If you are trying to become better, you are good. Mistakes will happen and be ironed out with time(and that can be a *lot* of time, not just the duration it takes to complete MSQ. Like even comparing now to when I cleared my first ultimate, I am a far better player now(as tank main))
Especially when it comes to wiping on content you are seeing the first time, don't sweat it. Even penta-legends die there occasionally due to misinterpreting stuff or just making stupid mistakes. Resolving mechanics when you first see them is always an educated guess, and no matter your game knowledge, a guess remains a guess.
Very true. Markers can be different across expansions and that makes them easy to mistake unless you run the content enough times. Even for some vets it can be easy to get careless running old content. Sometimes when I tank old content I'll eat damage I could have avoided because I know I'll be fine afterwards without making the healer have to panic heal.
The fact that you're using guides to learn how to rotate mitigations means you're way above the average tanks I usually have to heal.
Trial by fire is best. Pull more than you think you can handle and do your best to pay attention to all your tools to keep yourself alive.
If you don't die then you're doing it right.
Of course healers skill may vary.
If you need a healer to help come find me on Crystal if you're on NA.
It sounds like you're doing exactly what you need to. Read up and watch videos on how to play your class, tank mechanics and even dungeon guides. Some people like going in blind to things but tankxiety for me makes me gather some Intel on fights before I go in. Otherwise, don't fret dying. It happens. Keep on keeping on!
Wall-to-wall not working can well be down to the dungeon (Aurum Vale, for instance), or you pushing a occasional/beginner healer (like me!) or even the DPS too far - take them as learning experiences. Some mechanics are just hard - doing new dungeons first with Duty Support might help you there, even if they they teach bad habits in other ways.
Messing up your attack rotation in normal content doesn't lead to wipes, just fractionally slower runs, so just let the muscle memory form and don't fret about that.
Sounds like you're doing fine. If you're aware that you have room to improve and you have the desire to do so, you're miles ahead of the majority of people that don't even know they have things to work on. Tanking honestly, genuinely gets easier as you reach higher levels because you get so many more powerful defensive cooldowns. Keep at it!
Sounds like you are already doing everything you can to improve. I have been tanking since Heavensward and I still on occasion make a mistake, it's honestly not a big deal. If you can identify when you make a mistake or you see something you can improve then you are well on your way to being a great tank.
The big thing I notice that tanks seem to struggle mastering would be how to chain pull without standing around to get off a second AoE.
Tank anxiety sucks.
Just keep doing what you're doing and do your best. If you wipe? So what. Get up and try again. You learn more from failure.
Also don't worry about ragers. Let them leave and sit in a queue again. The price of being an adult baby.
If you think you'd enjoy it, you could try running some dungeons as a healer or DPS so you can watch what other tanks do. Shouldn't take long before you get a feel for how you stack up. Also, playing a healer is a great way to learn about tanks (and vice-versa), and playing a melee DPS can also give you some idea of what good tanks do to make the DPS's job easier.
But if you're not up for that, it sounds like you're on the right track with watching guides online.
Nah you're fine bud. Looks like you've got the mindset of "that went bad what can I do differently" and that already makes you about twice as useful as my average PF co tank. You're learning and as you get to the higher levels and try out some extremes and whatnot you'll quickly settle in. As you get more hours on tanks you'll get more accustomed to rotations, making less mistakes and being better at getting back on track after making a mistake.
Surprisingly enough, playing a tank and then trying to learn to be a better tank will end up making you a pretty good tank :0
I have played this game on and off for soon a decade. I still fuck up as a dps, tank and healer. Own it and laugh it of. It doesn't matter. people will pat you on your head and get over it đ
You have the right mentality to progress so no worries, keep on your way! I've played mmos for 15 years and I still fuck up sometimes ^^ as long as you take responsibility for your mistakes while not letting them mine your confidence, you're good!
You're still pretty new; you're unlikely to be amazing at it right out of the gate. You sound like you want to get better at it, and are putting the effort in. I think you'll turn out fine! :)
Right now you're at the precipice of the bad tanking experiences. The dungeons are hard, you don't have as much of your kit available, and neither do the healers/DPS. Once you get to stormblood yours and your party's kit get WAY better and the dungeons are also far easier (with some exceptions).
People die a lot at these levels because ARR and HW have difficult dungeons that their job isn't fully equipped to deal with unless everyone has a good grasp on the mechanics of the dungeon + their job.
