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

[Veis_Alveare]

Kinda annoying Labyrinth run. I was tanking on GNB, ended up in alliance A.

On the undead dragon boss, B tank grabs boss aggro and stays in middle. I provoke off them and run to the proper position. C tank has the same idea and ends up tanking most of the fight.

I am so very, very tired of saying it and so this amount of frustration is very much not directed just at you but...

The undead dragon should be tanked on the large center platform!!!

There is no reason not to and every reason to do so. Gear has invalidated the damage of the skeleton explosions to the point that all you need is maybe one healer casting a single heal and they can all just pop, it doesn't matter.

Tanking it on the center platform (I usually stand on the square to the north of the center and keep the dragon there) means less time running, no interrupted casts for casters/healers who started casting as the boss became targetable and full positional accessibility for melee no matter the level of the purple floor poison.

I do this whenever I tank that place and I've never seen a wipe. It isn't difficult, it doesn't "strain the healers" as some people try to claim. It's just convenience.

For the love of the twelve keep it centered.

[Avatre]

The undead dragon should be tanked on the large center platform!!!

To add to this, when you actually had to do mechanics, you would take the skeletons from where they spawn, to the end of each part. Dragon stayed middle, skeletons dragged out and killed far away so people had time to run around killing them.

Now, they only deal 1k damage when they make it back to the dragon, and healers can EASILY keep people alive by AoE heals...and if they can't they are using sub 50 gear.

[tdb]

All right, I stand corrected about the undead dragon. Killing the skeletons before they can go boom seems to be hit and miss regardless of the dragon's position anyway. I don't recall seeing a wipe either but I have seem most of the raid going below 20% HP from the explosions several times.

I'm not too bothered about losing a few seconds for melee having to move, or casters having to run a bit further in before starting to cast though. Not even when I'm playing those roles. I am bothered when some clown decides to take a shortcut by skipping a mechanic and ends up causing a wipe (which didn't happen here, but did in two other places during that raid).

And while we're ranting, I wish alliance raids were clearer on who should tank what. In trials it's pretty common to see the tanks reaching some sort of agreement, either verbally or through toggling the tank stance, but at least in the Lv50 alliance raids (which is all the roulette gives) most of the time all tanks have their stance on. I guess I could leave mine off to begin with and only turn it on when I know I need to tank something (like during a split phase) or if the other tanks are not doing their job.

[tdb]

To add to this, when you actually had to do mechanics, you would take the skeletons from where they spawn, to the end of each part. Dragon stayed middle, skeletons dragged out and killed far away so people had time to run around killing them.

I wasn't even aware the skeletons could be pulled anywhere. I thought they just started to run towards the dragon after a second or two and had to be killed really quickly. I've never done the raid when it was actually current; I started playing towards the end of HW and caught up with the MSQ around 4.3.

[Avatre]

I wasn't even aware the skeletons could be pulled anywhere. I thought they just started to run towards the dragon after a second or two and had to be killed really quickly. I've never done the raid when it was actually current; I started playing towards the end of HW and caught up with the MSQ around 4.3.

I think it was around the start of HW, or shortly after, that it started to be a kill dragon, then splat the skeletons ASAP. I just remember when I started(early 2015) that the skeletons were pulled away from middle, and killed, then dragon, then skeletons before they get back to dragon.

[Morningstar1337]

To add to this, when you actually had to do mechanics, you would take the skeletons from where they spawn, to the end of each part. Dragon stayed middle, skeletons dragged out and killed far away so people had time to run around killing them.

Now, they only deal 1k damage when they make it back to the dragon, and healers can EASILY keep people alive by AoE heals...and if they can't they are using sub 50 gear.

Was about to chime in and mention that the bone squad was likely the reason why people don't tank the dragons in the center. but's its nice to know you had that covered.

[kelevra13]

This will mostly stem from me being new to tanking and new to pvp...and lag.

Queued for pvp duty. This is my third time pvp-ing. What I usually do is stick with the group and heal/damage accordingly (I switch to AST) while getting objectives. Today was different. Despite chat saying stick together or that we need to group up, everyone went yolo. My own party was split across the map, so I didn't know where to go or what to do. Of course, we lost. I mean, I've lost the first two times too, but at least those two times, the groups were mostly coordinated. I queued again and finally won my first pvp since the group was well coordinated, so it was easy to know where to go.

Queued for alliance raid. Got labyrinth then lagged badly.I was late to the atomos part (and to most of the rooms as well), and the atomos was still alive in my screen for quite a while after dying. The lag disappeared during the last boss. Needless to say I screwed up, especially the behemoth part.

Queued for MSQ. I asked if I could be MT since it was my second time in it as a tank. Took a while to activate the first console and died in the second one. How do tanks do these two parts fast and w/o dying XD?

[Veis_Alveare]

All right, I stand corrected about the undead dragon. Killing the skeletons before they can go boom seems to be hit and miss regardless of the dragon's position anyway. I don't recall seeing a wipe either but I have seem most of the raid going below 20% HP from the explosions several times.

I'm not too bothered about losing a few seconds for melee having to move, or casters having to run a bit further in before starting to cast though. Not even when I'm playing those roles. I am bothered when some clown decides to take a shortcut by skipping a mechanic and ends up causing a wipe (which didn't happen here, but did in two other places during that raid).

And while we're ranting, I wish alliance raids were clearer on who should tank what. In trials it's pretty common to see the tanks reaching some sort of agreement, either verbally or through toggling the tank stance, but at least in the Lv50 alliance raids (which is all the roulette gives) most of the time all tanks have their stance on. I guess I could leave mine off to begin with and only turn it on when I know I need to tank something (like during a split phase) or if the other tanks are not doing their job.

You have absolutely no idea how wonderful it is to have explained something to someone in this game (or just outside of it, I guess) and to have them like... listen and learn. We don't even need to totally agree, it is what it is, but thanks for that either way.

As for the tanking thing, yeah it can be really annoying. I tend to just MT by default because I know at the very least I'll position bosses well, use CDs to help my healers and generally be like... a passable tank? If you're in synced content and you know your dps rotation well enough without there being a gear disparity you'll likely just be able to hold threat after openers go out by virtue of being the highest dps of the 3 tanks. Provoke wars happen sometimes but I usually find the boss back on me before long.

I do think turning off your stance is an option, just as someone who mostly plays healers and dps if you do so please remember to keep an eye on the MT. Many times I've had a boss eat my face as a dps because the main tank died and no other tank stepped in immediately. Having your stance on prevents this since you'll still be above your whole party in threat.

[AduroT]

I didn’t even know the skeletons exploded.

[gumas]

^sometimes if you notice you get a sudden sharp decrease from everyone HP, like they just plummet of all sudden when you were busy hitting the dragon, thats from the skeleton explosion.

people call it explosion but its not exactly "explode" more like dissolve and a large aoe ring expanding coming out from them, thats the explosion.