My first experience at tanking

[Shin96]

There are many situations where a tank could pull everything and survive without the healer's help. They may have to use more of their abilities than normal to their inconvenience in the next pull, but it's not always true that a tank even needs to rely on the healer and that's especially true as a PLD.

I agree wholeheartedly. However when that's not the case there's nothing more annoying than a DPS having conceptualized the dungeon run in their heads when clearly everything falls apart around them lol.

[Vaern]

A support role by making decisions how to approach enemies and how to pull them and when it is appropriate to. In the broader context that I dominate the party and the enemies in the decision-making of what is appropriate based on our skill and overall performance

We're leading the way, aggroing everything and taking hits. That's about the easiest decision making you can get. Just pull wall to wall without even thinking, it works 99% of the time.

a DPS shouldn't play like a tank when the circumstances of your party haven't been layed bare yet.

I think I can count on one hand the number of times my healer couldn't keep up with wall to wall pulls.
In that case I can't even say if I ever got a dps who felt as if it wasn't going fast enough and decided to pull everything on their own. I guess it surely wouldn't help an already underperforming healer.

the healer's job is not to kill their party

And our job is to take hits for our team, that includes not letting our dps die no matter how fun it actually is to watch them pull mobs to quickly hug the floor afterwards.

[Shin96]

And our job is to take hits for our team, that includes not letting our dps die no matter how fun it actually is to watch them pull mobs to quickly hug the floor afterwards.

And why should I? Regardless of how often this happens or not, I wouldn't be upset by a margin if it was one group but the ones I encountered pulled so many it even made the healer uncomfortable. I don't run much dungeons these days but every DPS I met actually let me do the job. No pull everything. Some asked if it was okay and I let them. The ones that don't and write me funny stories I see no reason to submit my playstyle to them. To each their own though. In the end we all play the way we want and if I make you uncomfortable then pray you never end up with me because I won't change for people that disregard other players because they believe their way is the right way.

[Vaern]

In the end we all play the way we want and if I make you uncomfortable then pray you never end up with me because I won't change even if the whole thread turns against me.

I don't really mind how you play. I just got bugged by that "tank is dominating the party" talk. I'm not against you and certainly don't care if I ever queue with you, I'll let you do your job and I'll do mine.

[Shin96]

I don't really mind how you play. I just got bugged by that "tank is dominating the party" talk. I'm not against you and certainly don't care if I ever queue with you, I'll let you do your job and I'll do mine.

I agree and ironically people took issue with that statement the most. It certainly was my fault for not explaining it correctly. Again, I'm not going to make a fuss about the DPS pulling unless there really is someone that's screwing over the whole party. Look no further than OP, one less tank because of this incident. I don't think it's fair to leverage all the blame on someone because they're fed up with that event. Instead of turning on me they should think about wether or not this concept is going to help the game grow more tanks. Certainly not with what I mentioned before in terms of skill and anxiety others may have.

[VelKallor]

Tommara

That's why I've never tanked before in a public group in FF14, and will never do so again

Please reconsider. I was terrified of tanking and have had some bruising experiences, but thanks to some kind players who walked me through methods and practice, i do now. Not the high end stuff, but Ive done a lot of the raids and dungeons, you will find a lot of good groups along the way.

Please dont let one bad set put you off..we need good tanks

so I was fine waiting for them before engaging.

..and that is the hallmark of a good tank. One with patience.

Had a dungeon the other day where a SMN kept pulling ahead, so we just stood there and let him be well and truly mollicated. When he respawned and ran back, the healer said sweetly "Wanna let the tank pull now?"

Rest of the run went like a dream.

Dont let one bad apple put you off, okay? You will grow to love it I hope, as I eventually did.

- Vel.

[Awha]

Here is the problem with the classic tank setting the pace mindset. It largely does not work in this game since the only pace where a tank is required is wall-to-wall pulls. So in practice tanks should have only one pace.

Sure if the group is struggling and stuff that is a different story though tbh as a healer all I need is the tank to do AoE and one dps to do an AoE. Though I mostly play WHM so my AoE is nutty.