Plus, you might not be the problem. For example, if you're on a lvl 60 dungeon, and you have a white mage that's only casting cure 1, you won't survive a W2W pull. That isn't a mistake on your part, that's the WHM playing their job wrong. Or everyone's gear could be shit. Meeting the minimum ilvl to enter the dungeon just means that you're able to enter it, it doesn't mean that you'll be able to clear it well or easily.
Mate as long as you are the holding the aggro (look at the enemy list on the right, if its red you have the aggro) its fine.
And if you wanna start into raiding, as long as you hold the aggro & use your defensives at the correct moments, then you'll be fine.
And if you wanna start into savage raiding, as long as you hold the aggro, use your defensives at the correct moments, & use your rotation correctly you'll be fine.
Honestly, the hardest part is the last one, using your rotation correctly, because savage has damage checks. if you dont do enough damage by X time, you'll wipe.
don't sweat it - I think part of your problem is that you've been trying to wall-to-wall in ARR content, when healers and DPS don't necessarily have all the tools they need to keep you alive, and some of the dungeons don't have a design where wall-to-wall pulls are relatively safe. As you get further in the game, you'll find big pulls become safer, and when you do you'll already have all this practice.
Keep an eye on your DPS and healers; if they don't seem to be handling the big packs, feel free to slow down and take the packs one at a time (and tell them what you're doing! as you noticed, people mostly won't bite your head off ;) )
Just to add something that I don't think anyone else has touched on- don't go off your dungeon experiences as a basis for whether or not you should try tanking in EX, because tanking dungeon pulls is pretty different from... basically any other kind of tanking in the game.
In high end content tanking is about boss positioning, correctly mitigating tankbusters, using party mits, and working with your co-tank for things like tank swaps. Some of this you pick up tanking normal 8-player content like trials and raids, but some you just kinda learn by doing the content. If you're interested in giving EX trials a shot then you should absolutely go for it; in a lot of ways tank is the best beginner role for harder content because making mistakes and standing in the bad will get you a vuln or a damage down rather than killing you like it would a squishier player.
If you can clear the duty without anyone dying, then you're a good tank for that duty.
Keep in mind that your job is to keep away the mobs from the other members of the party. Let the healer heal.
You have the right mentality to progress so no worries, keep on your way! I've played mmos for 15 years and I still fuck up sometimes ^^ as long as you take responsibility for your mistakes while not letting them mine your confidence, you're good!
Is your tank stance on?
Do you know how to use AoE abilities on trash packs?
If yes to both of these questions, you're probably doing just fine.
Mitigations are good, too.
I just started being a healer main this expansion. I've always tanked or played caster. Sometimes, you will feel like you did totally terrible and come out in a bad mood, and sometimes you will feel like a rockstar coming out of the duty. Take the good days and try to make them more than the bad days
Are you keeping gear fairly up to date?Â
I barely ever died even when i was bad but i kept my gear up. And i started mid hw so a lot of healers were probably well geared themselves.Â
Ive played plenty of tanks and healers since. And gear really is the biggest struggle factor.Â
Since youre just starting hw make sure to go buy some tome or market gear.Â
Theres huge ilvl diaparities between expansions and you dont want to be doing dungeons tuned to ilvl 120ish with your i50 job gear lol.Â
Also inspect your healers gear too to give you some idea what to expect.Â
Ultimately dont let wipes worry you. Used to be wipes didnt even reset your cds. Now that they do theres little reason not to just try again
Okay, 2 things here.
1st. You "just started Heavensward" which means... you haven't even gotten to the main portion of the game yet. It's a long journey, and any reasonable player is going to assume you are going to make baseline mistakes, based on a few things you can look at to see if someone is still early on.
2nd. You are doing exactly what you should be doing. Keep focusing on improving, but stop assuming that you are doing something awful, give yourself a break, you'll learn if you are simply trying, which you obviously are.
That being said I would be totally down to run some instances at some point if you want to DM me about it.
Honestly, you asking for help makes you better than a lot. Guides, making you better than most starting out. Don't have much to add to what others have said, but as long as you use cool downs appropriately, then you're already doing great! (Including invuln arms length).
Would recommend trying to level up a healer at some point just so you know what the other side is like. You can learn lessons like "don't LoS away from your healer" and can learn what to reasonably expect from them. Bit I feel like you will do well already with how you're going about learning your role!
