New tank: keeping hate

[Kydi]

I'm new to, FFXIV, but previously have tanked quite a bit of content in TOR. I'm not a particularly special tank, but I'm competent.

I'm struggling with enmity in early dungeons - I was able to take it at the beginning, but in a longer fight it was inevitable that I lost it. In each run I had a Summoner (I think) whose Carbuncle kept taking agro from at least one enemy, usually a completely different one to the one the other DPS and I were hitting. I don't know if this is just the player targeting the wrong thing, not having control or bad tanking - what do you think?

My rotation is fairly simple - lob, flash x2, savage combo. Mix in a flash every few combos to keep area agro and try to tab target where I feel i's safe, although if I do that I'd usually lose agro on the main mob I was taking. Has anyone got tips for early tanking? It's especially frustrating to not be able to get agro back if I lose it, even from a pet by hammering all my (apparently) high threat abilities.

[Thaliss]

Hi,
The tank section might give you more insight about it.
You seem to do it right. Some issues might be :
- Dps focus on different main targets (I advise you mark priority target)
- Dps highly overgeared comparing to you. (As tank it is less forgiving not keeping as much up to date your equipment you can)

Maybe you know but control aggro with enmity bar on each mob so you know which one you might be loosing aggro to(it is not well explained in game)
When you target an enemy this is where you control how much each of your party members have aggro.
In this picture Tank has aggro, next in line is lancer, then pugilist and lastly heal

This helps to know where you must focus your combos.

You have experience, so you will learn how different classes work, who AoE, who lands DoTs on all targets etc..

Enjoy

[Kydi]

Thanks for the tips, unfortunately I can't post in the tank forum yet due to my character's level (21GLA/8CNJ).

I knew about the enemy list red yellow green indicator, but not the detailed indicator, so I'll keep an eye on that. I do suspect gear may be an issue - the average level on my gear is 12, but I can't seem to find details any better at vendors and my legs, chest, head and feet are all dungeon drops. A better main hand might help I guess.

Does it get easier once you have more abilities (the lack of a taunt is very alien to me) or is tanking just harsh?

[JustARTificial]

Hi,
The tank section might give you more insight about it.
You seem to do it right. Some issues might be :
- Dps focus on different main targets (I advise you mark priority target)

I cannot tell you how important this point is. Mark. So many times has the other DPS beside me fought another monster that the Tank isn't actively holding aggro for thus becomes focused and the group wipes because Healer's attention becomes divided.

If you see more than 1 monster taking damage (aside from AOE), tell the group to focus. It's an easy enough thing to spot and even easier to fix.

For people that may have higher gear, it's possible to spot them as they may have a circle with a zagged line near their level. If they do keep getting focused, you'll have to explain to them to cool their jets and lighten up on their DPS.

Dead DPS = No DPS

[Ihm]

Something to throw out, was the ACN using Yellow Carby? If so, that's probably why you're having tanking issues. Yellow is a tank type and at low levels it's kind of ridiculous at pulling hate.

[ROFL-kopter89]

Use the market board to buy gear if you can't find any from the NPC vendors. It may be a bit more costly, but keeping your gear up to date is important.
If you get into a party with an ACN and he has his yellow carbuncle out, ask him to swap it.

[ruskie]

What the others said. Also archers and bards can pull aggro fast - even with the same level of gear So if you have those in group do mark so that they focus. Sometimes DPS just zone out and don't notice that something happens - happened to me at times as well.

And yes yellow carby will tank asd will titan-egi later on - this can be fun in funruns with no tanks but beyond that I can imagine how hard it must be - still on my todo list do tanking.

[Rufalus]

Sounds like you have the right idea. I've been tanking for months and I still lose enmity to other players all the time, so I wouldn't feel like you're doing something especially wrong, it's normal not to hold everything in a mob 100% of the time, I've heard that this game is harder to keep hate than others. You get the skill provoke quite early if I recall, and that's the one for pulling something back. Before you have that, yes it might be impossible to catch up if somebody gets far ahead of you on a particular monster, so you just look at those enmity bars when you focus target and make sure nobody gets ahead on anything.

[Asheilin]

Hope things start pulling up for you
As stated above, there are two classes that can cause problems. I am currently playing both, though played Arcanist to high levels at launch on a different character:
*Archers can deal out a lot of damage sometimes too quickly for you to hold on to, if they're not paying attention to their own emnity.
* Arcanists (and summoners) have a couple ways to cause problems. if their pet isn't green or red, they're using a tanking pet. Tell them to change it! Arcanists also have a tendency to place dots on the other targets, as it maximizes their damage. At higher levels, they have an ability that spreads their dots without having to do it manually.

There are also things you might not know about certain monster priority that the dps are following, that they deem will take too long to explain. ie, bombs as a general rule or in Halatali the Doctors and Pythons (which healers usually prefer downed first because of poison) This kind of thing requires you to learn in steps, an as you go kinda thing.

90% of the time, if you ask them to focus/why they're going after that one type first; they'll explain why. Then either order can adjust and move on.

[Kydi]

Thanks for all the advice.

I'll certainly look into upgrading my weapons at least, I think my sword is probably still about level 11 as there weren't any dropping from quests etc. I'm quite used to being able to just have enemies stick to me once I've started hitting them a bit, probably because of the extra threat stances give in TOR - it'll be more familiar with shield oath.

I'll keep an eye on the colour of Carbuncle too - I can't remember if it was green or yellow.