When did you start tanking?

I started tanking right off the bat, as my first class in this game (which is my first MMO). I wanted to play either a Marauder or a Lancer, and in hindsight, given how much I hate Lancer, I'm glad I picked Marauder. I only chose Marauder over Lancer because I wanted to play with a friend who was gonna start a new toon as an Arcanist.

That said, I did know what I was getting myself into, and read up about tanking like crazy so as to minimize the learning curve as much as possible. It was pretty rough at times and I felt like quitting after some runs... but really, the only time I wouldn't recommend tanking to somebody is if they don't know what they're getting themselves into. Not even if people have confidence issues (I had BIG confidence issues). As long as you're not going in unawares, you can do it.

TC, you should have no problems.

I've been tanking since EQ1 first as a Warrior then as a Shadow Knight, and have tanked every MMO (except FFXI where my main was a Dark Knight/Thief; though I did eventually do some DRK/NIN tanking too.) since then. It's the job I enjoy the most.

I tanked in WoW for like a dungeon before the anxiety got to me. Then I mained PLD in 2.0, and realized tanking is a lot easier than I thought it would be. Just hit your CDs when you need to hit them and you're okay.

I started to level marauder because I had a load of axes from dungeons and found it cool :p
I mostly FATE grinded to level 50 but tanked each dungeon till 50 at least once some twice when helping FC members. Imho I felt crap and it was the very first Titan HM I fully survived through when I tanked lol. My first "real" tanking experiences were when I tanked the weekly Labyrinth of the Ancients in FC runs (we were short on tanks so someone had to do it). I got to a OK level of aggro management... Seems people were even happy enough with my skills because a FC static suddenly asked me to tank for them (T1-4 progression) and I never had done Coil before.
Ended up maining warrior for a good while but now I am back to scholar which is my class I really live but that is just due to our static needing a healer and people that applied had issues to manage MP, couldnt use Skills, didnt take advice...
Warrior was along with scholar also my first level 60 just now just to tank the blind dungeon runs that I do with 3 (4) certain friends and they dont tank.

well since the "Tank role has exsisted since the dawn of the "trinity" (solo or mutiplayer games) I've been 1 in Solo games for a long, damn ass long time do to untrustworthy NPC's that can't hold hate worth a damn. As for Muliplyer games, that would be WKC2 as a Spear-Tank (or sword had points in both) I've always like the "sword & Shield" combo... thou would be completly perma-happy if I ever get a "Gunsword & Shield" class.

I first started as a monk in WoW. I loved the way it worked and all the stuff you had to manage to be a decent tank.

In this game however, I didn't start tanking till Heavensward released and I got my hands on DRK. I don't think I could main a tank in this game, but I do enjoy tanking on occasion.

I always wanted to play MMOs, when my friends played Ultima.
They told me about how healers were desired, and that made me want to heal... if I could still use a sword and some armor...

FFXI was about to come out, so I got a PC, and started up as a RDM.
My friends told me RDM was useless, and seeing how MP and potency of heals was being an issue, I rerolled a WHM.

Eventually I saw PLDs, and wanted to be a PLD/WHM melee, who would help the healer out with occasional light heals. (I also pulled a LOT of hate from heals, and WAR tanks could never keep me alive. Never really played with PLD tanks)
Due to limited playing time, it took me almost a year to reach Lv30.
So I tried WAR/WHM, thinking I could be a mini PLD.

After deleveling constantly (couldnt get to Lv11 no matter how hard I tried.), I said I would NEVER tank.
Unlocked PLD, went to dunes, and everyone was ticked I wasnt /WAR for voke.
Eventually a desperate group added me, and a DRK/WAR, who argued he could never tank. (I said I'd help heal him, so they tried it)

Within seconds I was pulling hate, and then self healing to keep my butt alive, and suddenly, a TANK was born.
Switched to PLD/WAR, and fell in love with PLD tanking.

I still liked Healing as RDM, supporting as BRD, and eventually liked to DPS as BLU.

It wasnt until my 3rd attempt at WoW, did I start to like tanking more than any other role.

A game with 4 different tanks, with 4 different play styles.
I didnt like every play style, but the idea started to cross my mind, id like to see more playstyles for tanking.

