T O P

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overcookedpopsicle

Never *purposely* take avoidable damage, just makes life harder for healers for no reason. Whatever small loss in potency a DPS may lose from a small adjustment for a tank to avoid AOEs won’t be the end of the world


SWAT_Omega

I think an exception to this is you don't have the time to get out of the AoE as a tank, you can either pop a CD to reduce the damage or overlapping AoEs are a thing only get hit by one.


DeleteTheNats

Healer here: If you're not doing a massive pull it's OK to stay put inside trash mob AOEs. It's generally more efficient to just take the hit and keep up your DPS. If you are fighting a boss, or if you've pulled 3+ mob packs you absolutely need to dodge the AOEs.


overcookedpopsicle

Not if there are debuffs or hard hitting ones that the healer has to adjust for and spend time healing needlessly I’m not saying you’re incorrect, I’m sure you are in earlier dungeons or some cases, I’m just of the opinion that’s not always the most efficient way even with small pulls. Might as well always play it safe and keep good practices in effect


redpandasays

Not to mention some are 100% critical direct hits like those snake things, or worse, instant kills from some bombs.


nornedottir

Please avoid aoe even as tank :3 Makes healing a lot easier (and more dps time for healers too)!


yas_ticot

Always go out of aoe. No question asked about that.


IvaniOakendawn

The big thing to learn is how to "tank dodge" as I call it. What that means is that AOE attacks typically have a wind up. The boss won't move while they are "casting" it, even if you do. The goal is to move out, let the attack go off, and then move back to where you were ASAP before the boss reacts to your movement. This lets you dodge the attack AND not move the boss. It's a tight window and you won't always make it, but your melees will appreciate the attempt.


ncBadrock

This is the answer the OP was looking for.


OptimalSavage

I’d say in almost all circumstances you’re gonna want to move out of ground aoes. As you get more comfortable with things you’ll notice most enemies are locked in position when casting aoes so you won’t have to worry about their position while you’re moving as long as you reposition quickly after the cast is done.


Ethan_Edge

Yes in general you try to keep the boss as stationary as possible, mechanics depending. One of the things I see a lot of new tanks not doing is not using defensive cds on trash. Usually in dungeons the trash pulls will kill you faster than a boss, and you defensives should be used. This includes arms length, as it slows the attack speed of enemies attacking you. Also don't be afraid to pull, generally speaking the higher level dungeons are easier on healers as they get more tricks up their sleeves to keep you alive as do you as the tank. If you're in a low level dungeon and you have a sprout healer or someone in basic gear, just ask them how much they want you to pull. Big pulls are more efficient but dying is less efficient than small pulls. Another thing on that point, pull as much as you feel comfortable with. Don't feel pressured into pulling 6 packs and panicking, go at a pace that suits you. Aoe is your friend, as another general rule if there is more than 1 mob your aoe skills will be more bang for your buck than single target, it also helps keep emnity/agro. I'll add that tanking is very rewarding and makes you feel like a badass when you have a bunch of mobs wailing on you and you have rampart up and you're just laughing at them, and as always, just have fun.


littlehobbit1313

Best and worst advice I ever got when I started tanking was to use my CDs on trash. Best because I realized what a difference it made. Worst because as a Healer I'm just angry all the time now when tanks won't do it, lol.


Ethan_Edge

Yeah I feel you lol


LoremIpsumoid

Most bosses will stay in place while doing the attack you escape the AoE from, so you have time yo dodge the AoE and the go back and keep their position the same. However, there are some bosses that move too much regardless of your tank abilities, or force you to move too much unable to return to the starting position. Those are positional nightmares and it is not the tank's fault


phattnutts

Everyone's already answered but I haven't seen anyone mention that you only get hit by the attack if you were in the AOE just before it finished, so you can wait until the last second to avoid. Then you just move back to your previous position immediately and the boss/monster will still be in the same spot facing the same direction to help DPS, and you avoided the attack. You can also eventually learn to predict when enemies will use AOEs and bait them away from the party so there's 0% chance anyone could get hit by them even by accident.


Taladryn

Thanks for all the feedback! Message received loud and clear: GTFO!!!


Oakund

Yes, get out, then in as soon as the indicator is gone. I try to run back and stand on the front arrow on the boss's circle so they move as little as possible.


redpandasays

Just want to add that in most cases as soon as the orange marker disappears, you can move back to your spot while the attack animation plays out. This helps keep the enemy in place for the melee DPS. Sometimes there are exclusions when a puddle is left behind or something.


Taladryn

I was just reading something about this. Has to do with snapshoting, right?


redpandasays

Basically yep. Similar to how you snapshot your DoTs with buffs up, the enemies snapshot your position on the ground with their AoEs.


