Character
Trial By Patience: Tank Edition
Public
Morning peeps. Just wanted to share with you all how my current efforts are going as I continue farming for my PLD tank mount.
Currently, I'm 197 out of 300 achievement points for my mount so won't be much longer, but I've run into a lot of annoying issues that aren't new to me as a tank but it has slowed down my progress toward my goal.
I'll share with you a story from my recent expert roulette run I did last night.
So, I queued into expert, got the Skalla dungeon and got partnered with a SMN, RDM and a AST. The party started out fine though I noticed from the first pull that the AST was a slow healer so I had to rely on Clemency more than I intended.
We get to the first boss, I stop for a brief second to regain some TP before the fight, and before I even move to get the boss, the RDM pulls the boss...
In my head, I knew it was gonna end up being one of "those" parties in which I have to deal with prima donna dps. So I attempt to grab the boss off of them RDM but apparently the RDM wanted to play tank so I tempted to just let him but I decided to let it go and I eventually managed to get aggro on the boss.
After the fight, I told them (very nicely btw) to please do not pull the enemies or the bosses before I get aggro. No one said anything so I assumed they got the point.
So we fought the next room of trash mobs and got to the second boss. Once again, before I got to the boss, this time, the SMN pulls the boss! Dude....WTF?
At that point my patience literally broke and I just let them fight the boss while I waited outside the arena. I asked them nicely NOT to pull the bosses before I got aggro on them. One of the dps ended up dying during the fight and in the back of my mind I was literally lol'ing.
THAT is what happens when a dps wants to play tank.
After the fight, I got into a big argument with the party who all said I was a terrible tank. Not sure how I was a terrible tank. I manage my CD's properly, I keep trash mobs on me at all times and don't lose aggro and I even maintain my own health since apparently the healer was trash.
I told them that they should know their roles and stay in your roles. If you think you can tank better than level a tank job and try tanking yourself. If a dps wants to pull a boss before the tank gets aggro on the boss, then you, as a dps, YOU will take responsibility if anything goes wrong.
This is probably one of the reasons why we have a shortage of tanks in this game. You got dps players, who don't want the responsibility of tanking and leading a party, but think they make better tanks, and then want to blame actual tanks if shit goes wrong.
You as a DPS want to tank a boss, go ahead, but don't expect most healers and ACTUAL tanks to bail you out if you get your ass handed to you.
They apparently wanted to play tanks so I decided to let them tank the rest of the dungeon since that was apparently what they wanted. They all agreed they wanted to kick me, so I said:
"Yeah go ahead and kick me. I can just re-queue and get back in instantly and get a better party. One that is actually respectful."
They then got annoyed because I have "tank privilege". More words were said and then they kicked me.
I was annoyed afterwards and that kinda stressed me out mentally. I don't like confrontation. I do my best to avoid fighting with other people but when it ends up coming to that, I try to keep a level head. But when I asked politely to please not pull before me, and you do it anyway, that's when my patience breaks.
I re-queued and got into expert again in less than 5 seconds with a better party.
I'm now faced with a dilemma though. I wanna keep farming for my tank mount, but I'm not sure if I wanna keep dealing with the stress and the bulls**t I have to endure from some of these ptyies. Whether it's a netflix healer or prima donna dps who want to play tank, it gets really annoying and really stressful and I'm thinking of giving up tanking.
A mount isn't worth all of this bullsh** and stress. I play the game to have fun, not to get stressed out.
But at the same time, I don't want to just to give up since I'm so close to getting my mount.
What do I do guys? Keeping going? or just don't bother?
Anyway, thanks for reading peeps! :D
Even though it's a troublesome situation to be in, I don't think you should give up. You're more than halfway there. Besides, you've probably had quite a few fun/funny parties. You may run into more and some who may be your future friends.
It takes two to tango, as they say. It's one thing to be learning a class, take advice, practice and communicate and another to just be a jerk player. It's not on you. Besides, it's more their loss than yours. #tankprivilege :) Keep being a good tank.
