Tanking Strategies

[Jalonis]

Why does everyone sub nin? Because when lowmanning something everyones going to hit hate cap.

[Juilan]

I hit hate cap on [insert melee here] full manning stuff just by doing say 4 hits >.> at least thats what it seems since after i swing the monster is on me til one of us dies

[Pharaun]

Of all the terrible ideas on this forum this is quite possibly the worst one.

[Byrth]

Hey guys, I've got an awesome idea!

Instead of letting every job in the game be useful, lets make Ninja the only melee for a large amount of content!

[MarkovChain]

Hey guys, I've got an awesome idea!

Instead of letting every job in the game be useful, lets make Ninja the only melee for a large amount of content!

Because it's not the case already ? wake up. Always has been. Want me to pull out the previous vanadiel census to see which 6 jobs don't suck?

[Cdryik]

Actually, all job are playing ninja, it's all about utsusemi and haste. was a time a paladin was the best tank, and wasn't in need of using /nin. (miss that day) and Bard wasn't only the double march whore (on HNM).

Instead of letting every job in the game be useful, lets make Ninja the only melee for a large amount of content!

Have you ever play ninja ? it's not because they have Ichi and Ni they rules the world, NM have double/triple attack with high accuracy that you won't tank without difficulties. was a time you'd prefer get a paladin over a ninja just because it was safer.

[wish12oz]

If your melees are subbing NIN then you have more problems then them having access to utsusemi ni.

[Byrth]

No, there wasn't a time when Paladin was the best tank. There was a time when players weren't as well-geared and skilled as they are now, so Paladin was the safest tank because it largely relies on passive defenses. The way we play is an outgrowth of the game mechanics that have existed forever.

Also, there are plenty of jobs other than NIN being used right now for stuff. Thief and Dancer are competitive or superior for evasion. What would happen if they lost Utsusemi? It isn't like they're "I'm missing Ni but it's all okay!" better at evading stuff.

As far as the "I don't sub Ninja because I'm a gangster!" crowd. Well, outside of Abyssea to maintain that attitude you'd have to have tolerant and plentiful mages or a Dancer. I, personally, don't run with that many people anymore. I'd rather be on DNC/NIN with a BRD/WHM than change to WAR/SAM and bring a WHM/RDM to keep me alive. I do more damage, and it's less stressful on the mage.
Inside Abyssea, whatever. One good White Mage can heal pretty much any kind of party as long as you don't stick everyone in AoE range at once.

[Glamdring]

actually, there were simply mobs that were tanked better by different jobs. nin always had issues with anything that was AoE spam happy, since 1 AoE can take all shadows. Pld had the advantage of higher base def, and good magic def so that-shadows or no-they simply got hurt less by a hit. They also had more hate grabbing tools, especially /war. Nin had the advantage on mobs that straight melee or single target damage unless they had superb accuracy or very high attack speed, where your Utsu recast could be interrupted. Parties would often pick 1 over the other based on their intended prey.

However, the game has passed those days by. While nin can still tank, it's mostly due to their evasion, not shadows. Paladin still tank very well outside Abyssea, but in it... not so much, even tho' they still take a hit pretty well. The solution is not taking shadows away. I'm not certain what it is, maybe giving paladin hate-stealing abilities or something, but the shadows... no.

[MarkovChain]

I don't think you know anything about tanking.

Pld had the advantage of higher base def, and good magic def so that-shadows or no-they simply got hurt less by a hit.

Both jobs are equal against magic for one
Nin has an edge over pld because one shadow equals to no damage and secondly because nin is contributing greatly to damage.

What's left ? ONLY mobs that you don't DD pretty much and/or would kite. On those pld has an edge over nin sure but on the other hand rdm had an edge over pld (as well as plenty of other jobs, btw, you could "tank" Kirin or JoL on blm at least a few minutes lolz). There were situations where pld was useful, I remember see farming, not necessarely for tanking but rather to clear the path and zone the mobs, to hold some NMs until other die, supertanking situations, suicidal attempts to take AV down etc.

They also had more hate grabbing tools, especially /war.

/war is only useful for defender. Provoke generates less hate than a single melee round from a DD and it decays over time too. Melee rounds have anything from 2 ot 8 second cooldown while provoke is 30 second recast. A nin will always generate more hate than pld execpt the above situations (and by extension better DDs than nin would).