Some very Noobish question regarding tanks roles.

[Phelios]

So , up until this point I have been pretty good solo tanking but I am starting to break into more difficult fights in the fifties and have to group up with other tanks.

1. So, how does the whole off-tank thing works? Are you suppose to ease up on doing anything and keep an eye out for adds? There is no switching back and forth is there later on? If so would it be worked out before hand with the tank or just expected.

2. Are you expected as a tank to dodge all of the bosses mechanics even if it make the boss run around in a crazy way? Or keep the boss in a stationary position so the dps can dps it down?

3. Every little adds that comes out, do I turn my back to the boss and chase it down? I noticed my AOE provoke sometime do not work in bringing the adds to me, so I have to go there and chase it. Is that detrimental or let the DPS deal with it? Or when I get there on foot, the add is dead already, are little adds worth chasing down

4.Tank boss with backs to the wall or in the center of the room?

[Canadane]

As off tank, there are many instances where tank-swapping is required, so keep provoke handy. Otherwise you're usually just a beefy DPS until adds show up.

Tanks are expected to avoid avoidable damage. AOE on the floor? Get out. Otherwise keeping the boss still is a priority so melee can get their positional damage off.

Don't use Ultimatum, the aoe-provoke. Just hit 'em with an Overpower/Steel Cyclone, Flash, or Unleash, depending on your tank class. Provoking something that has just spawned will do next to nothing, you don't earn any chunk of enmity from it.
Some cases they aren't worth your time chasing down, but assuming you're using your enmity boosted AOE, you shouldn't actually have to do much chasing.

Do not place the bosses back to the wall. Unless you mean your back; in which case do that. Some bosses are preferred middle due to their unique mechanics. They may have a room-wide rear-aoe attack, so if you're up against the wall it'll be difficult to dodge from the far end of the room. The majority of the time you place your back to the wall do keep their frontal aoes (which are much more common) to a minimum coverage. If 60% of that frontal AOE is out of bounds because your back is to the wall, that's much more space for people to move. Also, if it has any knock-backs (hey Ifrit) you won't be affected much, and the boss won't move from you having to consistently reposition yourself.


Basically a lot of your questions are answered simply by "do it and learn from it" since each boss tends to be unique, with few universal laws applying. Welcome to tanking, the best role there is in the game.

[Hierro]

Adding to that, please make sure you take shirk and reprisal as role skills. It's so terrible when a tank swap is supposed to occur, and the now-OT has no shirk, forcing the MT to use aggro combos or tank stance, or worse, both. Reprisal is also fantastic because it's *free* mitigation on AoEs and tank busters, and other mechanics.

Really, like Canadane said, it's more important to learn fights as individual entities and see where tank swaps should occur or when adds are coming out.

[Quor]

Canadane has the right of it. You want to try and mitigate as much damage as you can, since less damage taken equals less healing needed, and if that means moving the boss then so be it. DPS will adjust, and if they need positionals they'll be running True North anyway. Most of the time, there isn't a lot of positioning that needs to be redone, but as Canadane said, it's a "learn by doing" sort of thing.

As for "back to wall" vs. "center of the room" that will also change depending on the fight, but the general rule of "face it away from the party" reigns supreme in about 99% of content. There are exceptions that require the MT to change how the boss faces, but that's another thing experience will teach you (i.e. Shiva's sword attack in EX).

[DevilKross]

I think almost all has been said. I would add, your job is to prevent the party from taking damage and mitigate the one you are receiving. Make mistakes and learn based on that. Pay attention to how other tanks do their job, running as a DPS or healer; you will learn a lot from the good ones and also the bad ones.

[Phelios]

And the chasing down of little add and having the boss chase you, is that normal?

[Quor]

And the chasing down of little add and having the boss chase you, is that normal?

It kinda depends. Most of the time, OT will be grabbing the adds, at least in 8-mans. In 4-mans, yeah, you might need to run over and grab an add or two (or three, or more) and that's ok, because the DPS will likely need to shift from the boss to hit the adds in order to take them down ASAP. Some rare situations arise where you can ignore the adds and burn a boss down, but you should still make sure the adds aren't going after your healer. Basically, take what DevilKross said above and use that as your baseline; prevent the party from taking damage and mitigate the damage you're receiving. That will guide you well.

