Tanks Letting DPS Die

[Sakagami]

For the past 2 or 3 weeks, I've ran into this kind of tanks at least once a week, and I usually only spend 1 or 2 days in DF to get weeklies done. They'd sit in their DPS stance, make no effort to get aggro when lost, and let their DPS party members die when they pulled off. This is pretty obvious since the DPS that pulled usually ends up tanking the boss for a good 10 to 15 seconds before dying. All of these tanks would mention using Diversion in party chat, so its not like they're a new tank who doesn't know what's going on, but they're favoring their own personal performance over the party's performance just to push their numbers. So, I've looked up the tanks that have behaved this way, and every one of them were posting big numbers and cleared Omega Savage.

So, is this something you've encountered? What can be done to discourage this kind of behavior? Or, should it just simply be use DF with people you know? Or, maybe I've just been unlucky.

[Zojha]

Well, I personally just use diversion in that case. Shadewalker too, if I'm on NIN. If diversion doesn't work, I tell them diversion doesn't work and ask them to throw an extra aggro combo because I've done everything I could at that point except purposely holding back DPS.

[Kaozurei]

I have yet to run into any tanks that act this way. Usually, when I take aggro it's either the tank being new and not knowing how to maintain aggro properly or my own mistakes (bad timing on diversion, attacking the wrong thing, etc.). If it's my fault then I apologize for it, if it's the tank's fault then usually the entire party notices and everyone gives them advice on how to maintain aggro better, and I lower my own DPS output to make their lives easier even if it results in the battle taking longer.

Of course, proper use of Diversion and your enmity tools as a DPS is important to ensure you do your part as well but if you're already doing your part then communication's important to let your tank know they need to push up their enmity generation a bit to adjust, or lower your personal DPS output in case they simply cannot keep up assuming that you holding back won't cause even more trouble to the run.

[Gravton]

Could be a number of things really. You could be doing a single target rotation on a pack, dps during a pull, not using your aggro reduction. Or your tank had a bad day. Tanks catch crap for all sorts of issues. He might have let you die cause of a troublesome dps in his last dungeon. It gets to a point where a tank just stops carring and finds it satisfying to watch a dps die.

[RLofOBFL]

Ummm Lucid Dream, Diversion, shadewalker, smokescreen, refresh, and tactician all exist.

Personally I never lose aggro but if i did and the dps didn't even bother using aggro reduction then...I wanna say I'll let them die but that wouldn't really accomplish anything really...so uhh I'd be very frustrated. But it wouldn't ever come to that bc I'd pop on tank stance if aggro got that close....and be very salty.

Aggro is a group effort. Not just the tank. You're literally making the fight take longer for no reason. And don't blame this on the dps stance, blame it on the bad tank. That's like blaming the car in a car accident lol. /endrant

[Elkanah]

I never have issues with aggro on mobs. Even at expert roulettes. Usually what I'll do is stay in tank stance for most pulls to help better mitigate damage. Once I have established well enough hate on 2-3 hate combo rotations, I'll switch to DPS stance and go ham. For PLD though, man, the amount of tears of healers who like to dps and worry less about healing the tank, they love me. Clemency ftmfw baby!

[Jim_Berry]

I'm probably in the minority, but I'm a tank that gets involved in the content (granted my weakness is dropping tank stance).

Even if a DPS player pulls, I simply grab it off him.
Even if a WHM casts Medica II pre-pull, I just go the extra mile to use more enmity.

I generally don't care how others play, unless it's breaking me as a tank. An example of this is the WHM spamming dps and relying on Benediction or Largese + healing spells only to keep me alive, then dislikes that I use Clemency.

[Lilyth]

Aggro management is a party commitment, not only the tank's.

Sure, it's primarily the tank job to hold aggro, but all the DPSs are given tools to help him do it and they should be using them. If they are not, then those DPSs are just as well favoring their own laziness over a tank's performance, who most likely is trying to pull good numbers to help clear the instance faster.

At the end of the day, communication is the key. Talk to your tank, ask him to use a little more enmity on the next pull and let him know you are already doing the minimal, which is using your aggro management skills. You'd be surprised at how many of them will listen to you once they know you too are putting in the effort.

[Hookla]

If I notice a dps is pulling aggro or if someone runs off to pull more i just follow/aggro what they pull. Theres no reason to be a dick and just let them die, be a team player and pick it up. If you don't want to pull more just be upfront easy as that.

[Gravton]

Theres no reason to be a dick and just let them die...

If it happens in real life your a dick, if it happens in a game it's funny.