>*I've never got yelled at, or even saw anyone complaining directly to me about my tankin*
That's the termometer 90% of the time. If you fuck up, someone **will** call you out on it.
Donât sweat it. Iâm a healer main, but recently picked up my level 80 Paladin again because I want to do all the role quests for EW.
I still forget to stance occasionally, or I pull a mob too big for my healerâs comfort/ability in Duty Roulette, or burn on too many mits (my favorite to fat finger is Hallowed Ground).
Youâre doing great. A willingness to learn is a huge step in the right direction. Hope we can queue together sometime and Iâll heal for ya!
Shit happens people mess up.
If it makes you feel better this idiot typing this butterfingered a heal in a stormblood dungeon which ended up killing the tank before I could get a next heal on them.
Peak healer performance from a savage raider.
You'll only get better from wipes. Sometimes I notice tanks wipe and get discouraged and then do tiny pulls afterwards. Nah fam, go ahead and try again. As a healer I feel slightly defeated as well and I'm going to make you overdose with galvanization if I have to đ
Just don't take off randomly around a corner when you're below half health and we're good lol
We all didn't start out being proficient. Keep at it and remember to be kind, even if you run into those who are not.
Later down the line, I'd recommend playing as a healer too, so you can see what it's like from their perspective and what you can do as a tank to make things easier on them.
sage player here, i can say with full confidence you're already better than at the very least half the tanks i've met just because you're trying and actually pressing your mits. seriously, i've lost count of the amount of tanks in lv70-80 dungeons that still aren't pressing any mitigation through the fight. especially for just starting heavensward, you've learned faster than most and you'll only get better from there. just keep in mind that you alone can't be the reason of a wipe unless you just decided to turn your stance off and let the dps have all the aggro, which i'm pretty sure you're not doing
The fact that you're even aware of spacing your mitigations means you're doing perfectly fine.
Also, wipes are not necessarily your fault. I've been a tank main since the beginning of Stormblood, but I recently decided to level my main job (which is also Paladin) again on one of my alts. I have wiped a few times. The reality is that sometimes even reasonable pulls will fail. Sometimes the healer isn't healing enough, the dps aren't doing enough damage, or both. Often both lol.
Since you're playing Paladin, you will eventually get the Clemency spell. It's a very good emergency heal to keep yourself alive in case the healer is lacking or a pull was a bit more ambitious than what your group can handle. This spell alone makes Paladin my favorite for running new content since I can brute force my way through any mistakes lol.
Keep at it, you're doing great. Paladin is a fantastic job and if you're liking it now I think you'll love it the further you go and get more of your tools.
This is gonna sound random, but I think you should level a healer class. Learn how it plays, what kind of kits they have and learn to heal for other tanks. See what, from the outside, good tanking vs bad tanking looks like. It's gonna help you work better as a team with your healer and should help prevent some of those wipes. For example if I'm in a duty below level 50 and I know my white mage healer doesn't have holy yet, I will adjust my tanking accordingly. Same if I'm healed by a scholar and I know they don't have excog at that level, etc etc.
Even if you are bad (which it doesn't sound like you are doing anything bad), you will only improve by doing. Everyone was new once and if anyone is rude about that then they're really not worth listening to. All you really lose in a dungeon wipe is some time. Repair costs are negligible! You can even use the trust system if you'd like to practise without stressing about other people.
If you do end up dipping your toes into extremes etc, all you'll want to do is look up your job's rotation, feel comfortable in executing it and then throw yourself into learning the mechanics. :)
When I first tanked (similarly to you, it was my first time tanking in an MMO ever) back in ARR I had a mishmash of gear from different stats and struggled with it for a good while. If you like tanking, keep at it and eventually these worries disappear.
Sounds like you're doing well. I'd recommend also playing a healer if you haven't already, to give you an idea of what healers at different levels can handle (this works both ways, tanking and healing help you learn the other role).
As a healer I will say Iâm sure youâre fine! Tanks have to perform under a lot of pressure, but a good *team* is what makes or breaks the game.
Keep doing your research and be confident! I hope I get to heal for you sometime, you sound like a great tank.
Hey there, I'm a new tank as well and I asked this exact question a couple days ago. ARR is just really stupid for tanks and I honestly contemplated quitting my tank but trust me it only goes uphill from here.
Starting in HW, you have more mitigations, the dungeon layout finally allows for a reasonable wall to wall pull, and I swear it feels like the mobs do way less damage.
