So you want to be a tank?

I main whm usually but my second was always a tank class. I chose pld until HW came out and now I main drk at least for the moment. My reason for choosing pld then was from my experience as a healer. I prefer a tank who has high defense and there isn't as much of a risk of dying so I could feel secure enough to dps.

I'm not gonna give crazy detail because many others here have done that very well but Imo Pld is what I recommend for a first time tank. They have the easiest time surviving because of their high defense and the most important part of a tank is to be able to take hits. They can all do that but some are a bit more involved then others. War may feel a bit overwhelming with the way it plays AND having to learn how to just tank in general. Pld is the easiest to just focus on taking. Not dpsing, not debuffing (not a lot anyway) no stack management or crazy mp management. I recommend learning the basics of tanking in general and then go for the slightly more complex jobs.
Btw most of this is my knowledge of 1-50 war and pld and up to 60 drk. I can't comment on how pld and war change after 50 but then that's not for a first time tank to worry about yet anyway

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Originally Posted by Phoenicia

Simply put, if a WAR "wants" aggro, a DRK will not get it.

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Dark Arts Power Slash under Girt is something absolutely asanine like a 15.3x aggro multiplier on a 300 potency skill.

If a Dark Knight wants aggro, no other class in the game can compare. Sure, you have to sacrifice 160 potency to do a Power Slash combo instead, but it's not a huge loss, and the point is moreso that Dark Knight is, hands down, the king of Single Target aggro - a equal geared warrior and paladin have zero hope of pulling threat from a dark knight in an aggro arms race.

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Originally Posted by nyttyn

Dark Arts Power Slash under Girt is something absolutely asanine like a 15.3x aggro multiplier on a 300 potency skill.

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Nah, tested, it's 6.5 and Grit is 2.3. Since Grit and Defiance are both equal at 2.3, Power Slash at 6.5 isn't that great. Specially when WAR has 33% (Unchained) and 50% (Berserk) added on top of the 5.5 BB. With both Unchained and Zerk up (no maim) BB is at 11x, or 25.3 with Defiance. Good luck catching up to that before you run out of MP using Dark Arts on every Power Slash.

So from what I understand, to learn tanking I need to start with PLD, then when I'm comfortable, go to WAR and if I get bored with either of those, play DRK?

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Originally Posted by Gist

So from what I understand, to learn tanking I need to start with PLD, then when I'm comfortable, go to WAR and if I get bored with either of those, play DRK?

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Simply put, PLD is the best place to learn about tanking because it's simple. It makes you worry less about your rotations and more about mechanics, aggro and damage reduction.

DRK is closer to PLD with some added in complexity. But it follows a similar skill set.

WAR is the more complex tank because of how its rotations work and how its mitigation is different. WAR is the only tank that isn't press-and-forget when it comes to mitigation CDs. Most of its skills are two sided offensively and defensively.

I absolutely love PLD. I love the straight-forwardness of it. I'm enjoying the new potential it has with the new combos presented with HS (which i was just recently schooled in with a different thread) and i've always been that up-front type and i love taking all the hits.

If you can manage your defense abilities and enmity well, you should be just fine playing tank. Yes you definitely need to play DPS from time to time, especially if you are decided to be the OT instead of MT, but that still means you are tanking, just moreso the adds instead of the main boss (which can be equally crucial or even more so depending on the run).

Honestly though, as i have no experience with DRK or WAR i would say take into consideration the play-styles that others are explaining and make a decision on that. End-game mechanics are to some degree what you make of them too (ie. gear, cross-class abilities, etc). Maybe go on youtube and watch some videos to see some play styles.

The question can be considered in numerous ways. Particularly with our interpretation of "premier".

Gladiator/Paladin is thought to be the best for negating physical damage. They can not only block using their shield but they are able to disrupt attacks a lot with chain stuns and an AoE silence as well as their best AoE attention-grabber containing an in-built blind.
GLD also provides the cross-class skill "Provoke" which is thought of as mandatory for all classes to have. In this way they can be considered "premier". However their defensive capabilities are in such excess that they're considered the "safe" tank and lack in aggressive features that other tanks can bring to that party slot. They are also considered the easiest to play.

