involved.

In order for me to do my absolute best DPS, I need my spells to be landing at the start of a boss encounter. In a level 60 dungeon, I open with Quelling Strikes, Ley Lines, Raging Strikes and finally Fire III before settling into my Enochian/Fire IV fireworks factory explosion that everyone loves. That entire opening takes 6.5 seconds to ramp up to the first thing that actually pulls a boss, and I don't begin until the tank is visibly in the arena. With Quelling Strikes, the first few hits are going to be generating very little threat, enough that any tank should have no problem establishing a solid threat lead before I get into the real heavy hitters.

The problems I'm running into come in two flavors. There are tanks who spend 10 seconds staring at a boss before pulling who are so slow to react that they don't pull in time, and there are tanks who, upon seeing me cast any spells at all, decide that it's within their right to say "I'm not going to do my job if someone else even threatens to land the first hit" and simply let me tank. This is a level of entitlement that hurts us all. I'm not as squishy as people might think, and I can definitely eat a few hits if the healer is paying attention, so if you're losing threat by accident it's really not a big deal, but if you're choosing not to do your job, you're making it harder for everyone else to do theirs.

I'm an attentive person. I know when a tank or another member of the party might need a fight explained to them before a pull - it's usually pretty self-evident by either their gear or by a newbie bonus. But when I see the other members of my party decked out in the latest raid loot and they still find the need to slow the whole group down by letting me tank bosses, it's really disheartening. I hope this helps you all understand where I'm coming from as someone who wants to do their very best even in the easiest of content. I'm here to help. Please let me do that.

[Jpec07]

I usually do a ready check followed by a 5-second countdown, and I start running towards the boss at 2-3 seconds, lobbing as soon as I'm in range. Does that work for your buildup? Should I be doing 10-second countdowns instead?

[SkeletonDad]

A 10 second countdown works great in, say, 24-man raids (though a good NIN can do wonderful things with 23 seconds), but I think in a level 60 dungeon the whole instance is so short that a ready check shouldn't be needed. If you wanted to streamline things for dungeons, you should forego the ready check and just do the 5 second countdown, aiming to pull as close to 0 as possible.

[SpookyGhost]

Do you not pop Quelling/Raging on trash pulls or are they usually back up when the boss fight comes up?

[Rongway]

This is a level of entitlement that hurts us all.

Please read your post again.

So as you know, it's my role as a DPS job to do as much damage as I can in as little time as possible. The purpose of this is the same as why you have a DPS rotation in addition to your threat rotation, and why healers also have damaging spells - to meet mechanic checks and to end the encounter quicker so less time and resources are used. More DPS means quicker clear times means a smoother and better dungeon for everyone involved.

In order for me to do my absolute best DPS, I need my spells to be landing at the start of a boss encounter. In a level 60 dungeon, I open with Quelling Strikes, Ley Lines, Raging Strikes and finally Fire III before settling into my Enochian/Fire IV fireworks factory explosion that everyone loves. That entire opening takes 6.5 seconds to ramp up to the first thing that actually pulls a boss, and I don't begin until the tank is visibly in the arena. With Quelling Strikes, the first few hits are going to be generating very little threat, enough that any tank should have no problem establishing a solid threat lead before I get into the real heavy hitters.

You don't need what you describe. Having your first cast line up with the beginning of the encounter is nice, but if it doesn't happen, the boss dies a whole seven seconds later. Not a big deal. We're not talking savage or extreme content where a seven second difference will wipe the party.

If you're that concerned about your seven second ramp up, or the entire dungeon taking an extra twenty seconds, please take your own tank with you into the roulette.

[SkeletonDad]

Do you not pop Quelling/Raging on trash pulls or are they usually back up when the boss fight comes up?

I generally don't pop them for trash pulls, no. They're more worthwhile to have for bosses, I think.

You don't need what you describe. Having your first cast line up with the beginning of the encounter is nice, but if it doesn't happen, the boss dies a whole seven seconds later. Not a big deal. We're not talking savage or extreme content where a seven second difference will wipe the party.

I'm not suggesting that it's blasphemous for my cast to not line up perfectly with the pull. The problem I'm having is in tanks deciding not to do their job because I'm precasting. I shouldn't be expected to throttle my dps purely to maintain someone's fragile ego.

[ChloeGrace]

You don't need what you describe.

Wow, I can't like this enough.
The only one entitled here is OP. Just be thankful you have PUG tanks that decide (most of the time) not to let mobs eat your face.

[SkeletonDad]

Perhaps I should clarify that we're not talking losing 7 seconds of a fight in this scenario, we're talking about losing much more due to the tank deciding it's a good idea to let me die to a boss, or the healer losing their dps due to having to heal me instead. A 6.5 second window starting when the tank enters the arena is extremely ample time to pull. I don't think it's entitled to ask people to do their job when I'm trying my best to do mine.

[Rongway]

Perhaps I should clarify that we're not talking losing 7 seconds of a fight in this scenario, we're talking about losing much more due to the tank deciding it's a good idea to let me die to a boss, or the healer losing their dps due to having to heal me instead. A 6.5 second window starting when the tank enters the arena is extremely ample time to pull. I don't think it's entitled to ask people to do their job when I'm trying my best to do mine.

It's a roulette, though. Just wait for the tank to start running up to the boss before you start blowing all your cooldowns.


If we were talking about extreme or savage content, yeah, by all means, give a countdown and have everyone pre-pop all the things they need to put out obscene amounts of damage in the first few seconds of the fight. But roulettes are roulettes. You should already know going into them that you'll have to adjust to certain inefficiencies and differences in opinion on pacing.

[TouchandFeel]

When I am tanking, I always take a few seconds after entering a boss room before I pull. During this time I am doing a quick check on the state and readiness of the party, such as "is everyone in the room?", "how is everyone's hp and mp looking, do they need a moment to regen?", "Is the healer casting any shields that I should let them finish?" and stuff like that. All this takes approximately 5 or so seconds.

It can be jarring if I'm doing my quick appraisal of the readiness of the party and a dps just immediately starts. I will adjust and go grab the boss but it can put me off a bit.

It's really best to let the tank make the move to engage the boss and then the dps can go at it once they see the tank is moving to the boss.

If they are taking too long to start the fight you can politely let them know you are ready and they can start or commence a ready check.

While I may be accommodating in such situations, others may not for a number of reasons such as being new to tanking and not being comfortable with the sudden adjustment required or they could simply find it rude.