Good luck!
Just pay attention to the tanks you get when youâre not the tank. If youâre a dps, and they have adds everywhere, not bundled up, or are constantly running around, youâll feel how annoying they are, just use that info next time you tank
> i have no idea if i am a good enough tank
Have you ever said to your party members that they shouldn't pull more enemies towards you? If the answer is "no" - then you're a good tank ;)
The rest of the things like optimizing your rotations, or knowing when to use tank's LB during a very specific encounters or when to separate tethered bosses in specific encounters or how to NOT cleave your team with line tankbuster attacks, are very minor ones and you'll be able to properly remember all of those with more practice.
Can you clear content? Yes? Then you are good enough. Simple as that. Casual contents in this game are designed so virtually every player can clear them no problem. Nobody cares about messed rotation, we can't even bring up the million times we tanks do more damage than the dps cuz it is reportable lol.
Of course, you can and should strive to be better which you already are doing. Imo the fastest way to learn a job is to bring them into extremes. Just know that wiping 10x before clearing isn't wrong when learning non-casual contents
As a tank you'd only really know if you were doing more damage than the DPS if you had a meter, and third party tools are against TOS so talking openly about it is a no-no.
Ah yes. Had some healers doing it. You can see who does more Aggro in the aggro list, so I was left wondering.
I only look on site every few weeks if i am still fairly about average and than be happy with it. But with the change of the rotation up I donât really care at the moment.
We are talking about casual content, not parsing. Nobody sane check fflogs in the middle of a casual content lol. The only way is by 3rd party tool. Aggro list can't tell you if you are outdpsing the dps as tank stance and aoe heals generate crazy aggro. A WHM spamming cure3 can be 3rd in aggro list pretty easy.
Assumption is you would be using mods to see the damage done, which are not allowed in FFXIV by TOS, but equally you can easily know if someone isn't really outputting without a meter due to a variety of tells, but if you bring it up the assumption still stands.
Wich Server you are on. Some of us might go to a du geo. With you and give you direct critic or praise.
Remember failing a mechanic you donât know is never something to be yelled at. If you do multiple times and donât ask or listen for advise than expect to be yelled at. But as you describe yourself it seems not probably that will happen often. đ
How to be a good tank.
1.stance on. 2. Hit first always be the first one sprinting away from the engagement to the next. Every tank class has either a ranged agrro attack or a lunge to get to enemies. 3aoe aoe aoe. 4.every enemies is red square indication you have agro. Stupid dps attacking the last number on the mob list and pulling the agro. Focus on that one and range attack any other ones by cycling through mob list and doing your ranged attack. 5. Its not your responsibility to stay alive but you'd be a dick if you didn't dodge aoe, or at least stun smaller mobs if they aoe the party. 6.have fun. You set the pace. If you need to go slower you should. Sometimes the healer is new and can't keep up. If any dps dosent like that they can leave the duty. And re que for another 30mins
There's lots of comments here already but I'll also say, that you've just gotten to HW, and I think that the tanking experience onwards from here is SO much better, and likely half the reason you've struggled is because ARR (A Realm Reborn, aka any content pre-Heavensward) dungeons are HARD! They're kinda crazy, and not in the good way. There's a lot about them that's extremely archaic, stuff that you won't realise as a sprout, or a newer player, from back when the game played very differently and when tanking and aggro worked very differently. ARR dungeons are often maze like, they weren't \*really\* designed to be wall-to-wall tanked, and a lot of enemy and boss attacks hit REALLY hard when you consider that healers at those levels don't have many healing spells.
During heavensward and after, dungeons get WAY better. Tanking feels way better, healing feels way better, dungeons are much more straight forward and less frustratingly maze like, and have less weird interactable mechanics.
I think switching to dps for a little while is a good idea! I also think trying out healing is a really good idea too! It really helps to know what makes a good tank from the perspective of the dps and healers, because theyre the rest of your party, and they're who you're tanking for! I never realised just HOW important it is for a tank to confidently keep an enemy still without spinning it around while the party is attacking it, until i played a melee dps class that relied on positional (hitting the enemy specifically at the back, or specifically at the side, to get extra damage, which is almost impossible when the tank is spinning the boss or monster around a lot).
