A Healer Talks About Tanks

[ghondon]

I will offer up some tehcnial advice. I dont always do this when im with my FC tanks because i dont have to. But if you have a tank that is struggling you can help him with the following.


SPAM STONESKIN FOR FIRST 15 SECONDS. Problem solved most the time.
Then let him get to 30% pop divine seal>cure2>cure2>regen>shroud of saints.
If you are getting threat after this then the i hate to say but the tank is in like ultra fail mode and there is not much you can do.

When the adds aggros on your sleep it and move away. As a healer you can easily heal yourself and the tank while tanking one add yourself. Unless its a nasty dulahan!

Stoneskin does not generate threat........

[amnie]

I definitely noticed that especially in the first dungeons, the 'intro dungeons' if you so wish, tanks have a hard time. especially when they are new. this has little to nothing to do with how good they are, really, but DAMN do DPS/DD have it easy to 'steal' aggro in those first 3 dungeons! and that doesn't even include what happens with ONE medica cast. lol

I noticed it when I played on my CON when I see what happens when I have to use cure twice in a short row for whatever reason, I had a hard time on my MRD (though to be fair I'm relatively new to the tanking business so sometimes I may not have the best reflexes right away) and I most definitely noticed it when I played my ARC. ONE shot and I had the aggro even though I was 100% positive the tank already hit it. and I didnt lose it right away, either. I know not to keep hitting a target. I know to run to the tank. even when the tank(s) hit my target I still had the aggro for a while longer. my friends started calling me 'aggro-ava'...

this isn't even including the issues of 'bad dps' where the dd (hehe) just run around in circles or the arc who think it's oh-so-funny when they get the aggro on purpose and keep kiting the bosses away from the tank, just to end up blaming the tank for not being able to get it back (uh... hello? I have one ranged aggro skill, with a relatively long cool down)

one I just let one of those 'kiters' die when I was on my CON. made the rest of the group laugh and he behaved after that

[Araye]

Hi All,

I'm a tank. I am a lady. When I enter a dungeon, I swear to the twelve that I want to complete it in the most expeditious manner possible, hold aggro on any mob encountered, protect my heals, and let DPS bring hell fire down upon those that stand between us and the exit.

I want everyone to be richly rewarded and have the best time playing. I want to be remembered as a good tank, as someone you would be happy to see in your party.

But the criticism makes me want to avoid the dungeons. I am level 45 PLD (IIRC) and I have yet to enter Titan easy mode because I know I'm going to get a load of flack. Some of it IS my fault. Some is due to lag (that is a new phenomenon for me). Some is because there is just an extreme amount of hate in this world.

Anyway, I'm leveling ARC now so I can join you all in the tank hatefest!

Thanks for the support!

Love,

Masha

[Panthan]

I agree with the OP on most parts, but.. alot of tanks did brought it opon themselves and plenty of others are sitting on the blisters because of it.
The standard in case of doubt blame the dps routine doesnt fly anymore and people dont and shouldnt accept it anymore.
Overall most people are fairly understanding but noone deserves special treatment because of their role.
In ~15 years of mmo's (mostly as healer) most of the yelling came from tanks, most of the time blaming everyone but themselves for the mistakes.
Everyone makes mistakes and noone should get flack about it, so no tanks are no snowflake and I will never treat them different then any other member because of their role.

[GrimmWulf]

As a tank myself, I cannot thank you enough for this post.
Hopefully we can continue to educate the community & hopefully raise the fun levels for everyone involved in group content.

[Hawklaser]

I think a lot of DDs need to realise that the little bar under your class icon in the party list is your enmity. If that gets full you will pull aggro. Even when a tank doesn't mark it's very easy to figure out which one you should be hitting by tabbing around and comparing the healers enmity level to the tanks, the one that the healers bar is lowest on is the one the tank has the most enmity on. Go on that. If your bar is about to hit full, ease off for a bit or switch onto something else - but don't go all out no matter what you target. Give the tank time and it makes every bodies lives easier.

