Squishy tanks... is it me or them?

[Maeka]

Even if a tank isn't popping CDs constantly, they shouldn't be that squishy, especially not in leveling dungeons. Leveling dungeons are designed to be run even if you're a bit under-geared, you should still be fine for the most part, except for a few outliers (Bardam's Mettle for one, some of the enemies in there hit extraordinarily hard and it catches newbie tanks and healers off-guard).

I wouldn't blame this on CDs unless they are recklessly pulling multiple packs and THEN not using CDs.

It usually falls to one of the following:

1). Poor Gear Choices: They might be using DPS accessories and their mitigation stats are terrible.

2). No Tank Stance: Tanks love going DPS on huge packs, dunno why, because when you throw DPS stance on and proceed to pull 20 mobs you're going to die unless you've got insane gear and/or you're going to lose threat to the DPS that are AoEing like crazy, OR you are going to gobble up all the healer's GCD/Casts just to keep you alive. Dunno how many times as RDM, I see a tank pull, use an AoE and my second Scatter makes me the new tank. That Should. Not. Be. Happening. I look up and oh. He's got his DPS stance on. Lovely. I, as the DPS, have to stop my DPS so I don't die so that he can do more DPS. Riiight. That, and sometimes, for the first couple pulls even I myself forget to turn Stance on at all. I wish Duty Finder would stop cancelling all of my stances and buffs. The ONLY time that should happen, is if I go into a lower level dungeon, like Sastasha or something that my level is too low for my stance. That, or give stances from the get-go so we can stop cancelling stances every. freaking. time. I enter the dungeon.

3). Just undergeared in general: If a tank's HP is barely above your own, he's probably at minimum I-level for the dungeon. A tank can do a dungeon like this, but he needs to single-pull and you need to pay more attention than usual.

[SleepyNeko]

When you get abit of experience with tanks you can tell their iLvl based off their HP, usually it will be the lower iLvl tank that are squishy due to gear/experience.

[vVAstrAVv]

Theres a lot of variables others have already listed but it might also just be bad wars

Thing about war is their tank stance doesn't give defense just more health and healing recieved
Its up to them to properly mitigate and if their gear sucks it can be a nightmare even if theyre doing things right

Darks are also quite limited
Only having shadow wall and rampart(?) For trash pulls untill 70

Aaaand you might also just be worse with x healing class
Im a terrible sch and good whm
Just a possibility
If you think thats the case plenty of good threads to help you improve
Buuuut its probably baby wars

Everyone wants to jump on the "op" tank but if theyre coming off pld where they CAN getting away with ignoring cds itll be jarring

[ArianeEwah]

I feel like it doesn't help that there's a buff cap on the party list of ... what is it, four? and that's almost always taken up by protect. Then you've got maybe adlo, medica II... blocks you from seeing the tank's de/buffs, which are an important gauge of how much damage you can expect.

You can actually increase this cap in your options, from 5 up to 10 buffs/debuffs. If you focus target the tank, you have an even easier time to see all buffs/debuffs on them (with duration), while you DPS the boss/mobs.

- [...] Some take this too far an heal themselves, looking at you paladins (and some red mages). These same tanks usually do bosses in dps stance and switch the burden back onto you.

I acutally don't mind that PLD heal themselves if that means I can DPS more as healer. Esp. in big pulls, healer AoE DPS is higher than that of a tank and depending on how many enemies there are, and how long it takes to beat those, you don't have enough oGCDs+regen to keep your tank alive. If the tanks sacrifices some of their lower DPS to keep up healer DPS, I am pretty okay with that. (But damn you RDM spaming Vercure on the tank with excog applied.)
So, I wouldn't count them all to the kind of tanks that don't know how to tank in DPS stance.

