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

[Infindox]

I'm not sure if Castrum counts as a DF story in here but I hopped into Bozja yesterday just to get the achievement and earrings from 1k Lost Actions being appraised and it popped, so I figured I'd join in. Got in and asked a few times if there were any party spots open, got no invites. So I just did everything solo.
I apologise to everyone in that instance that I was on the ground a few times in the second to last boss lol. A lot of the attacks were difficult for me to heal through (or I could have but I wasn't prepared). Thank you to the group at the final boss though who added me in, the whole instance went pretty well.

[SannaR]

I am very much having one of those days where I wish I was more popular or a streamer to where I had a group of regular people to do things with. Cause today I have been running into people or groups that make you go and wonder why the F do I df this crap solo. The worst offenders have to be my WoD party who I'm sure at least the three who didn't leave were trolls to the lv57 gla in damsel. Who just hadn't gotten around to getting their job stone, but felt like giving a crap about the mnk not hitting their positionals. Yes I do have a few friends and a Fc. Problem is most of the fc are the own clique and are mostly Westcoast where I'm East. Or my friends aren't on and are doing other things when I'm on.

[Nekaru_Infitima]

Literally first time tanking (Never did those classes before) and I queued in for Toto-Rak as I was doing the beginner dungeons one by one to learn the class.
DPS runs ahead and tries to tank everything. I said in chat, hey can you stop running ahead, I don't learn the class if I can't do anything. Says they're just trying to get through it.I left.

Like I understand if you're busy as hell for the later dungeons and just want to get through them.
But the beginner ones are literally for learning and progressing the story. This person was not a new adventurer, they were a normal like me, so there was no progression and no need for EXP.
Therefore they had no excuse to ignore and 'just want to get through it'. If it was roulette, then have some dang patience.

[AnotherPerson]

Had a great party in Aetherochemical Research Facility today. Our party was a SCH, a RDM (me), and a DNC. The tank dced at the start of the dungeon so we decided to do small pulls while waiting for him. Everyone knew their rotations, used their AoE, and the healer did DPS so things burnt down fairly quickly. Even cleaves became a non-issue with our healer adjusting before going back to dpsing. We ended up getting to the first boss with the tank showing no sign of reconnecting, so we decide to fight the first boss and if he doesn't show up after the attempt, we vote dismiss for being offline. We clear the boss fairly easily as a 3 man party and continue after dismissing the tank who's still offline. At this point we're basically comfortable enough to continue the run as 3 people without slowing down and we get to the second boss without issue. The best part about the second boss? When the boss binds a character, players are supposed to stack together to resolve the mechanic and reduce the damage. Usually, people just skip this altogether and one player gets ridiculously low or just die altogether, but our small group of three did just that and minimized the damage while keeping up the dps. Felt great honestly. If I could throw more commends I would do so but unfortunately I can only give one.

[Infindox]

Literally first time tanking (Never did those classes before) and I queued in for Toto-Rak as I was doing the beginner dungeons one by one to learn the class.
DPS runs ahead and tries to tank everything. I said in chat, hey can you stop running ahead, I don't learn the class if I can't do anything. Says they're just trying to get through it.I left.

Like I understand if you're busy as hell for the later dungeons and just want to get through them.
But the beginner ones are literally for learning and progressing the story. This person was not a new adventurer, they were a normal like me, so there was no progression and no need for EXP.
Therefore they had no excuse to ignore and 'just want to get through it'. If it was roulette, then have some dang patience.

If that ever happens again, let the dps take all the aggro and let them die.

[Erim-Nelhah]

Literally first time tanking (Never did those classes before) and I queued in for Toto-Rak as I was doing the beginner dungeons one by one to learn the class.
DPS runs ahead and tries to tank everything. I said in chat, hey can you stop running ahead, I don't learn the class if I can't do anything. Says they're just trying to get through it.I left.

Like I understand if you're busy as hell for the later dungeons and just want to get through them.
But the beginner ones are literally for learning and progressing the story. This person was not a new adventurer, they were a normal like me, so there was no progression and no need for EXP.
Therefore they had no excuse to ignore and 'just want to get through it'. If it was roulette, then have some dang patience.

The reason they "just want to get through it" is twofold: The first is that a lot of people hate Toto-Rak, and the second is that most people like that have actually queued to leveling to get the rather large amount of tomestones it offers, and they really do want to get that done as quickly as possible. That said.....

