Curiosity about AK

[rahvinus]

I feel your pain. I'm a new 50 and my first run of WP had both of my DPS in full DL with relic weapons. It made keeping enmity very...interesting.

[Tanaya]

Sounds like your DPS are significantly overgeared in comparison to you, which is becoming a common trend since more and more people are working on Coil now.

[Teleniel]

There are a lot of people who are over geared for AK and run it currently, because they want their Myth tomes.
If you're using il55 or even il60 weapon vs. a DPS using Relic/Relic+1 even if the rest of their gear is similar to yours, odds are they're going to pull hate if they're not watching. There are times there's nothing you can do.

A good example was while tanking Titan HM, the primary healer had relic+1 weapon... she was VERY hard to keep hate off of if she over healed at all, while I was using my Ifrit's Gaxe (Warrior). with 6,500HP I didn't have a problem living through his attacks (and knowing my rotation I could keep buffs up properly to make myself easier to heal), but I spent a lot more time using Butchers Block combo than I would have had to with a different healer, up till she did her first enmity drop and then I didn't have any further problems.

tl;dr... Gear makes a huge impact to enmity generation, it is very hard to tank against people who (severely) out gear you.

[CrazyDuck]

the only problem in AK is demon wall,if the dps and healer isn't so great then demon wall will be a problem for you, the other 2 boss's fights are no problem at all

[Leiron]

Indeed, I find it annoying how reliant tanks are on a good weapon to generate agro but thats how its designed.
I suggest aiming for your relic, its not hard to get, though a bit time consuming.

[Toranja]

If overgearing is a problem, let the DDs handle of the mobs.

For instance, when you fight three Gargoyles (Sleeper something or other), you flash all three, try to keep them on you for awhile, but let one of them go and leave it to the DDs. It shouldn't pose a problem. Losing hate on all three poses a problem.

[Marxam]

Learn to mark a target. In AK people tend to throw aoe/dot at the other enemies just to do extra dmg while focusing on your main target. Grab hate then rotate between the enemies to make sure that their threat tables are low. Also if you have a blm (or maybe a whm) they could sleep the others while they attack the marked target. AK is kind-of a tank check because you get alot of adds and your dps loves to do their own thing. I think plds have a little harder time keeping hate in ak due to the fact that flash is their only aoe grabber. So in conclusion:

1. Mark your target. If you're on PS3 set one on your hotbar. You only need one, just mark a target and before it dies switch to another and mark that. It will make a difference.

The rest is up to how well you can maintain the threat tables among the mobs. Good Luck and welcome to AK

[Lyndoggy_Dog]

So I have tanked successfully Ifrit more times than I care to count. I have had no issues with WP unless the DPS was not on the ball for the second boss. So I figured I would give AK a try. I regret my decision in life about trying that. I could not pull agro off anyone even with a iLvl 55 sword and patchwork gear. Some still my starting artifact armor with a DL belt and iLvl 55 pants and boots.

Is this a DL minimum for tanks or was I just in a pug with people who were over geared for me to tank for successfully?

You could not pull aggro off anyone? That's you're first mistake right there, you shouldn't have to pull it off anyone, are the team your playing with running ahead of you and pulling before you get there? If not and you are actually losing aggro mid fight then it is a problem on you're end. Learn you're aggro combos and check your aggro gauge over you're name.

[NovaLevossida]

A lot of people in AK are overgeared for it and just there for tomes. Odds are they don't care who the mob is hitting so long as it dies fast and the run goes fast (these people don't care about getting hit so long as they don't die). Think merit parties with no tanks in FFXI. Dead mobs don't hit very hard; hell, there's even a pull on a succubus in there where a geared BRD can outright kill her before she can reach the party. Honestly, if your DPS classes are highly overgeared compared to your tank, if you lose agro on a single mob, it doesn't matter too much. Just try to keep the pack on you. But there's not a whole lot you can do about them pulling mobs on you if you know your rotations and stuff. That's on them to hold back if they want and it's on you to improve gear. That said, I'd start doing primals to get a better weapon.

[Jaminos]

I mark my targets all the time. By 50, I think every tank should know this. However, I have noticed pugs tend to ignore my marks even after I tell them what the mark means.