Is it wrong to run Castrum Abania as a tank at ilvl 272

[Mizunoko]

I have mained tank since the release of ARR i know my role well and i'd like to think im a decent tank and person. When i entered Castrum Abania on my lvl 69 drk ilvl 272 as a leveling roulette queue i was nothing but disrespected by the healer and dps. One of the dps was of similar item level as me. We plowed our way to the final boss i tried to just keep to myself so i could get the dungeon done because as any roulette runner knows we do them to get things done for exp and tomes, not to sit around all day.

When we got to the final boss we wiped 3 times because 1. The dps were not killing the hand adds that latched onto the healer and thus the healer could not heal me, and 2. The healer kept getting hit by almost every aoe i saw. Sure i was getting hit a bit hard but 10 ilvl difference between end game gears surely doesn't make it sooo terrible that it warrants harassing me over it and then blaming me for their own shortcomings in terms of doing the mechanics right?

On the 4th try i decided this was going to be my last because there was no point dealing with all this harassment and wasting my time even if it meant taking a df penalty. On this run i noticed our healer started prioritizing dpsing over healing, i was at low health for the majority of the fight, and not because i was getting hit alot or hard, but because the healer would just keep dpsing instead of bringing my hp back up. At this point i told them that to me it looked like they were just doing this to make themself more excuse to harass me over my gear which they did, they started saying how easy i melted, and in a way they kinda admitted it themselves when they said "it was easier keeping our dps going". I guess to summarize it all up it just feels like that because they all kept dying and failing to do mechanics they were using my gear level as a scapegoat to blame me instead of just admitting that they were not trying.

I am a veteran of this game and i know how to play and whats fair and whats not IN MY OWN OPINION, but i guess i am coming to the forums to look for a little reassurance and get other peoples views on this situation as well.

I appreciate any input and opinions anyone has as long as they read the entirety of this post and know the context before saying anything, thank you.

[Daeriion_Aeradiir]

It mostly depends. If you're riding tank stance and properly CDing tank busters in that dungeon (First boss's wheel spin, second bosses's stab, third bosses's whatchamacallit that inflicts vuln/bleed/etc) and cding during mobs then tanking at lower ilvls isn't bad. Now if you're trying to tank out of stance, not CDing anything at that ilvl then the blame will partly fall upon you. Your defense goes up dramatically from 270 -> 275+ range, so if you tank at lower ilvls making sure you properly CD is mandatory to not be a burden.

In this scenario based on the information you've given though, your ilvl wouldn't have made much of a difference. If the healer's gonna straight up ignore healing you or minimize their heals on you, they have NO ONE but themselves to blame when you die from lack of healing. You also can't be blamed if you die because the healer was jailed and the dps didn't break them out, since I also know the boss does 2 tankbusters during that phase.

[Ramesses]

It mostly depends. If you're riding tank stance and properly CDing tank busters in that dungeon (First boss's wheel spin, second bosses's stab, third bosses's whatchamacallit that inflicts vuln/bleed/etc) and cding during mobs then tanking at lower ilvls isn't bad. Now if you're trying to tank out of stance, not CDing anything at that ilvl then the blame will partly fall upon you. Your defense goes up dramatically from 270 -> 275+ range, so if you tank at lower ilvls making sure you properly CD is mandatory to not be a burden.

In this scenario based on the information you've given though, your ilvl wouldn't have made much of a difference. If the healer's gonna straight up ignore healing you or minimize their heals on you, they have NO ONE but themselves to blame when you die from lack of healing. You also can't be blamed if you die because the healer was jailed and the dps didn't break them out, since I also know the boss does 2 tankbusters during that phase.

Brilliantly said... +1

[RokkuEkkusu]

IMO, item level 270 is good enough to last for all of the SB leveling dungeons. Your mileage may vary on how you time your defensive cooldowns. I've been noticing the lower quality of healers on these leveling dungeons, even with the recommended item levels or if everyone is synced to the highest possible one.

[Deceptus]

IMO, item level 270 is good enough to last for all of the SB leveling dungeons. Your mileage may vary on how you time your defensive cooldowns.

This is absolutely 100% WRONG.

If you kept the Shire gear all the way to 70, you'd have 2286 Defense while doing so. Roughly 29,991 hp from gear from 1463 Vit.

Compared to a tank that took the HQ quest gear (285) literally given to you while leveling. Or equipped any gear that was given to you automatically when you completed a SB dungeon. Or bought the NQ gear sold by vendors in Kugane.

They'd have 3828 Defense. 31,918 HP on gear from 1557 Vit. They have 67.45% more defense than the person in 270 gear. While that doesn't mean you'll take 67% more damage than the better geared tank, that does mean you'll take a ton more damage from every single hit every trash mob does to you. All those hits add up to a quickly dying tank. All the Vit in the world doesn't mean anything when mobs are taking chunks out of your HP pool instead of nibbles.