I started 1.0 up as an ARM, with the goal of LNC in mind. GLA was horrible at tanking, and unfun.
I secretly wanted to make MRD a tank, despite ppl suggesting it wasnt possible.

After some F2P MMOs, I came back to 1.18 or 1.19, i forget, and tanked as MRD (loved it.) and as LNC (not because I wanted to, but because no tank could hold threat over me, and I found a way to mass pull enemies, w/o dieing, so I just took up the role of LNC tank)

For 2.0 I really wanted to try the new WAR tanking style, but since I was a 50 MRD, I took up my GLA instead, to go through the main story. Sadly, they changed WARs playstyle, to what looked like a less fun style, before I really got a chance to mess with it.
Anyways, I'm back, and looking forward to DRK. (I'll take up every tank to max if I can in an MMO. Usually the main draw is if the MMO has at LEAST 3 different playing tanks)

I sated tanking after I got my Lancer to 30 and had to lever marauder. Once 15 I figured I might as well run sastasha and instantly fell in love with the roll and class. Was always a joy to have run through a dungeon and get three player commendations and once I started tanking level 50 content such as coils I knew tanking was gonna be my main.

I believe it was during WoW: The Burning Crusade. I was playing an Orc Warrior at the time. I started off playing the class for PvP purposes. I soon figured out I was horrible at PvP. Luckily, I had plenty of tanking experience levelling. I applied this to a raiding environment and soon found myself as my guild's MT and raid leader. To this day, I still have nightmares about tanking Shattered Halls as a warrior tank.

I've been tanking off and on since then. I started off FFXIV as a healer, but I soon found that my skills were best suited to tanking. Why be a healer when your naturally better at tanking? Been tanking now for about a year or so.

The very first day I started playing, and it's the only thing I've done since as PLD and DRK are the the only combat jobs I have above lv.30

Got to Lv50 PLD back in either Jan or Feb 2014, but didn't use it until a few months ago. I leveled WAR shortly after getting PLD, but I like PLD better.

Overall, I started tanking as NIN in FFXI back in 2008. Retired in Nov 2014.

I started tanking seriously about 4 days after HW dropped. I weighed the playstyle of DRK and the utility it brought, versus the amount of fun I was having as SMN, and I made the switch. I used the gil I had ground up to buy a set of level 30 armor and a set of level 50 armor, and I talked to "Fray".

I haven't once looked back.

I'm a fairly new player. Started off as ACN, with the intention of going SMN, but while the playstyle was "ok" I wasn't really in love with it. In preparation for SMN, tho, I started leveling THM, and fell in love with it. Got that to 50, then found that my (then) FC often needed a tank, so I leveled GLD and MRD to 15, then bit down and leveled GLD/PLD almost exclusively through dungeons. I still didn't main it, generally preferring to BLM harder content (like EX primals), but I found I liked it. Then came Heavensward, and with the exp curve I knew I was going to have to make a choice. I started with PLD, and got that almost to 53 before I tried DRK. How'd that go? Well, my PLD is still only 53, while my DRK has cleared Alex Normal and even solo-tanked A2 when my cotank decided he'd rather pilot the robot. My BLM? Gathering dust at 50. :)

--Erim Nelhah
(Master, Astral Descendants <AD>, Malboro)
(60 DRK Main)

I've been taking it for the group ever since I charged out of the womb and the nurse slapped me on the ass.

I started tanking back in WoW had a PLD raiding in Burning Crusade and into WotLK. Kind of got tired of the mechanics in WoW so I quit. I tried going back, but every time I would log I would log back out not wanting to play.

Immediately started a PLD shortly after PS4 beta because it's the only tank with shield and sword and I have fond memories of FFIV for Cecil.

I really enjoy protecting party members from harm just like I would in real life for other people, and I like leading the party thru dungeons/raids.

I suffer from Generalized Anxiety Disorder, so when I am doing an Ex trial or raid that I haven't perfected yet, I get extremely anxious not only because I am afraid of messing up, but about the expectations of the party members about me.

I got tired of/frustrated with playing WHM and I knew I didn't want to DPS.
Turns out, I really love tanking. I never could've imagined I'd be so satisfied staring at a boss's feet and calves while watching my health bar go up and down. ;)

I am new to the genre of MMORPG so at first I got yelled at for not tanking properly, but after playing for a while I met some cool people who helped me out. This game needs more people who don't get mad so easily. It makes me feel good when something goes wrong and someone says "Nice save" because that tells me my skills are developing.

