Tanking habits

[Elim]

I dislike tanks that don't pull more than one group or mob if the DPS in our group is decently geared. DPS don't need to be super geared to be able to do bigger pulls. You can also do bigger pulls with melee. It's slower than with casters but it's a lot more engaging... at least to me.

I left a group yesterday over it. Wasn't rude to the tank or anything(I barely said one word), but a DPS got snappy with the tank so I left. The tank ignored what everyone said and kept pulling one group or one mob at a time. I'm not interested in getting in the middle of a mad DPS and tank. I'd end up taking the DPSers side and it'd just be one big mess. I'm also splitting my time between FF14 and DA:I so I prefer faster runs.

[Marxam]

My rule of thumb when pulling mobs in dungeons :

1. 1 melee + 1 Mage/range dps: Pull 1-2 groups and if dps is sufficient gradually increase mob count while accommodating healer skill level.
2. 2 melee: Pull 1 group and if dps is sufficient gradually increase mob count while accommodating healer skill level.
3. 2 mage/range: Pull 2-3 groups and if dps is sufficient increase mob count while accommodating healer skill level.

Big pulls are always faster if the dps (and healers) know what they are doing.

[Adrian74]

I have not readed the entire post, neither I have the time to do it, but... Kind of agree with the OP. When I tank I first see the healer and DPS, then I analyze if I should do big pulls, I wouldn't do such with for example two ninjas... I at least require of one BLM to consider it, else, it would be faster and safer just doing it with small pulls (Faster, because monsters die fast and healer perhaps will DPS too, if healer doesn't DPS then I change to DPS gearset).

When I'm with a ninja, so the other side, I feel kinda forced to do a super damage that I don't have... I can barely reach the DPS of an average BLM when doing AoE, and it is not infinite, one pull is 100% optimum damage, the next following pull withing the next two minutes is going to be around a 75% of damage. But well, I kind of don't mind now. Used to see tanks getting two groups all the time in latest dungeons, even if no BLM around.


My nooby tank experience during months have proven that forcing useless-aoe classes to use AoE will only enslow, isntead of make it faster. Actually, in my opinion, only BLM is the class that has infinite perfect AoE all the time it wants. The rest perhaps are awesome for taking a huge group evert 3-4 min, but not all the time. Even in the case of skilled healers..... WHM can't do holy spam infinite and they need to be extra-noob to can do it while keep DPSing.... Scholars are more benefitted by small groups for doing both DPS and heal.... (Healing while doing DPS with a scholar when the tank takes one group is a MUST, else you're lazy)

Tanking is adaptability... There have been cases where healer only spams heal and DPS are average than I even removed Defiance or Shield Oath for dealing the extra damage that they didn't.

[lvlagmarink]

1. it's stressfull
2. it's boring cos your just spaming aoes
3. it's risky cos your likely to wipe

I'd say
1. It's fun
2. Its not boring when you actually need to pop yer def cool down
3. It's risky because we are warriors of light.. We fight evil!!

[Saigwa]

I usually only pull large crowds when my healer is comfortable with it and my dps can handle aoe. Other than that, I try to keep things small-medium if possible. I ran snowcloak the other day and the healer wanted me to pull large crowds. I didn't want to since we didnt have a BLM or Bard, but since he insisted for several mins., I did. Healer couldn't keep up the heals, and we wiped. At least he finally stayed quiet afterwards...

[Hayden]

Want to talk about a bad tanking habit? How about the silent hero who blitzes through the dungeon with out so much as checking the ilvl of his pty, ignores requests to slow down, doesn't wait for buffs, and then gets angry and irate when the party fails then leaves so the pty has to spend another 30 min looking for a new member, or if they are lucky Titan Egi tank until a tank can be found(if they have a smn who is up for the task)

[Wadoka]

Um. Boring is good. Boring is safe. A Tank who's an adrenaline junkie, who LIKES fighting with his health dropping 50%... 25%... 1%... HEAL'D? Don't trust them. They're insane.

If you want to speed run tell me up front. I'll bow out of the instance and you can get a Tank who'll run it the way you prefer.

[kyuven]

I begin every dungeon with the following when tanking:
Do you want: A) Small Pulls, B) Double pulls, C) Suicidal Overconfidence.
Usually the last one entails pulling to (but not inside) the boss' room, with a few exceptions (namely SV and Snowcloak's dragons)
In the event of a tie, I go with the healer's choice.
A good dungeon tank can gauge just what his group can handle and adjust accordingly.

[Jonny_Tapas]

I main tank... When I enter a dungeon, I look at a couple things after greeting the party of course.

1.) Healer HP (a quick idea of how geared they are.)
2.) DPS jobs (Bard / BLM obviously give me more confidence than NIN / MNK)

I typically start with a double pull to see how the healer reacts... If I see them keeping me in good health and even managing to DPS some... I know I have a comfortable strong healer... I can get a little crazy. If they seem less comfortable or just plain lazy, double pulls it is until more is requested.

Simply put tanks are expected to be efficient. At least that's how I see it... we should lead the raid to clear as quickly as the party is comfortable.

If you're a tank and you expect every DF to be comfortable with full pulls, you're doing it wrong. However if you're NOT a tank you should expect your tank to push your party near it's comfortable limits.

[Tashigi]

There is stupid of every class in the game.
As a tank, if I feel it's more efficient to mass pull given the group composition/gear, then mass pull it'll be.
However, I've had groups request that I mass pull, even when their gear hinted at no; but they still preferred that, so... whatever my group wants, that's what goes.
You could just speak out.
I notice a lot of people don't speak out due to fear of either being booted or made fun of. Maybe that's what this thread should be about, instead of generalizing about a specific role that, oh so many people play.