DF delivers Aurum Vale. The cast of characters is me (DNC), a MNK, WHM, and a sprout tank, which is fine, lots of sprout tanks do fine in Aurum. First room he charges straight in and pulls the entire room. ...pulls, but does not keep them, because tank stance is off, and despite yells in chat, doesn't get turned on. This goes exactly how you'd expect.

Ah, it's going to be one of those runs.

We explain to the tank that he needs tank stance on, and he doesn't have to pull everything. After a long....long pause, tank stance goes on, and the tank mostly follows the MNK along the edge, only pulling a couple extra mobs. He then stands in the doorway to the first boss room, with mobs spread out everywhere. The MNK, increasingly frantic, is asking the tank to LOS the mobs around the corner. Finally in all caps "STAND HERE", which the tank eventually does.

Sensing incipient disaster, I quickly explain to the tank that he should eat a fruit when he gets two stacks. He pulls the boss and....does not eat a fruit at all, despite all three party members asking him in all caps in party chat. His poor gear and refusal to use defensives eventually leads to a wipe. On the run back, we explain in detail the fruit mechanic. He has to eat the fruit when he gets the stacks.

The tank pauses on the threshold for a while, pondering this, and then says in say chat, and I quote: "sorry i dont thin k i hsve ny fruits". We explain the fruits are on the floor, which seems to clarify things for him; without pulling the boss he quickly runs over and....eats a fruit. Then he doesn't eat a fruit while tanking, but at three stacks the messages in chat seem to sink in, he eats a fruit, and we down the boss. One boss down, two to go.

In the room full of scorpions before the second boss, the WHM, sensing trouble, asks him to make SMALL pulls in the room. This seems to confuse the tank, and he stands on the threshhold until the MNK, in frustration, pulls. This gets the tank into action, and he runs off in a different directions and pulls another pack. Some frantic healing and a limit break later, and we're up to the second boss! (Note that this sets a pattern for the rest of the dungeon; the tank refuses to pull and merely picks mobs up (slowly) from the MNK. I guess zero mobs is the smallest pull, when you think about it?)

Second boss goes fine, apart from the tank kiting him around the room a bit(???). Trash leading to the third boss goes fine-ish. The one skill the tank seems to mostly have is being able to avoid telegraphed AOEs, so to my mild surprise, he doesn't even get breathed on by a morbol.

When we reach the third boss the tank demonstrates he can learn some things (....the wrong things...), and immediately runs into the room and again eats a fruit. Again, we explain he has to eat the fruit when he has debuffs. This does not sink in, but the effort of trying to understand the fruit mechanic seems to distract him, and he gets breathed on by the boss twice, does not eat any fruit, and dies. The WHM goes to rez, but in a shocking turn of events, the tank releases instead and starts to run back...?

Thankfully for my sanity, we somehow managed to down the boss three man.

Why me?