Question for Tanks.

[DAYvonte]

Hi, I just wanted to ask Tank mains out there how is it like?

In most games I played I play a healer because the way I think is:

Dps - Long queue times
Healers - Short queue times
Tanks - Short queue times but hard to play

But it seems like now at least for me the healer queues has gotten longer so I was thinking to start leveling a DRK because it started at 30 and tanking while leveling doesn't seem that hard. I want to know how hard tanking in endgame content is. Is it hard to learn? Like when to use cd's and other mechanics. Because as a healer its just heal anyone who isn't full health and dps if you can. (also for anyone who plays dps also how bad are dps queues?)

[Martin_Arcainess]

Hiya \o
Tanking can be quite easy in dungeons it's all about holding Aggro, well in any content really lol but that is the main job of tanks.

In dungeons, Def CD's aint really a must to have, you can go through out all the dungeon and not pop a single one unless the group wants you to do a big pull if you do end up doing a big pull just make sure your geared for it ok and don't pop all your CD's at once! The most easiest job to pick up tanking in is PLD, Physical Defence wise he's quite sturdy, simple and easy to play and has quite a few good CD's.

Holding Aggro is they key thing for a Tank to do, for AOE PLD's Have Flash, WAR has Overpower and DRK has unleash. Spaming these once or even twice during pulls should help keep the aggro on you but if you notice you have a BLM or SMN who like to do AOE damage best to throw in a few more Flash/Overpower/Unleash etc.

Marking, If you mark the mobs killer order it makes the whole run got a whole lot easier as the DPS know which mob to focus on and for you to keep aggro on.

Put your Bonus stats into STR or VIT. Some people will say put your bonus stats into VIT but I prefer STR, reason beining is that the extra STR will help you hold Aggro more easier and if your a WAR can restore more HP with your bloodbath/ innerbeast etc attacks.

That's the basic of it if you choose a Tank Class I can give you some more tips hints on it.

[DAYvonte]

Any tips for DRK?

[Jpec07]

Any tips for DRK?

Hi!

DRK is all about MP management, though it doesn't really become a problem until you get Dark Arts at 45 (Dark Arts amplifies certain abilities and makes them more useful).

If you want to be a really good tank, you'll get in the habit of marking your targets. I have a few macros that I use, depending on how many mobs I'm facing, which I adapted from the first reply here. I've actually got two whole action bars that are central to my UI that have all the markers available, since the interface can be finicky sometimes.

But yeah, everything is about keeping aggro. For the first few runs, and as you're leveling (if you're not confident), let people know that you're a new DRK, so if the mobs decide they look tastier, you'll do your best to get them back.

[Rufalus]

When talking role difficulty I think healer is the hardest. They can be so busy juggling a lot of things at once. Tank can sometimes be the easiest, especially for certain bosses where they can just stand in one place while all the dps and heals run around.

Regarding tank enmity, you need provoke from gladiator on your bar to grab enemy that attacking another party member. At endgame full party encounters, you can use it to pull a boss off the other tank (tank swap mechanic). All 3 tanks need provoke just like all 3 healers use cleric stance.

[LionKing]

I have had my DRK lv up to 38, so I could be wrong on something but so far, my experience with DRK are, speaking from a long period tanking:

1/Similar tanking style with Paladin for group tanking as in, spamming Unleash ( in case of Pal: Flash) and use Syphon Strike combo to regenerate MP (much like Riot Blade combo with Paladin)
2/ Use Blood Price as soon as they are off cool down when tanking to regenerate more MP.

And I found myself having no problem holding hate

[Litegrace]

Any tips for DRK?

The tips I would give you:

1) Keep Darkside up 100% of the time if possible. It's a direct dps increase and gives you access to a bunch of other abilities.

2) Don't be afraid to spam Unleash, especially if you need AOE enmity generation. Holding aggro gets easier and easier as you level DRK up, and enmity generation is one of DRK's strong points.

3) Syphon Strike and Blood Price are going to be your main tools for regaining MP, use them as often as you can.

4) I would actually put all your points into VIT starting out, as you will need to learn to tank and it gives you more room for error at the start. Once you hit 50 or 60, you can swap your points to STR if you feel comfortable doing so. You will eventually want all of your points into STR, but there's no hurry while you are still learning.

I won't go in to too much detail here, just some basic tips to get you started

[Faeon]

The tips I would give you:

1) Keep Darkside up 100% of the time if possible. It's a direct dps increase and gives you access to a bunch of other abilities.

2) Don't be afraid to spam Unleash, especially if you need AOE enmity generation. Holding aggro gets easier and easier as you level DRK up, and enmity generation is one of DRK's strong points.

3) Syphon Strike and Blood Price are going to be your main tools for regaining MP, use them as often as you can.

4) I would actually put all your points into VIT starting out, as you will need to learn to tank and it gives you more room for error at the start. Once you hit 50 or 60, you can swap your points to STR if you feel comfortable doing so. You will eventually want all of your points into STR, but there's no hurry while you are still learning.

I won't go in to too much detail here, just some basic tips to get you started

5) Learn your combo's its important don't just spam a single ability when it has a combo attached to it. I have come across this very often when I was leveling my alt dps. More often tanks are not using rotations correctly. Maybe this is because they just fate leveled and never really learnt to play there job in dungeons etc.

[Kumori_Kumo]

The nice thing about tanking is that it's hard to design a fight where the tank has to tank something and then also do some other extraneous thing. So for the most part, once you get over Tanxiety™ and embrace the responsibility that comes with it, it's mostly just standing there, watching out for the enemy's attack bar, using cooldowns in response, and moving when you need to. Tank combos are ridiculously easy to memorize by design, so that you can dedicate your free time to looking out for very time-sensitive things like that. Overall it can be intense, but it's not incredibly complex.

[SpiritMuse]

I'm leveling a DRK myself and coming up on level 50 I was wondering if tanking HW dungeons is more difficult than tanking the lower levels.