My first time running Brayflox normal still makes me feel cringy. It was the first example of a true "speed run" I had seen. I was a Lv32/33 or so fresh WHM and had a WAR tank who began the dungeon by stating he was going to see if he could tank while drinking his coffee. We began and he pulled the first three groups--he died a small way in to the pull and began to berate me. Our NIN pointed out that he didn't have Defiance up. He laughed it off. The entire remainder of dungeon he continued his speed run pulls, ignoring his cool downs and relying on what I assumed he thought was gear that would carry him through on its own. He would stop every time I was drained of MP and point out how I couldn't keep up and we had to keep waiting on the healer.Â
This run taught me, especially now that I main a tank, to be a lot more considerate of each individual party that I get. I always start out, much like Graeham did in the post above, by popping my cooldowns prodigiously during our first few trash pulls just to get a feel for how the healer is keeping up. I have found nothing to be more painful in this game so far than tank-healer animosity. There can be a lot of vitriol and cross-blaming. I'm sure my 'test the waters' tanking method has annoyed some groups who are looking for the blistering speed run every time, but I feel it's nice to keep in mind that there are new people left when you're running leveling roulette. Even higher level content, too, because someone may be returning after a long time.
This run taught me, especially now that I main a tank, to be a lot more considerate of each individual party that I get. I always start out, much like Graeham did in the post above, by popping my cooldowns prodigiously during our first few trash pulls just to get a feel for how the healer is keeping up. I have found nothing to be more painful in this game so far than tank-healer animosity. There can be a lot of vitriol and cross-blaming. I'm sure my 'test the waters' tanking method has annoyed some groups who are looking for the blistering speed run every time, but I feel it's nice to keep in mind that there are new people left when you're running leveling roulette. Even higher level content, too, because someone may be returning after a long time.