New player- Pulling question

[Properman]

<p>Ive been trying to learn how to tank properly in the game ( body pulling is oh so different, but fun ) and Im noticing a trend when I pull.  Whats happening is I pull, run back to the group and before I can turn the mobs to face away Ive lost one or 2  to dps, or rarely the healer.  Im sure this is a bad habit but Ive been turning to run back to the group, is this a very bad idea? Is there something I can do while Im pulling to make sure I keep agro or is this mostly bad dps who arent patient enough for me to finish the pull?</p>

[Gladiolus]

<p>The group shouldn't touch the mob until you have its full attention. If you're body-pulling, they need to wait until you've attacked or taunted before they do anything. If you've been pulling by shooting arrows, some might not have notice that you're using different tactics, so you may need to point out that you're going to body-pull. Sometimes you'll find someone that disregards common sense and will just start attacking, then die and blame the tank and/or healer. If there is such a person and he won't listen, let him keep dying. He'll soon run out of armour and leave, complaining about the ineptitude of everyone else. Just put him on your Do Not Invite list and continue.</p>

[Dorieon]

<p>If I am body pulling an encounter or a mob that I know has a stun/stifle or if I just want added assurance it won't kill my healer, I will put Intercede on my healer if its a cleric/shaman. If I am rolling with only a druid, I will put it on my highest dps (or the person I have deemed the re-re of the group). Intercede is a good agro tool that alot of people forget about.</p><p>I don't have much issue with agro but that tactic helps quite a bit for beginning tanks. Also, grab your balls (if you are a chick just pretend) and tell your group to wait to dps until the mobs are in camp.</p>

[Aule]

One common problem that you're likely to have to deal with as a new tank is the boredom of the other players. Things go much much smoother when the group waits for positioning to be complete, that takes more time though. Usually what happens instead is some dps can't hold back the 2s required to let things go smoothly. You have a couple options if this is happening to you. - Be ready for it, and use snaps - Talk to your group about it - Let the dps die - Build a better group Group makeup has a lot to do with it, are you at +50% hate gain and the entire rest of the group is at -50%? That's possible to build for, really just need a dirge troub and coercer, adding a swash or an assassin to transfer to you too is just icing. One point I will add though, is that this kind of stuff just makes you a better tank though. You need to have good situational awareness to be a good tank. The dps unloading at pull or nuking some random mob that's in sight isn't all that much different from a whoops bad pull or a roamer pathing near and joining the fight. This is the stuff that makes you able to immediately identify when to use your long reuse big gun type abilities. I have a coercer and a bruiser, a friend of mine has a coercer that I trained him how to play and he turned out quite nicely. We play this little game while instancing that goes like follows: Once I start pulling, if he can reach anything with a nuke or by taking a couple steps and then nuking, he does so and comes back to where I'm fighting. I'm expected to keep him alive, he wins if he dies. I usually win. Though if I never die either, the healer wins.

[Megavolt]

<p>There's a couple of things that you could possibly be doing wrong here.</p><p>1) Group is too close to the other encounters. When you body pull you still want enough distance to be able to throw taunts before you reach the group.</p><p>2) You're waiting to go physical with the mob until it's actually on the group.</p><p>You're still engaging a body pulled mob before it hits the group, the only difference is you allow a little space between the intended target and his buddies nearby. If your dps is still dieing, let them. Eventually they'll stop jumping into fighting and let you get a bit more agro. They have dehates, they should learn how to use 'em.</p>

[SageGaspar]

<p>One trick I picked up to keep mobs off my healer while body pulling as a zerker is casting my group mitigation buff. It generates aggro towards the encounter but since it's not hostile it doesn't trigger any proximity aggro. It's also nice when you're training around because it doesn't put you in combat so you keep your full run speed but also keep mobs on you.</p><p>I imagine most tanks have a buff they can cast that will do the trick like that.</p>

[Aule]

Going on what SageGaspar said, make sure it's a group buff, and not just any old buff. Group buffs, by virtue of the fact they're buffing 6 people, generate more aggro. What class are you anyway? If you're doing a lot of pick up groups, you may want to adorn some of your gear with hate gain percent boosts, to make up for not always expecting to have a hate management class.

[Sprin]

<p>Unfortunately, if you havn't found already, you will shortly...</p><p>Tanking is like being a Kintergarden teacher... you have to repeat yourself over and over and over again, and the group members are always like a bunch of A.D.D kids that cant seem to keep their fingers off the mouse button while they wait the LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG DRAAAAAAAWWWWWWWNNNNNNNNNN out 3 seconds it takes for you to get proper aggro on a mob before they unleash their highest hitting attack, you know, in case its a short fight, they will be higest on the parser because they started off with their big hitters.</p><p>Its just part of life.. you cant let "losing aggro" to someone repeatedly make you think you are a bad tank... 99% of the time, its the fault of the person you are constantly losing aggro to.  They know what they are doing, and they are being selfish in their efforts... they know that the tank and the healer have to work harder because they want to top the parse... it doesnt matter to them... they want to top the parse no matter what... and like said before... that same person will then blame the milk man and everyone else before taking the blame for their DPS control (or lack thereof)...</p><p>I found a while ago, when i was a newblet Zerker on my first toon ever on VOX... that spamming a macro (of course i didnt knwo about macros back then, so i just typed it out every time <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" />&nbsp<img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> that read something along the lines of this:</p><p>"Always asume I am body pulling... if you dont wait for a single target taunt, a group taunt and my first 2 AOE's... you will probably get aggro and die... I wont care and will probably dry hump your corpse and go eat McDonalds afterwards...  If you find yourself just itchin to cast that massive attack off the get go, you probably havn't waited long enough and need to count to 5 before you do it..... If you get aggro from me in the first 10 seconds of the fight, its your fault and I dont want to hear any complaints"</p><p>And i would spam that about 5 times at the beginning of EVERY zone I went to... and it got to the point where people would laugh, but at the same time, follow the instructions... and inevitabely people still dont wait and I stopped spamming that, cuz I didnt know about macros at the time and didnt want to type it out so much! <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />....</p><p>Now I just usually let them die, then simply say "wait for me to get aggro or your gonna cost yourself alot plat in repair bills" and if they are wiping the group repeatedly cuz of their lack of waiting, i just either tell em...</p><p>"I know your uber and I wish I could do as much Uberlicious DPS as you, but if you dont count to 10 after every one of my pulls I aint pullin anymore.... count to 10 or just drop group and go solo the zone"</p><p>or just kick em from the group and wait for the "hate-spam" shouts in the zone... and about how much I suck at tanking, and real tanks could keep aggro from them, blah blah blah blah....</p><p>If your not an a-hole sometimes, you just get percieved as a bad tank... and its actually them who are bad DPS'rs...</p>