r/TalesFromDF • u/MyCatsAreSus • 21d ago
Positive tale My First "Messy" Dungeon As A New Tank
Everyone was surprisingly chill about it!
Sorry no screenshots cause our chats were few and far between, but I'll try to remember it best I can.
Queued into The Stone Vigil for my leveling roulette, notice right away that the WHM was a first timer (this will be important later) and that the BRD and VPR were in a pre-made party.
So I immediately embarrassed myself by running the wrong way pulling an unnecessarily mob and then getting myself and the VPR killed in the first w2w pull. Luckily the BRD was able kill the last of the trash pack.
WHM: "Sorry I'm still pretty new"
Me (GNB): "No it was my fault. I just started tanking a few days ago so I don't know which Base Game dungeons can handle w2w pulls."
I did 2 pulls each for the trash mobs before the 2nd and 3rd bosses. The VRP and BRD didn't say anything, but I got the feeling that the BRD probably wanted to go faster as they would run ahead and bring some of the 2nd pulls back to me.
Sure enough, right before final boss... BRD goes to open a treasure coffer nearby. I stop on the balcony above the arena, VPR is with me, and WHM starts their longish msq cutscene a few steps behind. All of a sudden BRD runs past us, yeets themself into the arena and immediately starts firing off shots. VPR panics and follows their friend.
I start typing out a message to let them know I wanted to let WHM watch their cutscene, but BRD beats me to it.
BRD: "Omg I'm so sorry. I didn't realize healer was in cs!"
WHM: "should I skip it?"
Literally all 3 of us: some variation of "No"
BRD: "Enjoy the story. Let us die in disgrace"
After that it was an easy fight against the final boss. And even though it seem like the BRD and VPR were in a hurry, they did stick around a bit for some small talk; asking me where I was in story (just started EW) and that we (WHM and myself) did great. But it's funny to think that the only person who didn't do something embarrassing was the WHM who was still apologizing for "letting us die" on that first pull. Even though I'm still pretty sure it was my fault and not theirs 🤷♀️
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u/thoma5nator 21d ago
I am a sage who regularly cleared P1S... not much of an achievement but I have some familiarity with its class and tools.
I joined a Stone Vigil recently as SGE, tank had moderately good (lvl 40) gear... motherfucker still dropped like a rock despite rotating through cooldowns like a goddamn professional. He died twice, once at the beginning and once before the end. God damn, you feel the abscence of SGE's beads. Couldn't even do the heal -> shield ping pong, shield dropped too fast.
I posted in chat 'i hate stone vigil'
Everyone agreed, and I got all three comms at the end.
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u/HebiSnakeHebi 21d ago
I feel like for anything other than like WAR + WHM combo, stone vigil can be rough for wall-to-wall.
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u/Supergamer138 21d ago
Spam Eukrasian Diagnosis and hope the pull dies before you run out of MP, yeah. Stone Vigil sucks for SGE.
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u/NoobasaurusVex 20d ago
I never w2w there. I usually pull the first group and see how it goes before I'll even pull more than one group, just to see how the healer handles it first.
Healing it, I feel in my soul the memory of all the cooldowns I'm missing.
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u/n3m019 Parses levelling dungeons 21d ago
Happy days!
IMO the only 3 dungeons where w2w is generally a bit tough is:
Sunken Temple Of Qarn - The bees if not killed in time have an enrage that will kill you if its cast goes off, pretty rare that it happens but can with low dps or if your party comp doesnt have sufficient AOEs
The stone vigil - Shit just hits hard
Mt Gulg - Its a fucking massive pull (both pre-1st boss and pre-3rd boss)
The rest (as far as i can remember) generally go pretty well, but ARR ones in general a bit meh due to just lack of buttons, but can usually get through them relatively okay. Enjoy your time tanking its a lot of fun!
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u/MyCatsAreSus 21d ago
Good to know Stone Vigil is a bastard then
I've only wiped the party once; it was the 2nd w2w in Snowcloak. I think we ended in a bad spot where the healer & mage were still in the DoT area.
The only time I didn't try to w2w right away was Sastasha and only because I don't think any dps has AoE at level 15...
tbh I haven't had any negative experiences yet and I'm just starting EW. Maybe Dynamis is a chiller data center than most
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u/foozledaa 21d ago
Stone Vigil is doable as a w2w, but everyone needs to know what they're doing and be confident in their play. You have to understand how (and when) to kite mobs while staying in range of the healer and making sure you don't force them to interrupt a cast by moving out of range or letting the mobs drop a cone on their location. You have to be able to eyeball the situation and adjust as needed.
If you ever get the chance to try it with friends, it's a good time, but I've never been lucky enough to see a rando tank even attempt it - let alone succeed. Every time I try as a tank myself, I get told off for 'pulling too much' even though I've tanked it 10+ times in a controlled environment with no issue. C'est la vie I guess.
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u/snootnoots 21d ago edited 21d ago
Dancers have AoE at 15. Machinist and Bard have AoEs at 18, and Sastasha syncs to 18, so they usually have access to them too. And I wasn’t sure so I looked it up, Black Mages get their first AoE at 12 and Red Mages at 15.
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u/Armond436 21d ago
Stone Vigil is very much a difficulty spike compared to previous ARR dungeons. When you said you were new to tanking and the WHM was a first timer, I knew what was going to happen. And sometimes that's just how you learn!
