MT etiquitte?

[Atreus]

There's a difference when they do it once and when they keep doing everytime provoke comes off cooldown though. This guy was pretty obviously trying to take hate off me and couldn't.

Not what I meant; talking about pulling hate chillin in Sword Oath and them yelling to stop provoking lol.

[Zumi]

Whoever pulls first gets to main tank pretty much.

[Lyzern]

I've only recently started tanking at high level and now that I know the various tanking stances (Defiance, Sword/Shield Oath), I can now safely answer your question from Cerberus prespective:

MT = Whoever wins the aggro fight

OT = The healers

[Janembo]

As a Warrior in LotA/ST/WoD I go in with full DPs right sides, I have Defiance off an prefer to pick up add or trash.
If my party is impatient and someone face pulls from my party I'll pop Defi an Mt if someone vokes or fights for aggro I let em have it.
As a tank I'll do any role needed but aiming to make the fight go smoother.

[Janembo]

An even with no Defi doing normal rotation I will pull aggro with under geared tanks so it all depends once your in the fight!

[Orilo]

I do try to gauge by HP as well. If they have a reasonably better HP pool than me in my DPS set, I let them tank. If not, I switch to my semi-turtle set and tank.

I just ask who wants to tank as well as I have done both MT and OT and I can still grab hate from MT while being an OT on my PLD in my DPS gear/Sword Oath.

[Flipside101]

The person who keeps going forward towards the mobs (even if isn't a tank - lolmelee) will tank it. Regardless if he dies or not.

[Tyrfina]

I've only recently started tanking at high level and now that I know the various tanking stances (Defiance, Sword/Shield Oath), I can now safely answer your question from Cerberus prespective:

MT = Whoever wins the aggro fight

OT = The healers

LOL! THIS!

In all seriousness, for me, in an 8 man it is always verbally agreed upon ahead of time. In WoD/ST I usually step forward to indicate a desire to MT and wait a few seconds to see if anyone else has a strong desire to do so instead... If they do they will usually just charge in and pull. If they do... just let them HAVE it! There's nothing more shameful from my perspective than to watch tanks trying to steal hate off of each other, especially while trash runs around harassing the party/alliance. A tank's job is pretty simple all said and done. You are there to protect the party. It is a role I take pretty seriously, and it is why I main a PLD. You need to slot into whatever position best accomplishes that goal. Leave your ego out of it.

Would you feel good about yourself if you were allowing Scylla wail on your healer? No? Well you shouldn't be any happier to let trash do it either.

[KMFDM_Kid2000]

"Etiquette" is being used hard and loose here for this topic. In a perfect world, this is discussed, but here are some unwritten rules understood by (presumably) many tanks out there.
[*] When in a hurry, look at a tank's weapon. It's unlikely you'll see a near-BiS PLD or WAR with only a relic Atma or something, unless it's some disjointed alt. Someone with an Animus/Novus/(Weathered) Burtgang will likely have the rest of their gear roughly match in ilevel. If your gear is objectively higher, you take precedence.
[*] PLDs generally MT over WARs unless very undergeared. Rough rule of thumb? ~10 ilvls difference if I had to quantify.

(cont. 1000 character limit is dumb)

[KMFDM_Kid2000]

(cont.)

[*] 2 tanks roughly the same gear tier? The one with coil pieces mixed in takes precedence over the tomestone-only tank. Why? More fully optimized build. Inverse is maybe true of someone in only coil gear. The mixed tank is better optimized (hopefully) than the tank wearing all of any one set (It most likely is an alt, generally people who play tanks as their main will take it more seriously, YMMV).
[*] In the event of a 24 man raid, and an aggro war ensues, it's a fight to the finish. Know when you're being outclassed. It's like rams in the wild butting heads. Pointless show of might and bravado, but it's what tanks do. It's ePeen, it's ego. If you have to provoke with no squishies in danger, you're a chump. This pointless display of a pissing contest shouldn't take more than 10-30 seconds, otherwise you begin to start hindering the raid.

(cont.)