A (bad ?) way of tanking...

[Versiroth]

I only do this when there's a tactical advantage. In Aurum Vale, for instance, there are rooms where you can either pull groups back into a "hallway", or risk aggroing more than the group can handle. Also, in Pharo Sirius, near the end, there are two slimes on the top landing right in front of the Aether valve. I'll tell groups to stay at the landing below and pull one down at a time. The reason for this is two fold. First, it prevents damaging everyone from the Aether cloud and also prevents pulling both slimes at once and missing a stun on divide.


So again, if your tank is more comfortable with controlled pulls, let them do it. A lot of times, they do it for a good reason. If you're a DPS player, wait until the tank parks and gets off one AOE threat move before nuking.

[Bixby]

I've never seen tanks running everything back like that, and certainly never done it myself. Just casters/avoiding patrols, like others have said.

Maybe it's a data center thing. Just like some data centers tank bone dragon in the north, others tank him in the middle. Perhaps Chaos has caught some kind of... "uninformed" tank virus.

[YuiSasaki]

If it's a WAR in question, Overpower is Conal as opposed to Circular, so they need to group the mobs up to be in the right spot (all in front of them). Also, I think it's easier on melee to have them all facing generally the same direction as opposed to all over the place. Not to mention being more grouped up is important for AoE's.

And because OP is conal you need to kite the mobs into the group?
The things you mention dont really rectify kiting mobgroups into the group. Of course positioning is important and necessary, but well as i said earlier, there is no reason for kiting mobs into the group.

[Clavaat]

And because OP is conal you need to kite the mobs into the group?
The things you mention dont really rectify kiting mobgroups into the group. Of course positioning is important and necessary, but well as i said earlier, there is no reason for kiting mobs into the group.

I suppose I don't understand what he means by "into the group". I move mobs back, particularly caster enemies a further distance to get adequate positioning sometimes. Normally the casters and healers just back up a bit, and if they didn't I guess it could be "into the group". If that is really what they are doing, it may not necessarily be fair to put the blame on the tank who is just trying to reach a safe spot with proper coverage for melee and himself. Now, if the tank is purposefully bringing the mobs to the caster, then I don't really know beyond they may have been in groups where the BLM/SMN wants to do Blizzard 2 from earlier dungeons?

[Degaulace]

I only do this when there's a tactical advantage. In Aurum Vale, for instance, there are rooms where you can either pull groups back into a "hallway", or risk aggroing more than the group can handle. Also, in Pharo Sirius, near the end, there are two slimes on the top landing right in front of the Aether valve. I'll tell groups to stay at the landing below and pull one down at a time. The reason for this is two fold. First, it prevents damaging everyone from the Aether cloud and also prevents pulling both slimes at once and missing a stun on divide.

So again, if your tank is more comfortable with controlled pulls, let them do it. A lot of times, they do it for a good reason. If you're a DPS player, wait until the tank parks and gets off one AOE threat move before nuking.

Is there always and everywhere a tactical advantage in doing this, even against one single isolated mob ?
I don't think so.
I agree for AV, where the floor is poisonous in earlier areas.
But in others dungeons, nothing justifies this useless time-wasting dangerous run back technique.

If it's a WAR in question, Overpower is Conal as opposed to Circular, so they need to group the mobs up to be in the right spot (all in front of them). Also, I think it's easier on melee to have them all facing generally the same direction as opposed to all over the place. Not to mention being more grouped up is important for AoE's. To a SMN, most of this seems trivial as you mostly have strong, single-target attacks, except Shadow Flare which has a pretty big room for error. To a melee, however, having the mobs lined up a pattern helps a lot especially on MNK who's AoE hit in a straight line.

Even if it's a WAR, no difference.
The melee dps is a MNK or a DRG. In both cases, he must attack from behind and the sides. So the best thing, for a WAR, would be to pack mobs so they show their backs to the group. And absolutely not to run back mobs in middle of the group, which is one of the stupid things to do, imho.

Like I said on the FR section, no need to know the class nor its gameplay here : it's just logical.

I suppose I don't understand what he means by "into the group".

Means "where the healer and the range dps are waiting for the tank to pack the mobs in front of him before attacking, and where the melee dps are waiting for the tank to build his hate before joining the bout".

[Judge_Xero]

I'm with Bixby on that one. Never seen that type of activity. I can't imagine why someone would do that outside of HM Hard where those floor beams are. Even on patrolls you can usually have the mobs down before more mobs come.

[AlrikRouge]

If it's time you're worried about (the OP isn't), 1-3 seconds shouldn't really bother you.

If it is safety you're worried about (which is part of what the OP is saying), then mention it to the tank.

In different dungeons, I assess the DPS strength by a quick glance at gear before I do any pulls and then do experimental pulls to see how well they go.

In WP, I take everything to the bugs spawn and see if we survive. If I live and my HP didn't drop below 1500, then I can safely assume I can pull nearly as much as I want and it won't be an issue.

But, for example on WP after the first boss, I'll flash the three magic mobs, run to the two little TBs and provoke them and run them back to the group. Otherwise I cannot do aggro management wisely against the healer without being close enough to flash everything.

Check with the tank you see doing this. Or see for yourself - are they worried about LoS the healer? Worried about taking extra mobs they don't feel they can handle? Patrol running around they'd rather avoid until necessary?

Or as other people said, could it just be a bad habit? I for one never do it unless I'm trying to avoid something else (like in PS) or managing aggro (like the above example in WP). Heck, even in some earlier speed run videos of WP you will see the tank running beyond the magic casters with all mobs, and then run back to the magic casters (the floating blob things; forget to heir names) in order to position everything for aggro management and AoE attacks. But ask each one that does do it (politely, not presuming they are doing something wrong), and you may be surprised by the answer.

[Langureion]

Most of the time tanks pull to a spot to avoid unnecessary adds, which will cause wipes.
But not always, i'm sure ppl don't pull primal into their group.
Dps and healers should adjust their position accordingly in any case.
Even if the tank did it by accident or what not, just move way, if moving isn't too hard for you.
And dps should always start with dot then move on to bigger move to stabilized the hate on tank at beginning.
Can't remember how many times the dps (melee and range) jump onto the mob right away. lol

So OP, do you know how to move your character?

[Kiserai]

When you say that they bring the monsters to you, do you mean they literally stack them on top of the healer, or just that they allow the enemies to walk toward them for a few seconds after they pull with a shield toss? The former is weird enough that I have never seen it in this game, while the latter is often a good idea (multiple groups in the area, group is spread out, wandering monsters, environmental hazards, et.

I ask because of the comment "when bringing us the mobs, the tank doesn't attack whereas the healer...heal, and the dps attack ==> the mobs could attack us in place of the tank" which is usually a sign that the DPS (and possibly healer) are messing up by engaging in the first few seconds instead of letting the tank actually establish aggro.

[Moonwolfthegrey]

OP,
U are either exaggerating or u are very new, not ALL tanks do what u claim they are doing
I don't have anything else as everything has been said by other players already, except that it is a Tanks job to position mobs, it is the tanks responsibility and u moving a few steps to adjust shouldn't be a problem