Tanking and Small Pulls

[Karshan]

Depends on mood / time of the night.

Bad day / almost time to go to bed ? I kill reluctantly the first 2 then if I see him pull just 2 again I quit cause not in the mood to waste powerful CDs and take 30min to do what can be be done in 15.
I have been playing for 6 years and it only happened 5 times, 2 of which in HS when SMN was all about the 1min CD for AOE and nothing between so you would absolutely want a big pack or it would feel super frustrating.

Normal day / beginning or middle of evening ? I sigh and begin "casual play" mode where I mostly solo target to still have it engaging for me (still doing more DPS than most pugs on 3 targets so it is not really hindering).

[True-to-Caesar]

I usually try and encourage bigger pulls by being very nice and charming! Tanks shouldn't be scared, ever! ^^

Sometimes it actually works! Other times... I'll have to help out a little with the pulling!

Healers privilege?

I try to do 2 packs-1 pack-2-pack etc, mostly to spread cds evenly and be more safe and let the healer breath a bit.

As new player though (I’m lvl 80 but started 3 months ago), nothing more annoying than DPS or healers rushing ahead to pull.
Targeting in this game is already not that good and having to do extra steps just for agro instead of getting them all in a single AoE... especially if you try to pull 2+ packs.

I don’t know why people do that. Personally I always played DPS in games but always stayed behind the tank.

0) if the tank gets kicked out i'll just leave myself too

You’re a good man lad, I’d do the same. Thankfully I never find myself in this situation (as tank or dps).

[MilkieTea]

I try to do 2 packs-1 pack-2-pack etc, mostly to spread cds evenly and be more safe and let the healer breath a bit.

As new player though (I’m lvl 80 but started 3 months ago), nothing more annoying than DPS or healers rushing ahead to pull.
Targeting in this game is already not that good and having to do extra steps just for agro instead of getting them all in a single AoE... especially if you try to pull 2+ packs.

I don’t know why people do that. Personally I always played DPS in games but always stayed behind the tank.



You’re a good man lad, I’d do the same. Thankfully I never find myself in this situation (as tank or dps).

I'd like to let you know that while the sentiment is great, the most healers have to do on downtime is spam 1 aoe spell over and over, and if youre pulling small enough packs they may not even get to do that. It is 100% safe to pull 3 packs at a time for most level 80 dungeons, level 70 and level 60 dungeons. I remember levelling WHM, and telling a tank who was pulling small "You can pull big. I want to feel alive."

We died, of course, but went right back into that pull and were fine, and the rest of the subsequent pulls were also fine. If you notice even in small pulls that your health is going down consistently, ask your healer if they'd be fine with big pulls. Sometimes they're playing hooky with your health just to have something to do other than press 1.

As a tank, I typically have gotten bigger with my pulls as time goes on. I can also count on both hands how many times I've died because of said pulls, in my hundreds of dungeon runs. What I do is aggro one enemy with my ranged attack, run past the rest while AOE-ing, and do the same for the next few packs until I've hit a wall where I can't go on any further. Any stragglers are typically brought back to me by DPS, and what isn't I can quickly aggro using my enemy list to target and ranged attack/voke. Then it's just a matter of dodging AOEs and using my 123 aoe combo.

As a healer, in the beginning of a level cap dungeon I let the tank know they can pull w2w, and if it's not a level cap dungeon I let them know they can pull more than 2 packs. With only 2 packs or 1 pack, I'll just spam my aoe and might not even heal the tank because they don't hit hard enough to do enough damage before the next pack. It's boring. But with more than that, I get the chance to actually heal, maybe even use CDs.

[Lauren]

I'll ask if the tank can do larger pulls as I'll ensure to keep them alive and let 'em know of any skills they might need to use when pulling larger packs.

It's not just about clearing the dungeon faster, for me anyway, killing several small packs of mobs just isn't as fun as pulling a big back and nuking them down with all our big AOE skills.

[Yuella]

Tanks set the pace. If you don't like it, you can politely leave and re-queue (after whatever penalty you get for leaving). And I don't mean this negatively. People deserve to play with other people who share their playstyle.

[aveyond-dreams]

If I see a tank single pulling in a levelling dungeon I will usually pull ahead and bring mobs to them in order to nudge them to go faster regardless of my role. Contrary to popular belief, the tank does not actually set the pace on their own, it’s a team effort. Since we are no longer living in the days of Flash and aggro management, there is no reasonable excuse for a tank to not aoe multiple packs and rotate their cooldowns.

