I'm a level 67 paladin... Who does not know how to tank.

[Super_Bee_Brian]

It's not so much that I don't know how to tank. It's more like, I don't understand it.

Seriously... In dungeons, 40% of the time people are neutral about me, 30% they love me, and 30% think I'm garbage. For example, these past few days I've spammed that Shisui of the Violet Tides dungeon about a dozen times. The first 11 times I got a bunch of commendations. And the last one, one of the players said the following...

You... (dramatic pause) ... are garbage.

Here's my basic formula for drawing aggro...

Move forward. Once the monsters are close, I use flash twice, and then fight.

Here's my formula if it's a boss...

Move forward. Once the boss is close, I use that ability, whatever its called (the one that supposedly puts you on top of its enmity list or something), and then use flash twice.

90% of the time I draw aggro successfully. But for some reason, the rare times I fail, I get scolded severely by the other players.

I don't understand. Why the inconsistency in people's view of me as a tank? If I suck, I should suck all the time. But no. Whenever I get complimented, I get insulted as well. It's really bugging me.

I never use that ranged shield attack and I never use that weak-butt rotation that increases enmity. I've gone this far without them and I prefer to keep it that way.

What are your thoughts about my confusion?

Thanks.

[Super_Bee_Brian]

Oh also, I should add... Meriz Goober is my main. He's a monk. My tank is my alt. I just thought I should say that.

[Paladinleeds]

For tanking, adapt to the situation... if you're losing aggro, focus on getting it back. Watch your enmity list too. If any stops being a red square, immediately focus on pulling it back. Also, when you have an enemy targeted (especially useful for bosses), there's bars underneath each job in the party list. The fuller this bar is, the more aggro they have in comparison to the one with the most. The one with an "A" next to their bar has the mob targeting them due to aggro. Hope this helps.

[Vidu]

The ability you're talking off is "Provoke" and it doesnt work the way you think it does. You cant use it to build aggro, you can only use it to get aggro back. It "puts you on top of the aggro-list" in the sense that it takes the highste aggro someone has on the mob and adds +1 to that.
At the start of a fight there is no aggro, so Provoke does basically nothing.

...in regards to the rest of your post I'm not sure if you're just trolling - it almost reads like that.
You cant be serious about not using shield lob to pull a boss or Rage of Halone-combo to build basic aggro... Generally speaking you want to pull a boss by throwing your shield in their face, then build enough aggro to not lose the boss throughout the fight - one or two Halone-combos normally do the trick for me, depending on how good the dps is (gear- and skillwise) - and then drop out of tankstance for the rest of the encounter.

Rotating cooldowns, keeping your dots up and making use of Requiescat+Holy Spirit should be a given.

[Kirsten_Rev]

I don't personally play tanks (except in small friends-only groups where we're low-manning older content), but I suspect that your boss rotation is where the issues typically come up.

Provoke is the ability I believe you're using, to place yourself on top of the enmity list. I may be mistaken, but I don't think this gives you a fixed amount of enmity - it just makes sure you've got more than everyone else. So if you're opening a fight with it, that's not very much, and healers or damage dealers can easily rip it back away. I'd recommend on bosses or single-targets that you open with Shield Lob instead, which gives a significant starting amount of enmity right from the beginning (and use Provoke if you ever lose hate for some reason).

Also, make sure you're using Circle of Scorn, too. Between that and Flash you should be fine, though Shield Lob again still has a use here, if you happen to miss one of the critters (the range on both Flash and CoS isn't all that big).

- Suggestions from a lower-level, very casual tank.

[Lastelli]

Oh...they were definitely rude, but judging by what you say your formula is, it's obvious that you're new to the game and don't fully understand how tanking works in ffxiv.

I highly recommend you read a PLD guide and ask veteran tanks for some guidance. You can also join the balance discord if you want, you can find a lot of interesting resources there, from beginner's to advanced guides, BiS, in depth theorycrafting and so on.

[Super_Bee_Brian]

The ability you're talking off is "Provoke" and it doesnt work the way you think it does. You cant use it to build aggro, you can only use it to get aggro back. It "puts you on top of the aggro-list" in the sense that it takes the highste aggro someone has on the mob and adds +1 to that.
At the start of a fight there is no aggro, so Provoke does basically nothing.

