New to Tanking, help!

Trying my hand at a one-handed sword+shield tank since tanks are always in demand for parties and don't need high damage. I'm finding it's more of a learning curve than my Finale mage was a year ago. I'm struggling to keep Aggro and I die too much. I think it's mostly what skills I'm trying to use and the combos I've found from youtube videos and guides on here and Google. My build is:

Level 208 / 255 MTL / 288 VIT
Red Steel Slayer
Rock Dragon Heavy Shield + A (been looking at maybe switching out for Harmony Shield for resistance, but then I lose more Aggro+)
Lil Empress Garb (Blacksmith version, been trying to get the boss drop, but I've been wondering about moving to something else without the negative water stat. Been looking at Medic Coat, but no one seems to use it for tank)
Lucky Sushi Roll & Potum + A with Wandering Wheel
Dark Talisman (Resist) with Volgagon

I've done main quest upto 182ish then
182-198 Venena Coenubia
199-210 Finstern the Dark Dragon
211-227 Kuzto (Is there anything else besides Kuzto to level on at the later of these levels? I couldn't find any bosses where parties are available)
228-240 Arachnidemon

I'm trying to learn how to tank these 4 bosses first, and then expand. But I've gotten kicked from Venena for not keeping Aggro, and at Finstern I die more often than I'd like. I think I just need to get better at avoiding the spikes and using P Defense at Finstern.

These are my current combos that I have mapped to my buttons, though I just found some off youtube videos and guides and played around with them so they may be really wrong
Shield Cannon -> Guardian (Save) -> War Cry (Smite)
Fairy Dance -> Sanctuary (Save) -> War Cry (Swift)
Aegis -> Protection (Consecutive)
Astute -> Decoy Shot (Save) -> Rage Sword (Smite)
Protection -> Spirited Dance (Save) -> War Cry (Consecutive)
P. Defense

Help! thanks :]

P.S. ~ I'd like my build to be less timing and skill based because I don't have the greatest reflexes. I don't know how to go about that though.

 

Your build is already good.
You can further improve it by learning Knight stance and fareth, maybe power wave. I find decoy pretty useless in most bosses.
Investing in AGI stats is super good too for attack speed and motion speed.
Now for the combo, I usually start with
Cannon -> fareth (save) -> guardian (swift)
then I go Aegis-> protection (Swift).

Then I just AA and spam P. Defense -> elegant pose (consecutive). This is a very long 1 mp invincibility combo. Very easy and "no skill" like you wanted, now spam it .

Last combo Knight stance -> berserk (save)-> sanctuary (swift).
You can save some skill points by not learning astute and meteor break.
Hope this is useful
Edit: for the aggro learn knight will if you don't have it yet.
Edit 2: added a emoji to make me look more cool

 

So Knight Stance is useful for more Aggro. What is Fareth useful for, more aggro, being a 500mp skill? Power Wave increases the distance I can attack at.

I'm under the impression that Decoy is useful for AMPR?

Already have Knight Will *thumbs up*

 

Fareth is really good if you can keep the stacks alive. That's why I recommend power wave.
You'll basically stand in a spot and never move again.
Since both fareth and guardian last 3 minutes, you only need to cast it at the start of the run and the boss usually dies before the second cast.
Now I think you're struggling with aggro and survival because you're running guardian, sanctuary and decoy with the combo tag "save".
These skills have ridiculous long animation time and they NEED "swift". If you're taking so much time to cast a single combo, you won't generate as much aggro as your spammy friend

 

Unfortunately, you need to have good timing to tank. (Unless you're barehand tank) You can reduce your damage by having high resist and +S refine. However, you still need to pay attention to which Aoe kills you. As for losing aggro, that means you're not spamming enough. Aggro depends on how much mp the skills needs. More aggro gear means less spamming. Even with negative aggro, I can still keep aggro if I spam combos.

The combos I use is
Shield cannon > guardian (save) > fareth(swift) > finale (smite) (I know there's a better combo, but I like it)
Reflex > impact (save) > sanctuary (swift) (depending on situation, I switch impact with warcry (save) or make it reflect > sanctuary (save) > finale (smite))
Ad lib > impact (save) > decoy (swift) (or ad lib > decoy (save) > finale (smite) if I need to set fast)
Fairy dance > warcry (save) > spiritual dance (swift) (I mostly use for aggro and support)

If you don't have reflex stargem or ad lib, you can use another 100 mp skills. (However, I suggest to not have pdef as combo opener.)

For venena 1, tanking is really easy. You just need to keep spamming combos in front.
For finstern, you really just need to have sanctuary up at all time and watch out for spikes (and blue Aoe?). You do need to watch out for some attacks, but not as bad as swords, spikes, and blue Aoe.
For kuzto, I don't really remember, but I think you can just interrupt. Keeping sanctuary helps lower the damage.
For arachnid, I don't remember, but you can interrupt. You do need to watch out for beam and blue Aoe?

There are videos on YouTube on how to tank theses bosses, so it's better to watch them for a better understanding. I'm pretty sure all 4 bosses can be interrupted, so you can stop them from using an attack that hurts. Also those 4 don't move that much, so you can set decoy.

You can do espectro instead of kuzto.

 

You might want to get the armor from hanabi kimono iv (i think) has pretty good stats for tank and ive been using it since last year. Takes a while to farm a slotted one though

 

So I've revised my build a bit and it's doing a bit better, but I'm still having problems. Finstern's spikes still kill me rather quickly, though I can avoid them 99% of the time. Do they just do high damage regardless? And no matter what I do, I occasionally still lose aggro briefly and Finstern will turn around and attack my team for a second. So when we get to the results screen I always have a sliver of the Tank bar where I lost aggro. I see other tanks where the entire bar is them. I attached a screenshot.



Level 209 / VIT 295 / MTL 255 / Physical & Magical Resistance 51% / Ailment Resistance 106% / Aggro 253% / MaxHP 40079
Red Steel Slayer (Hero Potum II)
Rock Dragon Heavy Shield (NPC) +S
Lil Empress Garb (NPC) +S (Gopherga)
Lucky Sushi Roll & Potum +S (Trocostida)
Dark Fighter Bangle (Sand Bandits Leader)

Beginning Combo [Shield Bash -> Fareth (Save) -> Decoy Shot (Swift) -> Finale (Smite)]
Then [Knight's Stance -> Fareth (Save) -> Sanctuary (Swift) -> Finale (Smite)]
Then [Fairy Dance -> Fareth (Save) -> Guardian (Swift) -> Finale (Smite)]
Then [Protection -> Aegis (Consecutive)]

Then I Spam Provoke and use P. Defense as needed.

1.) I stop trying for Physical and Magical Resistance after 50% because it doesn't increase as easily after 50%. Do I need more?
2.) My AMPR is high enough that I can spam as needed, and my HP and resistance is high enough that I don't die easily.
3.) I have Knight Will at Lv10 and I'm working on my timing.
4.) It's just that I've been trying to use Provoke isn't it? Even though with the new Knight Skills Provoke generates 1500/15000 Aggro, other skills apparently generate more? And I forgot Provoke doesn't benefit from my 253% +Aggro. I've seen a lot of War Cry -> Berserk combos. What are some of the best aggro generating combos I should be using?
5.) How do I get that results Tank bar to be fully me, and nobody else? Just better aggro combos?

Thanks guys!

 

You are doing fine. The defender results not at full because every interrupt skills count into defender result.

 

I shouldn't use Provoke though I think? What are preferred aggro generating combos?

 

Any global aggro skill.
Knight stance-> berserk (save)-> sanctuary (swift)-> perfect defense (swift)
Pretty good global aggro combo