Learning to Tank

[Foo01]

Since I was seeing tanks having difficulties, see here:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...r-geared-tanks

I decide to try to learn to do the tank role. What I encountered at my lowly level 18 Gladiator is that I had trouble keeping up with archers for enmity. I flash, shield lob, etc. But the mobs still ignore me as soon as the archer shoots, what am I doing wrong?

[Musashidon]

lol before lvl 26 (rage of halone) agro is a pain, definitely if you have a lvl sync'd class in party they will easily make you feel like a chump.

it's the main reason holding agro before 26 not so bad for me now i am lvl sync'd in i90 plus.

[Tattered]

You're trying to tank against level synced archer/Bards who unload all their cooldowns at the beginning of the fight because they don't care. All you can do is keep your equipment up to date, start a fight with shield lob, flash a couple of times if there are a few enemies on the pull, and fast blade > savage blade and pray.

And it won't matter, because on low level dungeons, the archer/bard can tank the whole thing if they wanted to anyway. Keep your chin up, get Rage of Halone at 26, Shield Oath at 40, and life will get better.

What I tell tanks to do in my low level dungeons as I level DRG, is once I pull hate, just start on a new enemy because you aren't getting it back. By the time we're done focusing down the first mob that I'm tanking, the tank has pretty solid hate on the remaining enemies.

[Xandim]

First of all check your weapon. Most of the threat/enmity you generate comes from your weapon. What lv are the archers? Or any other DPS as a matter of fact. Even if they are synched, they still have better status than you and probably will generate more enmity than you can. What you wanna do is start with shield lob, flash, then work on your combo and flash once in a while when dealing with 3+ mobs. Archers are kinda to predict since they like to start shooting even before you can do anything, its like a BLM FLAREing a pull even before the tank can flash/overpower once.

[Moheeheeko]

for low lvl marauder is where its at, but it starts to get hard right when gladiator gets easy. Makes me chuckle.

[Foo01]

Well the archer in my group was level synced. So is it really ok, to let that mob go to them and not worry about it? Would they be able to handle it and not die?

BTW, since I got a level 34 CNJ/WHM it makes sense that I go GLA then PLD. But is there skills I should try to get from the marauder?

[Senfei]

Keep your equipment up to date, especially your weapon at low lvl. Have friends HQ you the best weapons if at all possible, this will help. Do not get suckered into people saying you have to flash 50 times in a row at the start of a fight to hold aggro... not the case. Pop fight or flight at the beginning of the pull and hit the first mob w/ shield lob, and flash once or twice. At that point, just complete your combo on the primary mob and keep an eye on the emnity, if the mob is almost dead, stun it and move on to the next mob to start building aggro on it before the onslaught comes. You can mingle in a flash every now and then to keep the healer safe or to compensate for multiple dots on enemies, but really this is all you need to do.

Things at this level die pretty quickly and you probably won't need to cycle through multiple mobs w/ your primary emnity combo, flash/overpower should be sufficient.

[SummonerSenah]

Bloodbath is a good marauder skill to pick up for paladin. Archers and bards are usually okay if they pull hate. They can always kite the mob. Lancer/dragoon can tank a bit as well. I tanked the Marshal on the first boss in Cutter's Cry on dragoon once with no problem.

[JayCommon]

Well the archer in my group was level synced. So is it really ok, to let that mob go to them and not worry about it? Would they be able to handle it and not die?

As a main BRD since 2.0 launch, IMO, yes it is absolutely OK for you to let that mob go directly to the archer. As the tank, YOU get to set the pace of the dungeon, not the DPS. If they don't like your pace, they can sit in another 30 min queue. That doesn't give you the right to be a jerk about it (not saying you are ), but if DPS starts blasting before you can even initiate battle then it's their fault if they die, not yours.

If they pull hate, they are one of the very few classes that can effectively kite it. So if they are a good player who doesn't care, they won't die. If they are a bad player, they will die and then you get to tell them to pay attention to that little enmity bar under their class icon in the party list.

I had that happen to me also as a low level GLD. Once I got Rage of Halone it was much easier, but as everyone said, if your DPS in group are level synced for a dungeon and you aren't it's going to be super hard to hold hate anyway. Just do your best, and as you level up and get better gear, it will become easier for you.

[Nutz]

Well the archer in my group was level synced. So is it really ok, to let that mob go to them and not worry about it? Would they be able to handle it and not die?

BTW, since I got a level 34 CNJ/WHM it makes sense that I go GLA then PLD. But is there skills I should try to get from the marauder?

Gladiator gives a lot more to Marauder than vice versa. From Marauder you can get Foresight, Bloodbath, and I suppose Mercy Stroke. Fracture might have some use, but it's kind of costly and the potency isn't very high without the trait to extend the duration. Foresight and Bloodbath are the more useful skills (I like Mercy Stroke myself, but you can only use it on a nearly dead enemy) and require only level 2 and 8 to acquire (Mercy Stroke is 26).

As to DPS taking enmity from you, it sort of depends. It might tax the healer a bit, but any DPS should be able to handle one mob easy enough. It's most likely that they'll take it from you when it's well below full health anyways unless they really unload before you get a chance to do anything (or worse they decide to pull). If it's near or below 50% hp I wouldn't worry about it at all -- start on another mob if there is one. Tanks unfortunately have to pay closer attention to their gear than other roles. If some of your gear is dated and your DPS is level synced down (especially from more than 10 levels) it will be difficult to keep hate even when doing everything absolutely correctly. If it's important that you pull a mob back from someone for some reason you have provoke.