Can a tank main get through SB without actually tanking a duty for live players?

OP, you are placing a heavy burden on yourself choosing, or trying to choose not to group with players with the role you enjoy most. Of course, this is your choice but I hope you acknowledge the amount of extra effort you will have to put in to just keep avoiding tanking for parties. I bring this up because you still want to progress the MSQ as a tank. Yes, in ShB you will have the luxury of the trusts to get you through the MSQ dungeons, but as has been pointed out to you, the trials will prove to be a significant roadblock. You will essentially have to keep a minimum of two jobs leveled throughout the MSQ: your tank, along with another you feel comfortable using in the trials to come.

Despite your tanking experience in other mmos, you still have to tank in FFXIV for people to accept you tank in FFXIV. A lot of what you have learned from other mmos will transfer over such as keeping mobs turned away from group, use damage mitigation abilities, have good gear etc. but you still have to get your feet wet in order to get good at it. The outer world does not, and likely never will present to you any kind of threat that is significant enough to increase your skill. S/A rank mobs don't count as they are not meant to be soloed, and all roles tank by default when they solo. IOW, you're not learning how to tank. This is done in dungeons.

Tanks face their greatest threat angering all the hornets in the nest. Otherwise known as trash pulling in dungeons. Bosses and trials are typically spank fests for tanks as the majority of the mechanics target the DPS and healers. Your inflated HP and high defense also gives you the privilege of surviving mechanics that would one shot you as a DPS or healer. If you go into upcoming trials as a DPS, the fights are actually going to be harder for you to not only perform, but also survive so I would keep that in mind as well especially if you are not wanting to be a burden to your group.

The way to not be a burden to your group is to speak up to let them know to keep their expectations at a reasonable level. If you are new to tanking a dungeon, just say so. 99.8% of the time no one is going to give you grief over it, and the .02% someone does you can just leave. Nothing is forcing you to group with players you don't want to group with.

Something else that is ironic and might be a tad bit comforting is that every single bad tank I've had was actually really good at it, and it was their pompous 'holier than thou' attitudes that made me not want to play with them. Talking down on other players, threatening to leave, giving unsolicited advice; it's things like that that will make you a burdensome tank no one wants to play with. Causing a wipe because you pulled too much? They are actually MUCH more willing to deal with that, my friend.

Get out there cowboy!

Tank is the easiest job in the game to play for reasons many people had stated. It's not hard to become a decent tank.

While the common complain why people don't like tanking is because they claim other player's attitude toward them ... but frankly, in my experience the worst enemy of new tanks is their own mentality. It's not that people antagonizes tank, it's often because tank antagonize themselves and others, some sort of mental block. For example:

You often hear tanks keep saying "I feel responsible and pressure". This is because they often self-claim tanking is the most important person in the group and "everyone has to do thing my way", like I'm the leader of the group kind of attitude. And often they get told off for it. Life just becomes a lot easier when a tank comes to term that tanking is no more important than a DPS or healer.


Keep an open mind, enjoy the class, keep a poker face, and most importantly - don't feel antagonize or antagonized unless someone is going out of their way to do so and you can tank or DPS or heal decently after a handful of dungeon. See a wall if you actually run into one, don't imagine a wall even before you see one.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Raven2014

Tank is the easiest job in the game to play for reasons many people had stated. It's not hard to become a decent tank.

While the common complain why people don't like tanking is because they claim other player's attitude toward them ... but frankly, in my experience the worst enemy of new tanks is their own mentality. It's not that people antagonizes tank, it's often because tank antagonize themselves and others, some sort of mental block. For example:

You often hear tanks keep saying "I feel responsible and pressure". This is because they often self-claim tanking is the most important person in the group and "everyone has to do thing my way", like I'm the leader of the group kind of attitude. And often they get told off for it. Life just becomes a lot easier when a tank comes to term that tanking is no more important than a DPS or healer.


Keep an open mind, enjoy the class, keep a poker face, and most importantly - don't feel antagonize or antagonized unless someone is going out of their way to do so and you can tank or DPS or heal decently after a handful of dungeon. See a wall if you actually run into one, don't imagine a wall even before you see one.

---

I think a lot of it is from how...visible your mistakes can be.

If you mess up your dps rotation, nobody's probably going to notice unless you're running a parser on high end content.

If you forget to hit a cooldown for a tankbuster and eat dirt, or if you pick up the wrong add in an alliance raid add phase, or point the boss the wrong way and get someone aoed, etc, it tends to be more noticable. Tanking isn't harder than the other roles, but it is a very visible role.

Not that making mistakes is the end of the world, even experienced people goof up now and then, but it can certainly feel like all eyes are on you when you're tanking.

IMO, if you're not willing to "tank" for duties in this game, can you really call yourself a "tank main"?

With the way you're specifying your tanking preferences, you're just another DPS with a blue coat of paint.

I've only ever played a Tank in this game and I think you can get past Shadowbringers using the Trust System if I recall. I did it this way to learn the mechanics but the downside is that the runs are a lot slower than playing with actual people. So if you're okay with that then yeah you can get through Shadowbringers without tanking for other players.