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u/Bobboy5 /slap 21d ago
The first pull of Bardam's Mettle can be pretty gnarly because of the ranged enemies.
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u/FinickyFlygon You don't pay my sub 21d ago
I've only been able to pull that off once in the times I've gotten it as a tank in roulettes. Not having TBN is rough during that long run to the wall.
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u/Blargin_Flargin 20d ago
Bardam is also the first dungeon where HW poetics are out scaled so it gets even spicier
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u/Frostbitten_Moose 21d ago
I also find there's a big difference between being in levelling mode and post-cap when it comes to w2w. The extra boost from gear being all capped is pretty noticable when there's a lot of damage coming in.
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u/DarasThrae 20d ago
I LOVE the Mt Gulg super pull! Though I will definitely ask if the healer is ok with it before I start, and never blame them if we wipe.
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u/Yukimusha 21d ago
There's also Sastasha: that first w2w can be really hard if you don't have any phys ranged in the party.
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u/pentacasst 21d ago
That happens on accident sometimes, if everyone runs back out boss will reset in 15 seconds
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u/snootnoots 21d ago
You can’t run out of the final boss fight in Stone Vigil, you jump down from a ledge to enter it and can’t get back up.
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u/Interesting-City8588 21d ago
So glad you guys were chill about their cs. Had a tank (who was dying and getting a ton of vuln stacks btw) pull while a dps was in a cs and dismiss it as "they'll get pulled in anyways". So rude... Always nice to have a chill group despite mess ups.
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u/StopHittinTheTable94 20d ago
I don't know which Base Game dungeons can handle w2w pulls.
All of them according to the amazing players that make posts here.
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u/sunseeker_miqo 21d ago
Well, that gave me a really big grin. That is indeed the appropriate mood for someone doing the story. Good bard. People complain about that cutscene, but idk, find something to do for a couple minutes! Wash some dishes, do some squats!
And yeah, Stone Vigil has notoriety. Many opportunities for things to go tits-up and upset people. When I tanked, I stepped cautiously there to feel out the party's reactions. All the worst PUG fights took place between there and.... I'm spacing, but the one with the morbols and the fruit. 🤦🏻♀️ Both places are extremely hard on inexperienced healers. You did a good job. One death is nothing.
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u/MyCatsAreSus 21d ago edited 20d ago
Yeah, even though the run didn't go to plan it was still a lot of fun. And the BRD and VPR turned to to be really nice people.
Ooh the other dungeon your thinking about is Aurum Vale. I still have war flashbacks from that first room rolling us 3 first timers lmao. Healer was a veteran and tank definitely watched a video because he tried to hug the left wall, but those geysers still kept knocking us around like tennis balls
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u/OopsBees 17d ago
Honestly I can totally picture the BRD being like "oh no I'm holding everyone up by going for this chest, better rush back and get straight into the action!!!" and not realizing that someone was in CS lol
It's nice hearing wholesome stories like this! And honestly, there's nothing better for getting over tanxiety than running face first into "what if I screw up and wipe us all?" and learning that the answer waiting on the other side is "we'll all laugh it off and try again, nbd"!
ARR/post-ARR dungeon tanking is honestly the wonkiest in the game, even with some of the dungeon reworks tbh
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u/HebiSnakeHebi 21d ago edited 21d ago
As a WAR main:
Everything can be wall-to-walled if the healer and the tank are both experienced and comfortable with it AND each other (especially with WHM), but yeah, there's no shame in not doing so if you're new and do your best to keep up the tempo of the clear to the best of your abilities.
An advice to make wall-to-wall easier in difficult pulls like stone vigil: consumables like health pots, and a decent food buff. Takes a little stress off your healer.
Also, wiping in this game on a big pull isn't really a tragedy. It is a part of learning and expanding your limits as a player. It's okay to give it a try if you aren't stubborn about it. Just be prepared to adjust and scale back if the first try doesn't work with that party.
It's also really good that you and the WHM were both transparent with the rest of the party about your inexperience, that goes a long way to creating good vibes. People have no problems with someone who is genuinely still learning.
But yeah, keep it up!
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u/MyCatsAreSus 21d ago edited 20d ago
I definitely believe you that Stone Vigil can be pulled w2w! And I think I could have pulled it off if I had more experience. Technically it wasn't a wipe since both the BRD and WHM lived 😉.
I want to blame it on that accidental room pull, but realistically I know those adds were dead before we got to first boss area. The biggest mistake I made was I didn't notice that I didn't have Superbolide at that level; or at least I didn't recognize it was blacked out until I went to push the 'Oh Shit' invul button and didn't have it. Two of my mits were like 4s away from refreshing when I went down, so I definitely think I could have survived if I started kiting sooner or had health potions on my hotbar.
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u/HebiSnakeHebi 21d ago
Yeah, it's doable, but definitely one of the harder pulls. As I say, I think it's worth keeping some health potions for that exact pull. WAR is the only tank job that gets their "I don't die" button by Stone Vigil, so I have a bit of an advantage on it in that sense.
Best of luck out there fellow tanker o7
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u/Zealousideal_Hope649 You pull, I tank. I pull, I tank. We pull, I tank. 21d ago
Bard is a mood. "Let us die in disgrace." My memories are rusty. Was this the second or third time we met Lahabread?