The Tank and You! Part 1: Damage Dealers

[marley85]

As a tank and healer in this game, everyone just needs to listen to each other. If someone is more experienced than you and is giving you kind advice, take it and try it. I've run a few dungeons as a healer with first time tanks/dps and saying "wait a second, you should try this -" has really made things a lot easier. That and explaining what the white bars next to our names mean.

I agree with you its surprising how many people out there just go crazy when u try and give them some advice and it just knocks the party for 6, people just carnt work as a coherent team after some thing like that happens. Some people just have to remember that people are trying to help NOT be undermining. This is a great thread by the way i hope there's lots of views!!!!

[Bloodwillow]

Communication is always key. I can't disagree with that!

[FlamingBeard]

I really wish mmos would have dungeoneering tutorials where every role and their relation to aggro/emnity would be explained. I feel it's ultimately the game's responsibility to educate players on these matters, not us players. As a tank player I've grown a thicker skin over the years but really, some people are just atrocious in their behavior towards tanks and healers. And even though dpsers are lovely expendable due to the infinite supply, there's no way to get rid of them from a group mid-instance in this game (is there?).

[Mezolitik]

I'm gonna be a bit cynical here and say that these kinds of threads don't necessarily help new players. I see so many threads and world chats instructing/abusing tanks that I'm worried about going back into raids in case I press the wrong button.

I did the first three story raids as a tank with only one casualty (myself), and with no knowledge of marking, positioning, or even how to use skills effectively. By the time I got to Copperbell, I'd worked out that some skills restore CP while some take it away. I learned that by screwing up.

If I hadn't run out of CP in that Copperbell boss room, I never would have realised that I was using skills in the wrong order. I apologised, and everything was fine.

There's far too much DO THIS!!! / DON'T DO THAT!!! and not enough acceptance of the fact that tanks (like all classes) are going to make mistakes - and that's the only way they're gonna learn. Sending new players into raids with a huge list of orders isn't helpful at all.

[coder1024]

Avoid attacking mobs which are "sleeping". If someone "sleeps" a mob it takes that mob out of commission and allows focus on other mobs. What I'll do sometimes is wait for the tank to attack, then use an assist macro to make sure I know which mob the tank is attacking (in case its not obvious) and then sleep the other mob. Then the group can focus on 1 mob and the other mob just waits until the group is ready to deal with them.

If you sleep a mob then ppl attack it, it sort of defeats the purpose.

[FinalFantastic]

You know its funny. There are generations of MMO players and many many MMOs that were released through the years. Yet every time new MMO comes out you have to explain all this to most of the people in PUGs like they've never played any MMO before...

[marley85]

I Agree its not necessary but if you want to get better at tanking this thread will defo help now i picked up alot of this from other players helping me out on the other side you will need this info later on in the game its really helpful when you come to the likes of temple of quarn or cutters crag this info will save life's i swear!!!

[Anarkh]

Awesome post, as a tank all of these are excellent tips!
As a tank, I mark my kill target with an X and the next target with an O, when O is dead, you move to next X. I have bound these to my mouse so marking is fast and I announce at the start of the dungeon this plan too and everybody seems to follow it!

[defraz]

Some good tips flowing in here, keep them constructive and keep 'em coming. I made this thread specifically to give the Tanks perspective on DPS classes in game.

I'm not saying Tanks are perfect and will always know exactly what to do, but I just chose to reference Damage Dealers first. Mainly due to the fact that I've had a bad stroke of luck running with DPS since I started playing (I plan on posting something about Tanks and Healers soon)