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A new level-capped tank first experiences at level 50Follow

#1 Jun 02 2015 at 3:31 PM Rating: Good
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Hello All:

I just hit Warrior 50 last week. To be kindly, things come as a shock soon after. I admit that I am not good as a tank, but sometimes I wonder did I pick the "wrong" place to try out being a level capped tank (something I am sure every tank has been at one time) - that is Meridianum and Labyrinth of the Ancients.

Meridianum: Often other tank literally would not allow me to try pick off adds. I guess he or she doing this for materia and just want to be "done" - a fair enough reason, but it did make it hard for me to practice. Meridianum is easy, and the risk of a wipe is very low even if there are multiple mistakes.

Labyrinth of the Ancients: I expected chaos as I have seen in other jobs many many times, so I had very low expectations things will "work correctly". The moment I enter, I know chaos was 100% certainty when I see I was in Party B and the other tank (Paladin) in the party has 4000 HP (I being a bit more "well geared" defaulted to main tank). Literally what happened was folks in other party (deliberately or not) took hate, and there was even one time that tanks from other party tried to move the bosses to their "usual" position instead of letting me and the other green tank in B to figure something out. Too bad the other tanks in other parties did that with Behemoth, and the electric tower literally exploded with not enough people in the other parties tried to discharge or kill the bombs (possibly due to lack of discipline and some folks thought that it would be quicker to just "zerg" Behemoth down - I had seen that type of sloppiness many times on other jobs, and things often didn't work with those runs as well). Well, it certainly did not make things faster as wipe was on order with all the electric towers gone. Things will probably be faster if the other folks did not try to interfere the (mediocre) tanking in our party, and to remain discipline (at least the wipe could have been avoided).

I guess that was the life on a new tank. I am not going to hide I am mediocre at tanking, and will take a lot more practice. I just wish things were a bit less "shocking".

Edited, Jun 2nd 2015 5:33pm by scchan

Edited, Jun 2nd 2015 5:34pm by scchan
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Amanada (Cerberus-Retired) (aka MaiNoKen/Steven)
-- Thank you for the fun times in Vana'diel

Art for the sake of art itself is an idle sentence.
Art for the sake of truth, for the sake of what is
beautiful and good — that is the creed I seek.
- George Sand

A designer knows he has achieved perfection,
not when there is nothing left to add,
but when there is nothing left to take away.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
#2 Jun 02 2015 at 3:39 PM Rating: Excellent
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I watched my husband go through your exact experience. He hit 50 and finished up the 2.0 main story and all hell broke loose.

Even when he went in with FC members who were trying to be good it was impossible for him to keep hate. He was 60 ilvls under the other 3 members of the party so there was very little he could do. I remember him being very angry and frustrated every time we ran a dungeon. In retrospect the other 3 of us should probably have just equipped lower gear or just taken gear off.

Fast forward a couple months and he has finished the 2.55 storyline and caught up a bit in his gear and now has very little trouble taking in most content.

Hang in there! It does get better.

Edit: upgrade your weapon first is what I always hear. I usually upgrade whichever piece of gear has the lowest iLvl after that.

Edited, Jun 2nd 2015 5:41pm by Yelta
#3 Jun 02 2015 at 4:01 PM Rating: Decent
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Yelta wrote:
I watched my husband go through your exact experience. He hit 50 and finished up the 2.0 main story and all **** broke loose.

Even when he went in with FC members who were trying to be good it was impossible for him to keep hate. He was 60 ilvls under the other 3 members of the party so there was very little he could do. I remember him being very angry and frustrated every time we ran a dungeon. In retrospect the other 3 of us should probably have just equipped lower gear or just taken gear off.

Fast forward a couple months and he has finished the 2.55 storyline and caught up a bit in his gear and now has very little trouble taking in most content.

Hang in there! It does get better.

Edit: upgrade your weapon first is what I always hear. I usually upgrade whichever piece of gear has the lowest iLvl after that.

Edited, Jun 2nd 2015 5:41pm by Yelta


Thank you for your support.

I am using a Leviathan axe that I had before I quit and returned. My ilevel is in the low 80s - thanks a bunch of assorted gear that I have accumulated over time from "greed" lots. I do admit I rarely see a tank with dark light earrings and rings for a long time (I got those before I quit to push HP above 4500 to eat fireball on Turn 5), and that tank is me!

Folks in my Crystal Tower party did try to help (but the black mage was somewhat trigger friendly, but it was manageable). The problem mostly come from the other two parties. I had very low expectations anyway, and I accepted there would be a high risk of things getting out of hand.

I guess the next "big thing" will be doing Hard Gaurda for the relic weapon quest. I have seen many tanks dragging the bird around many many times; I have been healer and attacker many many times on that. Now would the "other tank" to give me a chance to try to tank and drag the bird.