I've been making tank style characters since i started playing pencil and paper DND over a decade ago. Something about the man or woman the runs in to spare his/her party the pain of an angry beast or person just gets me.


Brings a tear to my eye.

I was a Paladin back in Dark Age of Camelot, but only just started "really" tanking in FFXIV. Leveled my DRG to 50 and once I started maxing out his Poetics gear after a good 6 month break. From there, I decided I'd level 1 of each DPS (done), Healer (my SCH) and Tank. Leveled the SCH, enjoyed that a lot and then moved onto WAR. Enjoyed it well enough, but never really did any of the "hard" content (no EX Primals or anything with it). Currently leveling a DRK and really enjoying it.

I have a great deal of performance anxiety, always concerned about my performance in dungeons but I've decided that, while I'm leveling my DRK, I'll invite (constructive) criticism, and try my best to start doing the harder stuff on it. So far dungeons have gone swimmingly and will probably start trying EX Primals shortly (though I still really worry about messing up deep down)

About 2-3 days ago. Getting my pld to 34 for awareness and then onto drk. My first major character in FFXI was a PLD tank and I've tanked in other MMOs, though, so I'm not a complete noob. Only problem I've had tanking so far was when I got two a BLMs in Halatali who decided to ignore all markers and just spam AoEs. When you're - level 22-23 GLD it's a nightmare.

I have to say with MCH at 60 and two melee dps at 50, it's refreshing to try something different again.

I started tanking in WoW back in 2005 because I could not enjoy the game as DPS because the tanks were always awful. What's so hard about hitting EVERYTHING!?

In FF14 since I like Sword and Shield I went for Paladin right away, but be warned, they lack power, their AoE damage is inept, their lack of active mitigation, your tank stance doesn't come till 40, and the threat multipliers are low. It's much funner with just sheltron and clemency alone though. I got sick of PLD at Garuda because NOBODY AoE'd anything, and I would have done it in a heartbeat if I could. So I went to Warrior, had more things to do with it too. BTW because of the lack of healing, PLD will not survive very well. Normally power isn't supposed to be an issue but with low threat modifiers and no AoE damage, the power issue is very serious, but I'm not saying go pure Strength.

I tanked alt runs in wow starting in wrath with my DK. Enjoyed it but we always had our tanks zo once I made the jump to FFXIV I made tanking my full time thing, now that DRK is here my life is complete.

I started early this year, after being a 50 DRG for a bit and getting tired of the queue times for dungeons to run the daily quests, I levelled to 50 PLD. There were definitely a few things about targeting to learn, but once I got the hang of it I felt like I did pretty well. Now that DRK is here, I just got that to 50 and it's my favourite besides my DRG

I started tanking in Vanilla WoW when our alt run needed a new OT. Levelled my war and went and got all that sweet Ragnaros loot. Continued tanking in all those expansions with all classes that could do so. Played a little tank in SWTOR as well. When I got here, I played monk first to 50, and liked it, but I just wanted to try the tanking in this game and started levelling WAR. <3 my little lala beast whacking things with an axe while also being able to take a hit...

Well I guess you could call going from 15-37 "Tanking" on FFXI back in 2004. I Switched to DRK back then, I guess levelling WAR and NIN count as experience to tanking. Endgame wise I was always DRK or COR. In FFXIV I started 2.0 as WAR so I would count that as real tanking. I did a small bit of tanking endgame then switched to MNK until DRK came out and started tanking again since Heavensward

I technically started playing tanky classes in 2004 starting with MU Online, and then moving onto fully 3D MMOs with Lineage II later that year. But it wasn't until I got FFXI in 2006 and reached 10 with WAR in the Valkurm Dunes that I finally began to work with strangers and get onto the party dynamic. And from there I progressed to PLD. It went good. Very good.

Ever since, tanking has been the standard role that I intend to pick in the vast majority of MMOs, only with some exceptions in faster games which rely more heavily on individual skill. For example, Guild Wars 2 isn't as tied to the holy-trinity and encourages avoiding any hit that doesn't have to be taken, rather than soaking attacks. So I just preferred to go thief.

