a few Tank questions

[JMadFour]

So, I leveled to 50 as a DPS(Ninja). Now leveling Marauder/Warrior.

Approaching Brayflox, which is where the game begins to ramp up in difficulty. Figured now would be a good time to ask a few questions.

With that said, a few questions.

1) I need some suggestions on which cooldowns to macro and which to keep separate. I know that I will probably want Provoke+Tomahawk together. But what other skill combos should I consider macroing? Any I should avoid? Any particular nomenclature i will need for these macros? Like will a group need a warning when I use them?

2)As a primarily dps player in MMOs, I am conditioned that when I see telegraphs, I get the hell out of the way at all costs. This isnt an option a lot of the time as a tank, right? As a Tank, is there a general set of guidelines to determine which telegraphs I can eat, which ones need to be interrupted, and which ones need to be run from?

[SirTaint]

Do not macro voke and tomahawk. They have seperate uses. Tomahawk is for pulling, provoke is for placing yourself at the top of the emnity list. (It can be used for ranged pulling followed by a tomahawk but there are few instances of that)

The only macro I use is a for weaker CDs when I'm lazy. (Foresight, convalescence, awareness etc)

Avoid all the telegraphed moves. As soon as the lines are gone get right back in front. Your biggest jobs are to keep hate, avoid telegraphed moves and keep the monster pointed in one direction away from the group.

[Valmar]

I dont Macro any abilities at all.

[Kuwagami]

1) in a general way, macros are useless as a tank unless you need to quickly talk to your mates. Provoke being useless on pulls, I strongly suggest NOT to put it together with tomahawk if you do some macros though. A warning for provoke might be good for end game content, for tank switches

2) avoid all. Your healer will like you. A few are stunnable and/or silence-able. You'll learn with time ^^

[Garlyle]

The most useful Macros for tanks aren't macros linking multiple abilities together - they're macros automatically informing your party you just Provoked a target [incredibly valuable for high level content and tank swapping] or that you just used Hallowed Ground ["I'm not going to take damage from 10 seconds" is really useful knowledge for your healers to have]. If you do WAR, a prompt in party chat 3-4 seconds before Berserk wears off asking for an esuna will help your healers actually cleanse it instead of you having to wait for the pacify to work.
(Following a Provoke with Tomahawk is still a good idea though)

Also yeah, avoid as many telegraphs and AoEs as you can, and get into the habit of immediately returning to your position. There will be times where it's just easier to 'eat' them - and those are cases where 3/4s of the field are getting covered but it's way more important you're not dragging the boss everywhere, so you just position yourself to eat only one AoE instead and pop a cooldown or two. You won't see fights like that for a long time.

[Nyalia]

Generally speaking, macroing GCD skills is bad. If you hit a normal, unmacroed GCD skill button half a second or less before your GCD is up, the game will queue up the move and perform it the very moment you can. Macros do not have this feature, so if you hit a macro button half a second or less before your GCD is up, nothing will happen and you'll have to hit it again. This can add up to a full second to your GCD and is a huge loss of enmity per second and dps.

I don't have any WAR macros at all. The only ones I would consider using are:
1. As someone else said:

/micon "Provoke"
/ac "Provoke" <t>
/p "{Provoke} {just used it} <t>"

2. Berserk ends with a Pacification effect. Sometimes it's nice to let your healer know when it's about to fall off:
Level 35 or lower:

/micon "Berserk"
/ac "Berserk" <me> <wait.12>
/p "{Berserk} ending in 3 seconds. {esuna}/{leeches} {can I have it?}"

Level 36 or higher:

/micon "Berserk"
/ac "Berserk" <me> <wait.17>
/p "{Berserk} ending in 3 seconds. {esuna}/{leeches} {can I have it?}"

Generally speaking, whenever you use chat macros, try to keep them short and use the Auto-Translate feature wherever possible. The {} are indicating phrases you should pull from the Auto-Translate dictionary.

3. If you really want to mark targets fast, try a macro like this:

/mk attack <t>
/ac "Target Forward"

I don't use a macro like that, but I hear it works really well. It marks the first target with the first unused number, then switches you to the next target. You quickly hit the button once per enemy and everything should get a number.



EDIT: Oh yeah, and the reason to quickly return to your old position is that most enemies that use telegraphed moves don't turn while their cast bar is up, and when the cast is done, they still don't turn until the animation is over. However, moment the AoE indicator vanishes is when targets are determines. You can run right back in the second it vanishes and the attack won't hit you. If you get back to where you were before the attacker's animation finishes, the enemy won't turn at all. Since some DPS classes have positional (flank/back) abilities, and some large enemies have frontal cleaves, keeping the boss from turning can be very important.

Also, note that while the vast majority of dodgeable telegraphed moves in FFXIV have AoE indicators, not all of them do. There are a number that are dodgeable, not it isn't obvious that they are. These include:

• Haukke Manor's final boss's "Void Thunder III" attack (you can avoid it by running behind the boss during the cast)
• Garuda's "Slipstream" attack (frontal cone AoE)
• Most (all?) of Coincounter (from Aurum Vale)'s attacks ("10-Tonze Swipe" and "100-Tonze Swipe" = frontal cone, "100-Tonze Swing" = 360 AoE, "Glower" = line AoE aimed at non-tank)
• Qarn HM's final boss's "Light of Anathema" attack (frontal line AoE)

[Rev1170]

If anyone ever suggest you macro your defensive abilities together tip your hat and walk away.