Hi, I am a lvl 75 Deception Assassin and I've recently started getting into group content. A few times in Veteran FPs, I've been asked to "aggro/tank" the boss (when there's no other tank in the group). When this happens, I just use my taunt ability and then continue to concentrate my damage on the boss. Am I doing the right thing?

 

If anyone could give me some advice, that would be greatly appreciated!

Edited September 20, 2020 by amelianorello

Tanking is mostly irrelevant in Veteran FPs, but yes, keeping the boss focussed on you is the key part. There's a bunch of stuff around where you position yourself so that e.g. big forward-arc cleaves(1) only hit you, stuff like that, but none of that works if you don't keep the boss focussed on you.

 

(1) "cleave" = big short-range "sweep" type attack (imagine a big sword, two-handed warhammer, or scythe, but it could be e.g. a rancor sweeping its fist) that hits all enemies in a specified arc, usually between 60 and 120 degrees.

Some people seem to be a bit confused about veteran FPs. They seem to think that someone needs to 'act' as a tank and/or healer if there isn't one. Basically, in Veteran FPs, no one is 'required' to tank, and you are responsible for your own healing**.

 

There are only a few rare times in veteran FPs when you need to 'tank', and that's really only just to taunt. For example the part in Mandalorian Raiders where you want to taunt the boss away from the 'dogs'*** while the others take them down. I've done that on my Guardian - I taunt the boss away from the rest when I can, but when I have aggro on him, I'm just DPS'ing, not 'tanking'.

 

** It is particularly bad if someone tries to play 'healer' by running around clicking koltos.

 

*** The boss buffs the dogs (and perhaps also the dogs buff the boss) when they are near each other, so you want to keep the them separated as much as possible.

 

EDIT - in answer to your original question - what you do about being asked to tank depends a lot on the group and the situation. If it's a situation such as in M.Raiders, you can just do it.

If it seems as though the group thinks you should tank everything, point out to them that you are not a tank, and nobody needs to tank. Then proceed depending upon their response.

 

Similarly, I was in a veteran group last week where somebody quit and I took out my trusty level 50 Nico Okar to heal. I expected maybe a question about Nico's level, or a request to re-queue, but instead I got repeated requests to use Z0-0M (or whatever the exact name), as if that would make an real difference. I simply quit the group. I figured I didn't need the grief. 🙂

Edited September 20, 2020 by JediQuaker

Non-Tank asked to tank in a 4 DPS vet FP is not always going to work, if others generate high threat, they are going to steal aggro anyway. You can try using your "taunt" skills, but otherwise no need to bother with it too much. If someone is being a dick about it, that's their problem.