In Global Agenda, you did have the holy-trinity, but it was also primarily a PvP third-person shooter with very little lock-on abilities. So in the same sense as GW2, dodging was always an option over soaking hits. As it was nearly pointless to attack a tank with a healer still on him, and since real humans don't come with enmity meters, the Medic was always the first on the enemies kill list. Little progress could be made until they've killed you first, and the game became extremely hard if you were too clever to be found in the open and undefended. The actual tanks were like a superior off-tank, while the healer mained everyones attention and did everything possible to waste their time and efforts. I learned so much from this amazing, unfortunately dead game.

I learned things that made me better than most tanks I meet.
1. A tank that runs away to escape with 5% hp is a hell of a lot better than a tank that stayed with 0. (In PvP this usually results in baiting greedy enemies into the heart of your team too)
2. Don't take a hit if nobody including yourself has to. The ultimate negation is making the hit miss. And giving your healer a breather.
3. A tank should not be the first to die. He should be the second to last before the healer. If a DPS dies so a tank can get healed, you have a far more manageable scenario than if a tank dies with a perfect record on aggro (see point 1). Though in a PvE game you never get faced with a situation as extreme as this unless someone chooses to do a horrible pull on your behalf. Your party can't be stressed if your healer isn't. The healers stress is your project. They are your bae.

These are the concepts that I tank with.

I played a Warrior back in Everquest and continued the trend onwards through WoW. It was a combination of always being in demand and being able to do the "party leader" role effectively that drew me to it.

Paladin in EQ in 2003, my first MMO, and I was 13 at the time. Had a lot of fun, picked Paladin because smiting evil and plate.
Warrior in WoW, and still going strong. Love how brutal it is.
City of Villains brute. Same as WoW warrior. Love the fun mix of damage and tanking
W/MO in GW1. I went for the armor, stayed for holding my own in the middle of abunch of death
Now in FFXIV, WAR again. I love the armor, love axes, and love def mixed with offense in the spiky way.

actually started tanking in this game from get go.. didn't know gladiator was a tank though, so had some things to learn.

I did ok for awhile but eventually you just have to get good at it.

I switched to blm when I got pld as I was bored of not being able to kill stuff in open world. I consider myself a blm main but I tank more id say. although less since heavensward came out due to the story and levelling. but now blm and pld are my only 60 battle classes again.

tanking gets easier once you learn the dungeons and what you can and cant handle. even raids aren't to bad for the most part.

run each dungeon 10x over to get a feel for them, and playing other classes in dungeons makes you know what those classes need from the tank. don't be scared to jump in and run stuff as "someones gotta tank", and most people wont.

it doesn't take much practice to start improving as a tank, even target swapping for agro control becomes second nature.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RiisWolf

In FF14 since I like Sword and Shield I went for Paladin right away, but be warned, they lack power, their AoE damage is inept, their lack of active mitigation, your tank stance doesn't come till 40, and the threat multipliers are low. It's much funner with just sheltron and clemency alone though. I got sick of PLD at Garuda because NOBODY AoE'd anything, and I would have done it in a heartbeat if I could. So I went to Warrior, had more things to do with it too. BTW because of the lack of healing, PLD will not survive very well. Normally power isn't supposed to be an issue but with low threat modifiers and no AoE damage, the power issue is very serious, but I'm not saying go pure Strength.

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You're crazy. Paladin has plenty of active mitigation. What aoe at Garuda are you even talking about? Paladin doesn't have low threat mods either or a power issue. We are tanks, we don't need aoe damage. Flash and circle of scorn are plenty to hold aoe hate.

I started tanking at the expansion launch, I have always played as a healer since WoW launch but this time I wanted to try something different, so far I love it because I have more control on a dungeon, I can go fast if the group is good, I can go slow if the group is lacking skill, I can move the adds to a proper position so that the dps can use their skills like a monk or a summoner and I know how to make the healer's job easier because I know how they work, no regrets Im planing to lvl up all tanking classes to 60 now.

I started tanking in FFXI.

But FFXIV wise I was DPS for 1.0. I then switched to tank for 2.0 until the start of SCOB.
At the start of SCOB (did like 1 week as tank) I switched back to DPS due to people leaving the static and being replaced by people who didn't have DPS levelled
I then switched back to tank for 3.0 because our MT requested to switch to DPS

I started tanking in WoW as a Blood Elf Paladin in 2008 after playing MMOs for 6 years. Still tanking to this day.

