is it okay to not enjoy big pulls?

[Huntington]

Even if someone says tanking is brain dead and easy and lacking in any substantial difficulty, performing well and improving as a tank does take confidence and practice just like driving any type of vehicle. It's about being assertive and aggressive but going to the flow of what your party can handle. No one playing this game is going to improve as a tank if they do 3 mobs at a time pulls for 4 years into this game in casual content. Even if you aren't doing Savage or even EX Primals, you don't get better or improve by doing what you have been doing for a long time. You up the difficulty or you vary what you're doing to get better. As bad as it is to admit this, in my EX roulettes, I don't ask what the party can handle or how much I can pull. I do a quick gear examine and pull wall to wall for what the corridors allow. First pull of Ala Mhigo up to the gate or the last large pack in Temple of the Fist being two examples. 9/10 times on WAR or DRK when I pull everything it goes perfectly fine because I don't lose aggro on anything, I rotate CDs, and I pump in as much DPS as possible before I run out of CDs. If the rest of your party does the same thing, they'll appreciate the run going smoothly and quickly and being mildly fun, and maybe even give 2/3 Comms like is usual after my Experts.

People appreciate a tank that's aggressive, assertive, makes things quick and painless, and knows how to do his job. Because as the two most important roles in the trinity, a skilled healer or tank decides a lot of how efficient something is going to be when done. DPS matters for exactly what the acronym stands for, but if a tank can't hold aggro over auto attacks or a healer is unable to heal and even do smidgens of damage at the same time, you'll notice exactly whats wrong in the group. And while "You don't pay my sub!" is a hilarious justification for refusing to improve one's gameplay, some people don't have the willingness to go further in playing the game because it is a game. More power to those that don't want to DPS if healing or do large pulls while tanking, but there are others who value their time and do those things because it exponentially speeds things up for everyone.

[Moogly]

Well did my dungeoning as a healer this w-e : caused 2-3 wipes, once lost because of keybind change, and 2-3 times did too much dps and didn't judge right when to heal the tank
Other than that, had 2 specific encounters with tanks that wanted to pull big, but weren't good at it. Both on the lvl 61 ghost ship dungeon.

First one was a WAR. He pulled 2-3 packs at a time, few to no cd used. Kind of a nightmare to heal, had HUGE damage spike, like 80+% of his HP pool depleted in 1 GCD... We wiped once, where theres that big zombie holding two coffins as he pulled both packs. Right before the last boss I tought about checking him : full ilvl 255 HQ grey gear (it was SB MSQ gear I think) : well, we were gone so far, so I didn't tell him anything...

Second one was a DRK with 63-65 gear, so he felt confident I guess... so much that he didn't use a single CD throughout the dungeon - did ask him to but never got an answer. And he pulled as much as he could : also a nightmare to heal... We wiped on the last wraith mini boss : he had also pulled along the two doggies right before, lost aggro and didn't notice. Boy do those dogs hit hard on a cloth dps... Situation got out of control.

Those two tanks clearly had no idea how hard it was to heal them and were probably thinking they were doing good since they kept pulling like that the whole time.

All in all those dungeon would have ran smoother if the tanks had pulled one pack at a time. I would have been able to support more with dps, as the dps weren't that bad, and made the healing hell less longer.

[silverlunarfox]

So I've been practicing drk and decided to start trying out bigger pulls. The first try was a disaster. My healer couldn't keep up and became hostile and left along with the rest of my group shattering my confidence. I tried again and did better the second time and got a nice pep talk from my second group.

However despite getting better at bigger pulls I just can't say I enjoy them. Their honestly stressful and not fun at all. I know the a big part of tanking is setting the pace of the dungeon and every dps and their mother wants to rush a dungeon but honestly I don't.

I guess I'm looking for some advice from the more veteran tanks.

Play the way you want to play and feel comfortable with. Some days I do the big pulls other days I don't.

[Jollyy5]

PLD was my first tank, and I was a rather careful tank at first.

Later I leveled up Warrior, and have grown ever more bloodthirsty ever since. The addition of Deliverance, Fell Cleave and Decimate may have played into that, and later the skills added in Stormblood got me frothing from the mouth.

[bswpayton]

It's a matter of responsability, pacing choice, mistakes that will impact the whole group and that no other player will be able to deal with.

A dps does shit ? Well he dies, and the team continue even if he is dead.

As far as a dungeon goes tanks are by far the easiest to play, not only do you have extremely high health compared to everyone else you have an ultimate move. Why are people using holohome, I spelled that wrong, and hg as some emergency buttons if you have done a dungeon before you know you can plan your pulls around it. As a main tank now I two have tank anxiety but thats in raids, or in ex trials, but in dungeons its literally nothin to be afraid of if u actually read your tool tips. If you read your tool tips and I mean all skills you would go hmm how many df cool downs do I have as a tank how long do they last.