[Rasikko]

I used to be a supporter of Ultimatum, and I get the reason it was implemented into the game, but it doesn't quite solve the issue of when you die as a tank. Your MP/TP gets zapped, and Ultimatum will get you AOE snap aggro, but you still wont have the resources yet to seal it with AOE aggro skills >_>.

[Gemina]

So , up until this point I have been pretty good solo tanking but I am starting to break into more difficult fights in the fifties and have to group up with other tanks.

1. So, how does the whole off-tank thing works? Are you suppose to ease up on doing anything and keep an eye out for adds? There is no switching back and forth is there later on? If so would it be worked out before hand with the tank or just expected.

If you are the definitive OT, you're basically just another DPS uantil add phases, or the MT dies. Tank swapping doesn't happen much outside EX/Savage encounters. If you don't plan on tanking that content, it is basically adjusting to the other tank's playstyle, unless you want to MT.

2. Are you expected as a tank to dodge all of the bosses mechanics even if it make the boss run around in a crazy way? Or keep the boss in a stationary position so the dps can dps it down?

DO NOT SPIN the boss! This is why you have several mitigation CDs at your disposal. If you have to choose between hindering positionals and taking a hit, pop a CD and take the hit. Some bosses have mechanics that require you to reposition it, but otherwise, kept that beast locked into place.

3. Every little adds that comes out, do I turn my back to the boss and chase it down? I noticed my AOE provoke sometime do not work in bringing the adds to me, so I have to go there and chase it. Is that detrimental or let the DPS deal with it? Or when I get there on foot, the add is dead already, are little adds worth chasing down

A couple of things here. Some mobs cannot be tanked, so keep this in mind. This usually means the add or boss has scripted mechanics that ignore hate generation. Examples of this are some of the moogles in Thornmarch; Garuda's feathers in both HM and EX; drake mobs during the Niddy fight in the Aery; and most Golem bosses. In PUGs, consider yourself fortunate if a member in your group is conscious enough to bring a mob they have agro on to you. In my experience, they expect you to pick it up despite the fact that it totally effs up the pull. In these cases, I let them tank it. If you want it off you, then bring the mob to me and I will snatch it. But if I miss one mob during a huge pull, my focus is on the cavalry, not one effing mob. During bosses, most adds have low HP, and do not need to be picked up. Doing so is a huge waste of your gcds, and can lead to losing hate on the boss. Some mechanics are purely a distraction from where your attention should be. Learning which adds to let go and pick up comes with experience... or a quick view at a visual guide that will tell you that those adds need to by tanked.

4.Tank boss with backs to the wall or in the center of the room?

Depends on boss. Some bosses are nasty and have giant rear AoE to counter a turtle mode tank. Many raid bosses will also target half the arena (if not more) to keep everyone on their toes. Other bosses attack random players. In fact, there are a lot of mechanics that don't target tanks at all and are meant to take healers and DPS out of the equation. Some mechanics you can't do anything about and you have to simply hope that they avoid it. Other mechanics will be served well by having you help out. Learning these instances just comes with experience.

[Capn_Goggles]

1. An off-tank serves two purposes: backup in case the main tank goes down or is otherwise unable to tank the boss any more, and grab adds so that they don't maul the healers or DPS. For the most part your only job as an off-tank is to be ready to use provoke and then grab aggro in case the boss kills the tank, or if a tank-swap is required. For the most part, tanks will know when a tank swap is coming, in which case the off-tank will provoke the boss and then grab aggro, and the former main-tank will use shirk on you and give you a huge head start on your enmity.

2. As a tank, your job is naturally to eat hits for anyone else, but never take damage you don't HAVE to take unless there's a very good reason for it, as that saves effort for the healer which means everyone can spend more time doing damage. It's recommended to move the boss as little as possible, and to face them away from most of the raid to divert cleaves.

3. Grabbing Adds is on a case-by-case basis. You don't need to hold onto everything unless even one will kill someone dead, just get most of them so they don't ream the party. Alternatively, if you have an off-tank (you should), just have them do it.

4. Again, it largely depends on the boss, but most of the time the boss will be *facing* the wall, as this really helps DPS with positional requirements.