I really would like to tank, but

[Austthenoob]

With my focus being more towards new player assistance, I'd say you're doing great with the friendly folk helping out here. As for support, if you ever doubt yourself because of others, don't. Rise to a challenge and be the kind of tank you want to be. Or bail and chill, who needs negativity?

[LimeSamurai]

This is good, however now that you're @50 you'll be seeing a lot more AOE heavy DPS so just a double Flash won't always work. The better your weapon, the less Flash you can get away with, but if DPS start AOEing then Flash like it's your only button.

Of course Ill use Flash or CoS depending on amount of AoE, like the other day where I had a Bard n Dragoon going AoE crazy, all I did was Flash and Riot Blade.

With my focus being more towards new player assistance, I'd say you're doing great with the friendly folk helping out here. As for support, if you ever doubt yourself because of others, don't. Rise to a challenge and be the kind of tank you want to be. Or bail and chill, who needs negativity?

I'm getting over the negativity at this point mostly due to this forum topic where its all encouragement and tips. Also helps that I'm not alone in this kinda situation lol

[Gorlioliolio]

Are you people saying you never finished a pull with savage or halone queued up but that next pull is just too far away for it to be up long enough to run there? Pulling with provoke properly is a skill and as long as dps doesn't ranged something before it gets to me they wont get hit by it during my halone animation lock. If done right it is the best way to secure agro on the first mob coming in or just any single pull, hell half the time I spend the last 10% of a mobs life spamming fast blade so I have better agro ready for next pull and use provoke fully on purpose, in that case if it's a single mob provoke>savage>halone, if multiple provoke>flash>savage>flash, guess what I get to skip a useless fast blade by not throwing a shield.

[JimboTCB]

Are you people saying you never finished a pull with savage or halone queued up but that next pull is just too far away for it to be up long enough to run there? Pulling with provoke properly is a skill and as long as dps doesn't ranged something before it gets to me they wont get hit by it during my halone animation lock. If done right it is the best way to secure agro on the first mob coming in or just any single pull, hell half the time I spend the last 10% of a mobs life spamming fast blade so I have better agro ready for next pull and use provoke fully on purpose, in that case if it's a single mob provoke>savage>halone, if multiple provoke>flash>savage>flash, guess what I get to skip a useless fast blade by not throwing a shield.

The thing is, you're talking about a very specific scenario where you're pulling multiple packs one after the other quickly enough that your combo is still in effect after killing the last mob in the previous pack. For the most part when people talk about pulling, it's in the context of an initial pull on either a boss or a fresh pack of mobs with no existing aggro, and in those cases getting into the habit of using provoke to pull is quite harmful.

Yes, there may be very limited and specific circumstances where pulling with Provoke is the appropriate course of action, but 99.9% of the time it's a derpy way of pulling that wastes a cooldown you might need again soon, and it's a bad habit to get into. I'd bet my ass that the majority of tanks pulling with Provoke are doing so because they don't understand how the skill works as opposed to doing it deliberately because they're taking full advantage of the situation.

[Gorlioliolio]

The thing is, you're talking about a very specific scenario where you're pulling multiple packs one after the other quickly enough that your combo is still in effect after killing the last mob in the previous pack. For the most part when people talk about pulling, it's in the context of an initial pull on either a boss or a fresh pack of mobs with no existing aggro, and in those cases getting into the habit of using provoke to pull is quite harmful.

Fresh pack of mobs with no existing agro? That's exactly what I'm talking about, you finish the pack you are on, spam fast blade to finish off last mob (if you don't suck you should have more than enough agro to do this) and run as fast as you can to the next pull, if you run and fast blade while the mob is low you don't really need provoke, but a lot of packs are spaced out making provoke great.

With a boss, yes you want all the agro you can get right off the bat for those annoying dps that don't give you time so you should lob right? Even if you just fought some mobs and still have a combo half going?

Except that the combo will more than likely be lost if you run up to the boss to use it, forcing you to shield lob, while I agree opening with provoke is the worst possible thing you could do in a coil or trial type fight if you know what you are doing you can open up on damn near any 1 group boss with savage/halone without needing to lob by using provoke. If you are even somewhat intelligent you can see the huge agro difference between this and lob>fast>savage>halone on your meters allowing your dps to open up a second or 2 sooner which they like to do anyways.

