Choosing a tank class..

[TequilaSky]

As the title states, i'm debating which tank class to sway towards as I've mainly been a DPS and healing role up until now. To those tank mains out there, what class do you prefer? And which would satisfy you the most?
I don't necessarily aim to go for anything specific but an overall great tanking experience.
Any advice would be much appreciated.

[BorisDaBlade]

I mained paladin up to 3.5 and it's probably the easiest to play effectively. I only played warrior enough to get foresight and bloodbath. DRK is kinda above my skill level tbh, but it's super fun to play as OT eventhough it's not really built for it.

As I decided to level my warrior. I kinda fell in love with it. You get to see big numbers(11k crit fell cleave anyone). Aggro is very easy to maintain and the skill floor is between pld and drk.

I would recommend leveling pld first to get provoke, but that will all change with 4.0. Aggro is kinda bad until 40 on pld, but war/drk gets tank stance at 30.

[TequilaSky]

Thanks for your reply Boris, i've decided to run as a Paladin as it seems to be a good all round class and I already have the cross class skills such as Foresight and Bloodbath.

I've tinkered with Dark knight and leveled it to 51 and enjoyed the maneuverability of the class as well as the overall DPS.

Also regarding the Paladin class, what would be the best method for maintaining aggro during dungeons and raids etc..?

[Pence]

I feel like we get this a lot on Tonberry Novice Network. 'What should I play and why?'

Answer is simple: There is no answer at this stage. Previously it would have been 'Not PLD!' for tank, or 'not WHM!' for heals. Which was when you are competing at endgame. None of that matters anymore. And -NO ONE- knows how 60-70 will go. Ask the bandwagon bards. All jobs are useful in all fights now.

Go for what feels right to you, and what brings you the most enjoyment. While there always exists a meta, a good party will find a way to compensate and turn use it to their weird advantage.

[BorisDaBlade]

Depending on party comp, or if your using DF, usually open with shield lob and flash every pack your picking up if your pulling gate to gate. It's usually a good time to pop rampart as it will keep the healer from needing to heal you as you're running.

Then once you've gathered all mobs, circle of scorn, flash again, then just prioritize which mob to hit with the sword.

[BorisDaBlade]

If your raiding primals and going to be MT, I recommend a countdown timer. If you have a nin in group, set it for 20 seconds for their huton, if not go with 10.

Pop shelltron pre pull, shield lob, circle of scorn, spirits within, shield swipe, then goring blade combo. HOWEVER, use fight or flight just before you finish the combo because CoS will come off CD, before FoF ends. You can also squeeze another goring in if you clip it just after 9 seconds left.

Apply RoH as needed to hold aggro, but usually the royal authority combo is enough

Oh and pops CD's as needed, lol.

[BorisDaBlade]

Oh and the aboverall opener works for every dungeon boss as well.

Sorry can't edit on mobile.

[Jpec07]

I finally have all three tanks to 60, so I can offer some insight (yay!). Keep in mind, what I'm going to say is based on my own observations, and so is very subjective. Actual mileage may vary.

Paladin - I hate the story of PLD (especially compared to GLD's story, which was excellent), but if you can forgive that, it's a pretty handy tank class. It's easily the most defensive of the three tanks. It can be a little frustrating to watch the enemies' HP barely budge when you use a fully buffed Royal Authority (especially when comparing to the other tanks), but PLD makes up for it by having some utility that can help out the rest of the party, and by being able to actually effectively turtle tank (if you wanted to go that route--check with your group). Clemency, Stoneskin, and Protect add a great deal to your ability to contribute as a PLD, and can help save the group from a wipe. I usually use PLD on new content, simply because it has the greatest ability to support the party in my experience. It's also typically my go-to tank for dungeoning and raiding (though it can be a bit boring sometimes). Paladin also has the best ability of the three tanks to do snap mitigation.

Dark Knight - By contrast, DRK's story is excellent, and hit me right in the feels (though this was somewhat personal for me, and I know that most people won't get that same catharsis). DRK gameplay is interesting, and requires you to pay attention. I feel like I have a harder time juggling cooldowns as DRK, but that's probably just because I'm not as used to them as I am to PLD's. Dark Arts adds a very interesting dynamic, but sometimes makes it very easy to mess up (and somewhat difficult to recover from those mistakes--accidentally lost Darkside and you're out of luck for quite awhile). It does have a good bit of defense capability, but can't do snap mitigation as well as PLD can. DRK also isn't anywhere near as viscerally satisfying as WAR in terms of damage output, but you will notice things dying faster than if you were a PLD. DRK's Int debuff is also handy, but Int-based damage doesn't feels as prevalent as Str-based damage, so this loses to PLD's RoH debuff in my mind.

Warrior - Warrior is easily the most offense-oriented tank, and the one that rewards stance dancing the most. As such, you can output some very big numbers as WAR (Fell Cleavus is real). The job's ability to output damage is coupled by animations that are viscerally satisfying, which in my opinion just makes the job fun. The downside of this is that while WAR has the ability to keep decent mitigation up at all times, they can't do snap mitigation as well (unless they plan very carefully). This might have your healer cursing your existence, especially if you also have a macro that spams them to Esuna you after Berserk. I usually use WAR for Trials, because it helps them go a bit more quickly, and most Trials in the Trial Roulette don't have tankbusters severe enough to worry about snap mitigation (I just cry a little if I get The Chrysalis or Final Steps of Faith, and let the PLD or DRK tank). WAR also has the benefit of being the only tank where I can actually see my DPS contribution on the boss' HP bar.

I can't really speak to savage content, as I haven't raided that difficulty yet (outside of 2.x content), but I fully expect people to disagree with my opinions.

[Makeda]

Depending on party comp, or if your using DF, usually open with shield lob and flash every pack your picking up if your pulling gate to gate. It's usually a good time to pop rampart as it will keep the healer from needing to heal you as you're running.

Don't try to "gather all the mobs" if you're new to this, or if your healer or DPS are new to their roles. It can end very badly.

Stick to pulling each pack and finishing it off until you know how to manage threat enough to be sure that when you do chain pull, some of them won't peel off and eat the other people of your party on your merry way to the next gate. There is nothing worse than a chain pulling tank that doesn't know enmity buildup and management... It is an extremely common thing to see in just about every MMO when you encounter 'new' tanks trying to copy an experience-player's move before they are ready to.

Anytime you see a 'flower' - new or returning player icon - above your healer (and sometimes above a DPS), revert back to single pack pulls until you're sure of their ability.

[bounddreamer]

I'm a warrior main so I'm completely biased, I think Warrior is the Swiss army knife of tanks, good at just about everything you need us to do in the hands of a skilled player. Need us to off tank? We can totally shine as OT and have tons of utility. Need us to main tank? We can hold the line there. Need a high dps opener? We can open the fight then swap with the MT.

At lower levels it's easier for DRK and WAR to hold hate, and PLD doesn't get shield oath until 40, so keep that in mind. Unless you're already a skilled tank, holding aggro as a gladiator can be very unfun.

PLD has a lot of solid mitigation, it's very reliable, and easy to play (though more difficult to really make it shine).

DRK also has great raid utility and holding hate is a total joke. Unleash and dark arts power slash (single target, bosses) and abyssal drain make the mobs yours forever.

For me, WAR is favorite job overall but I enjoy running roulettes with big packs on DRK.

And I would also like to testify that Fell Cleavus is real. The sheer satisfaction of a triple Fell Cleave hitting for 15K per cleave is indescribable.