Low level tanking

[bounddreamer]

Put up a PF that says "I want to be a better tank, looking for armorer to kit me up." If you're still below 30 I'd personally make you the armor for free because you're a tank who's actually trying. T_T

[Knahli]

Put up a PF that says "I want to be a better tank, looking for armorer to kit me up." If you're still below 30 I'd personally make you the armor for free because you're a tank who's actually trying. T_T

Since we're on the same server, I can pick up on Dreamer's suggestion assuming you really are undergeared at the moment(since I think that was only suggested as a possibility?).

[Istrien]

Since we're on the same server, I can pick up on Dreamer's suggestion assuming you really are undergeared at the moment(since I think that was only suggested as a possibility?).

Hi, sorry for the late reply, I was away for a few days. I've amassed some questing armor since then, but any help is HUGELY appreciated, and I can offer up gil for your troubles, if you're still interested.

Edit: And thank you all for your suggestions thus far! I will take all of this into consideration when I do a dungeon.

[Blitzace]

As someone who has played PLD since 2.0. I remember syncing down to stuff before the flash buff and when i was playing with my BLM Friends on low dungeons? You bet your ass it was hard for me to hold hate. I can only imagine how a new tank must feel when he encounters people that are synced down to max stats in that dungeon that know their stuff.

So just keep at it like people said, Don't worry it will get much easier as you level up and ofcourse get better gear with time!

[Callback]

If you're having trouble, use the priority markers (shift+m or ctrl+m, I forget which is which) to call out target order. That way you can focus your enmity combo on a single mob without the DPS pulling a different one off of you.

do you really get to a 3rd action bar? I manage to jam everything onto 2 cross bars, with my 3rd bar having LB, pull macro (my only macro), potions and random emotes. At 60, you have a total of 32 skills (including cross class), and there are 16 spots a bar.

3? I need 4 bars and that's with no emotes or anything. I have a 5th bar of mounts and stuff on the side.

[Raineer]

I also agree that 2 flashes really should be enough, unless your gear is way downlevel. Flash doesn't do damage, so it's nice to be hitting the mobs to kill them faster.

Get used to tabbing through targets quickly and spreading out your hate combo. I'm one of those tanks that likes to mark at almost every level when appropriate (so some people hate me) - if you get a group that will follow marks you only need to flash once. Bouncing to mobs 2 and 3 with a random hit here and there will be plenty after the opening flash (which is only there to keep hate off the heals).

Unless you have an AoE, kill orders are VASTLY underrated - even by the highest level players. Kill orders allow the number of mobs hitting you to decrease the fastest - which frees up the healer to do more DPS. It also lets the tank act (and gear) more DPS'y instead of all turtlely.

[Sida]

Sadly people's ability to follow the kill order marks is, questionable to put it nicely. And dps selecting their own monster to kill all too common. I've started to wonder if that's their version of provoke wars, that is, to see which one kills theirs faster.

[Astrelle_hyperion]

So many tasks recently in SMA who aren't super pulling, range pull the turtle, but then apparently switch to one of the smaller beasties... In the absence of a kill order, I assume whatever they hit with Shield lob,hawk/unmend is the priority target. Is there another convention to be aware of. I see hate go orange and switch to a new mob, but that means we're buying finishing off a mob....

[Pells]

So many tasks recently in SMA who aren't super pulling, range pull the turtle, but then apparently switch to one of the smaller beasties... In the absence of a kill order, I assume whatever they hit with Shield lob,hawk/unmend is the priority target. Is there another convention to be aware of. I see hate go orange and switch to a new mob, but that means we're buying finishing off a mob....

Tanks need to switch targets to build enmity evenly (or even just see how much enmity they have). Often the first mob targeted is simply because they're closest or the most convenient to bunch the mobs together correctly. The tank should be able to tell who the dps are focused on simply by what's dying fastest.

As a tank, I would expect dps to pick the most dangerous mob and kill it first, without relying on me to tell them which one. It's your job as dps to know what to kill (and when and where) without being told. This is rarely the first mob tagged, and almost never the boss when there are adds. It should be the same target as the other dps, so if you do need the crutch of being told how to do your job, assist them rather than the tank.

In the example you gave for SMA... kill the turtle first as it hits much harder and debuffs the tank, while being only slightly healthier than the other mobs. If the tank lets it turn orange without doing anything about it, they're either not paying proper attention at all, or are too focused on holding one of the weaker mobs from the other dps or healer (and thus still not paying attention).

[Astrelle_hyperion]

Thanks, I main PLD/DRK so I don't get to see what other tanks do too often, was very surprised when I started running end-game dungeons on my DRG instead. I tend to only use kill order marking in low-level roulettes if I see multiple jobless people. Otherwise as you say I assume the dps will engage the more dangerous mob first (or AoE if I've done that style pull), but I also try to "tag" that mob first with the range pull as a helpful hint to them before spread the hate around.

The exact trend I've been seeing was
unmend turtle, unleash hitting the two crawlers, hate combo on one crawler, delirium combo same crawler, hate combo other crawler, DASE first crawler. -- Three different DRKs Seems like some site must be teaching that as a rotation/strategy, but I can't understand why,. All while other dps and I are playing pass the turtle before we notice what the tank is doing and switch to the drawler that the tank apparently wants dead.