The other side of tanking.

No picture for this one, sorry.  Just something I’ve been thinking about for a few days.

My main job, though I don’t play it much anymore, is 75 BLM.  BLM, obviously, puts out a lot of damage.  Of course, BLM can sleep, do some minor enfeebles, and other such duties, but it’s not incorrect to say its primary job in most situations is to deal damage, and deal a lot of it.

So here’s the rub; dealing damage is your primary function, so you should deal as much of it as possible, right?  Yes and no.

Today I’m talking about tanking–from the other side.  From the side of the damage dealer.

“What do you mean from our side?  We’re damage dealers!  We don’t tank!”

In the most literal sense, that’s true.  But really, you have a part in tanking.  Hear me out.

I want to preface my statements tonight by saying I’ve never leveled a ‘tank job’ past level 21, though I plan to in the future.  Any mechanics about tanking here are largely my perceptions of how things are done, and may have little to no bearing on how a tank actually goes about their business.  If I’ve gotten anything incredibly wrong, please let me know and I’ll do my best to make corrections.

Right, so, tanking.  You have a part in it too.  How so?

Consider the tank.  Whether it’s a Paladin, a Ninja, or some other more esoteric job filling in the role for whatever reason (Warrior, Red Mage, Blue Mage, Dancer, etc) they have one role in the standard party, and that’s to hold hate.  If they can’t hold hate, they are usually lauded as incompetent and incapable of doing their job.  True enough, in the large majority of cases this is the problem.  However, there are times when it is not.

Consider the role of the damage dealer.  Your job is to do damage; you have access to many tools to do that damage, no matter which kind of damage dealer you are.   They may be spells, or they may be job abilities.  Whatever it is, it depends on your class.

New Black Mages often discover something in the Dunes.  Casting Fire puts Fire on a long cooldown, but instead of waiting, you can cast Aero instead!  If Fire still isn’t ready, follow it up with Water!  This chain-nuking, compared with the usual incompetence of Dunes parties, leads Black Mages to a conclusion.  They should chain-nuke, always.

This makes life very difficult for a tank.  Tanking is a two-way street.  If we go over the aggro line that exists even with the best tanks, then we are making the tank’s job that much harder, risking death, and causing a plethora of potential problems.

It’s true that your job is to do damage.  But instead of carelessly unloading, gauge your damage.  Find the hate line–if you go over, do your best not to do so again.  In time, you’ll gain an innate sense of how much damage you can do before you pull hate.  If you party with a tank multiple times (such as someone in your LS) this becomes easier.  However, once you’re used to watching the hate line, you’ll be able to gain a decent feel for it even in pick-up parties.

Tanks, if you get a person in your parties that just refuses to scale their damage back slightly to actually let you tank, even if you’re using every tool at your disposal…well, don’t feel too bad.  Maybe after they die a few times they’ll wise up.

In conclusion, be considerate to your tanks.  This doesn’t exactly apply to HNM or other endgame activities, but in typical parties there’s no need to show off and cause a lot of problems.  Maximize your effective damage by riding the hate line, and you’ll make life easier for the tank, the healer, and just about everybody else.

(As a side note, I’ll be gone for the weekend.  Updates will resume early next week.)

~ by wafuru on January 18, 2008.