I did AK the first time with two FC mates and a random, like 10 minutes after finishing my AF body quest. Was full AF, level 30 jewels, level 42 GC weapon. We won, but eveyr step was a stuggle.

Since then i did probably a good 25 more AK. Even with better gear and weapon, you will still need to be on your A game for things to run smoothly. One thing, though, from your rotation (that i used until level 50 too) is that it is too weak for groups of 3+ mobs in AK. Basically, while i never used more than one flash per fight before AK, now i learned to rely on it way more. As long as there are 3 or more mobs alive, you should 2 to 3 flash at the start, not one, and you should end all your RoH combo with another flash. When things get ugly, i used up tp 5 or 6 flashes in a row at the beginning of certain fights (dps accidentaly aggro things, so everything is a mess, just spam flash until out of mana to try to stabilize a maximum of things before moving onto RoH). If your DPS are worth their salt, you probably won't manage to use the middle part of the RoH combo onto other mobs than the main one, which i did constantly before AK. So you will have to rely on flash to keep hate on all the other mobs. As soon as the first one is dead, others will be way easier, cause you will have a huge lead thanks to all flashes, so you will be able to stick to RoH cycled. Before that, you will need lots of flashes to keep things away from the healer/smn, and your RoH completely on main target to keep things from your trigger happy blm.


Another point to consider is that your pulling need to be flawless. During groups of priests at the beginning, always stun the summoning ability repeatedly so the void demon doesn't pop up. I usually spam flash until the summon ability is above 50% then stun it, continue spamming flash, this until the guy with a stick is dead, then we can get the one or two others easily. I don't think i remember one instance where the demon popped up and it didn't turn ugly (i don't mean death, i mean not being able to keep hate on everything, by a mile). Never pull something with one of the knight sentinel. At the last part, if you have a mage or bard, ask them to pull every succubus before engaging group of mobs -- they never link when pulled from distance like this, even the last one right before last boss room can be pulled without aggroing the three other mobs. Learn what mob can be slept (demon eye, blue balls, gargoyles), then if you have a whm or blm, ask them to sleep targets number 3 and above, it will make theri life and yours much easier.

Currently, i still rock a lvl 50 GC weapon (due to incredibly bad luck from both ifrit and garuda), although the rest of my gear is a mix of level 60 and 70 item, with a 90 ring thrown in there. I very rarely lose hate on any mob for even a second during my AK runs. But i am always on my toes, and i pay each mistake in cash.

I think you should keep at it, and try again. Gear is not the main problem with AK for tanks IMO, it is knowing all tactics like the back of your hand, and i don't mean only boss tactics