I do have issues where tanks do single pulls out of a desire to seek comfort cause I can heal a dps through a single pull and even dungeon bosses. A single pull tank is a giant waste of space. So the mindset of tanks set the pace for the most part is fine, but when tanks exercise that right to dominate the party so to speak when it comes to being a waste of space is what I think a lot of people may have issue with.

Though my view has bias since I often ask tanks to take gear off just so I have something to heal.

Tommara



Please reconsider. I was terrified of tanking and have had some bruising experiences, but thanks to some kind players who walked me through methods and practice, i do now. Not the high end stuff, but Ive done a lot of the raids and dungeons, you will find a lot of good groups along the way.

Please dont let one bad set put you off..we need good tanks



..and that is the hallmark of a good tank. One with patience.

Had a dungeon the other day where a SMN kept pulling ahead, so we just stood there and let him be well and truly mollicated. When he respawned and ran back, the healer said sweetly "Wanna let the tank pull now?"

Rest of the run went like a dream.

Dont let one bad apple put you off, okay? You will grow to love it I hope, as I eventually did.

- Vel.

Also here is the issue with that it only works if the group follows suit. If the other dps helped the smn they probably could have done it. If the healer helped they most definitely would have done it. I have ran into tanks that do what you do I just heal the dps then you find yourself in a weird spot stand around doing nothing just to prove a point or suck it up and perform your given role.

[VelKallor]

I have only ever done that once, usually I just sigh and get on with it.

Funny part is that Ive had very very few bad groups...and a lot of VERY awesome ones.

[Lanadra]

No one died. But there was this ranged dps toon who apparently thought that killing everything was a good idea, while I thought that just completing the dungeon objectives was a better idea.

The dps toon started crowing about "Yay, I'm tanking!" Apparently, it didn't occur to him that was only because the healer and I would bail him out. This was just Sastasha, btw, with at least one member who was watching cutscenes, so I was fine waiting for them before engaging.

I know I'm preaching to the choir (Edited Note: People who do that probably don't read these forums). That's why I've never tanked before in a public group in FF14, and will never do so again. I accomplished my objective - get my baby tank to a high enough level to do Squadron missions.

Enjoy your long queue times, dps who do that. I know most of you do not behave that way, but we all suffer because of few who do.

You really shouldn't have bailed him out. That likely only encouraged their behavior. Should have just let him die two or three times, sure he'll get salty but then at least you can tell them to fall in line or keep dying.

If it was enough of an issue probably should've just booted the guy if it bother you too much, depending how slow you were going I might have done the same. Had a tank in Dzmael Darkhold single pulling in the first area when they take almost zero damage from the blue zones, I got tired of it and pulled up to boss room myself as healer.

If I get a healer like that, I'd adopt the 'you pulled it, now enjoy tanking it' stance. I fully recognize it's the wrong stance to have.. hell, I play WHM a lot myself in dungeons and wouldn't want a tank to do that to me.. that's why I don't try and usurp their job as the point man. If you don't like the tanks pace, tell them, tell them that you can handle big pulls and see what their response is, maybe they're not yet comfortable with the pulls you're clearly looking for. The pace of a dungeon is ideally decided by a consensus of the healer and tank of what each can handle and indeed feels comfortable with.

Anyhow, I said I would adopt above stance if I get a healer who does what you would, but in reality that will never happen because I don't do leveling dungeons as tank.. exactly because I hate the pulling game. My sense of thrill and enjoyment in tanking comes from boss fights.. trials, raids, alliance raids.

[LaughingBanana]

There are many situations where a tank could pull everything and survive without the healer's help. They may have to use more of their abilities than normal to their inconvenience in the next pull, but it's not always true that a tank even needs to rely on the healer and that's especially true as a PLD.

"Many" situation where a Tank could pull wall to wall and survive without a healer's help?

Such as? In which dungeon? And since you say "many", can you mention like, multiple examples of this? The only one I can imagine is Dzmael due to the crystal buff at the beginning, but I have difficulty thinking about others where a tank could pull *everything* and survive without aid from a healer. I don't think you can even do that in Dzmael past the 1st boss.