Edited, Jun 2nd 2015 6:04pm by scchan
____________________________
Amanada (Cerberus-Retired) (aka MaiNoKen/Steven)
-- Thank you for the fun times in Vana'diel

Art for the sake of art itself is an idle sentence.
Art for the sake of truth, for the sake of what is
beautiful and good — that is the creed I seek.
- George Sand

A designer knows he has achieved perfection,
not when there is nothing left to add,
but when there is nothing left to take away.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
#4 Jun 02 2015 at 6:50 PM Rating: Excellent
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scchan wrote:
I guess the next "big thing" will be doing Hard Gaurda for the relic weapon quest. I have seen many tanks dragging the bird around many many times; I have been healer and attacker many many times on that. Now would the "other tank" to give me a chance to try to tank and drag the bird.

If it even comes to that. People overgear the lower end level 50 stuff by so much that some mechanics aren't even a thing any more. Depending on how geared the group is, Garuda is sometimes dead before the first adds even spawn.
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#5 Jun 03 2015 at 1:41 AM Rating: Decent
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Karlina wrote:
scchan wrote:
I guess the next "big thing" will be doing Hard Gaurda for the relic weapon quest. I have seen many tanks dragging the bird around many many times; I have been healer and attacker many many times on that. Now would the "other tank" to give me a chance to try to tank and drag the bird.

If it even comes to that. People overgear the lower end level 50 stuff by so much that some mechanics aren't even a thing any more. Depending on how geared the group is, Garuda is sometimes dead before the first adds even spawn.


I guess this is what some people do think in some content and they get really sloppy, hence you get low level Crystal Tower wipes by letting the electric towers to blow up or too many skeletons running into the middle (yes I have seen wipes there as other jobs!). Sometimes it may be actually good idea to impose a gear handicap for those content, and actually will make the runs faster and smoother (I am being practical as sloppy and lazy wipes always guarantee a slower run).
____________________________
Amanada (Cerberus-Retired) (aka MaiNoKen/Steven)
-- Thank you for the fun times in Vana'diel

Art for the sake of art itself is an idle sentence.
Art for the sake of truth, for the sake of what is
beautiful and good — that is the creed I seek.
- George Sand

A designer knows he has achieved perfection,
not when there is nothing left to add,
but when there is nothing left to take away.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
#6 Jun 03 2015 at 9:17 AM Rating: Excellent
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2,550 posts
While LoTA is a mess on the skeletons, not all the players are like that. A good amount of the DPS actually know how to wait and use quelling strikes to reduce aggro. Bad apples spoil it for the bunch. Its odd, on that behemoth battle, if I saw that you were a fresh 50 tank, I would have you and three others just sit and press one of the buttons when the tower glows literally for the entire battle, only moving to hide behind a meteor when he roars. Thats all you do. Need one tank on behemoth, 1 on iron giants, and 4 tanks on towers (one tower each).

Normally in a dungeon when I see a fresh 50 tank and I am on my bard or blm, I usually pop quelling strikes a bit more often. I don't unleash until I know he has aggro. But even on my tank I have trouble with maintaining aggro when DPS are jumping the gun, and I'm as close to 131 as you can get. You lose hate on one target, you sometimes have to just provoke, shield lob, and rage of halone combo. Otherwise, lose hate to a group and it is flash x3. Also use your stun on paladin. Buys you a few seconds time to set up.

Flash x2 is your best friend on the initial pull, always do it twice even if you don't need to, then enter into rage of halone combo. Make sure shield oath is up. I know you are probably doing all of that anyway, but give it a little and you should get there (gearwise) very soon, as long as you work on running dungeons and getting into PVP, who imo has some of the best rewards for the effort. You can get soldiery that will buy you level 100 gear, and poetics that will buy you level 120 gear. LoTA will only drop level 80 stuff. Praetorium is really just to progress story content. Not much reward. LoTA, just do it for story progression imo. Syrcus tower will drop level 100 gearthats what you really need. World of Darkness drops 120 gear, and is the next up the chain. But hold off on the towers till you are about 100-110 at least.

My advice at your level is to run dungeons. Lots of dungeons. For soldiery and poetics to buy stuff from the shop in Mor Dhona. Also, PVP! All the content is level capped to item level 80, and you get a pretty good amount of poetics and soldiery from doing relatively nothing. Plus the PVP gear is decent if you are just a fresh 50. Some of the ilvl 90 stuff can be bought up with just a few runs. Problem is even as a tank you can wait up to 30 minutes to get into a match, but you get the rewards regardless if you win or lose.