b@Topic:
There are certain factors that define the "squishiness" of a tank.
1. The gear: While in HW and SB tanks can't equip any "Disciple of war" gear anymore, below level 50 they still can. I think that is the biggest factor, because even lower item-level tank gear is sometimes stronger in defense (esp. magic defense) than "Disciple of war" gear.
Personally, I think it's easier to heal a tank with high defense and low HP than a tank with low defense and high HP.
Overwise the higher the item level the better (and of course HQ gear).
2. The skill: If you get an experienced tank, who actually rotates through their CDs instead of using all the same time or none, gear becomes a minor factor. Even an undergeared, yet experienced tank will be easier to heal.
They dodge AoE, know fight mechanics and act accordingly, pay attention to the party, and use CDs at crucial times.
Sometimes you wouldn't even notice that they switch to DPS stance at boss fights.
3. The DPS of the party: This is actually the hardest to tell at the first glance. Your tank checks every gear, sees that they are well-equiped, and does a big pull. But somehow the mobs don't die, your oGCDs already used, the tank is running out of CDs and taking serious damage. Sooner or later even your strongest single target heals can't keep up with this many mobs. In this case neither the healer nor the tank were bad/squishy, it's the DPS not doing the damage they should. Mobs might get buffs the longer they live, there are mechanics that can hurt the tank (like final sting). If your DPS doesn't know what they gotta do, even a great tank/healer combo can shatter.

[Ekimmak]

If you focus target the tank, you have an even easier time to see all buffs/debuffs on them (with duration), while you DPS the boss/mobs.

I tend to focus target the boss, so it doesn't blindside me if he starts winding up a big aoe/tankbuster while I'm specifically healing someone.

[Yeol]

I tend to focus target the boss, so it doesn't blindside me if he starts winding up a big aoe/tankbuster while I'm specifically healing someone.

You can see the cast bar in enmity list now
Just move it somewhere where you can see it. It is very useful to see the cast of multiple targets.

[Rufalus]

You will see a lot of variation in survivability depending on what dungeon you play. 50/60 dungeons don't really have an appropriate gear sync so you can pull huge amounts of enemies without taking much damage if overgeared, but Leveling dungeons with a tight sync can wreck people if they pull a lot. As you put in more hours of time you'll come to recognise which sections of which dungeons need more intensive healing or mitigation and better prepare your cooldowns and pacing. Bit more refined every day you practice.

[Spartan926]

Speaking from the tank role, it's most likely one of two things.

A) Your tank is undergeared: This is a problem I face on my DRK, even at lower level dungeons. I saw this yesterday in Sunken Temple of Qarn, my health would drop to about 1/2 (even with grit on) without any time for me or the healer to react. I attribute this to my gear because I'm running a lvl 35 dungeon with 31-33 lvl gear mostly. As a WAR I don't really have this problem as much, and even if I do it's far less a concern because of my high health count anyway.

B) Your tank is trying to overdue it with DPS/pulling: Some tanks will try to pull up to three groups at a time. This is more common at higher level dungeons. Generally groups expect the healer to be able to hold them up through stuff like this, though they should be throwing out a cool down when they pull most of the room.

P.S. As a sidenote I love your attitude about healing and trying to learn the role to better support it.

[tinythinker]

I'm a newly minted level 70 WHM, with a level 60 SCH and level 31 AST. I like my healers. I think I'm okay at playing WHM. But one thing I've noticed lately is I don't see a lot of middle ground with tanks. Either they're fine and I can throw a regen on them then holy spam to my hearts content, or they get half their health knocked off before my current cast completes, and I struggle to keep them up.

I am leveling DRK, but I'm pretty ignorant about tanking, and I'm not sure if I'm dealing with bad tanks or if it's me that's bad.

Any ideas on how I can better manage situations like this? I feel like it's my responsibility to keep the party alive, so I'm open to anything.

I've been a WHM for a while (currently on long break from healing) and had the same problem with SB dungeons. I hesitate to level a tank, though, I never remember enough details from all the dozens of fights to be in charge of turning bosses and I get lost easily in dungeons. Good for you for trying the tanking path

It's great that you're leveling a tank too. Def helps to see what you can do better when you play both sides.

A good idea would be to learn the tank cool down icons (buffs to circumvent damage) and watch their buffs in a dungeon to see if they're using them. Some tanks ignore them completely or save them for bosses only, which a lot of cooldowns get more use in in trash packs.

Another good idea is to check their gear. Just right click and examine them and do a quick glance. If they're using cooldowns properly/gear is up to date, it's also possible their gear is broken (don't think it shows up for anyone but them tho).

Good advice. I've thought about learning the icons myself, and tank gear can be a big issue. (Personally I'm not sure I would know enough about dungeon gear requirements for a quick check to help. Would have to go look it and the dungeon up later.) But if the OP knows the expected i-levels of dungeons that would help along with cool-down use to know if the tank is making it harder.