Character
Noob Tank Diary, Entry 1
Public
So, I'm new to this game and MMOs in general. Apparently I'm a tank.
The first dungeon I entered, I knew basically nothing. I'm sorry to my poor party, but at least no one died. Thanks to them for trying to explain the basics of tanking in the middle of things. Before that explanation, I didn't really know what enmity meant or why the monsters kept ignoring me and going after my party.
The second time, I did much better at holding enemies, but sometimes failed to pick up new ones. I must have done okay - I got two player commendations!
After logging out last night, I decided to search online for some resources for being a better tank and stumbled upon this page:
http://ffxivrealm.com/guides/ffxiv-tanking-guide-for-beginners.56/It didn't occur to me that I could pull the AoEs away from my party, like this:
> When you pull, you run to the other side of the enemies so that:
> (party >) (enemies >) (< you)
I will certainly keep this in mind in the future. I also didn't realize that a Heavy Slash/Skull Sunder combo was a very effective alternate to spamming Overpower all the time.
I only wish the HUD images weren't broken links in that post... I'll have to try to go into the HUD editor and see if I can find the indicator bars they are talking about.
It seems like I have two more dungeons coming up soon - I will try to keep these new tactics in mind.
Sounds exciting! I hope everything goes well for you!
I recommend getting your gladiator to level 8 at least to get flash. That's their version of Overpower (sort of). It's a radius around you instead of conal. It uses MP or you don't run out of TP as fast. And I recommend you look at how to cycle through your enemy list or set up target filtering. When I started, I played on controller and using left and right will target part members as well, which was annoying. Now my left and right only target enemies.
Thank you for the advice! I had planned to level in gladiator at some point - now I'll try to do so before the next dungeon. I will look into the things you mentioned - searching online for tank advice quickly got into like macros and things, and I'm not sure I understand the system that well yet, so your steps might be a better choice. I'm currently using a controller - did you switch? Find keyboard and mouse work better?
controller is fine...you just gotta go and set it up so left and right only cycles through just the enemies and not everything/everyone around you.
I hold L1 and use up and down for precision targeting when there is more than 2 or 3 mobs om the emnity list and im trying to get to a specific one...
I've always played on controller. I think I will have to move my hand a lot with a keyboard and mouse if I don't have one of those gaming mouse. I was surprise to see this in the manual:
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/playguide/ps3/manual/Ctrl+F for "Cycle Up Through Enmity List" without quotes. First table will give you info about controllers. The second table that phrase is in is info about keyboard (in case you want to know about it I guess).
More from the manual (I'm surprised as to how much I can find on the lodestone itself. :D)
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/playguide/ps3/config/The character config has a tab about target filter. I have L1+triangle set to all and L1+circle set to enemies only. They control what you select when pushing left and right. And it's proximity to your screen.
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I'm wordy today. To what Mahdi is talking about. You can use L1+up and L1+down if you notice an enemy on your enmity list has an icon that is not a red square or has lower HP then the other enemies. That means someone is single targeting that mob and you should focus on it so you don't lose its attention.
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/playguide/ps3/view/So um, number 11 in the second screenshot of the above page shows you what the enmity list look like.
so helpful mindi!
Wow, thank you so much for taking the time to find and explain all these things! I will look through some more things in the manual - still figuring all this out after starting like 3 days ago.
L1 + up or L1 + down sounds so much better than what I was doing before. It's going to be SO much easier to keep and hold all the mobs this way. Thank you!
Hi Rin! It always nice to see and meet someone from the same server as me. Look me up sometime the next time that you're on okay Rin. Thanks. :) <3
If you play with a controller, L1 + R1 cycles between enemies, as well as L1 + up/down on the D-pad.
As a MRD/WAR, you'll be able to use Overpower maybe two to three times, before cycling through your targets with your Heavy Swing > Skull Sunder > Butcher's block combo (full combo after level 30 quest). After you become a Warrior (Marauder 30/Gladiator 15(take it to 22 for Provoke, a ranking essential)), you get Defiance, which gives you more HP, enmity, and makes you easier to heal. It reduces
(/cont) your damage dealt, though.
After you get Defiance, you'll be able to use Maim more frequently. (Heavy Swing > Maim > Storm's Eye/Storm's Path) Maim increases your damage dealt, and can be reapplied before it falls off any time.
What I like to do on bosses is use a couple of offensive cool downs between Tomahawk and Heavy Swing, then my Butcher's Block combo, and alternate between it and Storm's Eye combo. In a situation where I am the "Off-tank" (there are two tanks) I alternate
(/cont) between Storm's Eye combo and Storm's Path combo.
Storm's Eye restores a little bit of your HP, and gives the enemy a debuff that lowers its attacks; however, Storm's Path makes it so the enemy's heals on itself do less and it becomes more resistant to slashing damage (warrior, paladin, ninja, and I believe dark knight as well?).
Also I misspoke. It is L1/R1 + L2/R2 to target enemies.