As a someone who leveled Drg first, want to chime in on this. That little agro bar is a DD's best friend, and I make it a personal challenge to out-threat the healer as fast as possible on the current kill mob thanks to it. About the only time I ignore said agro bar and pull hate is if the mob is about dead and confident that my self healing and defensive skills are enough to make it not a burden on the healer if it swaps to me before it dies, other times is when need to peel something off of the healer that is not being cced or tank has not noticed. Us Drgs also should have the best armor rating after the tanks, so we can hold a mob for a bit with heal support if the tank has to let agro of a mob slip for a bit. And if heaven forbid the tank dies and gets raised, he doesn't need to out threat a higher level Drg, just the healer as we can dump a chunk of our agro when the healer is safe.

Now on to marked targets, I love tanks that mark them, it makes my job on Drg so easy, and only time I don't follow the marks outside of emergencies is when something like the Matrons in Haukke Manor join a fight as you do not want them getting off multiples of their aoe with the long terror, especially on the tank or healer. If a tank is not marking targets, the one they shield lob/tomahawk just became target number 1, after that its find the next most damaged and so on, can be a little confusing when multiple are going down at about the same rate, but that is where my friend the agro bar is really useful.

Now as to the blame game, only times I might blame the tank if I die when on a DD is if I die when peeling/keeping a mob off a healer that the tank should be holding, or if have to consistently try and save the healer, though will pay attention to what the healer is doing too before placing blame. Or if the tank is having a mob with nasty cone aoes spin like a top just because they want to run in circles.

[AtraiusDelmar]

I'm a tank. Male (but that doesn't matter, we paladin's sport the Tiara.)

I've seen good points all around, and I love the Original Post.

My regurgitated 2 cents.

Aggro bars for DPSer's. Learn how they work. Don't ever be at FULL, if you get close, SLOW DOWN. This isn't a game in the bedroom, you're not the winner if you're taking a dirtnap. SE's made monitoring aggro STUPIDLY easy. Give the tank some lead time to build aggro also. Not talking 5 minutes, just 6 seconds should do it. That's one combo factoring in the global cooldown. Also, ONLY attack the designated target. Don't go lone wolf unless for some crazy stupid reason the tank says so.

If he does run.

Continued... damn text limit.

[AtraiusDelmar]

Healers - WE LOVE STONESKIN! GIVE US MORE. I may be wrong on the mechanics (correct me if I am) but stonskin doesn't appear to make a dent in terms of aggro in comparison to your healing spells. I'm not saying only use it, but it'll help lesson any potential attention to you. Also, no overboard healing, use only what is appropriate and cost effective in terms of MP.

As for tanks constantly switching targets? yeah I've done that occasionally. Typically though, focus on 1 target. Spam flash after every combo. Rinse repeat.

[Amyas]

DEMON wall .................why are Tanks just tanking the wall ?
Seen soo many Tanks just leave the Bees to attack whatever (HEALER) Player they can ..............The Wall hits Random People , Rarely the Tank........................TANK THE BEES PLEASE !
I know ...........DPS need to LB the Left Bee...............seems in the PEW PEWING they get lost on Strat and MOST TANKS can think outside of tanking...........

I've had a really hard time before on the flies when I first started running AK (now too if I get a whm that does what I'm about to describe). I know people say to dps lb on the left bee, but if you're smn/blm let me pull em together first so it will be twice as effective! And pulling them together can be hard with healers (whm) hitting medica II before I can grab em both, ending up with me running around like crazy trying to voke and tomahawk em before they start their aoe on the rest of the pt.

[JeniLinsky]

DDs should follow the signs because it is a clear and unambiguous communication from whoever's trying to make everyone work together.

This is basically what I'm saying. Slow down. Communicate. It makes everyone have a better time, and increases the odds we'll get through the dungeon without a wipe. I've now done the starter dungeons probably a hundred times (Sastasha, Tam-Tara, and Copperbell combined, not 100 each) because I have such a good time with them. Just... be nice to each other. Really, is that so difficult?