Is it true that holding aggro 100% of the time isn't possible at low levels?

[Awful]

It's very possible you need to use your toolkit as effectively as you can all while being ahead of the DPS/Heals on threat. For bosses you see DPS using offensive CDs at the start Fight or Flight should be used I find from personal experience Toto-Rak is the only place that is crappy. Not only do DPS get their 3rd combos but they start getting maim+ mend (dmg/auto attack dmg) and stronger abilities to amplify their threat. If you're on point with cycling your emnity combos and using Flash as much as you can to fill in you should be good.

[Ilan]

Is it possible to keep hate as a low level tank? Yes. Are you able to keep hate in low level if you never played a tank in ff? Probably not.

Use overpower for groups and get flash from GLD as extra tool, don't be afraid to use both skills to keep hate and you should be fine until you get your tankstance. After that its pretty easy to keep hate.

[Mirch]

I tried to hold hate in the level 24 dungeon with my dark knight but i had my guildmate with me and he was leveling his black mage and he took away from me 3 mobs in the whole dungeon, because he hit 1 mob and the other dps hit another one so i had to switch target everytime, but nothing complicated to handle, i always started with unmend>scourge>unleash>hate combo>unleash>switch target>scourge>switchtarget>scourge>and so on, i also used the power that increase reduces your recast of skills to do more unleash when needed

[Tsilyi]

I tried to hold hate in the level 24 dungeon with my dark knight but i had my guildmate with me and he was leveling his black mage and he took away from me 3 mobs in the whole dungeon, because he hit 1 mob and the other dps hit another one so i had to switch target everytime, but nothing complicated to handle, i always started with unmend>scourge>unleash>hate combo>unleash>switch target>scourge>switchtarget>scourge>and so on, i also used the power that increase reduces your recast of skills to do more unleash when needed

I would recommend not using scourge or other attacks (other than the beginning of the threat combo) that provide no additional threat bonus unless absolutely necessary, such as to replenish mp as needed, especially at low levels and before getting grit at 30.

My general rule of thumb is to unleash/flash/overpower (depending on tank) as many times as there are mobs in your pull before moving to do anything else in particular, at least at lower levels and when you are pulling fewer mobs at once. In larger pulls later on with tank stance and a good weapon you may not need to aoe threat as much.

The most important thing at low levels is to recognize when you can stop attacking a particular mob and start getting advance threat on the next, making good use of the 2nd or 3rd part of your hate combo by tabbing it onto other mobs in the pull as needed.

[Fluffernuff]

Depending on what low level dungeon we are talking about, i would say.... yes and no.

Yes in the fact that its entirely possible to hold aggro 100% of the time..... IF the mob's life expectancy is low... and your DPS arent just synced down nuclear warheads (lookin' at you, archer, and thaumaturge)
No in the fact of... well, resources arent unlimited. in a bubble, and mathmetically, a tank has the POTENCY of emnity to keep up, but in practice, cooldowns and resources dont line up. an Archer's DoTs and AoE deal far mor Emnity for far longer than a Gladiator can Flash or a Marauder can Overpower. the only low level tank with ACTUAL limitless pool of emnity is DRK, but if we're talking newbie sprouts? well they aint going to be stepping into sastash the first time as a DRK.

I would actually say emnity in the lowest lowest levels (depending on what synced monstrosity is there to carry y'all), is much more akin to a race. its your emnity generation and your TP/MP vs their DPS. the finish line is the boss' HP.
Most of us tanking vets have the synced gear and general know-how to win this race. we all know the "power" of flash and overpower. we know how many we can or cant use so we dont hold up the group. all we CAN really say is "use flash/overpower! alot!" mainly because its the only tool we have synced that low and the only tool that can really win that race most of the time.

As lazy or as simple as it sounds, thats what it comes down to. emnity is an absolute. you either have more emnity or you dont. it doesnt matter if that bar is full. that BLM can be 99 and you can be 100, you're still the target.

All that said, I still believe that with the tools given to us that low, that in a fight that is literally endless, you will lose emnity 100% of the time. LUCKILY.... things will usually die before that happens

[Ahrniel]

From my personal experience both playing the class and being in a team with the class at low level dungeons, Gladiators seem to be deficient in tanking capabilities.

I believe the fact Flash doesn't cause damage is pretty much the main reason Gladiator can't tank well enough. Marauder also causes more damage in the long run, I made some calculations before, in 30s, at lv.26, Marauder causes 3948 worth of potency damage, while Gladiator causes 3367. In 20s Marauder gets 2928 while Gladiator gets 2041. The reason why Gladiator picks up later on is because Fight Or Flight lasts longer than Berserk, 20s to 30s. But the start of Gladiator is slow compared to Marauder, and this damage I calculated doesn't even consider the Overpower/Flash start, just the main combos with available damage buffs of the classes. Gladiator stays too much behind in enmity production.

My personal suggestion is to level up Gladiator outside dungeons until you get Rage of Halone, because if you don't you will have a pretty frustrating experience.
If you still want to level up in dungeons anyway, mark your enemies' order of attack, don't double pull so that pesky Archer or Thaumaturge doesn't start AoEing, because if they do, bye bye aggro of half the mobs, because as a Gladiator you just can't handle causing enough enmity to many enemies at once like Marauder can, and pray everyone will behave and do as you tell.

My second personal suggestion is to drop Gladiator at Lv.22 and play Marauder, for Provoke. That's it.

[Shurrikhan]

It's not impossible, but it's more difficult, and frequently more wasteful (especially if you're having to, say, spam Flash to hold on, which itself does no damage, when the group members aren't all AoEing anyways).

The tank not losing hate is a shared effort. It just should never come at the cost of raid dps (read, basically but not entirely: DPS holding off outright).

[Otorinth]

Gladiator PoV against a couple of heavy hitters in C. Mines:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmO686TmJ5k

I kind of understand where some people are coming from when it comes to being brand new (and possibly having out-dated gear) and being synced down with DPS/Healers who are level 50+ ticking time-bombs . I probably wasn't using my tools at maximum efficiency, but I'm still brand-new to FFXIV. This thread has actually been pretty helpful for my game-play.

To be honest; I kind of like having to actively battle to hold aggro. Not many MMOs these days actually push me to stay on my toes like that.

[GeekMatt]

Gladiator PoV against a couple of heavy hitters in C. Mines:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmO686TmJ5k

I kind of understand where some people are coming from when it comes to being brand new (and possibly having out-dated gear) and being synced down with DPS/Healers who are level 50+ ticking time-bombs . I probably wasn't using my tools at maximum efficiency, but I'm still brand-new to FFXIV. This thread has actually been pretty helpful for my game-play.

To be honest; I kind of like having to actively battle to hold aggro. Not many MMOs these days actually push me to stay on my toes like that.

^Not many people appreciate GLA, and many are scared off by the learning curve (and by jerks in DF) unfortunately you lose this playstyle later on in the game and there's nothing like it. PLD becomes the most straight-forward tank—it has depth due to its utility but its utility is in general unneeded and often used inefficiently or not used at all.

[technole]

To be honest; I kind of like having to actively battle to hold aggro. Not many MMOs these days actually push me to stay on my toes like that.

You'll get to put that in-practice plenty at end-game level too, because you'll run into good players that know their rotations well, even will potion up buffs in their openers and what not. It will make you, the tank, play on-par otherwise they will rip aggro off.

My favorites are the slack tanks out there that think they can pull whatever they want in DPS stance, without a shade walker buff, then wet their pants realizing they don't have slack dps present.

Being able tank/dps stance dance against it, while keeping threat can be quite a thrill.