What makes a great tank?

[Mishini_Dracoto]

what makes a great tank imo, is asking your healer in advance if they can handle big pulls..

It's not about the healer, it's about the whole party. The healer has to be able to heal, the DPS need to be able to DPS. The tank needs to hold threat, and mitigate as much Damage as possible, and stay alive long enough for the mobs to start dying. As soon as mobs start dying, i gets much easier to keep the tank up. That's a Speed Run pull in a nutshell.

IMO, if you have the right classes, and good enough gear, people should almost be forced into Speed Runs lol. it really makes you step your game up. IMO, it's more fun, but I like a challenge. If you are geared well enough, and have 2 BLM's who want to triple flare, but the healer is being lazy and wants to take it slow, he's going o rin it for everybody. IDK. I tr to judge what they are capable of and just go from there.

[Anienai]

Female Roegadyn!

[Syhrwyb]

Female Roegadyn!

I like and agree with this post.

[Llyren]

Female Roegadyn!

Lalafell is clearly the Master Tank.

[Thistledown]

as a side opinion- I think dps should be responsible for marking/picking targets, they are the ones doing the damage so it stands to reason they should pick what they're doing damage to.

I should think it is the tank's duty to mark. Every fight should begin with the tank initiating it, marking as he rushes forth, rather than waiting for and reacting to someone he cannot always trust.

In a static, fine. In most pugs though, I would never trust a dps to have my interest at heart to mark targets properly. I want heavy damage dealers and aoe critters out of the way before everything else.

[MXMoondoggie]

I guess everyone will say something a bit different for me the best Tanks i ever played with have strong nerves, don't panic and make snap judgments. They have the ability to see the fight and learn about their party quickly. Of course it's always easier with a static but if you can learn enough to get the best out of people even in DF telling them how to do better and what you need from them then it's a good thing. Of course keeping aggro is a given but the best Tanks I've known it's not about how they keep aggro is how aware they are when they lost it. That instant snap back is not something you'll see in the mad dog tunnel vision types.

A good Tank is like a rock that keeps everyone calm. The Healer can trust you so they won't panic heal or chicken run when mobs turn on them and the DPS will pump out optimum damage because they know your positioning won't have the mobs suddenly spin around. Good Tanking is like a state of mind being able to see the fight 3 moves ahead and knowing what CD's you have on the table and what you can do in each possible outcome for what is coming next. Just always be thinking "What if something goes wrong?" and be ready to fix it.

[Saseal]

I've nothing to contribute, but...thanks for this thread - I'd been debating on trying tanking (with exception to a single and terrible attempt that had turned me off from tanking since), a little bit before I initially saw the thread and was still a little wary of trying again..... but reading the posts have helped greatly (I ended up going home from work and WANTing to tank something o_o *Checks pulse, sees if this is real life...*).

So, again, thank you for this thread and all that contributed the advice in it!

From the standpoint of someone who mains WHM... I agree with a lot of points already stated - A great tank is a person you can rely on/trust and won't leave you hanging if something were to come out of the woodwork and attach itself to you (ADD spawn; accidently or DPS took aggro if I'm in a lower dungeon, etc). Who will actively seek it out, as well as flashing/RoHing if I run it to them (rather than making me just run to them and stand there like an idiot... I've had a tank run AWAY from me and the mob I was trying to give him, before...... chased him around the room before giving up and tanking it all myself >_>). Someone who calmly takes charge of the situation, without demanding. Doesn't point fingers, but advises. Doesn't bite off more than they can chew. Doesn't run off without the rest of the party OR run off before killing everything the party's been chewing on...

A great tank is 'That Tank' that makes you think, "I want to party with this guy again dammit. ;_;" when you had pugged into a dungeon... - and then rage-pout when the instance is complete and over... lol

[Bashum]

#1 for me would be situational awareness. Good tanks know that ninja # 2 is about to pull hate, and react accordingly to prevent it. They see that roamer sneaking up behind them and react accordingly. They know their healer is busy running to dodge an AoE, or rezzing someone else, so they burn a cooldown or two to make life easier.

All the gear and stats in the world can't help you if you're clueless about your surroundings.

Also, since the tank often ends up as the de facto leader of the group, patience, and the ability to explain things to newcomers is always an asset.

[Mykll]

#1 for me would be situational awareness.

This so much. Atomos, melee heavy group, we short 1 ranged for pad. Before I can type out anything another group starts it up. So the other tank and the three melees rush up to Atomos. I know the situation, I stayed back so 4 can be on the platform. Surely I am not the only one aware of our situation? Yet I am the one that got yelled at for not picking up adds when nobody said anything.

There are just so many things that makes a good tank. And you can't always say you must always do this, then that, then that, because, something will not happen according to the scripted plan and you need to change what you thought you were going to do. Trying to pull mobs back in DD from the crystals, especially the range ones, via LOS or just running far back method, and some DPS decides to attack early or healer throws a heal/buff on you? Be aware of the situation.

Like you can kill one of the drakes and have it facing the wall away from group. One of those ranged guys still at range pegging you? Who cares. Shield toss, tomahawk, it will stay on you, and because it is at range, and not melee range, it won't do the AOE attack, so is basically harmless, you don't need to worry about it for now. Instead of trying to get it in melee range, having to dodge both the drake's cone and it's AOE, staying away from the crystal AOE, trying to not get anyone in your group hit with any AOE....

Lot of the little things to have great situational awareness, even the little things that most may not notice but may still make things a little easier.

[Sleigh]

1. Knowledge of the encounter they're in, in its entirety. Gotta know placement of adds/boss, where things spawn, timers on mega attacks, tank swap timings, etc.
2. Aggro, short-term and long-term, and tank swap aggro (both giving it up and keeping it). This would be ranked lower but a good tank who can let a BLM Firestarter within 1s of the wyvern/Bennu/cube/etc spawn is quite an asset in beating T10-13 DPS checks easily.
3. Ability to remember and reflexes necessary to execute the required CDs for the encounter. This seems trivial but wait until you get a tank who "forgot" to use a CD or one who swore his Inner Beast went off in time (as the cast bar is finishing, no less)
4. Ability to put out those Deeps. At the end of the day if one tank is doing average damage and another tank of the same role and gear is doing 50-100% more damage with the same healers in the same fight, there's a performance gap.
5. Ability to adapt when things go wrong.