Seeking Help From Experts: Tanking

[Soldowner]

Hello, Square Enix Forumites! Today I'd like to talk to you all about tanking, or rather, I'd like to ask for help from you all. I've only recently hit level twenty-seven, so I've done a few dungeons already, but something's been nagging at me ever since beating Ifrit, and it's making it hard for me to focus. I'll give several examples so I can expertly convey my point here.

I normally tank by running straight in to the crowd and setting off Flash, blinding the enemy, and targeting each one every now and again to keep all of the hate focused on me. When an enemy gets in to an orange range instead of a red one, I'll use Provoke to bring them back over to me until everything is dead. Rinse and repeat, and that's that. Sometimes, I admit, I'll be stupid and be out of the healer's range, but there's only a rare chance of me being so foolish I'd forge ahead alone. So, aside from that stupid mistake of being away from the healer, sometimes I can't hold the enemies off the mages and healer alone, so whoever is the strongest damage dealer comes in and helps me pull the enemy away from the weaker guys. I make a point to force the enemy to look away from my team so they don't get inside of any attack ranges, as well. Either they're looking away, or they aren't near my squishy group of people.

Waay back when I fought Ifrit for the first time since the beta, I tried to follow a similar strategy. I kept Ifrit turned away from everybody else, but circled him after locking-on so I could at least mitigate some damage done to me. There was this one archer who was dealing more damage than I could after I ran out of TP, so he had Ifrit chasing him around the field. I did what I could to try to pull Ifrit back to me, but the archer died anyway. So after the second damage dealer was down it was just me and the healer. I had to tank twice as well to keep Ifrit focused on me, but we lost anyway because it was just the two of us...but hey, we ALMOST won! I wouldn't have a problem since we won after the first defeat, but the archer claimed that I sucked as a tank...that hurt since I thought I was doing pretty well, and I think my fear of not taking ENOUGH damage causes me to die more often or take stupid risks that put my team in danger.

It is for this reason that I seek help from the experts before I reach level thirty and people REALLY start chewing me out for not doing my job! Please, tell me how to be a more effective tank!

[Kyriea]

It sounds like you're doing your job well, it's the DPS' fault for pulling hate. This game isn't a DPS race as much as most MMO's and people haven't quite grasped that yet and unload everything to be the best, but it goes the opposite when they instead pull a lot of hate and make the run longer. I would say from what you've said you're doing everything right, but it's hard to say without seeing first hand.

[Soldowner]

I certainly never took a video of myself, but I can try to give an in-depth look in to how things work if that helps? I just finished a run in Toto-Rak, after all.

[Kyriea]

Nah it's ok, like I said it seems like you're doing the right thing but there will always be hard times, especially with THM/BLM. I had a wanderers palace run yesterday which I've tanked a lot over the past few days, but with 2 BLM. No matter how hard I tried there were times where I would lose hate. The other party members were really great and never said anything about it, I just explained it was hard to keep them on me and they understood, and it never took me that long to get hate back. There will always be players who take pleasure from insulting tanks and healers, best thing to do is ignore them. As I said in another post on here, being a tank is about taking hate from players as well as mobs.

[jn2002dk]

As an archer i've pulled my share of hate until i learned to build up my dmg slowly instead of going all out. I've never, ever, complained about it though because it was my own fault

Only tip i can think of as dps is that i love when tanks mark the target kill order

[Vantwan]

What most dps players fail to realize is that enmity management is a team effort, and is not just the tank's job.

[kazaran]

Many DPS tend to go in full fledge and not understand mechanics, even so called experienced ones. Early on I had to realize quickly and when I DPS hold off early on till I see the tank has suffcicient enimity, then I can let loose.

I normally like ranged DPS with archers, but lately, many are doing it carelessly. OF grabbing hate strafing like ffools, and expecting us to chase down mobs, which isn't happening with most tanks. THey let them deal and learn.

Those type players are the loudest mouths, and it is a relief to leave, get a new party, and see how well it can be when they are not involved, or misguiding others. Eventually such people will realize, all the acchive is looking like unsocialized animals with a lack o f real logic.

Try to mark. It really isn't needed if a player knows his controls and learns to swap target focus fast, and see where enimity is. FOr less experienced, it can help them. Or if they are not aware of helpful kll orders.

[Soldowner]

Is there a certain order I'd be marking enemies in? Also, does it matter how they're marked if they're all the same enemy? Do I target the strongest foes first to lessen the load on the healer, or ones that die faster to decrease our chances of getting our butts handed back to us because we were mobbed?

[makii]

As a healer I really appreciate the way you think, and imo, that's what makes you a good tank, just that you care.
I've been in some terrible parties lately who just don't give a rats ass about adds surrounding me during boss fights, and then afterwards even go on to complain about that I died.
It's also the DPS's job to get the adds off, everything is better than my heals being interrupted and causing a wipe. It's not that hard to heal a dps or two at the same time, at least not in the early dungeons.

[TrystWildkey]

Is there a certain order I'd be marking enemies in? Also, does it matter how they're marked if they're all the same enemy? Do I target the strongest foes first to lessen the load on the healer, or ones that die faster to decrease our chances of getting our butts handed back to us because we were mobbed?

Oooh, yeah, any help anyone can give about marking enemies would be greatly appreciated! macro's and such especially, as the game is so fast paced, I think anything other than macro'd marking wouldn't work.

Help?