Why do you tank ?

Because I'm the Leader, I'm the shield to protect from harm, I can do not so little damage as i first thought.....and Tanking is the only Role I really enjoy playing

at first i don't want and i don't care about tanking, but warrior design really hooked me so i ended up playing as them
and why am i still sticking with them because i like it more than any other job
been sticking through thick and thin, when they were crap in 2.0 and then became the overlord in 3.x and then return to crap again in 4.0.
don't care if SE wants to fix this job or not at this point, i'm sticking with it

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Originally Posted by Flaris

I've seen a lot of tank friends make the switch to DPS main when SB dropped, and few that have stuck with tanking despite the changes.
So, if you're still tanking what kept you around? what was it about tanking that initially interested you?

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To be face to face with the boss.....

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Originally Posted by Flaris

Why do you tank ?

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INSTANT POP! ^^

regards hobbit

Tanks have a presence and responsibility no other role has. Being in the thick of action is the most fun thing i can think of in an mmo. Tank over a decade now and that's not going to change. Also queue times.

Because I didn't know I wanted Dark Knights and and Au Ra until I saw what they would be like in game and lore wise... (Especially the Au Ra which really caught me off guard with how pretty females were as well as how bad ass looking the males were, ESPECIALLY with some of the male hairstyles remind me of Ragna the Bloodedge from BlazBlue series) got into FF14 after Nidhogg fight was 8 player fight was introduced i think...

I suppose the main reason is because I like the support role and tanks are needed. My FC has a lot of DPS and I'm sure many others do as well. That being said, I wish tanking wasn't so bland in this game.

Oddly enough, I didn't like the initial idea of tanking. Played with it here and there getting PLD and WAR unlocked at 30 to get the experience, didn't really hook me. Then I unlocked Dark Knight, and for me, tanking just clicked. I loved Dark Knight's MP reliance and constant balance between enmity, damage, and self-maintenance keeping me busy and focused as opposed to old FFXI's style of "spam provoke/flash and maybe cure or buff yourself occasionally, and yell at your bad WHM/RDM." It's a very active tank, and whether I'm stance-dancing for DPS, or stubbornly fighting an enmity battle against another tank who seems determined to try and take MT from me, it keeps me busy and focused on the game as opposed to dozing off pressing 1-2-3 over and over.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Flaris

I've seen a lot of tank friends make the switch to DPS main when SB dropped, and few that have stuck with tanking despite the changes.
So, if you're still tanking what kept you around? what was it about tanking that initially interested you?

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I like to smash people in the face with an axe.

That will never change no matter how far they nerf WAR into the ground. (and here i started as a paladin main XP)

Tank since Vanilla WoW. I enjoy being the person the boss is focused on. Additionally, I like being able to max out my ability to reduce incoming damage, and increase my maximum hp as much as possible with the ultimate goal of boring the healers to tears because they have nothing to do. Finally being able to control the flow of the dungeon and where the mobs are being placed I find oddly satisfying.

Started in FFXI when i saw a PLD in full AF standing in Bastok, so originally it was just the aesthetics.... I keep tanking in XIV because i enjoy the balance of maintaining enmity, minimizing incoming damage through appropriate use of cds, and contributing with as much dps as i possibly can. That, and the insta-queues....

I love being THE tank (preferably MT) because it feels really good to be the one with the monster's attention, it trying really hard to kill me and and I die, everyone else is condemned; I like to be THAT toon in the spotlight, the leader, the powerful, the sturdy and scary and one mistake of mine could mean a wipe, unlike DPS, which they can even afk midfight and no one will even notice.

I'm a masochist

Tanking is an awesome concept but honestly, in FFXIV, 90% is really boring.

Bosses on the other hand are awesome as a tank.

I've been a WAR tank since 2.0, so I wasn't going anywhere with the SB changes to WAR. Plus, to quote an old saying, "If a job's worth doing, do it yourself."

tanking gets me in parties. (End of Story)

Beside that I like the looks and feels of all 3 tanks. I just like tanking it feels really natural. To me I can't get the swing of healing and all the DPS feel boring to me even the new ones.

Because I am part of a raid group and i love playing with them and they needed a tank. Other than that, short queues, SWORDS N SHIELDS, cool armor, a lion, and most importantly,

SOMEONE'S GOTTA DO IT

I tank because I fell in love with the role after my first ffxi party on my war in the dunes

I started my MMO journey in FFXI (I did play RO and Lineage II before but wasn't hooked).