If that ever happens again, let the dps take all the aggro and let them die.

I kinda agree with this, but do be careful. If someone pulls ahead of you again in the future, it's probably best to say that if they pull extra mobs again they should expect to have to tank them, then quickly pull as much as you're comfortable tanking and establish aggro. After that if the DPS or Healer pulls ahead of you again, just turn off tank stance if they pull stuff into your AoEs so that you don't take aggro off of them - let them tank what they pulled, but whatever happens don't shirk the puller even if you somehow get aggro on the extra stuff, that's a good way to get reported.

Now for some tips to make dungeons fast as a tank, from a former tank main:

• Either mass pull (3 packs or "to the wall" is standard for this, depending on the dungeon) or chain pull smaller groups (that is, go grab the next group as the last mob from the previous group is dying). Which you do will depend on the dungeon, the DPS classes you have (i.e. whether they have AoE at that level, and whether they're actually using said aoe), your gear, and your comfort level with the dungeon.
• Don't wait to pull a boss unless someone (including yourself) is in a cutscene, a short wait is requested, or the healer is low on mana. If someone IS in a cutscene and someone else pulls, don't go in, either - let them try to solo the boss. If they die, that's on them, not you, and if they win...that's a free boss for you.

.
And finally, a tip on learning how to tank: If you're learning on GNB, the best dungeons for you to learn in are probably the endgame dungeons from older expansions that you've outleveled and outgeared (the ones in 50/60/70 roulette). Some have tricky boss mechanics (look them up), but they're all good ways to get used to tanking in endgame dungeons, since due to your being overgeared for them they'll teach you how to mass pull (which is generally expected at endgame) and (sometimes) when to pull less. For the other tanks, just do the highest-level dungeon you qualify for (iirc that's toto-rakHaukke Manor - I didn't remember correctly - for new DRKs), as that will get you the best xp and will get you to these good "learning" dungeons quickly.

--Erim Nelhah

[kelevra13]

Is dying just once in the Castrum CE an accomplishment for me? Yes! To all the PUGs I've been a part of, Thank you so much!

[Veis_Alveare]

If that ever happens again, let the dps take all the aggro and let them die.

"You pull you tank" manages to combine the worst elements of both toxic and lazy players.

You can't die in toto-rak unless your healer is asleep. Turn on tank stance, press your only available AoE button - boom, you have primary threat on everything in (at most) to hits.

I've tanked it as both a dps and a healer before for various reasons. That early in the game no one's role really matters.

[ThatOneDiviner]

Artistic rendition of my first time running through Copied Factory and Puppet's Bunker with a DPS friend who's a bit rusty on the mechanics.

AAAAAAAAAAA what's that mechanic?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA what's THAT mechanic?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA my computer said I was clear of the AoE but ping did not and now I'm dead

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA sorry for dying like five times and forcing you to rez me.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA sorry I burnt swiftcast to rez our other tank/healer/the other f-----g DPS who eats darn near every AoE because I hate myself for some reason and WANT to burn mana.

We died a combined total of about 15 times throughout the two raids (thankfully I didn't die that much - I got full rights to laugh at her for deaths numbering in the double digits while I only had about 4-5 deaths spread through both raids as a first timer) and yet we still weren't the worst people in the party in either run. Somehow managed to get a Nin in Copied Factory and a Blm in Puppet's Bunker that ate almost literally every AoE and were dead for the second half of pretty much every boss fight.

[nordiclania]

I'm truly baffled today. Was running a shadowbringer dungeon and the tank is just dyingggg. Usually, I can figure out what's happening. Maybe they're undergeared? Not using tank cooldowns? DPS is doing low damage and things are taking forever?

None of those things, at least initially. This tank is decked out in like full ilvl500 gear. They're using shieldtron and rampart. DPS is doing work, thing are dying at a decent rate. But my god, that tank's hp bar is just dropping so fast. I spend the entire dungeon confused and bewildered if my excogitation was cast or not because it would get activated so fast. At some point, I realized that they never used sentinel even once. Maybe sentinel really makes that much of a difference, but boy was that a depressing run. At least use clemency or something! Idk, maybe now I will appreciate those paladins that spam clemency when they drop to 90% hp.

Cherry on top is that they were a mentor with level 80's in every job. Anybody wants to get together and make a sheet of Dutyfinder Bingo?

Maybe their gear was broken?