Tales from Duty Finder: Some make you laugh, some make you cry. Let's vent.

[Lilseph]

Don't you love when you are following the tank at full speed, just to suddenly stop, forcing you to run ahead, aggro everything, end up dying? -.- I am getting a couple of insecure tanks lately. If you are waiting for cds, please say so.

[winsock]

So, tank if you're reading this: help us new players out a little when we're telling you from the get-go that we're new to that area as a certain job. It makes the run go so much more smoothly.

Hi! Tank Main Here!
It sounds like that tank you got wasnt the nicest person. No excuse for that.

Setting personality issues aside, I wanted to offer some insight from a tanking perspective to hopefully benefit you in future runs. Saying something like "first time here as healer; please be gentle with the pulls" can cause problems that may not be initially apparent:

• If the tank's overestimates the definition of "gentle", you may feel like the tank isnt being a team player; however, the tank may feel they were being "gentle" and you weren't pulling your weight. That can lead to disputes in parties.
• You can almost always blame the tank for not being "gentle" enough, so it can make it difficult for the healer to take a reasonable amount of responsibly, which isnt fair to the tank. Saying "first time here as healer; please be gentle with the pulls" could be viewed as a polite way of saying: "I guarantee no amount of reliable healing, but if we wipe it's your fault".

Instead of telling the tank how to pull, give the tank a commitment to healing like:
"first time here as healer; I'm new but you can count on me to at least spam benefic II! xD".

As a tank, this info is pretty helpful. The tank no longer interprets what "gentle" means and has the freedom to operate within the benefic II spam you've committed to. If things take a turn for the worst, there's little question as to whose at fault. If you weren't spamming benefic II, it's easier for you to say something like: "Sorry, that was my fault, I got brain freeze while managing cards, etc". If you were spamming benefic II, it's easier for the tank to say: "My bad, I overestimated the pull size".

[Lalafallen]

Don't you love when you are following the tank at full speed, just to suddenly stop, forcing you to run ahead, aggro everything, end up dying? -.- I am getting a couple of insecure tanks lately. If you are waiting for cds, please say so.

On a smiliar note, I just love tanks who rush ahed, pull the first pack, wait until the first of three monsters is dead and out of nowhere sprints to the next pack. Had a tank like that in Stone Vigil NM a few days ago who would rush ahead when they were two enemies left each pull. This was hella annoying, because even though nobody died, the whole dungeon felt so hasty.

[Aosha]

On a smiliar note, I just love tanks who rush ahed, pull the first pack, wait until the first of three monsters is dead and out of nowhere sprints to the next pack. Had a tank like that in Stone Vigil NM a few days ago who would rush ahead when they were two enemies left each pull. This was hella annoying, because even though nobody died, the whole dungeon felt so hasty.

Black Mages, Dotons, etc everywhere cry in despair.

snip – I get that healers and DPS need to adjust to tanks and that tanks set the pace. But, I think especially with a mentor as a tank, and being told that someone is new to a crucial job in the particular area, some leeway needs to be given. So, tank if you're reading this: help us new players out a little when we're telling you from the get-go that we're new to that area as a certain job. It makes the run go so much more smoothly.

Yes, tanks set the pace. Within the limits given by the healer. That's a note often missed by many tanks.

[Texa]

Yes, tanks set the pace. Within the limits given by the healer. That's a note often missed by many tanks.

The dps matters too because if group composition and level synch can leave you with next to no aoe potential and the healer can run out of mp before the mobs have been whittled down at all.

Happened to me before when I got two monks in Sohm Al. Tank kept pulling everything up to the wall before the first boss while hitting every poison thing there and got mad when I couldn't heal through 5 stacks of poison and a dozen mobs for a prolonged period.

[Aosha]

The dps matters too because if group composition and level synch can leave you with next to no aoe potential and the healer can run out of mp before the mobs have been whittled down at all.

Happened to me before when I got two monks in Sohm Al. Tank kept pulling everything up to the wall before the first boss while hitting every poison thing there and got mad when I couldn't heal through 5 stacks of poison and a dozen mobs for a prolonged period.

Yeah, that too. It just becomes not so relevant later on, when everyone has at least decent AoE. Assuming of course they use that AoE. I've had both a no-AoE samurai in Skalla, and a masspull tank in a Sastasha with 2 lancers. :/

And... yeowch, what a jerk tank. Monk AoE isn't horrible there either, but doing that with 2 is kinda... meh. Very crummy behaviour of him, blaming you for being unable to prevent his suicide.