How many aoe skills do I have see this is essential, if someone mains a dps and using aoe on a dps then how could you not do the same on tank or healers. Same rules apply on every job as far as trash mobs go, I guess people tend to forget that aoe is a thing when switching in between each roll. There is litreally nothin to tankin a dungeon Ill give examples, your on pali basicly flash go to next mob flash go to next mob, gather them up scorn, spam total eclipse until adds die whats exactly hard about that. Samething on drk pop a cool down unleash move to next mob, unleashe again, place salted earth down pop blood price, spam abysmal drain, get mp back up spam some more abysmal drain. Its very easy to tank a dungeon , I think some people just cant bothered to use tool tips is the main issue. But your last part I still have no idea why people dont play tanks I can see healer, but I honestly the more that I play realize that playing dps well is the hardest thing to do in the game while the other roles may have more responsibility.

[bswpayton]

Dont have friends*

same dont feel bad haha

[MauvaisOeil]

10 minutes every day means 3650 minutes a year means ~60 hours a year. Even if you only run one 5 days a week, that's still around 43 hours, more than a week worth of work for a classic 8/5 job.

If that's really not a big deal to you, I'd kindly ask you to tell your employer tomorrow that you really don't mind working 40-60 hours a year extra for the same pay, he'll be very happy to hear that.

Withouth considering 10min waste on a 30min run is nothing (as it's 33% to 50% of the time in the dungeon), If you start to consider the game as a job where everything must be done as little much as possible, I have quite bad news for you.

[Sarcatica]

Withouth considering 10min waste on a 30min run is nothing (as it's 33% to 50% of the time in the dungeon), If you start to consider the game as a job where everything must be done as little much as possible, I have quite bad news for you.

Then maybe raiding is not for you? Play the game however you want. All I can say is please don't waste other people's time if you don't plan to improve. It's like you are telling dota/lol players that ranks don't matter.

I love improving and absolutely hate people who just want to raid but don't improve which is why I only tend to help those people who I know I can help.

[MauvaisOeil]

Then maybe raiding is not for you? Play the game however you want. All I can say is please don't waste other people's time if you don't plan to improve. It's like you are telling dota/lol players that ranks don't matter.

I love improving and absolutely hate people who just want to raid but don't improve which is why I only tend to help those people who I know I can help.

Pretty much out of subject. Raiding and feeling the game as a second job are two different things, and you cannot compare a job / paid situation to a gametime, freetime, supposedly enjoying time.

If you're enjoying the game as much as a half assed job, the only answer is : don't play.

You're paying to play this game. You do not get paid to play. Everything in game is just for your amusement.

As far as a dungeon goes tanks are by far the easiest to play, not only do you have extremely high health compared to everyone else you have an ultimate move. Why are people using holohome, I spelled that wrong, and hg as some emergency buttons if you have done a dungeon before you know you can plan your pulls around it. As a main tank now I two have tank anxiety but thats in raids, or in ex trials, but in dungeons its literally nothin to be afraid of if u actually read your tool tips. If you read your tool tips and I mean all skills you would go hmm how many df cool downs do I have as a tank how long do they last.

How many aoe skills do I have see this is essential, if someone mains a dps and using aoe on a dps then how could you not do the same on tank or healers. Same rules apply on every job as far as trash mobs go, I guess people tend to forget that aoe is a thing when switching in between each roll. There is litreally nothin to tankin a dungeon Ill give examples, your on pali basicly flash go to next mob flash go to next mob, gather them up scorn, spam total eclipse until adds die whats exactly hard about that. Samething on drk pop a cool down unleash move to next mob, unleashe again, place salted earth down pop blood price, spam abysmal drain, get mp back up spam some more abysmal drain. Its very easy to tank a dungeon , I think some people just cant bothered to use tool tips is the main issue. But your last part I still have no idea why people dont play tanks I can see healer, but I honestly the more that I play realize that playing dps well is the hardest thing to do in the game while the other roles may have more responsibility.

Dps only worry about themselves. Low need of communication, little interaction with other, and pretty much no way to screw the whole team or save the whole team.

It s a selfish job and even with raid buffs, it won't change. People playing dps want a fast paced self looking role, with little to no responsability.
Is it hard ? As much as any pushing button job.

Good dps are a big addition to a team, but their only difference is that they have an ununding curve, while tank and dps catch a minimal or optimal gameplay and their role is fit.
With tank and heals dpsing, you can add an unending curve to every role, even if less rewarding, thus every role can be as tricky as dps.

Yet, if a dps dies no one bats an eye and little to no stress is put on the team, and they are plentyfull because of this.

No responsability.

[Tizzy_Tormentor]

It takes a bit of getting used to, mostly with cooldown rotation and how to not die (DA+AbyssalDrain is always fun) it also comes down to your DPS and healer, sometimes your DPS will be unable to perform elementary level math and AoE in bigger groups and some healers struggle with bigger packs, all comes down to group compatibility.

Honestly, doing massive pulls with friends and stomping dungeons beneath your heels is incredibly satisfying when done right.