How can you tell a bad tank?

[Forever_Learning]

There are two types of tanks in this game.

One kind needs a big heal every 10 seconds or so, while the other tank, it's like they arent wearing any armour! I watch their health bar and I swear, it's just constantly dropping so fast! Is the second type an indication you have a bad tank on your hands?

[LegoTechnic]

Step 1: Target them at the start and look at their gear. Make an initial judgement based on ilvl.
Step 2: Note how aggressively they perform the first opportunity to wall-to-wall pull. It's recommeneded to play conservatively on initial pulls to judge them, especially if step 1 rates them as "paper".
Step 3: Target them through the first trash pull and watch their cooldown performance. Mitigation abilities: Are they using them?

You should have a good idea of how hard your task will be with these three judgements.

[Forever_Learning]

I like your comment regarding CDs. I did the Vault yesterday for the first time as AST, and it was wipe city with a DRK tank. I felt I had to do my entire arsenal every pull (lightspeed, you name it) just to keep the tank alive. Eventually, a DPS quit, and so did I feeling like the worst healer in the world. I get now I should have bene 2 instead of bene 1. I was determined to persevere though, so I went right back into the vault. I will learn to be the better healer!

Get another DRK tank, but first thing I notice when we pull - so many extra things light up beside the name when the pull happens! Health, instead of dropping like a broken faucet, only gradually going down. I throw our gravity, all is good cause tank isn't dropping like a rock. We do the entire dungeon with no wipes, I was still traumatized from previous tank, so I was scared to DPS - but it made me realize so much of the issue in the previous dungeon was the tank.

[Deceptus]

When they go an entire dungeon run and don't use a single defensive CD.

Seen way too many of them.

[gumas]

- no defensive CD even with 4++ enemy - minus point

- didnt try to dodge telegraph attack - another minus point

- instantly blame healer or someone else if tank die even when healer already try their best, and with dps leaning on healer side - this is the lowest bar for me, if i see tank doing this. i dont care how long he play as tank, i dont care, he's a bad tank in my eyes.

[tesni_g]

These are totally minor complaints compared to the above, but mine is pull uncertainty.

If the tank has been prebuffed with with a shield or similar, the healer is ready. Waiting until Divine Benison wears off, while probably not intentional, is aggravating and a waste of my skills.

For the love of Zodiark, once a tank starts running to the boss like they are going to pull, they really need to pull. Nothing like 3 or 7 other people popping cooldowns and precasting just to have the tank stop, so you cancel, then a second later they go. Please commit.

If a tank wants to pull wall to wall, fantastic, I'm right there and ready. But spending 3 globals on one trash pack, waiting for everyone's aoe to pop underneath, and then running to the next pack--it's a waste of time. All that wasted dps make the second half of the large pull worse because we spent our cooldowns running instead of smacking.

[Deceptus]

These are totally minor complaints compared to the above, but mine is pull uncertainty.

Skittish tanks are the bane of my existence. aka stutter stepping.

Wait until AFTER my adlo wears off to charge in.

[Sebazy]

Skittish tanks are the bane of my existence. aka stutter stepping.

Wait until AFTER my adlo wears off to charge in.

This so much. I can deal with not sprinting, no cooldowns, single pulls and whatnot. But standing there wobbling about infront of a boss just drives me utterly spare. Bosses have been the med break part of a dungeon for years now, just go!

[Lannybaby]

If the tank isn't using AoE skills after pulling 2 packs, that's a red flag. For DRKs, if their mp is either half full or full, at any point in the dungeon while foes are present, that's also a red flag. I was dpsing in Amaurot and we had a DRK tank. Her mp was almost always full or almost full. It meant she wasn't properly burning into Edge and Flow. It's nice when they can throw out a free cast, but if they have at least 6k mp, they should throw out an Edge/Flow anyway, and use the other 3k for TBN if needed. Otherwise, more Edge/Flow.

If a healer or dps breaks aggro from a tank, once or twice, it's fine - it happens. Just reestablish that enmity and move on. But more than that is another red flag. It means they're not paying attention

[gumas]

if their mp is either half full or full, at any point in the dungeon while foes are present, that's also a red flag

i give it okay if it half full for DRK and PLD, sometimes tank just want the easy way out (just do aoe combo and thats that) and i admit i do that too when iam doing my dailies (in case of PLD i save some just in case of emergency heal), i mean the important aspect is the defensive CD for me at least.

but in boss fight i agree, if i see DRK or PLD mp is not empty 80% of the time during boss fight, thas bad. not the worst, but bad yeah.