Started with Everquest in 2002
Switched to FFXI in 2003
Took a break from 2004-2005.
Began playing FFXI again in 2006 until 2008
Spend some time trying other MMOs (Age of Conan, EVE, Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online)
Got tired of bouncing from MMOs and figured i'd give WoW a try.
Played WoW for a few years before switching to FFXIV 1.0 in 2011
Been playing FFXIV ever since

Not strictly my first MMORPG, but it might as well be. The first I've taken seriously and I kind of had no idea about roles in the beginning. I defaulted to the Gladiator class, good old sword and shield. That was my start.

I started tanking in EQ: Ruins of Kunark. Class was Paladin.

Tanked in :
EQ, FFXI, WoW, FFXIV

Probably more, but those were the only serious ones i've tanked in.

For you EQ vets i'll sell you a wyrmslayer @ ec tunnel 3rd torch :).

I'm not sure if it was in 2005 when in Guild Wars 1 I figured out body blocking - where you would tank by forming a line between the enemy and the healers, and people couldn't move through each other and/or NPCs (I forget) so tanking was literally a blocking with your toon thing...

Or City of Heroes, which I began somewhere between 2005 to 2007 and played a tanker and then a bruiser as well as an illusionist (a healer/support role).

Or the last potential would be in 2007 when my guild lost its main tank so I started leveling my first tank... a WoW paladin during the 2.4 patch era when they were easily critable unless you have perfect timing on your shield... but by end of year in an effort to get talking points about why 'WoW warriors were not as interesting as WoW paladins...', I made a Tauren Warrior... and lost my own argument almost overnight... :) (plus I hate elves, and at the time it was the only race that could be paladins unless you went to the blue faction... so it made it even more appealing to drop the paladin for the warrior).

I've been a tank in every MMO I've played ever since. I've even more or less figured it out in Guild Wars 2 - you CAN control the threat table there, and you can dominate it to some degree. Its not the 'meta', but it actually works decently.

Made a warrior here - because I just don't care for 'magical tanks'... (Though I think I'm posting on my other primary character right now, which is a healer).

I've always been a tank. I enjoyed playing melee guys that could take lots of damage while my brother always played the magic classes when were were younger in the days of the SNES. When I finally got around to playing an MMO for the first time (I can't even remember what it was. It was Runescape, but that doesn't count) I looked at my choices and the dude with lots of life and a sword was the tank class. So that's what I went with.

I always main tank cause I don't trust other to do it and tanks are usually the least played class in any MMO cause people don't want to play a "leader" class that can't do any damage. If you can't lead somewhat, people will get annoyed with you if you are really slow at grabbing mobs or doing what's expected.

Best part of being a tank? You can be a huge dick and get away with it if you do your job perfectly since they don't want to get rid of you cause you're rare in dungeons.

I've always played tank classes. I like being in front, taking the damage and punch a huge boss in his big toe and laughing about it. When I first came to ffxiv I started a War, mained it all the way to HW. I now play a Drk, I've gotten all 3 tanks to 60 and Enjoy the Drk overall, War will always have a place in my heart though.

Best part about being a tank....Leading the group, and getting praised for not being a fail tank lol.

I started tanking back when a realm reborn started, I got tired of bad tanks from other games IE(Spinning the mob around nonstop, never holding aggro and so on), made a glad thinking I can be that dps glad/paladin that could tank and sorta DPS, you know, be that *guardian* like I was back in FFXI and sorta be that Sword Saint Knight Cid thunder god from final fantasy tactics. Booooy was I wrong. Paladins couldn't really do damage, what they did was really slow so I ended up switching to warrior and MAN was it DAY and NIGHT in damage. I was really known by a lot of people for always willing to tank cause many people didn't like tanking. Tanking is a boring job and many don't give much thanks to it but it excites me that I am the shield of the group.

Edit: I also tried to go DRK cause you know, fell into the hype thinking it would kinda be like FFXI, made it to 60 and boy was I wrong. Went back to warrior, cried to him and said I was sorry, had make up sex with tanking mobs without defiance and bashing their heads in and never gonna look back at DRK again.

I started tanking when my DPS Q's at 50 were too long. Don't regret anything