First time tanking fears

[Ethelion]

Hi everyone, I had to post on my Lancer since my Gladiator level is too low to post on.

I have always wanted to try tanking in an MMO, and I have decided to give it a try in XIV. I am only level 10 at the moment, but I felt the need to express some of my fears of tanking and see if anyone else has had similar feelings their first time.

I am worried that I may not be the greatest at it and people will bash me for it. Is the community fairly accepting as a whole when it comes to new tanks and trying to learn? Or is it a fairly cold trip awaiting me? I really want this to work out, but how steep is the learning curve? Experienced tanks would you say it is really hard starting out to get the hang of things? Is it worth the time and effort to learn how to adapt to all the situations and what not? Also I would like to hear if anyone else has had similar worries when they first began tanking.

I appreciate any and all input, especially from fellow tanks.

[MStowastiqVahlshdeh]

When you are open about your new ness from the beginning and accept suggestions like you did by this thread, it usually fends off the tendency for people to be mean to you because everyone has to start some place. Just keep your feet on the ground and your head up to character growth. <--------no that is not tanking advice, I have no idea about tanking. :P

Looks like you have an open mind, you are being honest and that is a clean slate to start with. I wish you the best of luck and you will do fine if you keep that good attitude.

Oh and try Guild hests, they are the first content available when you unlock the Duty Finder. They teach you step by step party mechanics, they provide objectives on clearing the content once you are inside and they pay good gil.

[Bhaelor]

I made the switch to a tanking role many years ago in WoW, and have since always slotted one as my main. I love the level of involvement and strategy that goes into tanking, and the ability to direct the flow of combat. As a tank, you're in the spotlight a lot, and often will be looked to lead. If that's your thing, you're making a good choice!

Start from the ground up. When you earn the level to run a new instance, run it. Guildhests are a good way to earn some tanking experience in a fairly consequence free environment. Practicing how your skills work and react in low level dungeons where the stakes aren't as high is a really good way to piece your class together inch by inch.

Hope you're experience with is goes well, being a solid tank is one of the most rewarding things an MMO can offer, in my opinion, and hopefully it works out for you too!

[bene34]

I had similar concerns (made worse by the fact that I decided to go WAR). I made it to 38 BRD before switching, so the last few dungeons especially were a little nerve-wracking, going through 1st time as a tank. For me, the community has been very good. There's always the occasional ragequit after a wipe, but the vast majority of people have been helpful and patient. Do your research, practice emnity stuff (rotating enemies, etc), ask for help and hopefully your experience will be as pleasant as mine has been.
Also, I thought this was a great guide (especially the UI section in part 2): http://eorzeareborn.com/tanking-basics-communicatio/

[Maelwys]

Hi everyone, I had to post on my Lancer since my Gladiator level is too low to post on.

I have always wanted to try tanking in an MMO, and I have decided to give it a try in XIV. I am only level 10 at the moment, but I felt the need to express some of my fears of tanking and see if anyone else has had similar feelings their first time.

I am worried that I may not be the greatest at it and people will bash me for it. Is the community fairly accepting as a whole when it comes to new tanks and trying to learn? Or is it a fairly cold trip awaiting me? I really want this to work out, but how steep is the learning curve? Experienced tanks would you say it is really hard starting out to get the hang of things? Is it worth the time and effort to learn how to adapt to all the situations and what not? Also I would like to hear if anyone else has had similar worries when they first began tanking.

I appreciate any and all input, especially from fellow tanks.

Honestly, if you communicate and are open/honest with your party then you will usually get given a lot of support, especially if it's your first time tanking a particular dungeon instance

You probably already have a rough idea of what sort of attacks to expect from each mob from playing your other class. The basic difference for a Tank is that you'll be trying to manage threat and keep the mob directed at you. As long as you can keep hate reliably, the next step is to keep yourself well-geared for +Vit and +Def/Parry/etc, and learn to manage your defensive cooldowns properly. You need to try to best mitigate the damage you'll be taking.

I've been a tank in several other MMORPGs, and by comparison FFXIV is a bit tricky when it comes to reliably holding hate on multiple mobs. You need to learn how to keep a bunch of foes hitting you whenever the Scholar or White Mage start casting heals. Flash and Overpower are both unreliable at this - one is fairly weak, the other is a TP hog... so you need to switch targets and use +Enmity building combos. You'll don't have all the tools needed for this at lower levels though, so don't panic if you lose hate occasionally when fighting more than one foe early-on.