Just for reference: The Defense gain from 310 to 380 is LESS than the defense gain from 270-285. It's an 18% jump in defense from 310 to 380.

So no. Do your healers a favor and upgrade your darn gear so you don't melt during dungeon trash pulls.

To OP. Is it wrong to be in CA at 272. In my opinion yes it is, but that's just my opinion. Just realize you're making your healers life really hard to keep you alive if you do decent sized pulls.

Edited: for better, more accurate numbers

Just for fun. I did some basic, dreadful, MATH. A DRG rocking the full Gazelleskin level 68 set will have 2680 defense. Mr. Shire tank will have 2286.

Let that sink in for a moment.

[RokkuEkkusu]

This is absolutely 100% WRONG.

If you kept the Shire gear all the way to 70, you'd have 2286 Defense while doing so.

Compared to a tank that took the HQ quest gear literally given to you while leveling. They'd have 3828 Defense. They have 59% more defense than you do. That means you'll take a ton more damage from every single hit every trash mob does to you.

Just for reference: The Defense gain from 310 to 380 is LESS than the defense gain from 270-285.

So no. Do your healers a favor and upgrade your darn gear so you don't melt during dungeon trash pulls.

I only suggested i270 Augmented Shire Gear as a reasonable baseline for SB leveling dungeons. Back in Heavensward, we didn't have the "automatic item drop from beating the last boss" thing. Having item level 120-130 would be reasonable enough for the HW leveling dungeons, especially having the latter.

[Deceptus]

I only suggested i270 Augmented Shire Gear as a reasonable baseline for SB leveling dungeons. Back in Heavensward, we didn't have the "automatic item drop from beating the last boss" thing.

We're not talking about HW here. . .

[Rosentretter]

Hmm... Castrum Abania is doable with i270, doing what previous people mentioned. Still, as a main tank, I think there's enough ways to have a better, decent ilvl at that point. I usually went with i270 until Bardam's Mettle, then gearing myself with that dungeon. The time it takes you to reach 67 you can already gear yourself to then go gear yourself with Doma Castle gear. It's a bit disrespectful to not be at a proper ilvl for that dungeon, since you make not only the healer do extra work, but everyone in the party (more MP/TP wasted between pulls, etc).

[HyoMinPark]

I only suggested i270 Augmented Shire Gear as a reasonable baseline for SB leveling dungeons. Back in Heavensward, we didn't have the "automatic item drop from beating the last boss" thing. Having item level 120-130 would be reasonable enough for the HW leveling dungeons, especially having the latter.

To address this, when The Vault and Gubal Library were current, Poetics gear—even Augmented—weren’t enough for those two dungeons. Especially The Vault. That place was no pushover when it was relevant, and could easily truck a tank in i120~i130.

To OP, tanking Castrum Abania in i270 is not acceptable in my opinion. I’ve dealt with tanks at that item level as a healer (leveling and synced), and it is a royal pain to deal with, especially if they want to pull like the Big Boys and ignore CDs. The defense and vitality gains you would get even from HQ level 68 white gear upgrades are nothing to scoff at, so I would highly recommend at least upgrading your left side with HQ gear or gear from Doma Castle. Doma and Abania are the Vault and Gubal of SB, so expect them to not exactly be pushovers.

[Laphael]

Thing is, i270 isn't really low for any of the SB leveling dungeons. Like, at all. There isn't even really that much room for improvement before level 70.

You are wrong, especially tanks need to be careful with gear for lvls 65-70.
See this great post below for numbers

This is absolutely 100% WRONG.

If you kept the Shire gear all the way to 70, you'd have 2286 Defense while doing so. Roughly 29,991 hp from gear from 1463 Vit.

Compared to a tank that took the HQ quest gear literally given to you while leveling. Or equipped any gear that was given to you automatically when you completed a SB dungeon. They'd have 3828 Defense. 31,918 HP on gear from 1557 Vit. They have 67.45% more defense than you do. That means you'll take a ton more damage from every single hit every trash mob does to you. All the Vit in the world doesn't mean anything when mobs are taking chunks out of your HP pool instead of nibbles.

Just for reference: The Defense gain from 310 to 380 is LESS than the defense gain from 270-285. It's an 18% jump in defense from 310 to 380.

So no. Do your healers a favor and upgrade your darn gear so you don't melt during dungeon trash pulls.

To OP. Is it wrong to be in CA at 272. In my opinion yes it is, but that's just my opinion. Just realize you're making your healers life really hard to keep you alive if you do decent sized pulls.