Judging pull sizes

[Thoosa]

Hi everyone,

I've started doing a bit of tanking and wondered how you judge pull sizes?

I got kicked from a level 50 dungeon because apparently I wasn't pulling enough monsters - I notice most tanks don't ask at the start if everyone wants big pulls or not, so do they do it based on the other players health, sprouts etc? Or do they just try one pull and if everyone survives, keep doing that?

Thanks

[emrys_h]

Back when I first started playing, I would only do single pulls in dungeons I hadn't cleared before. Now that I'm more confident in my judgement, I tend to double pull first upon entering a dungeon, just to see where I stand stats-wise. If I get exploded by the mobs and we wipe? So be it, I'll just pull smaller for the rest of the run. If the healer isn't having trouble to keeping me above ~60-70% health, I go and see if I can pick up another pack. In your case I would recommend just telling everyone that you're new to tanking; statements like that let me understand the tank making small pulls.

Depending on where your tank is at in terms of level and ilevel, I would recommend going into a level 60 dungeon and telling everyone that you'll be experimenting with bigger pulls. Most 60 dungeons allow you to pull wall-to-wall without many issues in Shire gear, so you should be fine.

[Golhoy]

Hi

Generally I do a quick glance at health/gear and classes and go from there. If the group looks solidly built I don't worry about going through asking and just run and grab (of couse if we die I appologise). Otherwise I will ask, or just do smaller pulls unless complained at.

Frankly as a tank you shouldn't be kicked for smaller groups, everyone gets to play their class as they like and I can't stand when people kick people for not playing how they want.

At the end of the day everyone should be working together to make the run as smooth as possible for all, if the white mage is uncomfortable with large pulls I am more than happy to do smaller ones, I would rather a slightly slower run then a fast run full of grumps.

I say just keep doing what you can do, you will get better with the class through practise.

[Kenospsychi]

The main thing is to keep a steady pace. You're leading the group. As the last mob dies glance at healers mp, if full move. While pulling keep an eye on your hp and the healers mp. If both are steadily full pull more, if they fluctuate a lot pull less.

[Darkaeth]

Most importantly. Make sure your healer is following you. You'd be surprised how often you get into a rhythm, pull your next set of mobs only to notice that the healers name is now suddenly grey'd out.

[FlanKitty]

I find it's kinda an unwritten rule of "I set the pace and everyone follows or wipes after which we blame the healer." A good default is double group pulls but it depends on the content. DD and Vale have both hard hitting trash and can't use our nice toys so are kinda forced to limit pulls (when synced) while on the other hand library hard big pulls were kinda expected to get it over with (lore/poetics grinding).

If there's not a lot of aoe dps potential then big pulls are counterproductive. If healer is new or not comfortable doing big then (we) don't. Hell, if you don't want to do large groups it's your choice, not that of impatient dps players. If it's something like deltascape then yeah it's kinda an hp contest for who main tanks (let's ignore the fact vit melding is still a possibility) but that's the exception rather than the rule(s) of gauging party player ability and resulting pace in the instance (especially in random parties with super variable levels of skill).

[MauvaisOeil]

Hi everyone,

I've started doing a bit of tanking and wondered how you judge pull sizes?

I got kicked from a level 50 dungeon because apparently I wasn't pulling enough monsters - I notice most tanks don't ask at the start if everyone wants big pulls or not, so do they do it based on the other players health, sprouts etc? Or do they just try one pull and if everyone survives, keep doing that?

Thanks

Kicking a tank for "low efficiency" is allways a weird spot, as they are mandatory to clean anything and pretty much the least played role.

Pull at your pace, because fine managed pulls are allways better than struggling big ones. If you get some really heavy AOE jobs (BLM/SMN/RDM comes in mind first), you can afford a bit more if your healer is not already busy. Most jobs in SB have a good AOE now, but casters stands a bit higher, and never run out of ressources to AOE.

[Lambdafish]

Talk to the group, and especially talk to the healer. Take risks and own up to mistakes, I was in my first temple of the fist since launch yesterday and I pulled all of the coerls to the moss wall at the beginning - needless to say, we all died a horrible coerl death (which is the main reason why people are afraid to pull large).

This is what I said: "Damn, I definitely misjudged that, sorry for the stress<insert healer name>, I guess I'll pull smaller this time".

I generally pull two packs at a time and monitor my health and cooldowns, if I am not taking much damage I will try for a bigger pull on the next dungeon run

[aqskerorokero]

small pack of 3 or the entire way from point to point.....there is no middle way XD

[GavynG]

Try to understand the other classes you're with at the time.

Depending on the level and party composition, big pulls can either be a great thing or a terrible thing.

No sense in pulling large if the level you're at and party comp you're with doesn't currently have strong AoE.