In FFXI, I didn't understand roles so I wanted to be a RDM/SMN (REDM sub SMN) so I could do white, black and summoning magic while being able to melee. Silly me lol....

After I understood what roles were (didn't take long, something the game's harsh nature taught me by level 10 lol). I decided to go DRK/THF for big damage...... Only to realize I had to level WAR as a sub job as well. WAR share-tanked via tank swaps with NIN, PLD and other WARs until 37 where NIN and PLD just took over the tanking because they could solo from there.... And I was HOOKED on tanking. Leveled PLD and never looked back. I was a RDM and PLD main in XI.

What made me love tanking?

1- Holding hate was hard and only the best tanks could keep the attention permanently. Especially against extremely good players on dangerous DPS classes like DRK, BLM and WAR.

2- Being the backbone of the party where dead tank meant dead party.

3- having the ability to protect others. Self sacrifice for the safety of others felt rewarding to me.

4- The ability to go over do more than just my job. Be it as help the healing when things get iffy (adds attacking party) or dishing out damage when threat and/or damage in take were no longer an issue.

5- Clutch plays. This probably goes in tandem with points 2 and 4. But think PLD in FFXI covering that dangerously good DRK, WAR or BLM to save them from killing themselves. Or WAR in FFXIV holmganging the second boss in Wanderer's palace when he fixates on your healer to root the boss in place and stop the chase. Giving immunity bubble on an ally in WoW when they go ape-sh*t nuts on a raid boss to prevent a wipe. Or dropping tank stance and dishing out extra DPS when you're the last man standing before a wipe to get the group a kill. THAT... IS.. SOOO... SATISFYING!

Since then, I've been maining any tank that has the ability to protect others while maintaining attention (knight/paladin archetype) in every MMO since.

Here's a small on-topic story from a FFXI experience:

I had a VERY rich and hardcore friend in FFXI who was leveling all jobs to 75 (back when that was the cap) where he had 1 job left to take up: SAM.

This guy got a great katana that allowed him to attack randomly twice or thrice per attack round. With SAM being a TP generating machine and the amount of TP-store stats he had, he was using a Weaponskill every 20 seconds or so and self-skill chaining every minute or two. In a game where people take a full minute to have enough TP for 1 weaponskill, that was BROKEN!

We formed a linkshell party (mostly friends) and they told me that my PLD would NOT be able to keep up with his SAM (he had a good reputation). Being decently geared myself and having multiple jobs leveled, I had confidence in at least keeping him alive.

During the experience party and as the bard kept bring the mobs to our camp, I would go max enmity generation at start, then put on my damage (warrior gear) outfit and slap the mobs with a good weaponskill either opening or closing skillchains with my SAM friend. If the RNGods were nice to me I'd get some decent numbers and cruise until the mob dies. If the RNGods were nice to him and cruel to me, I switch to super defensive mode where I use cover on my friend (in there you have to physically stand between your ally and the attacker) and heal any damage he or I take until i regain aggro... or mobs dies.

After the experience party ended (3 hours), my friend opened up my trade window with a million gil as reward for not letting him die once (where you lose exp if you die).

THAT was a memory that I will keep forever in my tanking career!

Thanks for reading and sorry for the long post. :p
~ Phoenicia ~

I just love having a boss's full attention it kind of feels like a 1v1 duel to the death (the new duty boss themes make it even more thrilling maybe im weird... i dont know and i dont care lol)...and ill be honest sometimes i get so blinded with my "1v1" duels i forget the dps and healer are there too XD. And i really dont enjoy the dps play style of stabbing/shooting something in the back hoping it doesn't turn around and rip your face off. OH yeah i also love that feeling when you know a dps player is in a really long que and you're like "hey...want me to tank for you so you can get in?" and they are usually like "OMG YES THANK YOU SO MUCH" so that's always nice. ^^
Masochists for life not gona let some changes stop me from enjoying myself!

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Originally Posted by dragonseth07

So, I take a role with lots of responsibility so that I don't give that responsibility to a Hufflepuff and watch us all burn.

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What is this blasphemous statement you're spouting my good sir?!

I have you know that Hufflepuff is the most dedicated and hard worker among the 4 houses.

So, FU and have a nice day!

