Need help / advice for this tank roulette situation

[LittleArrow]

[EDIT] I do feel I have enough information to inform my gameplay going forward. I hope this thread can be helpful to others, but I feel I've gotten very good advice and will not respond any further as the thread has served it's purpose. I will adjust my gameplay and do all that is in my control to prevent accidental face pulls despite whatever mentality someone else finds appropriate (abusive or otherwise). I hope this also helps others. Thanks to all who responded, this has helped me immensely.


This probably isn't a situation for most, but it's been for me for about a month now.

I've been playing this game since 1.x beta. I'm not here pointing fingers at the influx of players being the sole reason, but I do think in general more people = more instances of this being the issue.

So the issue I'm running into is this, very strange tank/ego complex dictating the entire run of the dungeon - "you pull, you die," "you follow me," "I manage aggro no one else."

I used to play by those rules in other games, but I learned from FFXIV dungeon running is far more teamwork than it is the tank decides the entire fate of the run. It's humiliating, frustrating, and it honestly makes me never want to run roulettes.

Context: Tanks pulling single pull, then moving to the next group, stopping just before the next group. I'm getting confused if we're going to pull another and run with the tank, then face pull by accident. Every time I try to clarify with the tank what we're doing, I get scolded / called down for pulling even after I apologize.

I'm literally terrified of GMs in this game due to ToS. I never defend myself and just leave the group, and even then I'm scared somehow I'll get reported.

I'm so confused as to what is defensible and what isn't in this game anymore. I understand not wanting to compel the gameplay of the tank, but what about my gameplay getting compelled by someone trying to 'teach me a lesson,' an adult that's just trying to play a game and confused by the weird pulling methods of other people?

Can someone please offer me advice here? Do I just put on my adult undies, leave, and not worry about it? Am I being unreasonable in how often I see abusive treatment of tanks lately?

Thanks for reading, sorry for the scattered post.

[EDIT] This is just an aside, but I did not notice the "Biggest pet peeve..." thread. I just wanted to say, my post was not at all made in response to that thread. I'm honestly looking for advice, and going and seeing that thread is helpful to find a balance opinion. I also want to clarify, I DO NOT support pushing a tank out of their comfort zone or gameplay. The situation I'm encountering is very specific to me being confused, apologizing, and being punished. I disagree with anyone punishing someone else, and I will die on that hill of an opinion. I do not want to cause any sort of grief for the forum community, and I apologize for not paying more attention to current threads.

An additional thought to my circumstance that I did not take into consideration when looking back at these instances; there is a delay / lag with other people's screens. I am of the mind that my character must have been way further ahead of the tank on their screen and perhaps they felt their actions justified. I was constantly moving, and I have seen the drastic difference between moving characters vs the players screen. Looking back, I can understand that decision, even if I disagree with how I was handled. Going forward, I'm going to keep that in mind and give the tank a much wider breadth.