The Mentoring Requirements... *Rant Style*

[Odett]

Tank fundamentals: Keeping aggro on all enemies, position them away from your team to avoid AoEs and AoE melee attacks bosses tend to have, look at your team's classes,(I have a pugilist, I need to make sure they can get their attacks in so I must have the enemies in a position to attack efficiently), Provoking(Although technically not a "fundamental" because that is learned at lv22, you would already need to know how to tank then but Provoke is a must-know), watching your root source of enmity(TP/MP you need that to keep attacking to keep aggro), checking your team's gear(gotta know what gear they have before you do things to make decisions in the long run), knowing your enmity attacks like Skull Sunder or Savage Blade and how they work(This includes Flash range), cycling through enemies to obtain substantial aggro on ALL enemies in the group so in case a team member does not know the fundamentals of focusing, you will not lose aggro.

What you've listed is what you know from your bare-bones tanking experience. Now, suppose that a newbie tank asks you how tanking changes at higher levels.

Things you, at level 30 have experienced and can teach from first-hand experience:

-Keeping AoE enmity on trash pulls (Flash, Overpower, Unleash)

-Use your agro combo on single targets

Thing a level 60 tank can explain from first-hand experience:

-Actual defensive cooldown rotations: how they work in relation to another, cooldown synergy, as well as which cooldowns don't work together (something you have absolutely no experience with as a lv 30 MRD when Bloodbath and Foresight are your only defensive cooldowns).

-Stance dancing: when to do it, how cooldowns can make up for your lower defense or HP, which cooldowns have the highest synergy with your offensive stance or lack of tank stance, when not to stance dance.

Utility and DPS combos: what they do, how they are important to use once you have secure agro, which ones have a higher priority.

Resource management: managing your MP as a DRK, managing your Wrath/Abandons stacks as a WAR (you can't even use your stacks at level 30).

Also, about your provoke comment: you learn it at 22, but don't use it for its full effect until at least level 50, where tank swapping is first introduced. You can explain how after Provoke, it's best to follow up with a high enmity skill as WAR or PLD, or how it's safe to not do that as a DRK because your large number of otGCD attacks can make up for it if you have them up at the time you provoke. You can also teach more creative uses for Provoke, like pulling a monster before an obstacle that you can't reach with Unmend/Tomahawk/Shield Lob, like in Neverreap, or even closer to the newbie tank's 40 hour period, the patrols in Stone Vigil.

Also, not all DPS follow the "fundamentals" of focusing, because as an ARC/SMN, you have enough DoTs for your first dungeon to learn that your optimal DPS rotation for trash includes DoTing everything rather than just focusing down one monster. What you have is a very general (yet solid, for your level) and vague idea of tanking, and again, you cannot go into details when you try to explain something you have no first-hand experience with. Again, you've barely scratched the surface.