Cause I don't complain about changes and master my job no matter what! It's getting annoying to here people complain about what was tanking then now. Tanking is still to me extremely fun rewarding and fun to learn. I main dark knight and I love it started playing in January of 2017 and now my static lead tank! I don't complain about changes I do what I do and master the changes and that's what REAL tanks do stop.

I've considered myself a Paladin since Final Fantasy II (IV), dropped when I was 12, so I'd likely play the job regardless of its role. That being said, I like tanking in this game for a few reasons.

1. I love taking the big hits. I may be the only person in this game who cares more about his max HP than his max crit, but I love having enough HP to be able to sneeze off a tank buster

2. I like the many versus one aspect of the group pull. Those really big pulls when it's like 12 mobs and I'm constantly blocking or parrying feels awesome.

3. I like setting the pace. I love being the person who decides how fast things are going to go. When I'm dpsing and the tank is going slowly, I get really frustrated. I'd rather go fast, even if it is a bit dangerous

Also, insta-queues. You can't argue with insta-queues.

I like to MC the mosh pit and shout insults at strays.

Because fast queues. The lore of all my characters I create in MMOs and rpgs.

I started out as a WAR because I wanted to bludgeon things to death with massive blunt objects. But there's no hammer class in FFXIV, so axes were the next best thing.

But now that DRKs get a greatclub from PVP, I'll be switching to that once I get it to 70.

Now that I have PLD leveled to 70 I have to say... Uhm... Yeeeeah... I mean, having amazing DPS, mitigation, and utility is nice, but I still feel like it's the worst tank of the 3. The reason being is that I still can't glamour my sword into a frying pan, and as someone who started out in 2.4, it's just really upsetting to see that problem still being ignored as of 4.0. At least invisible shield glamour's a step in the right direction.

There's so many bad tanks either by complete ineptitude or being less than decent, I have to go out there and be the good tank.

Too bad there's a bad healer to ruin everything, in which case I'll have to go be the good healer too. Great now I gotta be the better heal simply by doing my job with esuna at hand.

Too bad runs are a slog because DPS still don't learn a thing, made Nidhogg needlessly difficult, and continue to fumble about - OMG power up then attack, and how is it that even the hardcore raider is so babied by a single enemy in raids that they STILL fear the very concept of using AoEs and using resources to your advantage. Heaven forbid if the bard sings. Makes me want to do even that myself.

Which is why I like WAR and PLD the most. WAR for the things DPS refuse to do as I tank. PLD to hold healers' hands, otherwise to make to reduce damage to as little as possible, directly taking the hits intended to other players, tempered will, and reducing the damage others take.

Because some tanks will not use defensive cooldowns when I heal.
Because some tanks will not use Flash or Overpower when I DPS. I ended up tanking Hullbreaker Isle in a NIN before because the tank went AFK, and even when he came back he would lose aggro to me if I attacked his target, and I had to attack other targets because the healer had aggro otherwise.
Because some tanks stare at mobs for 3 minutes before attacking. I had a severe case once where the tank took the time to use the /bow emote at mobs before starting fights. 3 mobs at a time. Every time.
Because as a tank you're viewed as the leader of a party, which means that when giving new players instructions, they listen to you. They're not as receptive to advice when I'm in BRD mode. Possibly because a ragequitting tank will cause a permanent queue stall.
Because when new players who ignore the instructions die, you can usually solo a boss to death. This is generally why I still prefer WAR to PLD, since the selfheal isn't quite as potent in PLD.
Because I play every class anyway.
Because tanks have additional rewards from roulettes.
Because female heavy armour in this game isn't a bikini. The medium armour... sigh.

We do what we must because we can.

Queues are a complete mess. SE was not happy with only adding DPS classes in the expansion, they also tweaked A LOT the tanks, and aside from plds, tanks arent very happy with it. Also, on top of it, they changed the power scaling back to str only, and locked tanks out of str acessories.

What could go wrong right? right???

Because I love it.

Even when it's not so much fun, there's no other job I'd rather main.

Its the primary role I fall into in any game that metas tanking. Like most previous replies, its very thrilling to feel you're the one squaring off with a giant boss. Second reason would be I am a slave to my sadist AST healer.

Because glamour. The new DRK AF gear is enough to motivate me to learn to play. Oh woe are the poor sods who have to deal with my fail-tanking.

Was thinking about doing paladin first since so far the DRKs I've healed seem sturdy as wet toilet papers with their humangous pulls. But nope. When I saw the DRK AF gear, I decided to throw caution to the wind and see if I can do any better (probably won't).