Curiosity about AK

[Giantbane]

Are you having any trouble surviving? Maybe switch your build to 15/15 str/vit or even 30str, and/or use +str jewelry? Just a thought.

[Giantbane]

I noticed most of the people had Ifrit and Varies weapons. But again, I could not even pull a mob off of them with a provoke, flash halone combo. I consider myself a fairly competent tank. But I could not pull agro to save my life. I had depleted my MP and it did little good.

provoke just puts you at their threat level+1 enmity, so you need to do a heavy threat move immediately following it. Shield toss or rage of halone (better if you can time it to provoke just before the end of a combo). Fight or flight also helps when doing the halone combo (dunno if it affects flash tho).

[Marveth]

As a BLM in Relic +1 and full DL I can say that it is pretty much the way some people have said already. AK is just a mindless grind for me and my goal is to finish it asap. That being said I am very well aware that for new tanks life is quite hard and if there is a new tank who has problems surviving the groups of 3 mobs then I always CC. Better safe than sorry.

On the other hand I care not at all if I personally pull aggro because I know I will kill the mob fast enough for it to not be much of an issue. I would never blame a Tank for losing aggro vs me because I know I do not play with aggro management in mind during that instance. In fact even when I play with my Static group with +1 PLD I still shout out in TS before I do my aoe rotation so he can prepare with some flashes or he will lose aggro as well.

All in all, it's not just you. Hate in this game is everyones responsibility, if someone is impossible to keep hate from then focus on the other mobs instead.

[Anthreas]

Let me give advice

1. Flash will not work on mobs if mobs resisted your blind flash, so wait a couple seconds before you attempt to flash it again, do not flash it immediately because its wasted MP and do not increase enmity.
2. Make sure you are the first one to pull the mobs, its will generate enmity on you better than its aggro by others stupids DD.

Neither of these are true as someone has said. Flash does increase enmity as many times as you use it. Only downside is the blind effect (which is a good damage mitigator) will go from 12 - 6 - 3 sec to resist if used repeatedly, so it's kinda situational. I did AK in AF gear plus iLvl 49 weapon, with 0 wipes or threat issues, just have to know when to use cool downs more frequently than you'd prolly like to in standard trash pulls. Shield Bash is your friend once you have aggro, ive even tab targeted shield bash when I was just taking too much dmg. I tend to spam flash for groups of 4 or more. But a good opener that might help you gain threat is Shield Lob - Flight or Fight/Blood Bath- Fast Blade / Circle of Scorn / Spirit within - Flash x2 - finish halone combo. Then just tab target tanking using combo finisher on your main target.

[Khyranthir]

The static group I run with have relic and primal weapons and keeping threat has been a bit difficult at times since I'm still rolling with my WP axe. Just have to be a bit hyper aggresive with the pulls and beat your dps to the punch. Follow it up by doubling the mass emnity generating skills and pray mob #1 is still with you by the time you hit it with the 2nd ability of your main threat combo.

Often, #1 is just about ready to jump to one of the DPS at that point but the mob's HP is usually going down fast enough that I just ignore it and let them finish it off while keeping the other 2-3 mobs under control. If I think the mob might reach the DPS alive, provoke+lob/tomahawk (timed right after I see the DPS do their little jump/flip/dance that indicates the completion of some high dmg move) usually distracts it long enough that it dies on its way back.

[Kuroyasha]

As Im almost full DL with Relic (+1 now, but havent ran ak again yet), honestly I sometimes attack anyway even if I get hate. I ran with some good people from my server Mateus. Kept pulling hate off the tank, but I knew my dps and the other dps was good enough to kill adds quickly without any problems, as did the tank. If it's a boss, then yea I'll stop, wait a bit and use quelling strikes. So yea, just gear up more and you should be fine.