Marauder/Warrior can be considered "premier" in the sense that they are currently widely accepted as the best of the 3 tanks. They simply have no weaknesses. They have a ridiculous HP pool, brilliant single-target damage, and the ability to keep up their TP practically indefinitely (though bosses often offer breaks when switching phases usually making the latter a moot point).
As PLD can make little use out of CNJ skills in a party setup and DRK only has cross-class skills of the other tanks base-classes, Warrior also has the best pick of cross-class skills with PUG complimenting their goal of wasting the enemies time perfectly. Most notably granting cooldowns for a flat evasion boost and crit chance, as well as the ability to heal themselves with attack power. Though their single target damage is so great that they'll often get asked to play in an off-tank role. Great if you enjoy the challenge of churning out bigger numbers and acting as a major DPS outside of the DPS role. Who doesn't.

Dark Knight is my personal favourite. It has a high skill-ceiling, and because you get 30 levels worth of abilities dropped on you at once it's not recommended that you play this as your first tank. DRK is known for having abilities that greatly assist with magic resistance. The DRK is also packed with tons of abilities that stack in effectiveness based on how many enemies are present, allowing the DRK to do a lot more against crowds of enemies than they can when only combating a single bigger enemy.
Everything from AoE damage, to parry procs which recover their stun ability, to an ability that gives you MP back every time you're hit. When that latter is being used at its best, the DRK can even start to spam a HP drain which becomes more powerful for every enemy nearby.
Because of this, AoE dps will love the DRK for ending dungeons quicker by way of big trash pulls. Unfortunately it's a slightly different story against the majority of bosses/trials which are just one or two enemies, limiting the DRK to what they can get out of their abilities. Their melee damage is also great but still slightly lesser than that of WAR.

With that said, DRK is in no way a premier tank unless a boss is heavily magic-oriented or the dungeon trash is weak and many (fractal continuum), but is still just as viable as they all are.

In a two-tank party, the one with the least damage will typically be designated the main-tank, allowing the other to assume an aggressive stance. As a PLD you'll be main for those parties besides ones where the other tank wants it because FyouIwantobeinthecentrethat'swhy. A DRK will be an Off-tank to a PLD Main-tank. But a WAR will be an OT to a DRK MT. However disproportionate gearing can shuffle this to be any composition.

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Originally Posted by Cooperal

They can not only block using their shield but they are able to disrupt attacks a lot with chain stuns and an AoE silence as well as their best AoE attention-grabber containing an in-built blind.
GLD also provides the cross-class skill "Provoke" which is thought of as mandatory for all classes to have. They are also considered the easiest to play.


Warrior also has the best pick of cross-class skills with PUG complimenting their goal of wasting the enemies time perfectly. Most notably granting cooldowns for a flat evasion boost

Dark Knight is my personal favourite. It has a high skill-ceiling, and because you get 30 levels worth of abilities dropped on you at once it's not recommended that you play this as your first tank.

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Stuns and silence are good tools for leveling up. But are almost always useless in raid fights. Provoke is not "thought" of as mandatory. It is. Any time you are in a fight that requires a tank swap you require provoke, on any tank class. PLD is the easiest to play in terms of staying alive early on. It's however the hardest of the 3 tanks for most people to keep hate on.

War's don't waste time, they kill things and have a quite a few options for dealing damage while mitigating damage. Also never ever ever use feather foot(flat evasion boost). It's a waste of a cross over skill slot.

Drk isn't that hard to play, it's PLD at level 30. Major difference being is that you'll have to throw out a few siphion strikes to keep your MP up. Take 15 minutes, learn your defensive cool downs and learn to rotate them. It's not that hard. If you want to take it further, learn to drop grit, apply blood weapon and max out your DPS. For a majority of the content however maxing out your DPS is not required. The "high skill ceiling-cap"doesn't start to show itself until 52. Also WAR puts out the same, if not more AoE DPS than DRK does unless your group is killing extremely slow.

Finally most raid statics that are trying to max out their raid's potential will never use PLD/DRK, but rather War and any combination of the 3. Current favored set up is DRK/WAR. With all that said. Find which one you like the best and level it up. As at this point, the need for optimization is starting to shrink. Unless you're trying to get into a hardcore group.

i enjoyed playing all three and yes i would level up a PLD first cause it's nice to have some of those cross abilities for a WAR. Both Provoke and Convalescence are nice to have. Whats great about PLD is that you have the best defense out of all tanks, you survive major attacks whereas other classes die

DRK is fun too and like WAR does good damage.

Thank you to everyone who answered my noob questions~ \(^_^)/ I think I'll start with PLD before doing too much more :D