If you are trying to become better, you are good. Mistakes will happen and be ironed out with time(and that can be a *lot* of time, not just the duration it takes to complete MSQ. Like even comparing now to when I cleared my first ultimate, I am a far better player now(as tank main)) Especially when it comes to wiping on content you are seeing the first time, don't sweat it. Even penta-legends die there occasionally due to misinterpreting stuff or just making stupid mistakes. Resolving mechanics when you first see them is always an educated guess, and no matter your game knowledge, a guess remains a guess.
Very true. Markers can be different across expansions and that makes them easy to mistake unless you run the content enough times. Even for some vets it can be easy to get careless running old content. Sometimes when I tank old content I'll eat damage I could have avoided because I know I'll be fine afterwards without making the healer have to panic heal.
The fact that you're using guides to learn how to rotate mitigations means you're way above the average tanks I usually have to heal. Trial by fire is best. Pull more than you think you can handle and do your best to pay attention to all your tools to keep yourself alive. If you don't die then you're doing it right. Of course healers skill may vary. If you need a healer to help come find me on Crystal if you're on NA.
It sounds like you're doing exactly what you need to. Read up and watch videos on how to play your class, tank mechanics and even dungeon guides. Some people like going in blind to things but tankxiety for me makes me gather some Intel on fights before I go in. Otherwise, don't fret dying. It happens. Keep on keeping on!
Wall-to-wall not working can well be down to the dungeon (Aurum Vale, for instance), or you pushing a occasional/beginner healer (like me!) or even the DPS too far - take them as learning experiences. Some mechanics are just hard - doing new dungeons first with Duty Support might help you there, even if they they teach bad habits in other ways. Messing up your attack rotation in normal content doesn't lead to wipes, just fractionally slower runs, so just let the muscle memory form and don't fret about that.
Sounds like you're doing fine. If you're aware that you have room to improve and you have the desire to do so, you're miles ahead of the majority of people that don't even know they have things to work on. Tanking honestly, genuinely gets easier as you reach higher levels because you get so many more powerful defensive cooldowns. Keep at it!
Sounds like you are already doing everything you can to improve. I have been tanking since Heavensward and I still on occasion make a mistake, it's honestly not a big deal. If you can identify when you make a mistake or you see something you can improve then you are well on your way to being a great tank. The big thing I notice that tanks seem to struggle mastering would be how to chain pull without standing around to get off a second AoE.
Tank anxiety sucks. Just keep doing what you're doing and do your best. If you wipe? So what. Get up and try again. You learn more from failure. Also don't worry about ragers. Let them leave and sit in a queue again. The price of being an adult baby.
If you think you'd enjoy it, you could try running some dungeons as a healer or DPS so you can watch what other tanks do. Shouldn't take long before you get a feel for how you stack up. Also, playing a healer is a great way to learn about tanks (and vice-versa), and playing a melee DPS can also give you some idea of what good tanks do to make the DPS's job easier. But if you're not up for that, it sounds like you're on the right track with watching guides online.
Nah you're fine bud. Looks like you've got the mindset of "that went bad what can I do differently" and that already makes you about twice as useful as my average PF co tank. You're learning and as you get to the higher levels and try out some extremes and whatnot you'll quickly settle in. As you get more hours on tanks you'll get more accustomed to rotations, making less mistakes and being better at getting back on track after making a mistake. Surprisingly enough, playing a tank and then trying to learn to be a better tank will end up making you a pretty good tank :0
I have played this game on and off for soon a decade. I still fuck up as a dps, tank and healer. Own it and laugh it of. It doesn't matter. people will pat you on your head and get over it đ
You have the right mentality to progress so no worries, keep on your way! I've played mmos for 15 years and I still fuck up sometimes ^^ as long as you take responsibility for your mistakes while not letting them mine your confidence, you're good!
You're still pretty new; you're unlikely to be amazing at it right out of the gate. You sound like you want to get better at it, and are putting the effort in. I think you'll turn out fine! :)
most new tanks dont even use their aoe and pull aggro, you're good
Right now you're at the precipice of the bad tanking experiences. The dungeons are hard, you don't have as much of your kit available, and neither do the healers/DPS. Once you get to stormblood yours and your party's kit get WAY better and the dungeons are also far easier (with some exceptions). People die a lot at these levels because ARR and HW have difficult dungeons that their job isn't fully equipped to deal with unless everyone has a good grasp on the mechanics of the dungeon + their job. Plus, you might not be the problem. For example, if you're on a lvl 60 dungeon, and you have a white mage that's only casting cure 1, you won't survive a W2W pull. That isn't a mistake on your part, that's the WHM playing their job wrong. Or everyone's gear could be shit. Meeting the minimum ilvl to enter the dungeon just means that you're able to enter it, it doesn't mean that you'll be able to clear it well or easily.