I see some people citing gear as a concern, which is baffling because gear in this game is extremely easy to get. I usually check both the tank’s and healer’s gear at the start of the dungeon, and depending on what I see I may leave outright if they are using severely outdated or NQ gear which I know will slow the dungeon down significantly-or worse, gear intended for crafters/gatherers. Another easy sign to know when you’re dealing with someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing is when they are a tank/healer who hasn’t unlocked glamours yet in post-50 content. Those players don’t care about how they look and don’t seem to care about playing correctly either.

Simply put, I do not want to spend 30-40 minutes in a dungeon when I know that most can be completed in under 20, if not 15 minutes or less. If a tank is new to a dungeon and they don’t want to use trusts, please pull at minimum 2 packs at a time. This lets me know that you are at least trying to play somewhat efficiently. However if they cannot do even that, or explode on me or other party members for pulling ahead-I will not deal with their ego. I’ll simply leave and they can find someone else to carry them while I bake cookies in Limsa.

[IckeDerTyp]

I try to do 2 packs-1 pack-2-pack etc, mostly to spread cds evenly and be more safe and let the healer breath a bit.

As new player though (I’m lvl 80 but started 3 months ago), nothing more annoying than DPS or healers rushing ahead to pull.
Targeting in this game is already not that good and having to do extra steps just for agro instead of getting them all in a single AoE... especially if you try to pull 2+ packs.

I don’t know why people do that. Personally I always played DPS in games but always stayed behind the tank.



You’re a good man lad, I’d do the same. Thankfully I never find myself in this situation (as tank or dps).

Oh, I'll let ya know if I pull and am sure you'll be fine if you just use a single AoE while I spam a single healing spell right next to you so you can actually aggro them all! Basically you'll have to use less spells to aggro them if a healers pulls for you

I don't do that to people that tell me it's their first time. However, if I see them using their skills properly, I'll encourage em to go a little more ham! They're a Tank after all, not some meek RDM! :3

No need for anyone to pull ahead if the tank does the pulling tho!

In the end its about having fun and uh... Using a single spell all dungeon isn't quite... Fun! That's the healers curse, or is it a gift? I don't know anymore

Also, wipes aren't a bad thing or something anyone should throw a fit over! It's a very natural thing and part of progression, learning etc.

Don't be scared to go ham, little tanks! Your healers will keep you alive, or we'll wipe. Both is fine and more fun than no risk at all, no? ^^

Make sure to let your healers know youre gonna go ham beforehand tho, same when pulling for your tank :P

[Aron73]

Here are a few things about me.
I have a tank char, but I also have a lousy memory, so remembering how the dungeon/raid looks like from start to end is simply not possible for me atm.
So instead of risking it, I do small(er) pulls, so we do not get overwhelmed.
Sometimes I have friends with me on Discord that reminds me, "You can take the tree groups here with np," and sometimes, I might remember parts of the dungeon.
Now, why do I tell you this? Because I also don't blame anyone except myself if we wipe not the healer and def. not the DPS, but me and I hate to fail, so take it carefully instead of wiping is a must for me.
Some may think I'm wrong to blame everything on me, but I also have a healer (in a different game), and I know how hard it is to heal an unknown tank and at the same time do some DPS, so in my eyes tanking is always easy whats hard is for the healer to keep me alive.

[IckeDerTyp]

Here are a few things about me.
I have a tank char, but I also have a lousy memory, so remembering how the dungeon/raid looks like from start to end is simply not possible for me atm.
So instead of risking it, I do small(er) pulls, so we do not get overwhelmed.
Sometimes I have friends with me on Discord that reminds me, "You can take the tree groups here with np," and sometimes, I might remember parts of the dungeon.
Now, why do I tell you this? Because I also don't blame anyone except myself if we wipe not the healer and def. not the DPS, but me and I hate to fail, so take it carefully instead of wiping is a must for me.
Some may think I'm wrong to blame everything on me, but I also have a healer (in a different game), and I know how hard it is to heal an unknown tank and at the same time do some DPS, so in my eyes tanking is always easy whats hard is for the healer to keep me alive.

A wipe a day, keeps the doctor away ^^

Dying doesn't mean you did anything wrong per se, or that you or anyone else is to blame

We're a team, so we live and/or die together. And we're having fun doing it

[Aron73]

A wipe a day, keeps the doctor away ^^

Dying doesn't mean you did anything wrong per se, or that you or anyone else is to blame

We're a team, so we live and/or die together. And we're having fun doing it

I will keep those kind words in mind. Thank you.