My pet peeves with tanks are: small pulls, slow, pauses before bosses, can't hold aggro.
My pet peeves with DPS: low dps, getting hit by every aoe, not using aoe abilities on big pulls.
My pet peeves with healers: healers are perfect. >>
@Menemosyne: I wish I could hit "Like" on comments on this website, yours would get a insta-like from me xD. What you said is indeed true, I'm halfway there. I'll continue doing my best and keep going. Thank you Syne.
@Rakar: I agree with you on the small pulls. I think given the right party composition, like if you have a BLM and SMN in the same pty, the tank should pull a bit more. But I don't agree with you about the pauses before bosses. Before I started lvling PLD I had the same mindset as you since I was a all dps guy back then and got annoyed by tanks pausing before bosses.
But growing a tank myself, I now see why tanks pause before bosses. For one, especially for WAR, if you just used a lot of TP before the boss, you'll want to get your TP back up before you start the fight. Healers will want to get any buffs on the pty beforehand, dps make their preparations, etc. There are reasons for pausing before bosses and for tanks to use ready checks and countdowns.
If the dps are THAT impatient, and they want to play tank on the boss before the tank pulls then by all means tank it but don't expect most tanks and healers to bail you out if you f**k up.
I would say keep going. I myself enjoy tank privilege and occasionally do expert as tank for the queue. I can assure you those kind of players are few and far between.
Though when I do Samurai, the one thing I hate about tanks is the ones who make single pulls. I know that sounds elitist but I just want to get that crap over with. I once had a Skalla with a single-pull tank, no dps healer, and a new dps. I left that dungeon after two pulls.
So as long as you're not doing that, you'll be fine.
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Serious> As a tank I love dropping 6 decimates, but only of a 7-8 point mob. For saftey. and only on specific trash. I try pull based on trash's capacity to Tank Bust and AoE. I check gear every now and again too. I ask "more?" the best one, from there, is to wait and see what the healer does. If they run after the second pull I oblige :) and pull the house down. More often then not I get healers pulling more into the fight. If they do it then they can keep me up, and they always do.
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As a DPS. I struggle with tanks that cant, at minimum, pull at least two sets at a time. those are long runs. at end game now, a lot of tanks should know how to, but some don't. Admittedly, I was there once. once you pull 3 mobs and hold them, you get it that you can.
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at one point or another, we all have to fight the elitist in us or give in and bail. Sometimes there are breaking points like you say. People are made of salt. But I would say they are definitely few and far between. Keep tanking, no way should you give up. What you experienced sounded rough. I have experienced pre-pull dps. I just handle it different. Cos I'm different :). Sometimes you gotta accommodate the irritation. "He just did that?!" post fight=/blowkiss or /smirk. XD. run into next mob
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NAKED!! hahahahe..... It's what Da'kar would do o7
@Kupo: For the first time...I agree with you Kupo. o.0
@Felsea: Haha very true. Always good to ask especially the healer, if he or she can handle large pulls. My biggest irritation as a healer myself is tanks who just rush in and pull the entire dungeon...especially the tanks who pull and don't properly use their CD's in large pulls. It's annoying. I had a tank in qarn who from the start pulled the entire first half of the place with 3-4 bees included.
I think we had dps peeps who didnt have any good aoes either. He pulled them all, no CD's and I just let him die to teach him a lesson. He got pissy then he rage quitted. It was funny as hell. We got a new tank in minutes, a tank who actually knew how to tank.
On DPS pulling for you/ahead of you, including healers: Just snap it back from them(Provoke + aggro skill) and keep on trucking. You don't/(and sometimes) can't reason with people in DF. You queue in, do your job, and leave, not having to see them again.
(Because 500 characters isn't enough..) I myself generally try to make it smooth and fast for everyone my own way and giving at least a few seconds before pulling boss, because some folks might not be ready at the moment, and never pull while someone in cutscene. For folks that pull before me, it's not a big deal anymore, I get it back in like 0.02 seconds. But it's funny when the healer refuses to heal them and they almost die from being impatient.
