DF Tank Experience

[Nezkeys79]

What I want to talk about is the tank role on DF below level 50, especially ones where you don't get Rage of Halone. I had a hard time levelling it and when I get a low-mid lvl one on roulette it's not fun at all. Level 50+ roulette / dungeons are so much more fun. Some of my encounters:

1) DPS who pull before the tank (and healers who heal them before I can flash them off them)

2) After initial shield lob and I'm waiting for mobs to gather @me I see aoe's/heals before mobs are in flash range

3) After initial shield lob enemy the does an aoe but I see dps and healer are already attacking it from outside the aoe while i'm running out of it.

[Nezkeys79]

4)Dps who don't look at their threat gauge and have no idea when to back off, or switch mobs, or don't even use enmity reducing abilities at all.

5) Players who run away from the tank when they have hate.

6)Two single target dps in a dungeon who don't attack tank's target. When there are specifically aoe dps present then I will spread my combo on all enemies and flash more too though.

7)A cancerous mentality that if anything goes wrong it's the tanks fault. If you stand back and let the party wipe on a dps pull you get booted. However if you clean up people's mess by flashing and provoking, positioning enemies attacks away from people, and covering people who are about to die, it's still your fault.

[Nezkeys79]

WHAT I DO ON TRASH PULLS: Make sure stoneskin is up first. I usually cast this myself but I've found some whm start casting it on me after a few pulls so I stop casting it on myself.

1a)Shield Lob (and wait for the links to gather on me).
***DF dps love to start aoe-ing at this point in my experience***
1b)Preceed this with Flight or Flight and Bloodbath if it's a boss
2)Flash (position them facing away from everyone)
3)Fast Blade
4)Ravage Blade
5)Rage of Halone(when it's dungeons without this ws they are the hardest)
Repeat steps 2-5 but tab targets and spread my combo around if I see the hp of multiple enemies going down

[Nezkeys79]

GENERAL ADDITIONAL INFO:
1. Make sure I enter a dungeon at 100% condition on my gear. I usually have all the MB hq gear for my current level before I enter.
2. Provoke immediately any enemy that breaks away from the pack and flash again when it gets back to the pack
3. Use CD's as necessary (i.e rampart and sentinel etc just before high damage moves and not just spam them willy nilly so they are not up when I need them)
4. Shield swipe as soon as it pops and shield bash to stun enemies aoe's
5. Get out of aoe's (I never get caught in any)
6. Cover anyone low on health

[Khalithar]

You can edit the other text in to your OP to bypass the character limit.

Editing in my actual reply to your post:

1. This is annoying I agree, usually when the dps do that I let them have it, if the healer heals them and pull aggro and takes it I will take the mobs from them. But if a dps pulls for me I will (without exception) let them die and say "oh I'm sorry, you pulled the mobs so I thought you wanted to tank," it usually teaches them a lesson or it doesn't and I let them die until they leave or get the point.

2. I suggest running towards the mobs while shield lobbing rather than waiting for them to get to you.

3. You should always have enough time for a Flash or two before any sort of telegraphs go out. I can't think of any enemy that opens with a telegraph to the point where you don't have time to do even a single aoe by the time you reach them.

4. Depends on the dps gear and the dungeon. Random example: A brd in a lowbie dungeon like satasha can pretty much rip threat off any tank with just their basic attacks as they have extremely high damage (relatively speaking) at that level, if dps are pulling threat that fast but the mob is also dying that fast, I say just let the dps take it and focus on another mob. There's a good chance they'll be able to finish it before it matters.

5. Agree.

6. All you can really do is mark the targets, if that doesn't work, ask politely, if that doesn't work, well then there's a good chance you'll just have to deal with it unfortunately.

7. I rarely see this attitude, but if it happens that's unfortunate.

As for what you do on trash pulls, I played pld a lot before switching to Drk and I would always say Flash at least 2-3 times at the beginning of any pull and then spread your Halone combo. I would also prioritize comboing the target dying fastest as that is generally the target that the dps might pull off you. For your additional stuff.

1. Good policy.
2. I say use a shield lob immediately after voke for an enemy that peels THEN Flash when it gets back.
3. Good idea.
3. You put 3 twice.
4. Good.
5. Cover only works on physical attacks, if the enemy is using magic based AoE you're wasting it.

[Nezkeys79]

sorry for the multiple posts but the maximum text for one post is pretty low on this site. So yeah...I don't wanna say that it's just bad dps and healers on DF because I'm sure bad tanks exist as well. And for what it's worth I've seen some very good dps who do obscene amounts of damage and still never seem to pull hate and the fights are over in seconds. Then there are good healers who just have me topped up practically the whole fight and I never drop below 50% ever, and they somehow never seem to pull hate either. In these types of parties provoke immediately brings hate back and keeps it. In some it doesn't and that has to be a DPS continually attacking same mob, and while I'm trying to wrestle for hate...im losing it on something else for example.

[Khalithar]

and while I'm trying to wrestle for hate...im losing it on something else for example.

Use Flash more at the beginning and try to keep your eyes on the threat meter for the mobs losing the most HP and you should be fine.

[Nezkeys79]

So the one time I said "oh sorry I thought you wanted to tank?" to a dps who did that, the healer said this "stop being an arrogant prick and just flash them off him", then the dps said "that, or pull faster". On next pull I tried to be faster but this dps was actually trying to get there before me. On this pull the dps died and the healer was constantly trying to heal them...I used /sit and /cheer on the dps. The party wiped and I got booted. I got back in a party in 10 seconds though and never lost hate once and nobody died. In one dungeon I constantly kept cleaning up a dps puller, covered multiple people several times, and made sure the enemies were facing away from the party...and at the end got no commendations so meh.

[Nezkeys79]

Use Flash more at the beginning and try to keep your eyes on the threat meter for the mobs losing the most HP and you should be fine.

I guess I'll try flashing more but I kind of hate it when the dungeon just becomes a "empty your mp with flash spam" thing. Sometimes even that doesn't cement aggro because I tried it in one dungeon so must have used it like 10 times...and two of them broke away on to the healer. I didn't have Halone in this dungeon. Surely at some point something has to be taken in to account for dps who aren't managing their own threat level? A healer heals instinctively (even though healing bad dps could cause a full party wipe). Pretty sure dps should be checking how much therat they are doing and back off or switch targets in conjunction with any enmity reducing abilities they have?

[Nezkeys79]

3. You put 3 twice.

ty. edited