#a dungeon that should take 15 min took us a little over 45

[gaithe-guy]

FFXIV Tanking Advice

I don't normally make these posts, but I'm noticing a lot lately in FFXIV that we're getting a lot of new sprouts... A lot of new sprouts that want to try their hand at tanking - and that's great - but please... PLEASE for the love of everything that's holy... Please learn tanking etiquette! Don't be THAT tank that doesn't care and wants to do their own thing. If that's the case, that's what Duty Support and Trusts are for.

Learn the ins and outs of the class you are playing in that dungeon/raid/trial. Learn the mitigations you have and don't be afraid to USE them (don't just think a healer will heal you through absolutely everything, that's asinine). Learn to keep an eye on your tank stance to make sure it is on at ALL points in time (I cannot TELL you how many sprouts I've seen just run headlong in without their tank stance on and then it's a hassle for the healer to try and keep EVERYONE topped off instead of just the tank since aggro bounces everywhere) Learn to use your provoke on things if an add DOES get away from you and start attacking someone else. Learn to keep an eye on everyone's health in your party to know if something is attacking them that should be attacking you. Learn to use your aoes on packs of adds a few times before going into your 123 combo once or twice and then switching back (in doing so, you shouldn't have any problems with keeping aggro on just you). Learn to tab target through the mobs to make sure that you are hitting them all in a group and keeping their attention on you and you alone (You want to be the only one basking in the attention and light!). Learn the minimal amount of moving you can do in order to get out of an aoe and slide back to the front of the boss so you're not rotating it around and leaving poor dps either getting hit by the boss's cleaves or ruining their positionals. Go to a training dummy so you get a feel for your rotation. Go and do the Smiths' training - which can be found in just outside of Aleport or any of the major cities in the inns by the innkeeper. Possibly run a few lower level dungeons when you are starting out with either an all friend group (if you can, so they know you're learning) or with a duty support, so you know that you can practice your rotation, mitigation, and movements without making life a living hell for random people you get put with. (Of course, when your level is higher, you should know by that point the dos and don'ts of tanking)

As a tank, you have a responsibility. It is your responsibility to keep the aggro on you, make everything hate you and not the dps trying to kill them or the healer trying to keep you alive. But you also have a responsibility to try and make it as easy as possibly FOR your dps to kill the adds/boss as quickly as possible. That means trying to keep things as stationary as possible - unless it is absolutely needed to move them (aka moving out of aoes or puddles of bad/fire upon the floor). It does NOT mean that you spin around the adds/boss causing them/it to spin like a beyblade/top - making it absolutely IMPOSSIBLE for dps who do have positionals (aka ninja, monk, dragoon, samurai, reaper, AND viper... so ALL of your melee dps) to do those positionals.

Another thing you should do - which is respectful - is upon loading in, talk to your healer... ask them if they are comfortable with bigger pulls, or smaller pulls... Or, if you are comfortable with smaller pulls, let them and everyone else know so they don't try to keep pulling and stress you out... or you keep pulling and stress your healer out. Many a time I have seen a tank just decide on their own they are doing wall to wall pulls without consulting their healer, and then the healer can't keep them alive and the group wipes. Only for it to happen again and again because the tank doesn't want to do smaller pulls. It is also a responsibility of the tank to make sure their healer is comfortable - or... at least semi comfortable in healing the pulls their doing. If you're not confident in yourself tanking, you can say that, most people are incredibly nice about it. Those that aren't, forget about them and ignore them.

I said this above, but I'll say it again... Go and do the Smiths' training. Not only will it give you an entire set of gear for a starting out tank, but it will teach you all the ins and outs you will need to know and helpful hints for tanking. 10/10 I recommend doing this as soon as you're able to! And the nifty thing is... if you aren't quite comfortable after completing one of the Smiths' training exercises, you can just que up for it again and do it once more. It gives you xp AND gil, so it's a no loose situation, honestly!

This is going to sound weird, but I live by this really... As much as you have a dps rotation - your 123 combo - you also should have a mitigation rotation. All of your mit has different cooldowns, so learn what they are and where you can possibly in a rotation get full - or as close to full - coverage as possibly without that mit falling off. It's mostly doable, but that's really at your higher end levels. Try not to use more than one mitigation at a time, it doesn't do much extra for you, and you loose out on the extra mitigation you could have had after the one mitigation wears off. (I've seen too many tanks do this and then not have ANY mit for big hits that come afterward). One mitigation is perfectly fine, pop it and then trust in your healer, and once the time on that mit is up, pop another if you still need it.

