Tank dodging

[xJimmehx]

Usually the rule for tanks is: You don't move if you don't have to (mechanics, dodging AOEs).

This is my opinion on the subject, mostly. This is because sometimes attacks that hit the tank are aoe (usually tank busters) and if you face the mobs towards another player during it, it hits you both. So if you do this, you might kill somebody. Be careful of that. Also note, that warrior has a skill, Vengeance, that on melee hits you receive from mobs, returns an attack of 55 potency to said mobs. So I wouldnt pop it and run away. Itd be counter productive. Most importantly. If you run, some jobs (monks especially) wont be able to do their job properly because of positional attacks. If you cant survive without running and hoping, you probably shouldnt have pulled that much.

[Shurrikhan]

As anyone doing positionals on a spinning mob would tell you, the delay you see is almost purely a visual one, rather than actually delaying enemy attacks at all, and attempting consistent positionals against constantly tank-spun mobs is the basis for one of the first few layers of hell, if not deeper.

[Mavrias]

Please don't do this. It's really annoying to get cleaved by mobs/ having to dodge extra aoes because the tank can't stop spinning everything.

[RyzerStormwind]

Just dodge AoEs, Use CDs if needed and follow instance specific mechanics - nothing more, Spinning unnecessarily will annoy your Healer.
And there is always the risk of a disoriented AOE telegraph landing on the DPS.

[CazzT]

You can't dodge autoattacks by moving behind the mob. Autoattacks work almost identical for player and npc/ai so you can test how it works on a target dummy. Start autoattacking, then turn your back to the target. You will still autoattack it. Same for mobs.

[Warskull]

Wondering if it actually works, most times when i tank i pull 2 - 3 packs of monsters, hit rampart, spam aoe's while running around inside the huge pile of mobs, avoiding aoes. Im wondering, is it possible to dodge monster attacks by moving around them, since they have such a slow turn rate? And when im low health or i feel the healer can't keep up, i start fleeing from the pack so less monsters hit me, something i found works.

I noticed alot of less experienced tanks standing in one spot, getting hammered by monsters and the healers being unable to keep up. Being contantly on the move have helped me alot while tanking.

This is bad tanking. Auto-attacks can't be dodged. Maybe you delay it a fraction of a second for negligible DPS reduction. In return you are denying any positionals your DPS may want to do and making it more difficult for your healer if they click to target, which many do. At the same time you have more than enough mitigation if your gear is on par. Plus you run the risk of cleaving your DPS, one cleave and all gains you made are gone. You can also end up reducing your team DPS by forcing your DPS to dodge more.

Move for the telegraphs, not for the auto attacks. Between arms length, rampart, your 30% reduction cooldown, and AoE reprisal you have a ton of mitigation before you even get into tank specific tools.

[Anienai]

NINs and BLMs love it when you sprint off.

[RopeDrink]

Such methods cause longer fights due to losing DPS, thus you would actually lose health/mitigation as it's going on longer than necessary. As someone above mentioned, circling will not actually prevent them hitting you unless mobs are so stacked up and/or have overly large hit-boxes that they have to push each other around to reach you first -- and even then, you won't dodge much and would be infinitely better off just keeping them as stable as humanly possible.

I met a tank today while levelling my MNK who made a point of doing 'staggered pulls'. He'd pull a pack, wait until it's all at 5-10% then sprint off for the next, which is actually aggravating as it is much slower than just pulling the packs together and frequently forces the DPS and Healers to sacrifice what they're doing to follow for no actual benefit other than lost heals/DPS. In addition, the guy would barely ever stay still, so I would have to constantly gobble through True North to ensure at least most of my damage was positionally correct, as opposed to ALL of it if they just stood still. In short, longer fights = more health lost due to tanking longer = does not make up for the 0.1% you'd save by maybe moving out of an auto-attack once in a blue moon.

Grab everything and rotate your mitigation. Everyone will thank you for it. Run around like a pleb? Nobody is going to like having you tank for them.

[Izsha]

You cant dodge auto attacks by spinning around monsters. If you are in range you will get hit. However they cant hit you if they are to far away. Like sprinting during a mass pull the guys in the back obviously cant hit you until they catch up, but most monsters run at or faster than players so it's a sprint only option.

The only caveat is very specific attacks that lock on to a location while casting like 10 ton swing cleaves from minataurs or those upright dragon creatures that 'charge up' their attack moves and you just dodge them. But for the most part, autos will always hit unless you move away, not around. And charged moves go off (you cant run away from a tabk buster even though you bolt away while its frozen casting)

The 'slow' turn from monsters is just an animation. It's still hitting you regardless of the visual.

[Windwalker]

I don't understand the complains about positionals, like all aoes have no positionals, they hit a large area and should be spammed on big pulls. None of the jobs i played use positionals with aoe's and in most cases im more than thankful for the tank to pull them togheter, spinning them around doesn't matter since healers/casters/ranged should keep their distance and melee dps should have no trouble using arms lengh and bloodbath.