...in regards to the rest of your post I'm not sure if you're just trolling - it almost reads like that.
You cant be serious about not using shield lob to pull a boss or Rage of Halone-combo to build basic aggro... Generally speaking you want to pull a boss by throwing your shield in their face, then build enough aggro to not lose the boss throughout the fight - one or two Halone-combos normally do the trick for me, depending on how good the dps is (gear- and skillwise) - and then drop out of tankstance for the rest of the encounter.

Rotating cooldowns, keeping your dots up and making use of Requiescat+Holy Spirit should be a given.

Good lord...

I'm not trying to troll. But anyway, thanks.

I'm serious about not using shield lob. There was a time in a dungeon when a player asked me to use shield lob, and I simply said "No... Flash is enough. Trust me. I've done this multiple times without shield lob." And then he/she accepted it and we finished the dungeon just fine. So that's that.

[Sabora_Makingai]

I play PLD and I can say that my dungeon boss opener is:

1) Shield Oath
2) Fight or Flight
2) Shield Lob (to pull boss and generate some agro)
3) Circle of Scorn
4) Flash x1
5) That one OGCD attack (I think its green)
6) standard attack
7) Savage Blade
8) Rage of Halone
9) Sword Oath
10) DPS combo your heart to the rest of the fight as you should not lose agro at this pint unless you are really under geared compared to your teammates.

https://www.mooglemedia.com/paladin-guide/

[Bright-Flower]

Here's what I do.

Always pull with shield lob. There's no benefit to face pulling.

Keep shield oath on at first. You can eventually start swapping to sword oath for more damage in some situations but this is something you should only do when you're familiar with the boss or dungoen you're running, and only do when you're confident the healer(s) with you can keep you up and you can maintain threat with it off.

As said above, provoke is not an enmity builder, you use it to pull an enemy back to you if you lose agro, or there's a tank swap mechanic on a boss in raids/trials. Same goes for the aoe taunt, Ultimatum or w/e it's called.

In aoe pulls, I pull with shield lob and use circle of scorn/a few flashes for enmity before I start spamming total eclipse. Don't forget circle of scorn as well. If I'm doing big pulls in dungeons I'll usually stop at each pack to get a flash off so they stay on me as I run to the next one.

On bosses, you generally don't need the rage of halone enmity combo if you're staying in shield oath, but if you're having threat issues it won't hurt to use a couple of these combos off the start. Generally if you're in shield oath, the extra enmity from that should see you through. If you want to start spending time in sword oath though you'll want to do a couple enimity combos before swapping to sword oath. But remember, going sword oath is something to think of doing once you're familiar with a boss, know its mechanics, and have faith in your healer. Having an off tank in raids that can shirk you also helps. Don't be pressured into going sword oath for extra damage if you're not sure in your ability to hold enmity and the healers to keep you up without it.

The way you phrased how you don't use the enmity combo and shield lob makes me wondering if you're sincere or not, but there you go anyway. Remember, damage is not the tank's main job. Your priorities are A. hold enmity, B. manage your defenses properly (ie don't get killed because you didn't use a cd on a tankbuster and handling boss mechanics properly) and THEN, at the bottom of the list, do what damage you can. There's no point in working to maximize your tank damage until you have the first two squared away.

For dungeon bosses this is my opener.

Shield Oath
Shield Lob
Rage of halone combo x2
Sword oath
Start goring blade combo, use flight or flight right before goring blade.
Royal Authority combo x2
One more goring blade combo before FoF wears off
Requiscat
Holyspirit x5(or as many as I can fit in before the buff falls off if I have to move.)
Goring blade combo.

[Gun-Cat]

9) Sword Oath
10) DPS combo your heart to the rest of the fight as you should not lose agro at this pint unless you are really under geared compared to your teammates.

https://www.mooglemedia.com/paladin-guide/

Leveling a PLD currently, the amount of flag I have gotten for switching to Sword for bosses is amazing. It is like every second dungeon run the healer -while not contributing any damage- will show an amazing APM typing something along the lines of "Shouldn't you be in Shield Oath?" the second I turn blue. I am at a point where I just politely excuse myself that my tanking style doesn't fit the Healers comfort zone and leave the dungeon. Really no need for that kind of discussions anymore.