That initial pull you're talking about happens 3-4 times in a dungeon, first pull, pull after boss 1 pull after boss 2 and final boss after the stupid cutscene slows down half your group. So basically about 10% of the total dungeon. In other words 99.9% is a stupid number you just pulled out of your arse, go count all the mobs in every dungeon and average it out if you want a real amount but the situation I am talking about happens the vast majority of the time if the tank has a clue what they are doing.

But hey if you need provoke because you are prone to losing agro during a fight anyways then do what you want.

[JimboTCB]

Generally I work on the assumption that DPS are going to be dumb and blow all their cooldowns straight out of the gate, so I do the same. Shield lob, fight or flight, circle, spirits, then start on the usual enmity combo, and keep provoke handy in case I need to pop it just before Halon.

Provoking and doing nothing afterwards is another common mistake, it literally places you one point of enmity ahead of the current target, so any hots or dots will yank aggro right back where it just came from. Better to get your combo primed, wait until the GCD is up, and provoke right before hitting Halone/Butchers. Would be much more useful if provoke actually forced the target to attack you for a few seconds, but it is what it is and you have to act accordingly.

[Wadoka]

Talking about Soldiery alone, as a PLD, if you've already been through Chimera and Hydra...

...just start queueing over and over for Chimera and Hydra.

Very quick, easy fights, and most of the time, at least one person will be a newb, granting the 50-tome bonus.

You could earn, say, 120 soldiery every 15-20 minutes during a good prime time.

Now, it may be dropping off since the number of relic-seekers may be dying, pre-Heavensward, but... it's a suggestion, to get your armor and accessories up to straight i100. Then sands and oils...

[oph]

Like many others already said, Crystal Tower is your best bet for not-so-troublesome ilvl raise from the gear that drops there, spam Syrcus Tower if necessary for drops and soldiery until you have enough ilvl to join World of Darkness, then do the same there or just get enough ilvl to feel comfortable tanking.

From there on once you are adequately geared, join high roulette, the variety of dungeons there will give you some good knowledge of mechanics you'll face later in harder content like primal EX fights and Coils, although they are less forgiving than ST or WoD in a sense that you are the only tank there and must set the pace and manage the pulls so take your sweet time with that, let everyone know in the group that you are still getting the ropes, if you encounter less patient or rushy players willing to not cooperate or starting blaming you, don't let that discourage you, being a tank has its privileges and you are much more valuable to than entitled DPS blabbering about how your losing aggro when he's killing something else other than what you are focusing.

I'll tell you frankly that if a situation like that emerges, it is way more likely than the DPS is kicked from the group than the tank, of course this is an extreme situation.

Once you feel more confident about your ability to pull, control enmity via flash/skill rotation and managing your defensive cooldowns according to the situation, then you can safely go for exp roulette dungeons and venture on primal EX fights.

[Nutz]

I've been unusually lucky to never really receive much abuse while tanking even when I clearly screwed things up. Maybe it's because I get out in front of it and apologize before anyone can say anything, though that does require that you know the encounter well enough to recognize your mistake immediately.

Right now a large portion of the player base is very well geared. It can be good or bad, depending largely on the individual players. Sometimes it just means things will go very smoothly (though you might have to fight for enmity) and other times DPS will practically commit suicide desperately trying to keep a mob's attention for no discernible reason.

Gear really does help a lot. Essentially, all things being equal, a superbly geared tank needs to do relatively little to keep the attention of several mobs/ a boss, while a poorly geared tank will be cycling their primary enmity combo repeatedly just to stay ahead of the DPS on single targets and regularly losing hold of targets in an aoe situation. While unfortunate, try to see this as helpful. Being well undergeared compared to your party means you have to play better to stay afloat. It's a sort of trial by fire to tanking. Once your gear is better everything will seem so easy.

To get your gear better, I'd recommend a lot of Syrcus Tower (I'd say World of Darkness, but since you didn't mention it in your OP I'll assume you don't have access just yet). It's very easy to tank in there when needed, though the other 2 tanks will almost certainly do all the heavy lifting, whether you want them to or not. Once World of Darkness is open to you spend a decent amount of time in there and your ilevel will be up to at least 100 in no time, probably higher (these instances provide a nice amount of soldiery tomes, few poetic tomes, and no jewelry drops so you'll probably want to get those form tomes or expert dungeons).

[Greven]

I think most has been already said, tanking has its advantages and if it's what you want hang in there! You may be just near the end of the worst part