[Kakiko]

*snip*

Hi!
Thanks for this! You brought up some really good points that I hadn't thought of. I'll be more clear in the future and let them know that I will be committing to reliable heals (benefic II, etc) to avoid misinterpretations.

[Mavrias]

Just got out of The Vault on my machinist and words cannot possibly describe my confusion at the astrologian healer we had in our group. He kept using all of his damage buffing cards on himself and the tank, not once did i see any of the damage increasing card effects on either me or the bard in our group. He completely held a balance throughout the entire last boss fight without even using it on anyone, I didn't even notice any card effects on anyone period throughout that encounter. We wiped twice with the healer at above 80% mana, he kept trying to spam cast helios while only being in range of the tank, I was below 50% hp for over 2 minutes in the 2nd half of the fight. It was just a absolute mess and i had even done a double take at our healer icon because I didn't even realize that he was a astrologian due to the lack of any card effects casted on any of the damage dealers.

Move in closer if you're not in Helios range.

[Mixae]

THAL'S BALLS DO I HAVE A STORY

Ok So I get Tam-Tara in progree. It's like I don't even know where to begin with this.

I zone into the dungeon and i see in c hat "Sorry I have a bad habit of running ahead xD" Tank: "Okay well don't do it again."

Everything is fine at first but I notice the other DPS (NIN) is doing like nothing. I'm other DPS. We get to Yarzons and she says "You couldn't pay me enough to get near them" And doesn't do anything for the next 2 pulls. She also says "rouge" to describe her class, there's that. So the rest of the dungeon she basically does nothing and it's weird, but we finish pretty quickly because healer is normal and tank is high level and geared. (I am not.)

I instantly forget about this person and level Alchemy while I wait for next dungeon queue. I finally get in about 20 minutes later to Copperbell, and I see it's the same NIN. I'm all like "jesus no"

This time she doesn't talk at all and is ONLY spamming the NIN throwing knives skill, staying far away from mobs. Sometimes auto attacking, and then putting away her knives and standing there. We get to the boss where all the spriggans and stuff come out, and she is literally standing there the whole time and I say "uh" because I have dealt with this just prior so I am kind of annoyed. I should mention before this point, the tank, VERY POLITELY, said "hey you should always be using a skill don't use throwing knives either" and after that she used her combo one time and then stopped forever. Another thing, the healer wasn't DPSing at all. That isn't a HUGE deal to me normally, but it was just me and the tank, and it's a beginner dungeon so you know. Throw some rocks at the mobs my dudes!!

While killing the boss I hover over vote dismiss because this is dumb and the tank sits down. He's with me, I know it bros!!! So this person finally gets kicked and I explained I was just with them in another dungeon and they did nothing but talk about stuff. NO DPS. Tank says "Yea she used a jump potion." I said "B-but she didn't have a sprout symbol and told me last dungeon she played PLD and stuff." >.< oh my lord. Now we very quickly we got a mentor SAM who was normal and a new healer who DPSed (!!!!!) and who was also a normal human being. The rest of the run was fine once again!!!!

I had to get this off my chest. *relief*

[HyoMinPark]

Yeah, that too. It just becomes not so relevant later on, when everyone has at least decent AoE. Assuming of course they use that AoE. I've had both a no-AoE samurai in Skalla, and a masspull tank in a Sastasha with 2 lancers. :/

And... yeowch, what a jerk tank. Monk AoE isn't horrible there either, but doing that with 2 is kinda... meh. Very crummy behaviour of him, blaming you for being unable to prevent his suicide.

I want to cry when I see samurai not using their AOE. I also want to cry when I’m rolling samurai and the only person doing any sort of AOE. Ended up in that situation a couple nights ago—did Expert with a friend (they were on DRK, I was on SAM because something possessed me to roll a melee job again), and we got an AST that was absolutely amazing (in terms of healing and cards and DPS), and then a NIN that never AOE’d. If they did, it had to be just their Hellfrog Medium and Katon. I think they used Death Blossom maybe once... and stood away from the group of mobs while doing it so it probably only hit a couple of them.

They also never Goaded me as I sat there every pull with next to no TP, and Invigorate on CD. I wanted to cry.