Strange and annoying new tanking trend

[Floortank]

I've been around for quite awhile, and in all my time in FF14 since ARR release, I've never encountered the kind of tank play that I've found to be prevalent and, honestly, quite annoying recently.

In at least every other leveling roulette I do each day, the tank (usually a new player or a returner) will pull one or two groups, stop - the dps and myself will engage - and then when the mob pack or packs are about dead will rush off to the next pack without waiting for everyone to kill the pull. It is most annoying when they pull one pack, wait till 1/2 are about half dead, then run off pulling this one single mob pack to the next. I mean, what is going on with tanks just not doing standard 2 or 3 pack pulls and just stopping...like, staying put?

I always w2w pull when on my PLD, but healing these kind of tanks is super annoying - and it is even worse when I'm on a dps job and they just run off trailing mobs...Is this a common thing for others, or common in other games?

I've noticed this too. This is how they pull in WOW. I'm not a WOW player hater, just an observation.

[Gortys]

They are practicing for their mythic pulls. (/s)
Regardless of what others say, it could be just as annoying in WoW depending on class since some do have a cast time and speed buffs were for single party members and not the entire party. So no hunter is going to cast a speed buff to help catch up to the tank. In WoW I would just run with the tank and pull the mobs with me. I might make a comment like "I hope we beat the timer" in party chat as well.

But with the intro of mythic dungeons it seems certain people have to run every dungeon, regardless of level, as if it were a speed run. If these tanks also pull the boss and dps while you are trying to catch up? Then it is almost definitely someone from WoW. Probably the only thing missing is them spamming chat with their dps logs to show they, as the tank, got higher dps on the boss because they ran ahead of everyone.

[Sicno]

I've been a tank main in this game for many years and I've never played WoW. My go to rule for dungeons is to pull 2 packs, with some exceptions depending on the dungeon. Nowadays most dungeons are gated so that you can't pull beyond that anyway. Regardless, something I often do is when the last mob has low enough health so that I know it'll die "in transit" due to dots and/or ranged damage (including my own) I start walking to the next pack (or to the wall that opens up once that last mob dies) to save time. But again, that's when the mob is at low health, not at half.

But sometimes in low lvl dungeons when I don't have enough cds yet to have a proper rotation that covers all the dungeon or when I know the healer has or will have trouble (like when they're undergeared) I've done the thing you describe of pulling 1 pack and when it's half health go to the next pack, so that the "big" part of the pull doesn't last too long and I don't run out of cds or so that it's not too stressful on the healer. AND THEN recently I started lvling certain jobs I had neglected before like SCH and BLM and I discovered how annoying that is (SCH may spend resources you would have spent differently if you knew it was gonna be a big pull, BLM cries in interrupted long casts) so I've been more hesitant to do it that way :P and I totally understand your annoyance.

But like I've said, this is something I've been doing for years now, nothing new and without any exposition to anything WoW, and I must not be the only tank who started doing that on their own. It's what in my own experience as a tank main "made sense" over time in an aim to do better, to get faster runs even when things aren't "ideal", but without having proper experience in the other roles and how annoying it is.

[Johners]

It's a WoW mentality. In that game, dungeons are strictly timed and enemies tended to hit really hard in higher difficulties, so what you would do is chain pull while kiting everything from one pack to the next. This doesn't really work in FF14 as moving enemies are difficult hit even with good latency causing buffs to fall off on the DPS, and the fact that there's almost always a gate after every 2 enemy packs that will not open until everything is dead. We don't really have the ability to slow down enemies to effectively kite either, as very few jobs can inflict heavy, where as slows are very common in WoW. You're better off just tanking 2 packs at once.

Dungeons aren't strictly timed? Mythic+ is timed but it's a system that exists to run dungeons fast at increasing difficulty levels. Outside of that, there's no pressure to actually finish in time from a reward stand point but this content is also easy enough that you'd want to finish it ASAP to move not something else.

Dungeon design is different as you point out though as you're free to move on and fight trash at your own pace. A number of trash is also skippable as well so you don't even need to full clear to fight bosses. Even so, in FF's much more linear dungeon design, you can still safely run off when the last mob or two are at low health to pick up aggro/trigger spawns or whatever is next (dependant on the dungeon). I don't see too much of an issue, clearing faster is better for everyone.

[DkFusion]

I've been around for quite awhile, and in all my time in FF14 since ARR release, I've never encountered the kind of tank play that I've found to be prevalent and, honestly, quite annoying recently.

In at least every other leveling roulette I do each day, the tank (usually a new player or a returner) will pull one or two groups, stop - the dps and myself will engage - and then when the mob pack or packs are about dead will rush off to the next pack without waiting for everyone to kill the pull. It is most annoying when they pull one pack, wait till 1/2 are about half dead, then run off pulling this one single mob pack to the next. I mean, what is going on with tanks just not doing standard 2 or 3 pack pulls and just stopping...like, staying put?