If I was in your position, I would be PVP and Dungeons until I hit 130. With maybe the occasional hunt. Use that paladin instaqueue to your advantage.

Edited, Jun 3rd 2015 10:20am by Valkayree
#7 Jun 03 2015 at 7:23 PM Rating: Good
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Valkayree wrote:
While LoTA is a mess on the skeletons, not all the players are like that. A good amount of the DPS actually know how to wait and use quelling strikes to reduce aggro. Bad apples spoil it for the bunch. Its odd, on that behemoth battle, if I saw that you were a fresh 50 tank, I would have you and three others just sit and press one of the buttons when the tower glows literally for the entire battle, only moving to hide behind a meteor when he roars. Thats all you do. Need one tank on behemoth, 1 on iron giants, and 4 tanks on towers (one tower each).

Normally in a dungeon when I see a fresh 50 tank and I am on my bard or blm, I usually pop quelling strikes a bit more often. I don't unleash until I know he has aggro. But even on my tank I have trouble with maintaining aggro when DPS are jumping the gun, and I'm as close to 131 as you can get. You lose hate on one target, you sometimes have to just provoke, shield lob, and rage of halone combo. Otherwise, lose hate to a group and it is flash x3. Also use your stun on paladin. Buys you a few seconds time to set up.

Flash x2 is your best friend on the initial pull, always do it twice even if you don't need to, then enter into rage of halone combo. Make sure shield oath is up. I know you are probably doing all of that anyway, but give it a little and you should get there (gearwise) very soon, as long as you work on running dungeons and getting into PVP, who imo has some of the best rewards for the effort. You can get soldiery that will buy you level 100 gear, and poetics that will buy you level 120 gear. LoTA will only drop level 80 stuff. Praetorium is really just to progress story content. Not much reward. LoTA, just do it for story progression imo. Syrcus tower will drop level 100 gearthats what you really need. World of Darkness drops 120 gear, and is the next up the chain. But hold off on the towers till you are about 100-110 at least.

My advice at your level is to run dungeons. Lots of dungeons. For soldiery and poetics to buy stuff from the shop in Mor Dhona. Also, PVP! All the content is level capped to item level 80, and you get a pretty good amount of poetics and soldiery from doing relatively nothing. Plus the PVP gear is decent if you are just a fresh 50. Some of the ilvl 90 stuff can be bought up with just a few runs. Problem is even as a tank you can wait up to 30 minutes to get into a match, but you get the rewards regardless if you win or lose.

If I was in your position, I would be PVP and Dungeons until I hit 130. With maybe the occasional hunt. Use that paladin instaqueue to your advantage.
Edited, Jun 3rd 2015 10:20am by Valkayree


As I am Warrior, I use Steel Cyclone or Overpower instead. I do see some attackers like to get ahead - I guess probably just out of habit.

I do rarely enter dungeons: may be once or at most twice when I log on, so gear upgrades tend to relatively slow (even on my "main" jobs) and points may get diluted across the different jobs that I mess around (although I think I will concentrate on tank gear for the next few weeks). I am quite happy the gear for my "main jobs" even it is far from decked out (my highest gear level job is in the low 110s). I can't really see 130-something (or even 120) be possible any time soon in the pace I play. I don't really care being topped out, and I would be happy as long as I can do my task adequately (which does not seem to be the case).

Edited, Jun 3rd 2015 9:26pm by scchan
____________________________
Amanada (Cerberus-Retired) (aka MaiNoKen/Steven)
-- Thank you for the fun times in Vana'diel

Art for the sake of art itself is an idle sentence.
Art for the sake of truth, for the sake of what is
beautiful and good — that is the creed I seek.
- George Sand

A designer knows he has achieved perfection,
not when there is nothing left to add,
but when there is nothing left to take away.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
#8 Jun 05 2015 at 9:04 AM Rating: Excellent
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2,550 posts
scchan wrote:


As I am Warrior, I use Steel Cyclone or Overpower instead. I do see some attackers like to get ahead - I guess probably just out of habit.

I do rarely enter dungeons: may be once or at most twice when I log on, so gear upgrades tend to relatively slow (even on my "main" jobs) and points may get diluted across the different jobs that I mess around (although I think I will concentrate on tank gear for the next few weeks). I am quite happy the gear for my "main jobs" even it is far from decked out (my highest gear level job is in the low 110s). I can't really see 130-something (or even 120) be possible any time soon in the pace I play. I don't really care being topped out, and I would be happy as long as I can do my task adequately (which does not seem to be the case).

Edited, Jun 3rd 2015 9:26pm by scchan


Aha, so it's defiance and overpower / steel cyclone for you. That's better actually, I find it easier to hold hate on groups with a warrior.


Edited, Jun 9th 2015 9:55am by Valkayree
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