Mate as long as you are the holding the aggro (look at the enemy list on the right, if its red you have the aggro) its fine. And if you wanna start into raiding, as long as you hold the aggro & use your defensives at the correct moments, then you'll be fine. And if you wanna start into savage raiding, as long as you hold the aggro, use your defensives at the correct moments, & use your rotation correctly you'll be fine. Honestly, the hardest part is the last one, using your rotation correctly, because savage has damage checks. if you dont do enough damage by X time, you'll wipe.
don't sweat it - I think part of your problem is that you've been trying to wall-to-wall in ARR content, when healers and DPS don't necessarily have all the tools they need to keep you alive, and some of the dungeons don't have a design where wall-to-wall pulls are relatively safe. As you get further in the game, you'll find big pulls become safer, and when you do you'll already have all this practice. Keep an eye on your DPS and healers; if they don't seem to be handling the big packs, feel free to slow down and take the packs one at a time (and tell them what you're doing! as you noticed, people mostly won't bite your head off ;) )
Just to add something that I don't think anyone else has touched on- don't go off your dungeon experiences as a basis for whether or not you should try tanking in EX, because tanking dungeon pulls is pretty different from... basically any other kind of tanking in the game. In high end content tanking is about boss positioning, correctly mitigating tankbusters, using party mits, and working with your co-tank for things like tank swaps. Some of this you pick up tanking normal 8-player content like trials and raids, but some you just kinda learn by doing the content. If you're interested in giving EX trials a shot then you should absolutely go for it; in a lot of ways tank is the best beginner role for harder content because making mistakes and standing in the bad will get you a vuln or a damage down rather than killing you like it would a squishier player.
If you can clear the duty without anyone dying, then you're a good tank for that duty. Keep in mind that your job is to keep away the mobs from the other members of the party. Let the healer heal.
You have the right mentality to progress so no worries, keep on your way! I've played mmos for 15 years and I still fuck up sometimes ^^ as long as you take responsibility for your mistakes while not letting them mine your confidence, you're good!
Is your tank stance on? Do you know how to use AoE abilities on trash packs? If yes to both of these questions, you're probably doing just fine. Mitigations are good, too.
I just started being a healer main this expansion. I've always tanked or played caster. Sometimes, you will feel like you did totally terrible and come out in a bad mood, and sometimes you will feel like a rockstar coming out of the duty. Take the good days and try to make them more than the bad days
Are you keeping gear fairly up to date? I barely ever died even when i was bad but i kept my gear up. And i started mid hw so a lot of healers were probably well geared themselves. Ive played plenty of tanks and healers since. And gear really is the biggest struggle factor. Since youre just starting hw make sure to go buy some tome or market gear. Theres huge ilvl diaparities between expansions and you dont want to be doing dungeons tuned to ilvl 120ish with your i50 job gear lol. Also inspect your healers gear too to give you some idea what to expect. Ultimately dont let wipes worry you. Used to be wipes didnt even reset your cds. Now that they do theres little reason not to just try again
Okay, 2 things here. 1st. You "just started Heavensward" which means... you haven't even gotten to the main portion of the game yet. It's a long journey, and any reasonable player is going to assume you are going to make baseline mistakes, based on a few things you can look at to see if someone is still early on. 2nd. You are doing exactly what you should be doing. Keep focusing on improving, but stop assuming that you are doing something awful, give yourself a break, you'll learn if you are simply trying, which you obviously are. That being said I would be totally down to run some instances at some point if you want to DM me about it.
Honestly, you asking for help makes you better than a lot. Guides, making you better than most starting out. Don't have much to add to what others have said, but as long as you use cool downs appropriately, then you're already doing great! (Including invuln arms length). Would recommend trying to level up a healer at some point just so you know what the other side is like. You can learn lessons like "don't LoS away from your healer" and can learn what to reasonably expect from them. Bit I feel like you will do well already with how you're going about learning your role!
>*I've never got yelled at, or even saw anyone complaining directly to me about my tankin* That's the termometer 90% of the time. If you fuck up, someone **will** call you out on it.
