Is this a common thing for tanks to do?

[Adire]

Doing large pulls that is, and missing aoe aggro on some mobs.

The other day while I was healing, a tank was running and missed several mobs with flash. While running, their HP was getting low, so obviously I had to toss a heal on them.

When I did, the mobs doubled back for me and got in enough hits to interrupt my casts a few times, and they dropped us both to low health.

When the tank suddenly got aggro on them after several seconds, the added strength of the mobs that were attacking me finished him off while I was trying to heal myself because one more round of attacks would have killed me, but the tank was further away from dying from the mobs attacking him. He also got vulnerability up on himself from the vines (AK HM).

He raged at me as if it was my fault we died.

Why do some tanks not think it a good idea to ensure every mob they're pulling has been hit, even if it means stopping for a second before continuing to the next group? I never have this problem when tanks do that....a tank stopping for a second may take a few more hits for couple of seconds, but at least then I can heal them if necessary.

[Eye_Gore]

Blame the "stop wasting my time" crowd, all dungeons must be completed in 15 minutes or less. Don't know what kind of tank you had, but when I go in as PLD I'll usually round up mobs with shield lobs, once gathered I'll hit flash maybe twice then start in on rotation. Though I'll get people sometimes start attacking the first group right where I hit them and of course they pull aggro so I have to go back, seem to happen alot in Fractual in the first two rooms.

[Freyyy]

The tank you got was just bad. You don't even need to stop for a second to properly pull multiple mobs, generally you just run through everything and use your AoE threat move (Flash, Unleash, Overpower) to make sure everything is on you when you stop moving and the healer starts healing you. Also, he shouldn't take that much damage while pulling. Did you put a Stoneskin/Adlo/Nocturnal before he starts pulling on him ? If not, you should, it helps a lot (as an AST you can even put a Nocturnal Field and switch to Diurnal before the tank pulls). Generally when doing these kind of mass pulls the tank wants to go as fast as possible to make it so that when he stops and starts fighting, he took as little damage as possible to ease the healer's life. It's not the other way around. Stopping for a second makes him take more damage.

[Adire]

snip

Yes, I did. He just ate damage fast enough while running forward that he lost the mitigation I put on him, possibly due to the vines increasing the damage he was taking from the mobs while running.

The damage from stopping if necessary to hit everything is indeed a little higher, but I find that far better as a healer and less stressful than a tank who pulls recklessly and continues running without building aggro on some mobs while their health dwindles from the occasional attack of mobs chasing them. That's what mostly happened in this situation, by the end of the vine hallway, he was already lower than half health and had mobs coming from the end of the room that he pulled with a shield lob to one of the mobs and had stopped, so the mobs chasing him were all about to hit as well.

My first heal to him pulled several of them to me, some of the ones chasing him and the ones coming from the end of the room, and he was slow to get them off. If he had ensured he had aggro on the ones chasing him and ran forward to flash the ones heading into the hall before running back, I would have been able to safely heal him without pulling aggro.

But yeah, when I tank I'm usually able to get aggro without stopping. If I do need to stop for a second to hit everything with AoE, I do though. I notice less frantic healing during the running and during the stopping spot too really. Healers being able to safely top you off (or keep you alive during running) in preparation for the big damage increase when you finally end the pull seems to be the better thing to do in my experience. If you happen to need healing during running (as in this case for ensuring the tank would survive the sudden increase in damage once stopped) and you didn't bother getting aggro on everything, you're in for a bigger headache than you would be if you stopped if needed but let the healer heal safely.

Bad pulling/tanking on his part all around in any case though.

[Freyyy]

snip

In AKHM it's a bit special yeah with the vines. The tank should be aware of it and dodge them, if he gets the vulnerability debuff he should immediatly stop, build aggro, let the healer top him off/dispell before going any further.

Sometimes if I see that I take too much damage while pulling, I pop a big CD (Shadow Wall, Vengeance) early before stopping. It works everytime.

[Yaichiro]

On the other hand I don't understand why you would heal a tank running to next mob or in some cases a "smart" healer throwing regen while the tank is mobbing. You will never save him with that single heal but you will direct mobs to you and then getting yourself or the tank killed.

[Brian_]

It's both your fault and the tank's fault. Without more details, it's hard to say who is more at fault.

Large pulls are a common thing in dungeons. Short of groups that are very under-geared, most will prefer to speed-run dungeons.

As a healer, you should not be healing the tank until after the group and snap aggro. If the tank can't stay alive until then, it's his issue.

As a tank, he should not be taking an excessive amount of damage while pulling. If it's a PLD or DRK, they can sprint to reduce damage while pulling. If it's a PLD or DRK, they can pop their immunity to give the healer a safety window.

The reason why tanks don't repeatedly stop to generate aggro on individual packs before running to the next is it's inefficient. It wastes time and it wastes resources. A WAR wants to overpower / steel cyclone the whole group to get the most out of their TP. A PLD wants to CoS / Flash a whole group to get their most of their CD / MP. A DRK wants to get the most out of their Blood Price, Unleash, and Abyssal Drain. All tanks want to pop their defensive CDs after the group up to get the most out of the mitigation. DPS wants a full group up to get the most damage out of their CDs and TP / MP.

[Seku]

Stand next to the tank during the pull if you're going to pop a cure that way when their spamming w/e their aoe hate move is they'll hit the mobs that come after you. When hate is settled move back into normal position.

It's quite normal to get suck party members in DF though.

[Dererk]

Stand next to the tank during the pull if you're going to pop a cure that way when their spamming w/e their aoe hate move is they'll hit the mobs that come after you. When hate is settled move back into normal position.

It's quite normal to get suck party members in DF though.

^This so much I can not explain how annoying and awfull it is when this happens as a tank I have to stop what ever I'm doing and go get these mobs back. Even if it's just one or 2 its annoying because then I'm leaving my back open when I have to go and get them. I'm fine if there's just range dps in the party but if there's a melee dps in the party too this can be an annoyance to them too because then their rotation can be messed up too.

[Freyyy]

Oh yeah that's pretty important too. If for whatever reason you get the aggro (it can happen even with the best tank in the world), please go hug your tank, it will help immensely.