My first experience at tanking

[Tommara]

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.

[Vahlnir]

It sounds like you had an impatient dps who kept pulling? Yeah, that's unfortunate (and annoying!) but you are going to have a rough time later on if you can't handle that just one time. Squadron missions only go up to 60, so...and you can't pick and choose. There's a select few. So...good luck. An impatient dps is actually one of the better scenarios in the DF. I realize that probably doesn't make you feel any better, but I'm under the impression that you might not be cut out for tanking because you don't seem to have the patience. There's nothing wrong with that, but it might be best to step away from the role to avoid further frustration. It requires a certain mindset that you may or may not have. There's impatient tanks too, but in my opinion a good tank deals with whatever gets thrown their way, even if it's not always pleasant.

[Tommara]

It sounds like you had an impatient dps who kept pulling? Yeah, that's unfortunate (and annoying!) but you are going to have a rough time later on if you can't handle that just one time. Squadron missions only go up to 60, so...and you can't pick and choose. There's a select few. So...good luck. An impatient dps is actually one of the better scenarios in the DF. I realize that probably doesn't make you feel any better, but I'm under the impression that you might not be cut out for tanking because you don't seem to have the patience. There's nothing wrong with that, but it might be best to step away from the role to avoid further frustration.

I have no desire at all to tank. Just trying to use up gear I've stockpiled.

Just a public service announcement for dps frustrated with long queues.

[Vahlnir]

I have no desire at all to tank. Just trying to use up gear I've stockpiled.

Just a public service announcement for dps frustrated with long queues.

Fair enough.

[Anhra]

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.

To be fair, in the current state of the game, most of the time it doesn't matter inside dungeons who is tanking because at least 90% of all Dungeons can easily be cleared without even requiring a tank, tanks to Bosses being overall too weak and as you probably withnessed yourself, as long as the dps doesnt pull everything at once, youre good.

It might be more taxing on the Healers end if things turn out that way, but it really is no big deal.

[Tommara]

Fair enough.

Forgot to say that yes, you're right. Impatient dps who kept pulling and pulling stuff that didn't need to be pulled (I might have been ok if he had only pulled stuff that needed to be pulled). I also forgot to say that I respect your job a lot. I don't want to do it, but non-tanks (and non-healers) need to remember why we chose not to do them, and so do what we can to make it easier for you, not harder.

[Tommara]

To be fair, in the current state of the game, most of the time it doesn't matter inside dungeons who is tanking because at least 90% of all Dungeons can easily be cleared without even requiring a tank, tanks to Bosses being overall too weak and as you probably withnessed yourself, as long as the dps doesnt pull everything at once, youre good.

It might be more taxing on the Healers end if things turn out that way, but it really is no big deal.

The long queues for dps are a big deal.

Edited Note: Even so, I'd rather dps, instead of having to deal with bad dps players as a tank or healer. I'm more of a healer at heart, but not in public groups anymore.

[Saefinn]

I think DPS queues aren't as bad as they could be. At least thinking back to when I got bored of questing on WoW with my Warlock and wanted to try levelling through dungeons and gave up because the queues were so damn long.

But I get there can be a disincentive to tank when there is a wall. The way I think of it, dungeons like Satasha are so forgiving that it leaves room for people to practice without it being detrimental. I don't like DPS who pull either because I feel the tank should control the pace of what they and the healer can handle. Fortunately I know how to tank well enough for that to not be an issue for me, but I can appreciate how it is for people learning or are new, that it can be more frustration.

At the end of the day the tank & healer know their level of experience. But I feel sometimes the best thing you can do maybe at the start is to say "first time tanking" or "hi I'm a new tank" and maybe add a cheeky "please go easy on me". I've seen people do it and generally I find myself watching them more to pace myself or help them if there's a problem. EG: if I'm a DPS and I see a mob attacking the healer, I attack that mob, get aggro and pull it to the tank or even offer advice if I spot something that might help them.

[Tommara]

I think DPS queues aren't as bad as they could be. At least thinking back to when I got bored of questing on WoW with my Warlock and wanted to try levelling through dungeons and gave up because the queues were so damn long.

But I get there can be a disincentive to tank when there is a wall. The way I think of it, dungeons like Satasha are so forgiving that it leaves room for people to practice without it being detrimental. I don't like DPS who pull either because I feel the tank should control the pace of what they and the healer can handle. Fortunately I know how to tank well enough for that to not be an issue for me, but I can appreciate how it is for people learning or are new, that it can be more frustration.

At the end of the day the tank & healer know their level of experience. But I feel sometimes the best thing you can do maybe at the start is to say "first time tanking" or "hi I'm a new tank" and maybe add a cheeky "please go easy on me". I've seen people do it and generally I find myself watching them more to pace myself or help them if there's a problem. EG: if I'm a DPS and I see a mob attacking the healer, I attack that mob, get aggro and pull it to the tank or even offer advice if I spot something that might help them.

Then you're a great player in my opinion, and my criticisms don't apply to you.

Edited Note: reflections on WoW - it's pretty easy to level alts in WoW regardless of what you do, primarily because you need to play a separate toon, and so have access to the whole plethora of quests, unlike FF14, which while you can make a separate toon, it's not the optimal way to do it.

[MPK]

Bro just pull wall to wall, pop cooldowns and aoe (depends on your level ofc).