Help making a choice, personal opinions

Need halp.

Starting a tank or astro because just started stormblood story after soo much procrastinating. Blm is already 70 and seems a waste to ignore gear/xp rewards and with mandated dungeons looming for msq need input on pld vs war. Coming from mainly dps which is better fun wise as well as easing into tanking?

Pld seems to have safer toolkit but war seems more dps like, it's already so odd at the change of pace from blm to glad.

Glad is 26
Maurader is like 12 but both can be brought up fast.

Heard holmgang makes it easier to cheese certain boss mechanics

As far as aesthetic I'm leaning towards swordnboard over big axe but not huge deal.

* Pld is the "training wheels" tank, has enormous amounts of utility and "oh crap" buttons, the shield adds constant blocking mitigation, and shield bash is a no cooldown 5 sec stun, feels good and has a low skill floor ( easy to learn ) .

*Drk is the ability spammer tank, you will constantly be using abilities left and right, spending blood to creates big shields on yourself, they have huge mobility due to plunge - a short cooldown long ranged leap, they have large magic mitigation and a higher learning curve.

*War the all star wrecking ball - never sitting in tank stance destroyer; this job feels like you are playing a barbarian, strong personal damage and the biggest Hp pool out of all the tanks, you have strong offensive and defensive cooldowns and can switch from being a sturdy tank to an actual offensive warrior that pushes out strong burst dps compared to the other tanks.

if you want to get in to tanking PLD and WAR are the most solid choices but ignore that PLD its more "safe", WAR mitigates way more and its more safer if you have a minimun knowledge of management of you defensive tools plus its the most easy tank of the 3 being faceroll get a pretty high perfomance with it in every field, PLD in the other hand have many support skills and pasive block but weak aoe and have some flaws like rage of halone being to weak and tank stances swap ect but is the second stronger tank, pretty solid in general and "easy" in a way most if you like cast bars with a tank and if you get use to target others to use you utilitys.
one of the most important things you have to get in mind choosing a tank is if you are comfortable with it and love the aesthetics, DRK is the hardest ones to mid max but is fun too and have the best story and aesthetics so if you wanna try it you can get help overhere.

pd: holmgang its a pretty broken skill mostly for the lower recast yeah but thats only on savage, extreme and ultimate mostly, dont have that in mind if you are going to dungeons only.

Warrior is the best for dungeons. Their AoE burst is insane. They have so many options in both offense and defense. It's an easy choice.

If I were to choose one for a new player, I'd personally say start with Paladin. It's easy to learn, has a very versatile kit, and its utility is extremely valuable in many situations.

If I were to choose one based off of preference to someone wanting my personal preference of tank, I'd choose War. Despite its less versatile kit its a a joy to pick up and go blast some boss to pieces with 5 fell cleaves, an upheaval, and an Onslaught while being able to tank huge hits with the ever joyous Vengance. (and I can't think of a group I've been in that doesn't have one, personally.)

If I were to choose one based off of what would challenge someone the most, I'd choose Dark Knight. It's less versatile kit requires you to think outside of the box at times and practice a harder to optimize rotation, but once you get the hang of it is a blast to play just as the other two, and is even amazing against certain bosses with how its cooldowns align or how it has Dark Mind making it a king against magic damage bosses.


But if you want aesthetic, can't argue with the simplicity of a sword and board or a guy with a giant sword.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LauraAdalena

If I were to choose one for a new player, I'd personally say start with Paladin. It's easy to learn, has a very versatile kit, and its utility is extremely valuable in many situations.

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Let's be real, utility and versatility is hardly a real selling point for paladins in dungeons, which is the specific context OP is asking about since it sounds like he wants to skip DPS queues.

DV is silly because AoEs are hardly something to be concerned about. Intervention is silly because you never need to buff a healer/dps. Cover, maaaybe in order to make up for really dumb mistakes, but again we're talking about dungeons where NOT having these things hardly makes or breaks a run, let alone a tank.

From a realistic point of view, the only benefit PLD truly offers is the ability to use their invul as a reliable cooldown for about two large pulls in a dungeon. You can't holmgang a pull and realistically expect to bypass the damage and survive. Living Dead neither, unless you're with a WHM buddy that specifically knows when/where you're going to use it. But Hallowed Ground? Doesn't matter if the healer's a pug or a buddy, using it grants the same effect- no damage taken whatsoever for 10 whole seconds in a large pull, which is nothing to scoff at.

However, know that WAR can effectively offer the same: Inner Release with steel cyclone. Oh, and it does loads of damage too. You generate so much health you can't die. Granted, that's only at cap.

WARs standard aoe is a cone instead of a circle and needs a target - makes pulling harder than with the circle aoe's of PLD and DRK. You will also run into TP issues, especially in lower levels.

PLD lacks aoe damage, wich is kind of important in dungeons, but nothing wich really affects your gameplay.

DRK lacks defense and you have to work harder to not die, especially before lvl 70. But his high mana regen makes enmity especially in lower levels a cakewalk - Syphon Strike regens more than the PLD mana combo and before you gain a tank stance at lvl 30 you can easily regen even more mana with Blood Weapon (after 30 you have to stance dance for that), so you can spam your aoe enmity skill without any consequences.

I'd say DRK since that's my personal favourite but as that's not and option...

PLD, for me, was the easiest to get into. A ton of damage mitigation, a personal healing spell, really nice to work with.

WAR is fun, can put out lots of damage, has a cool axe. Personally my least favourite of the tanks but lots of people prefer it over the other other two.

Never underestimate the power of aesthetic! ^_^

Warrior is functionally better, but Paladin is easier. It's all choice though.

I have PLD and WAR both at 70 and DRK at 65 I believe. I learned on PLD and it's still my go-to for instances where I know I can maximize all the utility it offers. PLD is simply amazing at party utility and shields.

That being said, WAR is simply more fun to play. WAR is an absolute beast and I find myself choosing WAR over PLD most times. I'm not really feeling DRK compared to the other two, but I haven't played it as much either.

WAR is a little harder to hold hate in very large pulls at lower levels than PLD, especially without running out of TP, but in higher levels this isn't an issue. That's the biggest thing I struggled with leveling up WAR.