Stop telling Tanks not to use provoke there is a place to use it when pulling mobs.

[Gaddes]

Personally I feel that Provoke should always be saved as a backup. Shield lob / Tomahawk are more than sufficient for initial pulls. Yeah you have marginal extra distance, but why is that distance so important to you? I've never had an issue with grabbing a mob that way. It's best to have a provoke ready to go, especially if you're doing large / boss pulls where there's the danger that someone will steal hate from you... using it at the start creates an unnecessary risk since it's immediately on cooldown. Say for example you voke-pull bahamut in T13, and shortly after a blm nukes it and grabs hate. Now you're going to be ping-ponging hate trying to grab it back, instead of having a voke all ready to go to pluck it back easily.

[Rocond]

The newbie tank needs the basics, not a rundown of the situations in which he may want to use Provoke instead of Shield Lob.

Knowing how provoke works is hardly a rundown of situations. If a new tank really wanted advice on provoke, it would be to explain how it works and then let them decide how they want to use it. If they then wanted a more detailed explanation on whether or not they should pull with it, you would explain to them the advantages and disadvantages and how to overcome them. You wouldn't just say don't do it. That's bad advice. You should know why you should or shouldn't do something.

[WellFooled]

That would be horrible advice. Good advice would be to make sure they understand how the ability works, not just some blanket statement of don't use it for pulling. I pull with it all the time to gather up trash and i'm pretty sure I got a handle on tanking in this game.

You're absolutely right. I was paraphrasing the hypothetical conversation. When teaching someone it is obviously a good idea to explain the why behind what you're telling them.

[Tisharu]

Provoke does nothing if others haven't put some enmity on the mob that you are provoking, it's better to use shield lob or tomahawk etc for pulling mobs. because they give enmity. Yup it has a nice range but it also has longer cooldown, you might need it when there's a melee dps surpassing your enmity when they are focusing on just one mob, but then again, it can also be easily prevented without provoke.

That's not true, provoke have a further distance then Shield Lob or Tomahawk. It is also very useful getting mob out of a tight cornor spot where usually Shield Lob and Tomahawk cannot. There are multiple times where provoke follow by a shield lob does the job nicely. I tend to do this a lot pulling mob far away, provoke will have them run to me and then a Shield Lob or Tomahawk does the job nicely.

It is only not useful only if you don't follow it up by another skills.

[AriaEnia]

You are correct AriaEnia but there is a place to use it as long has the skill and it's limitations is understood. But to just say don't use provoke is incorrect.

Yeah as long as the groups know what are they doing, provoke is really good to use frequently.

[Saccharin]

It also has a greater range than shield lob

I've a naughty habit of using it to pull because it has longer range rather than moving mobs and upsetting melée but Shield Lob needs to have the range extended.

[Shurrikhan]

Provoke does nothing if others haven't put some enmity on the mob that you are provoking, it's better to use shield lob or tomahawk etc for pulling mobs. because they give enmity. Yup it has a nice range but it also has longer cooldown, you might need it when there's a melee dps surpassing your enmity when they are focusing on just one mob, but then again, it can also be easily prevented without provoke.

I believe it does the same amount as any other action (a flat value [was around 70 at level 50 iirc, so probably a little more than double that now] modifiable by enmity stance)? It may be the one exception to that enmity-per-action (even if no damage/healing dealt) rule though. If you use Provoke and a pop CD while in tank stance, your party casting Eye for an Eye or Regen (or, Goad, Aetherial Manipulation, Warden's Paeon, etc.) on you won't steal threat. The first tick of said Regen almost certainly will though.

[Zazriel]

I noticed in duty finder it always starts with a question like why are you pulling withe Voke? When it's hasn't had any impact on the run like it's a opportunity to troll by presenting a question when they already know the answer. It's like when the game launched and people kept telling WHM not to use Medical 2, regen, or cure 3 because of emnity.

[Arrius]

I usually save it for more tighter moments. I do not trust roulette DPS enough to keep their fingers still until I rounded up everything,
a Shield Lob saves me the time to grab the monster again when the Bard decides to drop their dots on the one I lobbed at.

[Dotsusama]

A good reason to pull with provoke, too, is that it's oGCD. There are some times where if I'm in motion for shield lob my GCD isn't up in time for me to actually gain thread on the pull I just alerted, and thus when the DPS goes "IT'S RED, IT NEEDS TO BE DEAD" or the healer decides to do... anything at all. Then *I* am the one chasing the pull.

(And if you don't think this happens often enough, you have not had the kind of rowdy groups I've met.)

No one's ever told me not to use Provoke, though. Ever.