Why play?

[Shneibel]

WoD, make me re-think about request for a bigger raid....

[Solsanna]

I'm not saying these problems don't exist, but I AM saying that y'all must be exaggerating. Either that or we're playing on different NA datacenters. Out of every 10-15 24 mans I get one bad group, and at that point? I just lead in alliance chat myself and coordinate the raid. Problem solved. Then again, I'm one of those 3 tanks. I normally MT, but if someone fights me, I just go OT, and am prepared for when he dies due to undergearing, standing in shit, or being dumb.

Maybe I'm just casually accepting the general skill level of the DF at this point, but I honestly don't think it's happening as badly and as often as you all think, and I've been around since the start, just never signed up on forums.

[Amenian]

lol at the guy who said he wouldn't tank because he "doesn't like doing things."

[ZephyrK]

Trash pulls is WoD are complete chaos. DPS ignore standard mechanics of giving the tanks a chance to control the situation, and tanks are faced with either picking up too many or too little.

It is what it is... Just do your best and take care of your own gameplay, and not worry about the actions of others inside a pug. It's a quick route to heartburn.

[Sadana]

Yeah, I'm not sure about this one either. Why did they sign in if they don't want to play? Some weird compulsion to "cap tomes"? It's sad that they have so little control over themselves. :/ I know of someone who logs in and says they're bored within a few minutes. Go do something else! You don't HAVE to cap tomes or do dailies/weeklies! And then they go into the DF and troll out of boredom. >< Just so weird to me...

Also, you can edit your original post to bypass character limit.

[Dimitrias]

well this seems to be the reason why we need an in game voip. Maybe If ppl actually coordinated with each other before and during the fight, like they do with there Coil statics, it would be different.

I've never done WoD, but I'm sure its probable pretty quiet in there, well exept for the bashing of each other.

I do remember back in the day how coatic Crystal tower was, no one seemd to organize stuff back then either.

[Chevrefoil]

I know that if I've been unlucky in WoD, i'm pretty worn out and feel lazy by the 5th or 6th time I'm running it for my drop....but I think just some people are lazy and it's easier to avoid blame with 24 people versus 8 or 4.

[HakuroDK]

I have had a problem with tanking CT content ever since LotA. That first third of the raid where it's just six tanks trying to out-tank each other. At that point, I just turn Defiance off and act as another DPS until I actually need to tank. Not because I don't want to tank, but because I would much rather tank stuff that I know no other tank is going to steal from me.

The tank fighting has gotten so bad that I just toggle Defiance on and off at certain points in the raid, which is something I never do in any other piece of content except, maybe, Urth's Fount during Shin Zantetsuken.

LotA:

1. Defiance off until Atomos. Let the other tanks handle Bone Dragon and the Skeleton adds. (The whole first third of the dungeon is just a tank clusterf**k and more DPS is better than more tank-stealing)
2. Turn defiance on ONLY if other tank doesn't want to tank adds. (Atomos is a single-tank fight. Contributing to DPS far outweighs trying to dual-tank something when unnecessary.)
3. Turn defiance off for Thanatos unless in Alliance A. (Thanatos has to be tanked, obviously.)
4. Turn defiance on when ghosted during Thanatos fight. (Adds don't really last long enough for Defiance to be useful when tanking them)
5. Turn defiance on for Versago only if other tank doesn't want to tank Versago. (Versago has to be tanked seriously. The bombs don't, and higher DPS is better than extra enmity.)
6. Turn defiance on only if tanking King Behemoth or Iron Giant. (Other tanks not taking KB or IG can help DPS in their respective quadrants of the battlefield, especially the bombs.)
7. Turn defiance off for Phlegethon. (This is only because, chances are, at least one tank is going to want to MT Phlegethon and there's no reason to generate enmity.)

ST:

1. Turn Defiance On during the monster phases. (No one tank can tank all of the adds in a monster phase, so it's up to all the tanks to pull it together and tank their share, whether it's the Doga/Unei clones or the adds during Red Dragon.)
2. Turn Defiance off during all bosses except Amon, and even then, only keep Defiance on to tank the Kum Kum enemies, then you can turn it off right after. (Duh.)

WoD:

1. Keep Defiance On for the very first monster phase. (Same with ST, all tanks need to do their part to corral the adds.)
2. Turn Defiance Off during the Ahriman boss. (The adds that spawned will be burned down so fast by DPS that Defiance isn't necessary.)
3. Keep Defiance Off until Queen Scylla. (The Atomos Prime Phase doesn't need serious tanking. Just burn it down ASAP.)
4. During Queen Scylla/Xande Clone, keep Defiance off until the "Void Call" cast bar on the portals is at 75-80%, then turn it on. (Max DPS is needed to take down the portals, but after that, the Thors/Jorgumands need to be tanked.)
5. Unless you're designated tank for Cerberus or the Wolfsbane, keep Defiance off. (Multiple tanks on Cerberus and Wolfsbane can just complicate things. Best to help the Wolfsbane tank by DPSing the Wolfsbanes down without stealing aggro.)
6. Turn Defiance off for Cloud of Darkness. (There will always be one tank trying to keep aggro on Cloud of Darkness. That's all that's needed.)

That's my general strat going forward with CT. It assumes someone else will always be MT, which will not always be the case, but if there's a Paladin in the party, you can bet they're gonna be MT.

NOTE: If you're an Off-tank Paladin (which is... weird, but I won't judge), Defiance On = Shield Oath. Defiance Off = Sword Oath.

[Ehayte]

This all stems from the fact that you really only need like 18 people to do WoD, 15 or so to do ST, and like 12 or 13 to do LotA, so its really really easily missed if someone is just doing nothing. They aren't trolling you they just want stuff and also want to read the news, watch TV, BS with their friends, or do whatever else. This is just a design issue enabling assholes to do nothing. And, if I am being totally candid, its because most people suck really bad at this game. They had to make the content so super easy and thus doable by 24 people who aren't so good, that a much smaller number of good players can do it. For every 2 good players, you can probably have 1 character removed from the instance and be totally fine.

[Santherelle]

Wow.

I guess I have gotten lucky in my couple of WoD runs.

My tanks have been pretty on the ball for the most part. And I do my best to keep them alive.