Oh! And mitigation isn't a stopgap... And when I say that, I mean it like this: If you pull a large pack of mobs, usually when you immediately pull them, you should pop a mitigation cooldown, that lowers the amount of damage you're taking right off the bat, allowing your healer to also dps a little bit - taking adds down quicker. What you SHOULDN'T do is pull the large pack of mobs, wait until your health is at 20% and THEN pop the mitigation... that's not going to do much for you, considering healers have cast times for their heals, they usually aren't instant... so usually by that point - unless you have a REALLY good healer - you are probably taking a dirt nap. Pre-emptively use your mitigation BEFORE it becomes an "Oh shit" moment. Aid your healer in that aspect. A happy healer means a happy group, honestly. It's ok to use your mit at like 70%, but 20% is WAY too low... that's just ASKING for you to die and the healer to struggle to bring you back up while ALSO healing the dps to make sure THEY don't die.

Don't forget too, that if you're in trials/normal raids where you have 2 tanks... If you are the off tank and have a mitigation that can ease the damage on another target (aka The Blackest Night, Oblation, Cover, Intervention, Nascent Flash), don't be afraid to use it! It helps out the Main Tank immensely as well as your healers!

For any dps out there that might be reading this, a little dangling fruit that is helpful for tanks... If you have an ability that lowers the targets attack (aka feint, addle, dismantle) it's REALLY helpful to use that when a tank buster comes in... So as soon as you see those red indicators of a tank buster (or you see the name of the tank buster being cast since some tank busters from older dungeons don't have the indicator), slap that boss with that sucker on its backside so hard that its so affronted and its attack lowers because of it.

This all being said... if you are in a full group made up of your friends, then it is up to you and them if you want to toss etiquette aside. This is for when you're quing and you are with randoms. Even if you have someone else that has qued with you, if there are still random people in your group, that etiquette should be in place. Be respectful of other people, if you can.

That's... all I can think of right now... I might remember more later.

Signed,

An exhausted Paladin Tank main that has been playing healer and dps lately and watching tanks being disrespectful and has had enough.

[onstates-blog]