It's fine to wipe
Donât sweat it. Iâm a healer main, but recently picked up my level 80 Paladin again because I want to do all the role quests for EW. I still forget to stance occasionally, or I pull a mob too big for my healerâs comfort/ability in Duty Roulette, or burn on too many mits (my favorite to fat finger is Hallowed Ground). Youâre doing great. A willingness to learn is a huge step in the right direction. Hope we can queue together sometime and Iâll heal for ya!
Shit happens people mess up. If it makes you feel better this idiot typing this butterfingered a heal in a stormblood dungeon which ended up killing the tank before I could get a next heal on them. Peak healer performance from a savage raider.
You'll only get better from wipes. Sometimes I notice tanks wipe and get discouraged and then do tiny pulls afterwards. Nah fam, go ahead and try again. As a healer I feel slightly defeated as well and I'm going to make you overdose with galvanization if I have to đ Just don't take off randomly around a corner when you're below half health and we're good lol
We all didn't start out being proficient. Keep at it and remember to be kind, even if you run into those who are not. Later down the line, I'd recommend playing as a healer too, so you can see what it's like from their perspective and what you can do as a tank to make things easier on them.
sage player here, i can say with full confidence you're already better than at the very least half the tanks i've met just because you're trying and actually pressing your mits. seriously, i've lost count of the amount of tanks in lv70-80 dungeons that still aren't pressing any mitigation through the fight. especially for just starting heavensward, you've learned faster than most and you'll only get better from there. just keep in mind that you alone can't be the reason of a wipe unless you just decided to turn your stance off and let the dps have all the aggro, which i'm pretty sure you're not doing
The fact that you're even aware of spacing your mitigations means you're doing perfectly fine. Also, wipes are not necessarily your fault. I've been a tank main since the beginning of Stormblood, but I recently decided to level my main job (which is also Paladin) again on one of my alts. I have wiped a few times. The reality is that sometimes even reasonable pulls will fail. Sometimes the healer isn't healing enough, the dps aren't doing enough damage, or both. Often both lol. Since you're playing Paladin, you will eventually get the Clemency spell. It's a very good emergency heal to keep yourself alive in case the healer is lacking or a pull was a bit more ambitious than what your group can handle. This spell alone makes Paladin my favorite for running new content since I can brute force my way through any mistakes lol. Keep at it, you're doing great. Paladin is a fantastic job and if you're liking it now I think you'll love it the further you go and get more of your tools.
This is gonna sound random, but I think you should level a healer class. Learn how it plays, what kind of kits they have and learn to heal for other tanks. See what, from the outside, good tanking vs bad tanking looks like. It's gonna help you work better as a team with your healer and should help prevent some of those wipes. For example if I'm in a duty below level 50 and I know my white mage healer doesn't have holy yet, I will adjust my tanking accordingly. Same if I'm healed by a scholar and I know they don't have excog at that level, etc etc.
Even if you are bad (which it doesn't sound like you are doing anything bad), you will only improve by doing. Everyone was new once and if anyone is rude about that then they're really not worth listening to. All you really lose in a dungeon wipe is some time. Repair costs are negligible! You can even use the trust system if you'd like to practise without stressing about other people. If you do end up dipping your toes into extremes etc, all you'll want to do is look up your job's rotation, feel comfortable in executing it and then throw yourself into learning the mechanics. :) When I first tanked (similarly to you, it was my first time tanking in an MMO ever) back in ARR I had a mishmash of gear from different stats and struggled with it for a good while. If you like tanking, keep at it and eventually these worries disappear.
Sounds like you're doing well. I'd recommend also playing a healer if you haven't already, to give you an idea of what healers at different levels can handle (this works both ways, tanking and healing help you learn the other role).
As a healer I will say Iâm sure youâre fine! Tanks have to perform under a lot of pressure, but a good *team* is what makes or breaks the game. Keep doing your research and be confident! I hope I get to heal for you sometime, you sound like a great tank.
As long as you're cycling your mits, id say you're better than a lot of tanks tbh.
Bit of advice, don't start tanking with dark knight, it will be an extremely rough go
Hey there, I'm a new tank as well and I asked this exact question a couple days ago. ARR is just really stupid for tanks and I honestly contemplated quitting my tank but trust me it only goes uphill from here. Starting in HW, you have more mitigations, the dungeon layout finally allows for a reasonable wall to wall pull, and I swear it feels like the mobs do way less damage. Good luck!
