Adjusting to Tanking from Healer

[aqskerorokero]

Grit and soul eater

[Skatedudeguy]

As someone who went Healer > DPS > Tank, here's a few extra things I'd say to help you out. The best things I'd say to start out with:

1: Learn how to position. There's a picture out there somewhere that goes a bit more into depth about it, but basically you want YOU - MOB (back) - Party. This ensures that most of the AOES are coming to you and you only. The best way to do this is to use your distance pull, AOE emnity, then run THROUGH the mob to the other side. It works well. (I don't know the DRK skill names I'm afraid).

2: Cooldowns are not JUST for bosses! Use them for pulls, I promise they will come back in time.

3: You and your healer are working together (as you know). If they are falling asleep at the heal, then you may have to use even more cooldowns, or pull smaller groups.

That's the basics. You can do it, tanking can be a lot of fun. You may mess up, it's okay! A wipe is just gaining knowledge. Good luck!

[Gemina]

What they said since DRK is not worth playing right now... or you could go for WAR... they don't have as much reliance as healer so long as much manage your CDs, as well as staying in tank stance, when compared to DRK and PLD... only play DRK if you A. hate yourself B. hate the group you are in C. hate your healers and want them to heal more D. hate people in general... (as you can tell DRK is pretty much a self-loathing class that takes their anger out everyone because they don't understand the nerfs DRK recieved... sarcasm aside you really are better off playing something that is NOT DRK)

Maybe let the OP decide which tank she wants to play, and not the meta? She's asking for tips on how to play DRK. Not if she should play it. Whether or not she comprehends the changes to DRK from 3.0 to 4.0, the most important thing for her to know is DRK is more than capable of fulfilling it's role in 4-man and 8-man content. All the woes aside concerning DRK, there is absolutely no point playing a job you don't enjoy.

@Snow,

I am also transitioning from healer to tank and chose to go DRK as well as I have zero interest in the other two tanks right now. I'm only LV 53 and still getting the hang of things, but having a lot of fun along the way. I've tanked everything through Sohm Al and might be able to provide some useful tips from the mistakes I've made, and advice from other DRK mains. Posting from phone ATM, so will provide more when I'm behind my PC.

[Chronons]

snip

Welcome to tanking. Seems like you have gotten some good advice so far, but ill throw in my 2cents as well.

Some Simple Rules to Tanking in FFXIV:
- Find a tank mentor. (Seems like you have a friend who can fill this role) Nothing is better for a fledgling tank than a veteran tank as a wingman on dps or healer. Mine them for info and tips. They can be your training wheels, but dont make them a crutch. Meaning, tank in the DF with randoms from time to time. Variety in teammates will make you a better tank.
- Read your tool tips, especially your defensive cooldowns. These are your bread and butter, use the stronger ones when fighting large numbers of monsters or when you know a boss is about to use a big attack. Your goal should be to try to keep up a cooldown as often as possible while saving important ones for mechanics you know are coming later.
- Fail. Often. A big part of tanking is developing a strong battle sense. Most high level tanks dont spend much time worrying about aggro or who has what mob, you will develop a sense of it over time and will naturally correct any mistakes that take place by you or others. Until then, learn to cycle through all of your enemies and monitor their aggro in the party list. At the start of a pull an easy rule of thumb is to use 1 AOE threat attack per mob. DO NOT stress about losing aggro initially, it happens. You wont be the first person or the last person, and there are times where its not even your fault. Do your best, make sure your mistakes arent continually the cause of it, and shake it off. Part of playing a tank is developing confidence, dont let the negative words of others snuff out that flame of desire. Protect it, nurture it, and you will see yourself improve.
- Be kind, stay humble. Whether people want to admit it or not, taking on the tank role places you in a position of authority in a team. Whether or not you are the de facto "leader" you control the pace of the party , have taken on a role with greater responsibility, and are the first person into the fray. Dont ever forget how it felt to be a new tank, be the kind of mentor to others that you would like to find for yourself, and try to keep the team grounded.

[Anienai]

Or even if there is another class for tanking that might be better to start off in!
Thank you~

Try Warrior and you won't regret it. Some tips I use when tanking (dungeons only).

1. Fix your UI so you get used to seeing who has aggro and such.
2. Pay attention to bursty classes like RDM if they go nuts (and they will) on a mob you are not targeting.
3. Cycle thru each mob and make sure you have a decent lead before switching to DPS stance.
4. You WILL run into THAT healer, so just /blist, drop and reque after 30 when they turn on douche mode.
5. If the mobs melt on the first pull then yolo it to the boss/gate.


The others covered CD usage.

[Gemina]

Hello to all.
As the title says, I am trying my hand at tanking and have always been a healer [supportive] class type of player. I have run a few things as Dark Knight and kind of find myself watching health and struggling a little with how I have to rely on another to heal me. [A very scary concept to me when one healer actually fell asleep mid boss]
I was curious if there were any suggestions or even ways other manage to deal with balancing doing other classes. Or even if there is another class for tanking that might be better to start off in!
Thank you~

So as I was mentioning before, and a little long-winded is I just wanted to point out a few things I've encountered along the way that I found a bit difficult to transition from healer to tank. There are a lot of tanking guides out there, and good advice here so I assume you are aware of the basics to tanking.

The first is boss mechanics. They are handled differently as a tank so it is helpful to go back and take a peek at a guide. Being a tank gives you pretty quick queue times even for specific instances. Using roulettes can throw you into a dungeon you have not done as tank. This was hard for me as well because as a tank, I feel like I should know the instance inside and out or I am a burden to the group. If I was giving another tank advice, I would say there is no shame in asking for a quick rundown and I should follow my own advice.

Second is actually having a rotation. Healers don't have rotations, and I think tanks are a little looser than DPS job rotations, but there is still a rehearsed opener that I screw up all the time. I used to memorize complete songs on the piano, but in all honesty, it was all muscle memory. I applied this to the rotations. To practice, I don't use striking dummies. Dummies don't hit back and force you to make quick decisions. What I do is simulate pulls on open world mobs.

If you have a healer chocobo, try going out to the open and find a nice pack of 2-3 mobs about 2-3 levels below you. Obviously, you don't need to use AoE enmity or agro combos to maintain agro here, but the idea is to get your rotation down to muscle memory. This has helped a lot when going into dungeons, especially if I am rusty after not having tanked for a few days.

Last I will mention the leap of faith that is trusting your healer. It's really tough letting go of that responsibility, but I queued as a tank. I have a different responsibility now. We all make mistakes. I'm sure you've made them as a healer, and you will get healers who will make the same ones and others. What I would take with you, is your knowledge of being a healer. You know exactly how to take pressure off of them by learning to manage those CDs you always wished tanks in your party would use, and not pulling more than you guys are comfortable doing.

Accepting that it's up to me to gauge how much we can pull has actually been one of the easier things to do, and one of the things I enjoy most.

[ArianeEwah]

1: Learn how to position. There's a picture out there somewhere that goes a bit more into depth about it

I think you mean this one?!:

[Keldon]

Most of the important stuff has already been said, but I figured I'd throw a couple other bits in here. When you're doing a large pull, use your defensive cooldowns before you're in danger: use rampart when you're still at 75% hp for example, don't wait until you're at 25% to start using CDs. The reason for that is you want to take the least damage possible at the START of the pull, when all the mobs are alive, that way when your defensive CDs run out some of the mobs will have been killed already by the dps, and your healer doesn't have to panic heal the whole pull and can throw a little bit of dps into the mix.

The second thing is if you wipe, try to figure out WHY it happened, and if it was your fault just apologize before anyone has a chance to get mad at you: this stops almost all ragequits.