29.08.17 A 6:45am wake up call was seemingly a breeze bearing in mind we were both awake before the alarm even sounded. We got up, ate breakfast, drank juice and coffee, made sure our sweet treats that we bought from Bunners yesterday were safely packed and headed to the city bike dock down the road. I don't know if we have already talked about the city bikes over here or not, but let me just say, they are awesome. It's super cheap at around 9 quid for three days worth of use. The hire includes as many 30 minute journeys as you want across the time you have hired them for, there are docks on nearly every block so you could literally cycle on them all day and just keep docking and taking a new one if you so wished. You wouldn't need to do this though as you can get in to and around the city so quickly. The roads and drivers over here are super cycle friendly and the bikes are well equipped with a basket and lights. ANYWAY... so we got on our bikes and set off for the station! I was surprised to see how many people were heading to work at 7:20 in a morning and also slightly embarrassed that I had chosen to wear a slightly shorter dress than was maybe totally appropriate for a bike ride after reasoning with myself that there would be no one around at that time in the morning! Not to worry though as I had a trusty scarf with me that came to the rescue to alter my outfit slightly! Once in Union Station we headed to our train gate and got in line to have our tickets and our photo ID checked as the train we were on goes across the American / Canadian border. The train journey was pleasant, the conductor was v. likeable - he seemed like a guy who just liked to get stuff done while being polite and jolly, and I like that in a person! I have just tweeted the rail company to pass on my like too. We listened to a podcast, ate our snacks and drank some more coffee (we like ☕) The train we were travelling on was an AMTRAK service in partnership with the Canadian rail service VIA. 10 minutes before the train arrived at Niagara the conductor went through each carriage to explain that the train would stop twice, once for the American operators to take over the journey and secondly for us leaving the train at the Canadian side of the falls to get off. Weird huh? Once off the train we decided to walk for around 40 mins along the elevated river path to the actual waterfalls. The river is the most intense blue/green/turquoise colour you can imagine and moves so so fast. We could hear the waterfalls before we could see them which just added to the excitement of actually being there. It wasn't long before we could see them too and they were AMAZING! Straight away you can tell that the Canadian side of the falls (and view) is much much MUCH more impressive than that on the American side. We went straight to buy our tickets for the boat ride in to the falls and quickly walked through the maze of ropes and walkways down to the jetty. We picked up our bright red ponchos on the way and made sure we took loads of photos looking like complete dorks and then got on the boat. I instantly felt sick and was genuinely regretting getting on board but then the excitement took over and I kinda forgot about it until the end of the trip. WE GOT SO WET ON THE BOAT! I mean, we were expecting to get wet, they give you ponchos for gods sake but they don't cover your whole body. Our shoes were soaked through and so were Owens jeans and shirt sleeves! It turned out that even though the dress wasn't a good choice for cycling it was perfect for chasing waterfalls! The boat trip lasted around 30 minutes and we motored past the American falls and in to the horseshoe (because of the shape of it) falls on the Canadian side. There was a brief audio description in which it let us know that Canada is very proud of its superior water feature and informed us that it is predicted that the American falls won't actually be there much longer and they would instead become a series of rapids due to the force of the water eroding the cliff edge. The boat went what felt like so far in to the mist of the horseshoe falls and it was exhilarating to see and hear all the water whooshing over the edge and down in to the river. We motored back to the dock and disembarked, our legs feeling a bit wobbly, we decided to sit down for a bit, have another snack (crisps) dry off a little bit and calm down from all the fun. Then we began to make our way down to the waterfall on foot to get a view of it from above. We were glad that we kept our ponchos as the mist from the fall was blowing up so high it genuinely felt like it was raining and every now and again when the wind died down it would stop! From here you can see down in to the river and we watched the boats moving around down there. It became quite obvious from this angle that we hadn't gone very far in to the waterfall at all! As we were soaked again we decided to grab some lunch and ate it outside. We listened to some people who were on a trip with 'Diamond Tours' that seemed very friendly with each other, I assume that happens as you get older, there would be no way on earth that I would be inviting some strangers to sit and talk to me. We moved on to a sun spot to dry out and eat some fruit. We thought for a while about doing another Niagara Falls attraction 'journey behind the falls' where you go down nearer the base of the waterfall and get soaked in a yellow poncho or to go up the Skylon tower to get a view from a higher perspective. We decided on neither and opted to sit in the sun and enjoy the view from where we were. We had a couple of hours to spare until the train home and we decided to walk across a bridge until we got to the border controlled section, little did we know that we had to show our passports before even entering the bridge so we decided not to just in case they wouldn't let us back in. There is literally no reason why this would have happened but we decided that the faff wasn't worth walking half way over a bridge. In the end this actually worked out for the best as we got to witness a kid cycling around a park fall off his bike about 5 times. He wasn't hurt, he was fully protected from these falls (helmet, knee and elbow pads) and he always got straight back on, only to topple off it 30 seconds later! I know you shouldn't laugh at things like this but, nah, of course you should, laugh the kind of laughter that makes tears roll down your face, laughter that makes you unable to breath... or maybe Owen and I are just cruel? We then walked up the Niagara Strip which is genuinely terrifying. I guess Niagara is a bit like a mix between Scarborough and Las Vegas in the sense of it's literally got everything, casinos, water parks, waxwork museums, fun houses, dungeons, tat shops etc etc etc. We did not like this and began to slowly walk back to the station for our 17:45 train back to Toronto. The conductor had warned us in the morning that the train is usually delayed leaving the station on an evening, this is because the train station effectively becomes the border between Canada and America. Therefore anyone who boarded the train in America needed to go through customs! This has to be done before anyone can board the train! The delay was only 15 minutes and we were on our way home with another podcast to listen to, seats reclined and footrests up! Once back in Toronto we headed to a supermarket to grab some food and drink for tea, headed to the bikes and cycled home, stopping on a bridge on the way to get a photo of the CN Tower lit up against the night sky! Back in the apartment we had a quick tea, drank some beer and cider, washed the day off us and collapsed in a heap in bed! N x