I always w2w pull when on my PLD, but healing these kind of tanks is super annoying - and it is even worse when I'm on a dps job and they just run off trailing mobs...Is this a common thing for others, or common in other games?

This is honestly a new phenomenon and I honestly think it's roots are in WoW - As a career tank of Savage/Ultimates and also a sHC raider in WoW here is my take on literally all tanking methods:

1- Seasoned player/tank with gear and thorough knowledge of their class - Wall to Wall pulls - use of CDs appropriately (2 min/1 min etc on first Wall, reserve 2nd wall for boss pull...with some variations on previous dungeon designed prior to 4.0)
2- Seasoned player/mediocre tank/gear experience or compensation for new/inexp healer - Single pack pulls (may overpull sometimes resulting in death)
3- Inexperienced Tank - Almost always single pulls...usually doesn't start 2-3 pack pulling (wall to wall in some cases) unless pressured by more experienced dps or healers (cool down usage is sometimes also an issue here)

4- This new phenomenon - The staggered puller - So In WoW tanks will stagger pull packs for things like threat generation or allowing things like dots/dps dragging especially in high tier mythic plus dungeons. It doesn't translate into FF14 well and I think that's what we're seeing. Honestly without being rude or insulting I think the best thing that can be done is to explain proper pulling as this method forces people to burn CDs or hold and then not have for boss pulls...its really awkward.

[Takamorisan]

What the hell you guys are on about? W2W pull is a thing since ARR, farming the relic weapon required you to get a lot of tomestones. This isn't a WoW player thing its all about efficiency.

Dungeons don't offer that much of a threat to require single pulls.

[Arillyn]

What the hell you guys are on about? W2W pull is a thing since ARR, farming the relic weapon required you to get a lot of tomestones. This isn't a WoW player thing its all about efficiency.

Dungeons don't offer that much of a threat to require single pulls.

That's not what people are talking about. Lately there are tanks doing in-between single pulls and wall to wall pulls - they pull mobs and stop (not the stop to make sure they have threat - stop to dps things down) but before those are dead they take off for more mobs. It's annoying for dps who have their rotations messed up because you can't do some of your moves (especially casters) while running to the next mob. I'm guessing the tanks doing this don't play dps to realize that though. Like OP said - it's usually sprouts, or in some cases returners, doing it.

[Takamorisan]

That's not what people are talking about. Lately there are tanks doing in-between single pulls and wall to wall pulls - they pull mobs and stop (not the stop to make sure they have threat - stop to dps things down) but before those are dead they take off for more mobs. It's annoying for dps who have their rotations messed up because you can't do some of your moves (especially casters) while running to the next mob. I'm guessing the tanks doing this don't play dps to realize that though. Like OP said - it's usually sprouts, or in some cases returners, doing it.

Ok so lets see if I got this correct the new batch of tanks are pulling 2 packs in a 3 pack corridor, stop with 2 packs and then when the mobs are half way dead they pull the last pack? Well I understand that can be frustrating but its part of learning. Have to talk with then, can't throw a boogeyman and hope the situation will fix by itself its easy to call out a "WoW" player or a newcomer but not everyone come from the same MMO roots, some players might be playing FF14 as their first MMO.

We have to avoid becoming what I call the MMO Boomer, plays in really closed circles, not welcome to teach or interact with new players.

[TaleraRistain]

Yeah, they're chain pulling. But I've been working on my melee alt classes and I agree that I want...to...murder...them...myself.

I have tried to politely mention that if they run off with mobs melee can't reach them anymore and some have adjusted but some just keep doing it.

[Lunalepsy]

I've been around for quite awhile, and in all my time in FF14 since ARR release, I've never encountered the kind of tank play that I've found to be prevalent and, honestly, quite annoying recently.

In at least every other leveling roulette I do each day, the tank (usually a new player or a returner) will pull one or two groups, stop - the dps and myself will engage - and then when the mob pack or packs are about dead will rush off to the next pack without waiting for everyone to kill the pull. It is most annoying when they pull one pack, wait till 1/2 are about half dead, then run off pulling this one single mob pack to the next. I mean, what is going on with tanks just not doing standard 2 or 3 pack pulls and just stopping...like, staying put?

I always w2w pull when on my PLD, but healing these kind of tanks is super annoying - and it is even worse when I'm on a dps job and they just run off trailing mobs...Is this a common thing for others, or common in other games?

I've seen this as well. I thought it was because WHMs were stunning, but there weren't any WHMs in my party!