Is this common? It's getting annoying...

[h0tNstilettos]

So I recently started tanking. Been mostly DPS since beta, and dabbled in healing a moment at one point.

When I'm new to tanking a dungeon I like to make sure the party knows that, but for some reason when I says this, one of the DPS feels the need to be the tank and pull. I've never noticed this much from a DPS standpoint as I've only come across this maybe once or twice since beta. This has happened in half of the duties I've said I was new at tanking. Here are just a few examples:

In Halatali one of the DPS decides to pull in one of the large rooms with bomb circling it and other mobs. When this happened I just stood there and watched, because if you're going to pull I'm not going to help you. Simple as that. With kiting they were able to beat the two enemies. Afterwards I said, "Don't pull please. I'm the tank."

In the lv15 guildhest, Basic Training: Enemy Strongholds, the rogue kept going ahead and pulling mobs. We get to toad boss at end and he does a ranged attack pulling the toad as though he were a tank with Tomahawk or Shield Lob and then going all out on it. I had a heck of a time pulling aggro off of him. I had provoke, but didn't need it, but almost did. Provoke would of done it faster, but the enemy wasn't dealing much damage even to DPS being that it's a weaker low level guildhest enemy.

There was another case in Copperbell Mines where I had to say "Don't pull please, I'm tank, lol"

It should also be noted that none of the people that were pulling were new to the game. The ones that were new never did this. I get tired of these hotshot DPS that think they'll be the tank. If you want to be a tank, play a tank role. It's like saying you're new to tanking makes them think they're the tank.

[Eye_Gore]

Its called gotta-go-itis. Welcome to our world.

[Whiteroom]

If they really want to tank. I let them.

[gorezilla1]

If they really want to tank. I let them.

Yup. I'm not suggesting you be a dick, but if dps want to pull instead of waiting for you, grab some popcorn. Also, ask you healer not to heal them so the healer doesn't pull. I play most of the classes but I'll never proactively try to tank as a dps. It might pull threat as a blm from time to time. At that point, I stop dps (I never remember to use quelling). Anywho, just let them die.

[KikoriL]

Part of it is because they know they can handle it. In both of the well described examples, the early puller was able to live through it.
It's not a kind practice by any means, but it's because they know (even if they 'know' wrong) that it can work out.
It's sadly more common than it should be.

[h0tNstilettos]

UPDATE: So I think I'm done tanking after having nothing but bad experiences.

I just went to do my daily and got Thousand Maws of Toto-Rok. I mentioned it was my first time tanking it. The rogue kept running ahead and pulling. So I made a comment asking him to stay behind me so he doesn't accidentally pull. Then right after that comment for the first time, the thaumaturge attacks the group of mobs pulling them. So I asked him not to attack the mobs until after the tank pulls. So later on on another part the group runs ahead of me and the thaumaturge pulls again. So I left the duty and had a 30 minute lockout. Could of sworn we were in there over 15 minutes, but I guess not. I wasn't going to deal with that, as it was clearly intentional, and I was nothing but nice. I even greeted party when we started with "Hello ^_^" and let them know it was my furst time tanking it.

It's just sad that I can't do something I really enjoy. I was almost in tears I was so upset. Just killed my mood. I don't even want to do my daily now and don't even think I have time before the 3 am reset.

[tocsin]

Unfortunately, this is fairly common, at least with a lot of low level dungeons. One thing that you may consider, at least in my experience while leveling, is that healing in general if completely overpowered at that level, to be able to deal with potential issues like this. It may be a good time getting practice in pulling a bit faster, and more fluidly. at level 50, speed pulling is all people do, so starting practicing early is amazing.

My unofficial goal in a dungeon is to make sure that the healer at no point ever feels bored while running through the dungeon. when I see a SCH especially, I will start the dungeon with saying "we're gonna have some fun, heals!" in party chat, and then after the initial buffs, I'm off pulling 1-2 groups like no tomorrow, and pulling the next groups before the last mobs die. It earns the healers commendation almost every time.

I'm 95% sure that if you are pulling at a respectable speed, the dps aren't running in front of you either. they are too busy killing the last mobs you hit, while you are running for the next set.

Its great to be the one setting the pace, but the pace has to be set at the pace that is optimal for what the group can handle. if you go too fast, you wipe. you go too slow, the dps get bored and start pulling for you. Determining what a group can handle is the other half of the job.

[DaisukeXIII]

I'm 95% sure that if you are pulling at a respectable speed, the dps aren't running in front of you either. they are too busy killing the last mobs you hit, while you are running for the next set.

Its great to be the one setting the pace, but the pace has to be set at the pace that is optimal for what the group can handle. if you go too fast, you wipe. you go too slow, the dps get bored and start pulling for you. Determining what a group can handle is the other half of the job.

I only logged in to give you a like. Well said, if the tank is a slowpoke of course the dps will pull even if the tank is new. And determining what the Group can handle is the most importat thing while doing dungeons.

[elemental10]

You'd be surprised as how many DPS do that. Even myself sometimes but a lot of it comes from the Tank not Flashing or Overpower, resulting in immediate healer agro once the heal starts coming. So if you can't handle the agro, I'd rather let myself die as a DPS than the healer dies because of the tank's mistakes.


More you can see sometimes is that a lot of DPS tends to hover around to see which target you're attacking and then attack those. If you pull using tomahawk, they're going to assume that's the one you're going to attack. MARKING is the solution for this problem, most of the time. Most DPS will respect you for marking than any other thing actually.

More than any other time is because they want to do it fast. When you tank, the group will always expect you as the tank to lead first. That comes with the expectation that you will pull once you see a group. But when you sort of say... scan the area for more than 10 solid seconds, the DPS would get restless and start to pull. Contrary to popular belief, dungeons in FFXIV has a lot of similarities between each other, so you shouldn't really sit there and wait too long.

If these don't really make you see why they're pulling target's off of you, or make the initial pull; I'll give you a latest example of me being a 33 BRD with a 34 synced WAR in Bray NM. First thing I notice is the tank doesn't mark, so i'll assume he knows how to keep agro. Turns he can't and mobs start swarming all over the healer. He panics but starts to Overpower as the initial start, SOMETIMES. Fortunately, I'm a BRD so I always stay beside the healer if the Tank starts to go wonky again. If the healer agros something, I'll immediately try to pull it to me (because you'd be surprised how many tanks actually don't care about us DPS). Then, he started to mark things (looks like he's learning). So, easier agro management and I was glad to actually have something to focus on instead of waiting for the inevitable healer agro.

From that example, marking just makes things right. If you're experiencing more DPS pull than half the time, I seriously suggest you learn how to mass-agro a group (spam Overpower/Flash at least 3 times) and better positioning. This will solve most of the "early-pullers" or "agro steal" problems.

Good luck.

[h0tNstilettos]

snip

I don't think you read the topic. No one is pulling off of me. They are pulling before I even do the initial pull. And I do mark targets. I open with tamahwak, then follow up with 2 overpowers, or a flash and overpower, or 2 flashes, depends on the mobs and whether I think I can get them all in the cone of overpower. I face them away from party and maintain aggro on each of them. On the very rare case one gets away I do tamahawk, and provoke only if tamahawk isn't enough. Most of the time I never need to do this.