An all-too-common mistake that tanks make.

[Reiterpallasch]

Since the game launched, I've done a ton of dungeons and played with a lot of tanks. Some good, some bad, some great, some terrible. Nobody is perfect, everyone makes mistakes here and there, and I don't expect to be coming across world class players in my duty finder dungeons. However there is a common mistake that almost every single tank I've been with has made:

They do not tank with all of the mobs in front of them!

That is to say, if a tank pulls a pack of 2-3 mobs, they will typically have one in front of them (the one they're targeting), and the others will be behind them. Almost none of the tanks have tried to position themselves in a way that the mobs are all in front of them. This makes things harder for the healer, harder for the dps, and harder for you.

Why is that, you ask? It's simple: You can NOT block and you can NOT parry any attack that does not come from in front of you. It's as simple as that really. You are going to take significantly more damage from enemies that attack from behind. I don't know if any other factors come into play, such as being able to dodge attacks and such, but these two are a given.

So the next time you're in a dungeon, remember that your shield can block and your sword can parry, but getting hit in the back of the head will only cause the group headaches.

EDIT - This got me curious though, as I'd merely taken this as read from a lot of key guides and discussion forums, so I decided to go and fully test anyway... and you know, I think people are sort of wrong.

You can DODGE from any direction (a dodge just means the mob missed their accuracy check on you, which is level based) but after faffing around with mobs out in the open I've yet to block a single auto attack with my back to things. I've noticed the following -

1 - You CANNOT block or parry "auto attacks" from mobs that come from behind you
2 - You CAN block special attacks with some kind of AOE effect with your back to the mob.