Need help learning how to maintain argo

[Belhi]

You'll find holding agro easier once you get Shield Oath. In the mean time, marking a target and using your single target combo on that will hopefully help a lot. There are several ways to mark targets such as macros and such but you can just look under Character>Actions&Traits>Main Commands>Signs. Drag the button to a hot bar and it will pop up a window when you click on it with all the marks on it.

Note, that if your dps are focusing on your mark the main risk to your threat should be the healer. You will need to throw out occasional flashes, particularly if your taking a lot of damage to keep your targets from heading off after your healer. Note however that flash will not break your combo.

Also provoke can be used to help regain threat on a lost target but only if followed up with a high enmity attack. At range, Shield lob has worked well for me for this.

Finally, gear helps a lot. For a tank, Blacksmith, Armourer and Goldsmith have helped me gearing the most. The more damage you cause, the more enmity you generate. The less damage you take the less your healer has to heal you and the less enmity they generate.

As I said at the top though, Shield Oath will make your life a lot easier.

[Keydah]

Level 30-something tank here, still learning the ropes too, but I read class guides extensively and my FFXIV-partner-in-crime has pally to 36 and warrior to 50.

i usually do this for a rotation...

Your rotation is Fast Blade > Savage Blade > Rage of Halone - you only use Riot Blade when you need MP.

My gear is pretty much the gear that i have earned in dungeons and quest up to now. I am a blacksmith though, so i plan to level that up for awhile. Not really sure how to mark a target,

Make sure to check HQ items stats against your current gear's after 3-5 levels - pink and green gear is only good for a few levels. You should be gearing up again before heading into the next dungeons. And this hopefully goes without saying, but never use Disciple of War gear in a dungeon (I healed a Haukke with a tank that wasn't in tank gear, but wearing Disciple of War gear...it sucked. A lot.) or your healer will hate you or, in higher level dungeons, be unable to keep you alive.

For marking targets, there's a little menu in your Main Commands (found in your skills window - it's named "Signs") that brings up the marks. You can drag the 1, 2, 3, and if you want the "do not attack" marks onto your hotbar so that you can use them. Then, you just select the mob, hit the mark or the mark's key, and it will mark the mob with that mark.

I have my hotbars set up like this so that I can quickly click or hit Alt-1, Alt-2, etc. The top bar is mouse buttons:



Personally, I mark (long range mobs are ALWAYS first, take Sastasha for example - you want to mark the archer trash as 1 and get aggro on it first because the melee mobs will run up to you but he won't, so you have to go to him), shield lob 1, flash flash when I get in close, then I do the combo (Fast Blade > Savage Blade > Rage of Halone) on the first mob. When 1 is nearly dead, I'll switch to 2 so I can get a headstart on aggro on it.

By the way, I don't know if it's been mentioned, but there are aggro meters in the party list. They're underneath each party member's class/job icon, but they only show when you have an in-combat enemy selected. It shows their aggro in relation to the highest aggro party member (not players outside the group). Tab/whatever-the-PS-equivalent-is through your enemies to make sure the others aren't about to pull aggro while your global cooldown is going. If the first mob takes awhile to die, your healer WILL build up aggro on the others. Watch this, tab through and check occasionally, react accordingly (a flash or 2nd part of combo halves healer aggro on mobs that haven't been attacked yet), and you should be good to go.

[nuyu11]

Mark with macro mouse over, in that way your team can put the rest into sleep.
Mark with number 1, 2, 3. If it hard just use "X" on the mob that you are currently attack.

[elemental10]

If you're a PLD and want to stay as one, I would honestly advise you to master switching targets.

Flash will only work if you have a headstart. If your BLM gets the agro, then flash would only get the agro for half second before the BLM gets it back with a Fire.

Therefore, the only way is to combo Rage of Halone on that enemy then flash again. Would fix it but the BLM will probably get agro again if you don't Rage of Halone on it again.

Switch targets. If your dps is killing another mob than you then he's bound to get agro if the fight's long enough. Switch target to it, Rage of Halone combo, then switch back again.

[Estellios]

As was mentioned, you should not be using Riot Blade combos as they do not have the significant enmity boost from combo'ing with Savage Blade. You will typically not need to use Riot Blade at all depending on how well the DPS can take down groups of enemies, but if you do want to use it to recover MP i'd advise to save it for when the group of enemies is almost dead.

[Byonka]

I heard that low level Gladiator/pally tanking is like trying to hold a hot potato. :x Good luck

[monochromicorn]

It shows you are on jenova, I have my alt there. My main is pld, and my alt has a lv 46 (?) Pld and can show and run some stuff with you later when I'm on, if you would like. While advice and tips are always great, it's always good to see it in action.

[Shadotterdan]

Oh one thing I wanted to make sure was doubly clear, especially because I didn't know myself until fairly recently.

Provoke is not in and of itself an enmity generating move, rather it sets your enmity on the mob to just above whoever has hate on it. So it's useful if you need to regain hate after being raised, situations where you are tank swapping a boss, and emergency hate regain

[Anapingofness]

Oh one thing I wanted to make sure was doubly clear, especially because I didn't know myself until fairly recently.

Provoke is not in and of itself an enmity generating move, rather it sets your enmity on the mob to just above whoever has hate on it. So it's useful if you need to regain hate after being raised, situations where you are tank swapping a boss, and emergency hate regain

Correct.
Provoke only gives you +1 to the person with the highest enmity. In short, it will put you on top of the hate list for that mob. This is why you must always follow up a Provoke with a Shield Lob/Tomahawk/Overpower/Flash/Etc - or a combo that generates enmity.
For that reason it is great for tank swapping situations or getting hate back really quickly. However, keep in mind that Provoke has a 40s cooldown and plan accordingly. ^^

Lastly, keep in mind that Flash is centered around you. So if you have mobs that are coming at you and you flash before they're in your little bubble, flash will go off but it will not hit the mobs around you.

p.s. <3 Kaitlen! Happy to be of help! ^^

[PogueX]

hello everyone, good news. I have passed Brayflox's Longstop tanking. We only wiped once cause no one in our group knew about kiting alatar from the green pools. But after that we respawn and beat him and then went on to fight Titan. So now i am pretty good at tanking, using rage of halone works very well in maintaining argo. Thanks for all the advice, it did help. The FF community is very friendly and helpful compared with the WOW or other mmo communities

The only question. Does anyone have an easier way to switch in between targets using the PS4 controller or would it help to also use the keyboard?