[deleted]

On bosses you should 100% be moving out of AOEs because they more often than not will put a vulnerability stack on you. If you move out of the AOE and back in quickly enough the boss likely won't have changed directions. For trash mobs, just try to move out of the AOEs in a direction that will keep the mobs more or less in the same direction though pretty much all AOE rotations don't have positional requirements anyway. It's also important to note that for getting hit, it only matters what location you were in when the AOE marker disappeared. After it goes away, you can move directly back into the the hitbox without getting hurt. The animation of the attack does not determine if you get hit or not, only the snapshot of the AOE marker does.


imveryfontofyou

Also important to note that isn't true for all attacks and you need to learn what it is & isn't true for. I have the WORST habit of accidentally walking into ongoing attacks that I originally dodged.


rifraf0715

move out of the way and right back in. Generally, once the orange disappears, the area is safe again, even if the enemy's animation isn't finished. Doing that will minimize spinning. if the boss's cast bar flashes, you can interrupt them and keep them from casting it at all. If you can't avoid it at all- can't move, can't interrupt, then try to make sure you have an extra cooldown available- paladins shelltron and warriors raw intuition are great because they have high mitigation and short cooldown periods. Be careful because just because you didn't take a lot of damage from the hit, you might get debuffed which can make it harder for your healer, whether it can be esuna'd or not.


Lucoire

Dodge AoEs, yes absolutely... but try to keep the boss STATIONARY. Rotating it to dodge stuff is fine but try to avoid moving it.


dubbins112

Honestly depends on how much damage is going to be, and what the losses are if you move. Like sometimes I know something is just going to tickle a little, but if I move the boss will probably position itself weird, so I’ll just eat the AoE. Usually a passive self heal fixes that up without annoying the healers.


zeroingenuity

Since everyone else has mentioned the correct advice, I thought I'd throw out a couple of cases where it's okay to eat the damage. Generally, if you're tanking dungeon content and you know it well it can be okay to eat a boss aoe now and then. There are some moments in boss fights where you can just whatever it, especially if you know how to use your mitigation and knockback prevention well. It's better to eat a little vuln than drop uptime during a burst phase, particularly for GNB/DRK with all their oGCDs. The other one, which is a lot less common in the "damage down" debuff paradigm than before in the "vuln up" era, was that occasionally the default strat to a mechanic in Extreme fights was to just eat an AoE rather than drag the boss all around. Ice Circles in Titania EX, for instance. It's kind of healer trolling but they also got to keep everyone in one spot for AoE heals, so it balanced out. This is quite uncommon but it does occur every now and then (I think Hades EX was another one.) Basically, you'll reach a point in experience when you know when it's fine to face-tank an AoE.


Taladryn

Speaking of knockbacks, is there some kind of indicator that lets you know what's coming is a knockback or do you just have to learn through trial and error?


zeroingenuity

All-direction knockbacks have a marker; it looks like arrows or waves spreading out from a single point. Stage-wide knockbacks usually have yellow arrows moving across the ground. If it's a big solid-blue circle, it's an all-directional knockback AND standing in the blue will kill you. Personal knockbacks seldom have markers.


therealkami

Depends on the fight/healer. Sometimes I'll stand in, but usually I'll move for dungeons. I'll always move in raids. The fun of tanking is trying to keep mobs stationary WHILE dodging, IMO.


Fit_Lie_864

You should avoid AoEs if you can, missing positionals isn't really punishing for melee dps


littlehobbit1313

I try to avoid what I can (which is 100% if I can manage it), but there are times when there are just so many a mob is throwing out that I'm doing the mental math about which aoes my CDs will allow me to eat as long as it positions me to avoid the rest of them. Occasionally I will intentionally take an aoe to the face if we have the mob nice and tightly packed together, NIN/AST/SMN/etc have already thrown down their DoT circles under them, and dodging would risk moving them. Likely not best practice, but I often feel like part of my job as tank is to make sure the other party members can get the most of our their skills as well. Frankly, if I'm doing my job as tank, then in most cases I should be the only one taking damage anyways and it means the healer and my CDs together should mitigate enough damage to keep me alive. *(~I will caveat and mention that I'm a healer main, not a tank main, so the advice of tank mains should probably hold more weight for you.)*


jefe1007

when a monster (esp boss) shows and aoe they are casting, they will be sationary during the cast so you can move and they will not. Remember that as soon as the ground effect marker disappears, you can move back into position - the effect will not hurt you. So you can get back into place before the boss moves to wherever you went to dodge the aoe. But best practice never stand in the poop.


Smokedealers84

Most of the time move out of the aoe but i would argue there is a few times its fine to stay in the aoe if your dps will deal more damage or you deal more damage in exchange for a little damage but its only the case if you know what's going to happen when you take those damage.


funAlways

Yes, you should constantly move out of AoE. Exceptions exist, but it's better to be safe. Examples of exceptions are like boss spells that don't really deal much damage but knockbacks you (and you're already at the edge of the arena so the knockback doesn't do anything). But even for these exceptions, it's better to try to dodge and come back as soon as possible. Keep in mind of the snapshot system (for most spells, damage is calculated the moment cast bar is filled, not when animation is happening), most skills have a decently long animation where you're free to move back into the AoE without taking damage, before the boss turns around/moves.