Post Your Tanking Horror Stories!

[Veralidaine]

Just going to share one I've already posted in the dungeon stories thread:

So, let me preface this to say, this morning I was NOT in a hurry. I had sufficient time before I had to get ready for work to do one dungeon, which happened to be brayflox as I just started leveling DRK. I have full cavalry gear from when I leveled WAR, and I know what I'm doing.


Basically, we zoned in, said hi, the healer had protected all of us but the newbie watching cutscenes. I run forward a few feet, making sure healers ready, pop my buff and grab the first two mobs. This goes smoothly, but I notice I didn't get a single heal and am around half health for next pull. Healer isn't topping me off, just sits there, so I pop a defensive cd and grab the next group of two. I get no heals, and promptly die. Res, take remaining add off the dps. Wait for other dps to run back, and another protect. No protect, and healer pulls next group. Allmywat.jpg. I'm not doing this. I run back to entrance and watch healer die, dps by my side. Here's a screenshot of ensuing conversation.





Oh, did I mention the healer was level 60? Not new by any means, should know by that level that you're supposed to heal the tank.

We kicked, got another healer, and got thru the dungeon.

[Sida]

That said, there has been a sudden surplus of new subs into the game recently, and most of them don't have a clue how to do their jobs or what any of the boss mechanics are. If you see that new player bonus notification come up, beware, especially if the new player is a Tank or healer (you can usually tell based on who is watching the whole cut scene).

I've found good use for that video watching time is to line out few key tactics (at least those that can fail miserably if handled wrong) in he party chat in the meanwhile. Maybe the new ones have checked it beforehand, maybe not, but either way it doesn't hurt and you'll wait them to exit the video anyway.

[Galgarion]

I'm running the main story scenario on an alt. Got him to 50, and I'm in Eastern Thanalan doing some breadcrumb quests when a fate pops up next to me. I've already initiated my quest, and while I'm chopping up my enemies I notice this little Black Mage trying to solo the fate. It isn't going well. I've got my enemies well in hand, but then I think: "F*** it. I'll step in. I'll be her hero. It's what I do." So I level synced to the fate (level 15). And I step in and start overpowering like the boss level white tiger that I am.

I haven't finished off the enemies from my quest yet. "Ha, I'll get to you monkeys in a minute," I think confidently to myself. I'm a warrior. Death is what I deal. That's how cool I am.

When I level synced to 15, I shed about 7,000 hit points and lost a lot of defense. I now have about 300 hit points. The other guys are still level 50 mobs. They crunched me in one hit and the black mage died anyway.

Don't ever be a hero, boys.

[Anienai]

Don't ever be a hero, boys.

“A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once.”

[IzVale]

Stone Vigil. I had run this dungeon a few times as tank before and it went well. No complaints either. But not this time.
The healer was a lvl 50 WHM. Didn't work with regen - because someone had said so. Oh, okay.
The WHM did dps tho, which was fine, if it wasn't for my HP dropping lower and lower and lower. At that time I had pushed every DEF button I had - and we still wiped. Yah, it was interesting.
So, this repeated a few times and when I told him to stop doing dps, since I didn't feel secure with him at all, another groupmember said I just should f*ck the hell off and - what a suprise - they let me die and kicked me afterwards. Thank you.

I feel there are more and more WoW-Mentalities coming to this game and it kind of scares me O_O

[Februs]

Not so much a "horror story" as it is a face palm.

I got Quarn HM for my roulette late last night (technically early morning). I rolled as Pld. I popped Shield Oath just before the Q went through (cuz I clearly was not thinking). The actual status indicator came up just as Quarn loaded. I saw it, and my fatigued brain said, "Shield Oath is up." The healer buffs, and I pull without so much as hesitating.

First pull goes all the way from entrance to the locked door. I tank everything. I start with HG, followed by Sentinel when HG expires. The pull goes well. Hp does not drop below 50% and I keep aggro on everything. By the time Sentinel wore off, there was only three adds left, so I did not bother with another buff ... and my Hp started to dip. It wasn't a lot, but for three adds it felt like more than normal. Regardless, I didn't drop below 50%, so I just assumed the healer was Dps'ing and I ran with it.

Second pull, I get the 3 adds by the door, the Blm opens the next door, and I pull everything in the trap room. Sentinel and HG are down (obviously), so I open up with weaker CD's. I have Fracture and Convo up, and I'm taking WAY more dmg than normal. My Hp is still well above 50%, but I notice that the healer is spam healing. Given that I have Convo up, I thought this was very odd ... and then I suddenly lose aggro on a target, and it clicks. Shield Oath.

I check, and sure enough, it's not up. Commence FLASH DANCE AND EMERGENCY BUFF PROCEDURES!!