The last thing to watch out for is marking targets. As a tank, it's pretty much expected that your job is to "lead the charge" and tell the DDs what target they should be concentrating on. If you haven't used Marking before, now's the time to look into it "/mk attack1 <t>" will get you by for the vast majority of content... but using the others too can help communicate your intentions to your teammates much more clearly and make things go more smoothly.

Happy Tanking!

[IndigoHawk]

Many new tanks are anxious. No one wants to be bad or yelled at. Handling failure is part of being a tank, so keep things in perspective. When people yell at tanks, all they're showing is that they don't know how to play games and work together.

In FFXIV, I encountered friendly players at low levels. At max level, I encountered speed running elitists. If you don't have a good experience with DF, look for a friendly FC.

Tanking is definitely worth it. Tanks get to be heroes with a whole party supporting them. Tanks charge in first, and go toe to toe with the mightiest foes in the game.

Tanks learn marking, prioritization, positioning, threat, and mitigation. They develop awareness for the whole fight and learn a lot about the dungeons and bosses.

I don't think the learning curve for FFXIV tanks is too high. The difficulty ramps up gradually and guildhests help, although some things are poorly explained, like visual threat indicators.

[Hundred]

FFXIV is the first game I tanked in and really first dungeon experiences. So far it's been quite easy whether PLD or WAR.
You can do the guildhests to help give you some perspective but in any event you are leveling Gladiator.



I recommend grabbing some Signs from the sign menu and putting them on your hotbar. This isn't so much as for your benefit but the rest of your party who will be able to understand who you want dead first.
Select a target, Mark it with 1, tab mark the next with 2, tab mark the next with 3, and so on as you need. I don't feel a need for more than 3 generally.
Use shield throw on your initial target (you get this at class quest), and it'll give you some good initial enmity, the monsters will dogpile on you for a second but you need to hit Flash to establish real enmity on all of them. Once that's done you can hit one more flash if you want and then do fast blade -savage blade on your #1 target. You'll get it as you go along in the dungeons because they have a nice learning curve, when in doubt just run the dungeon a second time to cement your skills. We're tanks so it's not like we have to wait .

Imo communities been pretty nice, I haven't been insulted so far, and if I had any doubts in myself I asked others for feedback which was often that I was doing well. In the case something had to be changed I got the response without issue.



Since FFXIV is my first tank experience I looked up some general tips on stuff like reddit,google and here, first dungeon was daunting but no problem. Mark your targets and go to work, you may slip up but it's not huge, Satasha enemies don't one shot dps or anything like that so you have time to adjust your play and figure out how to be more efficient.

[Teleniel]

with tanking practice makes perfect. You will lose hate sometimes, take a chance to look at why when you have a moment after playing ping-pong to get it back and figure out what you could have done differently (sometimes the answer is nothing YOU could do, but something your party could).

Overpower/Flash are good to set hate for about the first 20-30s, after that you either need another one, or to start cycling your +enmity basic chain. You will also need to make sure that DPS are focusing on your target, or if they aren't that you can switch to the one they are.

Provoke & Flash are VERY nice skills to have for a War, after that it's felt like a bit of a wash

[Vanroe]

As a long time healer who has a tank alt in most games, I completely understand the nervousness, I have it too. The tank is the leader of the group, and the one that usually has to deal with most of the mechanics. In this game, I have found that most people dont care up until level 50, thats when some elitism comes into play, since people are looking for smooth runs. Before you get to that point, the best Idea is to tank some lower level dungeons to build confidence. Dungeons dont really get challenging to tank until Brayflox, maybe Halatai too. At that point is where you will really start to build your skills as a tank. The previous dungeons are for getting comfortable with the skills that you have on your class.

So if you really want to train yourself, just climb the latter of dungeons by tanking em. At the lower levels, people are generally forgiving of newness.

Also from someone who gets stressed out by tanking, the best advice is to run a few dungeons with FC members to start.

[Lord_Zlatan]

Tanking can be a joy and a terror at the same time.

as a new tank here are some things to consider.

Research the dungeons.
Knowing what will come at you as a tank is a huge benefit. I usually run a dungeon once just so I don't spoil anything for myself, and then go into it again after reading up on the particulars. Knowing boss phases, positioning, and special attacks can help you manage cool downs and resources much more effectively.

Be patient.
If you don't spoil anything for yourself before doing it, prepare to die. Prepare to cause the occasional wipe, or be the subject of criticism. DO NOT DESPAIR! as someone else just said, if you keep an open mind and are open to constructive criticism, most people will enjoy helping you out. Dying is part of being a tank, as dying will help to teach you what to do to avoid it next time. It is ok to die. Especially as a new tank.