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

[GeekMatt]

I've played quite a few MMOs and I play tank and healer. I love equally. While I'm a fine healer in FF14, my tanking is, too me, disappointing. Everyone is saying I'm doing fine, but FF14's community is so friendly I can't take this at face value. My main is a Scholar, and I've seen few tanks worse than me. Maybe I'm just not noticing because I shut my brain off and cleric stance the whole dungeon, turning it on only when things start going side ways at which point I can't tell whose fault it is.

Mostly, the DDs tend to peel off aggro from a mob or two. I do get it back, but they often times can get a swing in at the DD before I can fix the issue. I'm running the dungeons from low to high, wanting to master the old ones before doing a higher level dungeon. But I'm told that pre-30 losing aggro is normal (?) which is something I find hard to believe.

So am I a bad tank or my guildies giving it to me strait after all?

When I originally levelled GLA (the low aggro tank) in 2.0 I had a "never lose aggro ever" mantality, and for the most part I held to it outside a few derps on my end, at least until I hit 50 and gear became a factor.

Recently I started levelling an alt with the intent of going WAR but I levelled as a GLA because I love its playstyle at that level—it really rewards thinking ahead and fast action moves. However, now I lose aggro on occasion. A contributing part of this is the change to tank stats, where STR use to be 100% of your Damage/aggro, now STR is 45% and VIT is 45% with nothing making up the difference. But another factor that is a bigger deal to me is that there's now a lot of level synced endgame players in the party, because back then there was no reason to go back and do old content on the same job. Level sync only does so much to level the playing field.

So here's my advice if you want to hold aggro as often as possible;

1) know your aggro potencies in combo and out of combo so you can make good decisions between skill choices
2) keep moving. As annoying as it is, I really don't blame DPS for jumping ahead of the tank if he pauses between pulls.
3) think ahead. Once aggro is established, plan out how to get aggro on the next pull ASAP. You might pull the next set of trash with a ranged skill while they finish off your current aggro-established target (note: Provoke has greater range than shield lob/tomahawk/unmend, but it's a risky play, so line up your shot carefully. They'll probably head straight for your healer but you can intercept.) Or you might consider stunning the enemy and running to the nearby enemies while the DPS finish their job and catch up. PLD has a 6s stun.
4) think ahead in unique situations. For example, learning Titan EX, again undergeared, I was expected to pick up two adds that spawn across the arena from each other. But every time this overgeared/overzealous BRD would go crazy on one of the adds (without nerfing his aggro) and this caused wipes because I'd struggle to grab them both. I realized that the adds barely hurt the BRD so what I did was build solid aggro on target A, then Fast Blade > Savage Blade > switch to target B > Provoke > Rage of Halone. The issue was resolved and the healer didn't even notice the couple hits to the BRD.

Another situation was levelling my alt in Tam Tara. The synced 60 BLM built legitimately more aggro than I did over time, and I could get the adds but I'd inevitably lose the boss, meaning my only option was getting head starts. The last boss goes invulnerable and adds spawn, we'd kill the adds but on the very last one I'd make sure my last skill used was Fast Blade. That way once the boss could be damaged again I'd be hitting it with a readied Savage Blade.
5) aggro is all about getting a head start. That means don't listen to people who tell you not to pop offensive buffs like Fight or Flight right away. Pop it before you pull. If on my DPS for example, I'm going to be pulling the target off you about 9-12 seconds into the fight as my combo peeks at low levels, and after that I settle into a rotation. Your goal then, is to build the MAXIMUM AGGRO IN THAT TIME FRAME, NOT THE MAXIMUM DPS/AGGRO POSSIBLE THEOUGH OUT THE ENTIRE FIGHT. Once you've established the pull, aggro maintenance is much simpler.
6) stats. In the low levels don't hesitate to take STR over VIT if a piece of gear is better that way. Healers have it super easy at low levels, especially if the tank is managing aggro. I'm sure you already know SCHs don't even have to heal the early dungeons, Eos does it, meanwhile WHM/CNJ/AST will heal a tank for half his HP. Additionally, tanks are the only job that can eat their main stat. I think Rolenberry cheese is what I used, it's cheap and easy to make for some free VIT.