Low level tanking

[Galgarion]

Please no. There is never any reason to floor your mana by spamming flash.


Oh wait…. Sarcasm…… I need a drink

Sure there is. It's called pugging. If you're going to level a gladiator via group finder, you're going to need to overcompensate for players who either don't follow a kill order, assist the tank, or like to spam hard hitting aoes without watching their threat bar. Alternating targets with the ROH combo after only two flashes in content where you don't have access to shield oath is a dice roll. Flash spam is easier and more reliable.

[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.

[AlexiIvaniskavich]

......
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.

I was just referring to class/job specific buttons. I have an entire bar set up just for emotes.... and dances, many dances.

Sure there is. It's called pugging. If you're going to level a gladiator via group finder, you're going to need to overcompensate for players who either don't follow a kill order, assist the tank, or like to spam hard hitting aoes without watching their threat bar. Alternating targets with the ROH combo after only two flashes in content where you don't have access to shield oath is a dice roll. Flash spam is easier and more reliable.

While I agree that PUG’s are a mass potential for a mess…..spamming flash until mana depletion is silly. Lob > Flash > Flash > RoH (rotating if necessary) > Flash > RoH> RoH……..

Maybe mix in another flash after you have quit rotating your target as much, but spamming flash alone is a ridiculous method

[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.

[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.

[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....

[Jim_Berry]

Gladiator have dificulty holding agroo from ppl on early levels, there is not much you can do until you get shieldOat, then it becomes better. For now try to mix vit/str gear like 3vit an 2 str on accesories an that can help a bit, another thing you can do is mark the mobs so the dps focus on the mob you attacking, so far I think thats about it until you become PLD.
also flash as much as you can, like most of the time.
good luck

I was about to post this, but then I'm reminded of the Leveling Roulette I did earlier as my PLD in Brayflox Normal. I was marking mobs, but people STILL were doing their own thing. I paused to ask if they can focus the marked mobs, but the MCH said if I can't hold hate, I suck. I asked him if a few times if he has a tank leveled, but he would never answer it. He'd still go on about how I keep losing a mob.

Things got real when he took it upon himself to pull. Honestly, he was fine with soloing a mob, but he got cocky and pulled multiple, then blamed me for his death. I said, "It's not my fault. I flashed and Lobbed. You should have popped a health potion." He then blamed the healer, who told him "we have a tank for a reason". After that, things were quiet.

[Jim_Berry]

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.

I use 4 bars:

Bar 8 (which is Hold L2 then Hold R2 or Hold R2 then Hold L2) have my defense buffs, such as Rampart, Foresight, Bulwark, etc.

Bar 1 is my main bar, and if for my Rage of Halone setup.
Bar 2 is my Goring Blade bar.
Bar 4 is my Royal Authority bar.

[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).