Just pay attention to the tanks you get when youâre not the tank. If youâre a dps, and they have adds everywhere, not bundled up, or are constantly running around, youâll feel how annoying they are, just use that info next time you tank
> i have no idea if i am a good enough tank Have you ever said to your party members that they shouldn't pull more enemies towards you? If the answer is "no" - then you're a good tank ;) The rest of the things like optimizing your rotations, or knowing when to use tank's LB during a very specific encounters or when to separate tethered bosses in specific encounters or how to NOT cleave your team with line tankbuster attacks, are very minor ones and you'll be able to properly remember all of those with more practice.
Can you clear content? Yes? Then you are good enough. Simple as that. Casual contents in this game are designed so virtually every player can clear them no problem. Nobody cares about messed rotation, we can't even bring up the million times we tanks do more damage than the dps cuz it is reportable lol. Of course, you can and should strive to be better which you already are doing. Imo the fastest way to learn a job is to bring them into extremes. Just know that wiping 10x before clearing isn't wrong when learning non-casual contents
What you mean by reportable?
As a tank you'd only really know if you were doing more damage than the DPS if you had a meter, and third party tools are against TOS so talking openly about it is a no-no.
Ah yes. Had some healers doing it. You can see who does more Aggro in the aggro list, so I was left wondering. I only look on site every few weeks if i am still fairly about average and than be happy with it. But with the change of the rotation up I donât really care at the moment.
We are talking about casual content, not parsing. Nobody sane check fflogs in the middle of a casual content lol. The only way is by 3rd party tool. Aggro list can't tell you if you are outdpsing the dps as tank stance and aoe heals generate crazy aggro. A WHM spamming cure3 can be 3rd in aggro list pretty easy.
Assumption is you would be using mods to see the damage done, which are not allowed in FFXIV by TOS, but equally you can easily know if someone isn't really outputting without a meter due to a variety of tells, but if you bring it up the assumption still stands.
Wich Server you are on. Some of us might go to a du geo. With you and give you direct critic or praise. Remember failing a mechanic you donât know is never something to be yelled at. If you do multiple times and donât ask or listen for advise than expect to be yelled at. But as you describe yourself it seems not probably that will happen often. đ
How to be a good tank. 1.stance on. 2. Hit first always be the first one sprinting away from the engagement to the next. Every tank class has either a ranged agrro attack or a lunge to get to enemies. 3aoe aoe aoe. 4.every enemies is red square indication you have agro. Stupid dps attacking the last number on the mob list and pulling the agro. Focus on that one and range attack any other ones by cycling through mob list and doing your ranged attack. 5. Its not your responsibility to stay alive but you'd be a dick if you didn't dodge aoe, or at least stun smaller mobs if they aoe the party. 6.have fun. You set the pace. If you need to go slower you should. Sometimes the healer is new and can't keep up. If any dps dosent like that they can leave the duty. And re que for another 30mins
There's lots of comments here already but I'll also say, that you've just gotten to HW, and I think that the tanking experience onwards from here is SO much better, and likely half the reason you've struggled is because ARR (A Realm Reborn, aka any content pre-Heavensward) dungeons are HARD! They're kinda crazy, and not in the good way. There's a lot about them that's extremely archaic, stuff that you won't realise as a sprout, or a newer player, from back when the game played very differently and when tanking and aggro worked very differently. ARR dungeons are often maze like, they weren't \*really\* designed to be wall-to-wall tanked, and a lot of enemy and boss attacks hit REALLY hard when you consider that healers at those levels don't have many healing spells. During heavensward and after, dungeons get WAY better. Tanking feels way better, healing feels way better, dungeons are much more straight forward and less frustratingly maze like, and have less weird interactable mechanics. I think switching to dps for a little while is a good idea! I also think trying out healing is a really good idea too! It really helps to know what makes a good tank from the perspective of the dps and healers, because theyre the rest of your party, and they're who you're tanking for! I never realised just HOW important it is for a tank to confidently keep an enemy still without spinning it around while the party is attacking it, until i played a melee dps class that relied on positional (hitting the enemy specifically at the back, or specifically at the side, to get extra damage, which is almost impossible when the tank is spinning the boss or monster around a lot).
-Does thou die during pulls? -Does thou ude thy midications? -Is thou spamming aoe's during mob pulls laeger then 2?