I grab aggro on everything again, and pop another couple of CD's (Awareness +Bulwark) on top of Fracture to help make up the difference in dmg. We clear the mob. No deaths, and I kept aggro. Even the Healer's Mp pool came out okay, but the rest of the party is looking at me like I grew a second head. Thankfully, they were a very understanding group. Moral of the story is that level sync sucks, and it's probably not a good idea to do your roulette's at 3 AM.

[LordLucavi]

Long ago, when ST was new, I decided to level PLD. I'd run it many times on DRG, and since it was a leveling dungeon and everyone was synced but me, I figured everyone knew not to spread out in the first room. Nope, had a bard run out of the hallway on the first pull and aggro pretty much everything. Me, trying to be a good pld, pop CD's and Flash everything up. Tough going, but the healer is doing a fantastic job of keeping me up. We get the pack down to a couple mobs left, and the bard runs off and aggros the back section of the room and we wipe. He does this twice before the vote abandon pops up.

While leveling DRK, I managed to get DD with 3 new people. No problem, I was synced down, they were both at minimum level. I explain about the Crystal Veil buff for the first third of the dungeon. The blm doesn't seem to understand that "stay in the purple light or take 1000 damage when the eye flies by" means STAY IN THE LIGHT. She eats dirt in the second pull (I used the first 2 mobs, the hippocerf things, to gauge the party strength) since she, for some reason, refused to stay in the light. Whm gets her up, and she runs back out of the light and eats dirt again. WHM leaves her down, we kill the pack. Instead of warping back and just running up, she asks for raise. WHM obliges, and I explain again about the crystal veil buff. Rest of that part goes smooth and even clear the Eye just fine.

We get to the second part, where the cliffs are. I explain that they need to stay near the arch to avoid aggroing the frogs and knocking us off into more mobs. I pull, keep my back to where the frogs come up from. It's going well until for some reason, the blm runs behind me and aggros both frogs, which of course ends up knocking her off into the lower part. She brings the mobs back and we wipe. We get back, I mark an A marker and just tell the party to stay there. Ended up working quite nicely, so now anytime I get DD in roulette with new folks, I use the marker to avoid frustration.

[Joe_Schmoe]

After not tanking dungeons in a while I made the mistake of thinking that I wouldn't have any problems at all tanking Dzemael Darkhold after already running it once as a DPS, with a tank that seemingly knew the dungeon like the back of his hand. Boy was I wrong! I think I died 5 or 6 times in that place, with the dragoon in the group not even dying once. :O As kind of a backhanded compliment I got free gear after the final boss, since everyone else just left in a hurry and didn't even bother rolling. So I think from here on out I'm only tanking for my FC, who might be more understanding than the random strangers who (presumably) say we all had to start somewhere,.......... just as long as it's not with them.

P.S. And I did tell them at the start of the dungeon that I had only been there once as a DPS and noone left, so there's that as well.

[Galgarion]

After not tanking dungeons in a while I made the mistake of thinking that I wouldn't have any problems at all tanking Dzemael Darkhold after already running it once as a DPS, with a tank that seemingly knew the dungeon like the back of his hand. Boy was I wrong! I think I died 5 or 6 times in that place, with the dragoon in the group not even dying once. :O As kind of a backhanded compliment I got free gear after the final boss, since everyone else just left in a hurry and didn't even bother rolling. So I think from here on out I'm only tanking for my FC, who might be more understanding than the random strangers who (presumably) say we all had to start somewhere,.......... just as long as it's not with them.

P.S. And I did tell them at the start of the dungeon that I had only been there once as a DPS and noone left, so there's that as well.

Don't let it bum you out, Joe. Duty finder groups are what's known as "human sacrifices." If you master the dungeon quickly and get great results, well hell, that's great! If not, then so what? It's a duty finder group. They'll take what they're given, and they'll like it! What're they gonna do about it, not give you any commendations? Noooooo, the humanity!

[Sida]

I ran AV many times recently as I leveled all three tank classes through it. Some runs were great, some I was dying a lot for no reason. One of these with our FC healer (not his main, thankfully) in a tow. After me dying in a pull that had caused no trouble with some other groups, he apologises in FC chat and tells his tanks always keep dying there, even if he pre-regen and chain casts Cure, and Cure II when free cure procs. I asked him had it come to his mind, maybe, use Cur II when the incoming damage exceeds the healing of cure I. His answer, "no, I thought there was some other tool for that I was unaware of". Sigh, and it didn't even click on me back then that yes, he just had admitted he pre-regens. Noticed it on next pull and yelled at him of it. His answer "what, it's not good idea? Oh, after about 0.5 second of thinking, it's propably not wise."

What I'm saying is, if you keep dying a lot it might be bad pulls, ie tank trouble. It might also be healer who hasn't figured out the extent of their toolkit available and how to use it efficiently.