Is there a Tank Pullboook?

[BarretOblivion]

I guess pulling size comes down to wisdom and looking at gear before doing it without saying anything. In Quarn its dicey when you pull 2 bees and your DPS can't burn them down... but then we have a stun now so that comes down to the tank stunning (if you need to). Its also important to note the party gear, mainly if any are undergeared substantially or not. I always look at everyone's gear before I start pulling. If the healer is undergeared than no way am I pulling massive, ill pull medium and DPS is kinda the same if both are not at a decent gear score because the adds wouldn't die fast enough for my cooldowns to keep me alive.

[AngelCheese77]

I looked at the party comp, and we had a Bard with us, so I knew I could do some grouping with the mobs. But I am always careful with the bees. I've found even if you focus or mark them, they don't always go down first, especially if you have members who use AoEs in groups. As well as our healer was new, so I didn't want to go crazy. I did try the two groups before the last boss (6 mobs) but I died as the healer couldn't keep up (I used all my CDs and moved as best I could). Maybe that wasn't a good spot?

As for how new I am to tanking, I would say I've been doing it for a while, and am more comfortable on PLD and WAR when tanking over DRK and GNB.

But I will keep what was said in mind. Everyone was nice in the party, so I can't complain about that. I just was a bit confused.

[wereotter]

My experience, which you mentioned, is party comp really makes a difference on those lower level dungeons when determining how much to pull. I find that pulls go faster if I enable the healer to DPS rather than spam heals from larger pulls if the DPS don't have AOE skills.

So for example, dragoon doesn't get its first AOE skill until level 40, ninja doesn't get theirs until level 38. Summoner gets bane at level 30 to start doing some AOE, but doesn't have Outburst till level 40. Comapre that to red mage that will have AOE right from Sastasha onward, and you just kind of need to know what your damage potential is in the ARR leveling dungeons to determine what you should do.

[Iscah]

But I am always careful with the bees. I've found even if you focus or mark them, they don't always go down first...

Focus Target is for you to keep an eye on something - it's not a command to the party. The others won't see it.

[Aivi_lo]

I remember it as fLame on the Left and fRuit on the Right.

And I wish people would stop skipping past that puzzle because the treasure vault is the only place to get Belah'dian glass and it's valuable.

Thank you, I could never remember but this should help

[Windwalker]

I am in no way an amazing tank. I try to follow a few simple rules of asking if they want certain pulls, watch the pacing, and keep my eyes open for any trouble.

Well, I did Temple of Qarn today. I was tanking (Lvl 47 DRK) and I was synced down and had a DPS (SAM) start to run ahead and pull mobs when I wasn't around. There was no answer when I asked if they wanted big or small pulls .... so I was confused. Their answer was that I wasn't pulling mobs correctly.

Uh ... what? No other explination, just that ....

So my honest question, what are they talking about?

All names have been redacted, even my own.

Sounds like you came across some bad players... If they pull, let them die, they aren't the tank, you are.... you lead the party, if the others want to suicide, let them. DPS and Healer are supposed to follow you, not you following them. If they pull something, thats their own problem to deal with. Play the game at your own pace, ignore bad players, you come across quite a bit of them, but as you play you will notice there are good players too that actually follow rules and mechanics. Instead of watching what the bad lot is doing, watch what the good folks do and see if you can help them out by moving the monsters into their aoe's or corner pulling monsters to make ranged mobs move close to you. A nice big stack of monsters is a great help for DPS to bring down.

You pull at your own pace, practise what feels good for you, pop a rampart at the first group of mobs, your other defencive cooldown on the next group and just keep switching between cooldowns.

[Canadane]

I guess pulling size comes down to wisdom and looking at gear before doing it without saying anything. In Quarn its dicey when you pull 2 bees and your DPS can't burn them down... but then we have a stun now so that comes down to the tank stunning (if you need to). Its also important to note the party gear, mainly if any are undergeared substantially or not. I always look at everyone's gear before I start pulling. If the healer is undergeared than no way am I pulling massive, ill pull medium and DPS is kinda the same if both are not at a decent gear score because the adds wouldn't die fast enough for my cooldowns to keep me alive.

Specifically on the bees, experienced players know they don't Final Sting until they're at low HP.
So keeping them around to focus on say, the head that drops the extra treasure chest is perfectly safe!
But if you don't know it's coming, it can be quite the... sting.

[Iscah]

Specifically on the bees, experienced players know they don't Final Sting until they're at low HP.

That's what I thought, but I had a tank the other day who was new and wasn't going to for the bees - they would get AoE damage, and Final Sting went off with them at maybe 75% HP.

I've also had trouble with the terataur fight where party members have died to Doom and the bees are not being killed fast enough.

If they can be ignored at all, it must require everyone to ignore them - and on further thought, unless the normal bees and dung wespes behave differently, why aren't we just completely ignoring them and focusing on the terataur if they're only a threat at low HP? (Besides fighting through a swarm of angry bees, I suppose...)