So i tanked for the very first time today and i've made up my mind.

[Valdima]

I am going to throw myself into the sea.

[Steelbreeze]

Is "sea" a metaphor for something?

[Valdima]

Is "sea" a metaphor for something?

No, my first experience was just that terrible. :/

[Jandor]

We'll need more information than that if you want us to help you.

[Nerael]

It'll get better. Tanking gets easier the more experienced you get.
As a fresh tank my friends made it sport to pull off me at every turn. Hell I did the same to my girlfriend when she tanked the first time.
But it made me a better tank; they still try at times, but fail miserably. Paying attention to what other party members are doing instead of just tunnel-visioning mob aggro and boss mechanics.
Thinking multiple steps ahead and working preemptively to dissolve possible disastrous situations, adapting when necessary and pulling the group through hell if you need to.

I checked your lodestone and saw you don't have 70 classes yet.
You are essentially competing against DPS and healers who have had 100s if not 1000s of hours of more experience on their classes, not to mention most likely outgear you as well.
Yea you'll have a couple of horrible runs, but my words to you are this: It will get better.

Run with friends, find a tank mentor, ask for tips and advice from seasoned tanks how to handle situations.
It's not as bad as you think.

[Lambdafish]

So long as you do it before the DPS and the healer keeps you healed, you will be fine

[Alteriius]

Dunno what happened, but bad runs happen from time to time. Try not to let it get to you.

[kidalutz]

It does get better but sometimes it's hit and miss you will notice alot of the miss will come specifically because tank get's roughly 3x more queue groups than healer and 10x more queue groups than DPS because the demand is that large for tanks. That said if you can stick with it you will eventually find it to be a richly rewarding experience. Roulette bonus is almost always for a tanks so you'll rake in much needed gil , company certificates, clusters, etc.

Speaking from Personal experience. I've found that most of the patience factor goes out the window and pulse racing comes when queue pops and you see ranged people in the group you're tanking for because almost invariably they're the ones that wont target what you're building aggro on or will facepull more friend's to come and join the soire.

But good luck if you want to give up go for it I can understand the sentiment. But if you want to try again. Never give up,Never Surrender.

[ksuyen]

I also just started tanking last week (I confess I use the tome to get my tanking class) and because I didn't level the guy from zero, it's a steep learning curve. Fortunately for me I have been playing for >1000 hours as both healers and dps so I knew most of the fights in dungeons. Still, the tank perspective in the fight can be vastly different from healer / dps class, so before jump to dungeons it's a good thing to read everything about all your skills (tooltips), online guide and do at least a few guildhest ti familiar with them. It's getting better for me after at least ten runs, and I feel more comfortable and confident to lead the team to the end of the run even get a few commendations.

[Vahlnir]

SE forced my hand with Gunbreaker since I've been waiting for a Gunblade class since ARR...but after taking DRK into a few trials, 24 man raids and dungeons I can honestly say I will get used to it when the time comes. Tanking isn't all that hard tbh. It's the people you get grouped with that can make it that way. I've been a dps since 2.0 launch but I have also learned a thing or 2 from observation. In order to dps properly you sometimes have to know what the tank's supposed to do so you can adjust your positionals accordingly. Just keep trying and you will be fine. Practice makes perfect and all that.