Learning to Tank

[kukurumei]

As a high-level paladin, my rule in parties is: you pull it, you eat it.

Do I try to intercept things making a break for the DDs? Yes. But my priority for keeping people alive is the healers. There's an old rule of thumb for dungeons: If the tank dies first, it's the healer's fault. If the healer dies first, it's the tank's fault. If the DDs die first, it's their own damn fault.

Plus, DDs usually have a pretty good idea of what they can handle. The Lancer / Dragoon isn't as heavily armored as you are, but she's better armored than the Pugilist / Monk / Archer / Bard, who are in turn better armored than the casters. If you see a low-level DD pulling aggro off you, discuss it with them... nicely. They may not have the experience to know why you're losing aggro. If you see a high level DD repeatedly pulling aggro off you, let them. They have a good idea of what they can handle, just as you have a good idea of what you can handle.

Dungeon possibility, endgame content, definitely not.

There are 3 rules to tanking. Mitigating damage, controlling hate, and positioning.

None of those three have to deal with who lives or dies. It can be any number of things that causes it, from not saving a dps from the mechanics, to the dps not saving the healer, to the healer not saving the tank, to you being stupid.

Popping cool downs and saving cool downs is a job of the tank, not the healer. Especially as you head to stone vigil and beyond, don't be stupid running to your death with no cool downs up. You get yourself and the party killed for no reason.

The first rule of tanking blind is keep your eyes peeled at the monster cast bar. It may not always work or even work often, but if something is being casted, you need to know, or in higher forms of battles, scream it out in some kind of voice chat, etc.