Returning Player - Curious about Tanking

I've been an avid MMO tank for over half of my lifespan now. I love the job of it, and enjoy the leadership aspect and gameplay elements of what tanks bring to MMOs. I've recently come back to 14 after a 4 year long break from stopping at Stormblood, and now I'm at a precipice of feeling like I shouldn't tank until I've hit max level.

I see that my server always has tank as a reward for the duty finder, so it seems like a wanted role, but I do want to consider other players time investments as well. I'm not shy with doing my research on upcoming dungeons or pulls, I feel like I use my cooldowns well enough for not having the experience, but of course some pulls are lacking the confidence of experience within this game's systems. I just feel guilty when I see veteran players easily able to pull a perfect dungeon with great gear, making the run go very smoothly if I'm healing or DPSing.

Do veteran players mind people who are new tanking?

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Originally Posted by IlluminatedYak

now I'm at a precipice of feeling like I shouldn't tank until I've hit max level.

It truly does not matter. They have simplified tanks hugely from what they used to be 10 years ago, for exactly this reason - so that even new players don't have trouble tanking.

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I see that my server always has tank as a reward for the duty finder, so it seems like a wanted role

It does always say that, but because of how much they have simplified it over the years, it is actually slightly more likely that healers will get instant queues instead, despite what it says.

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I'm not shy with doing my research on upcoming dungeons or pulls

Guides can create as much anxiety as they solve by spending ages explaining a mechanic that lasts 1 second and is not necessary for dungeons, but you are correct that research can give you some advanced knowledge of how dangerous certain pulls are and the degree of cooldowns or interrupts needed, the layout of the dungeon so that you know where to go, and boss mechanics that could potentially kill you (which will usually just mean you get resurrected and deal less damage). It's admirable you want to consider others' time in this way.

Despite what I said, healers are used to "not good" tanks in dungeons, to the point they sometimes have to heal tanks who don't use any mitigation at all and "carry" them, tanks who don't know what interrupts are causing the healer to have more work, tanks who don't know which pulls are dangerous, and players who don't know boss mechanics (in fact, the mechanics for many old dungeons are just not known by most players who didn't play back then so they get hit by all of them).

My advice is:
Mitigation is more important for trash. It doesn't really matter against bosses, because that's just one enemy and the autos don't hurt as much from one enemy.

If you pull multiple packs of enemies, be aware that the most dangerous ones are usually in leveling dungeons due to the tight sync (1-49, 51-59, 61-69, 71-79, 81-89), whereas 50/60/70/80/90 dungeons allow for gear growth that makes them trivial.

To go fastest, press Sprint outside of battle so it lasts 20 seconds. If you pulled and entered battle, it only lasts 10 seconds. So if you hit Sprint right after a boss dies, you can sprint through all the trash packs for a whole 20 seconds, saving time.

Bosses do tank busters (red indicators). You are meant to mitigate them, but the truth is they don't really kill you in dungeons because dungeons are meant to be easy.

You can get hit by most mechanics as a tank and not die, even though other roles do, because you have more health and defense. It can actually be a good class to play if you are not good at the game, but many such people are too anxious to even try it.

Aside from standard mitigation such as Rampart and Reprisal, Arm's Length can reduce the attack speed of enemies. It does not work on most bosses (especially above level 50), but it works on trash and helps slow the auto-attacks.

Reprisal is useful on whichever cast you identify as a "raid-wide aoe".

You can reorganize your HUD Layout to be more convenient. In particular, I recommend you move the target bars and status effects to the bottom, near your hotbar, so you concentrationr is divided between the bottom/left, not bottom/left/top.

You can avoid red circles far quicker on a keyboard/mouse if you go to character configuration, adjust movement settings to "Legacy Type" and uncheck "Activate standard type auto-fly/auto-dive".

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Do veteran players mind people who are new tanking?

They are used to it. By design, roulettes pair more experienced players with a first-timer in most cases. Often, that first-timer is a tank, a casual tank who mains DPS/healers, or an experienced player trying a tank for the first time. One way or another, they are used to players not being very good in dungeons.

They may complain about it privately in FC chats/linkshells/discord, but it's not a serious thing and it's just memes and banter, because it's just how the game is. If anyone was seriously upset or mad about optimization in a dungeon - the easiest content in the game that is a story mode, and not in any way a serious raid, then they would certainly not get much support from other veteran players, who don't take dungeons seriously like that.

I can say with 100% certainty of 10 years on FFXIV,
we love, seeing new players making their way through, and learning the mechanics of classes, as well as content.

just remember, if you're moving into a duty and you're not sure if you'll manage it fully, just let the healer know. "hey, i''m rusty/still learning/uncertain about this. Please bare with me. i'll try my best." ^.^ we'll look after you.
Additionally, please, remember to ask questions. we all play together, its not an imposition to ask if you can get an opinion on how your gear is, or if you can have help figuring out the tooltips of your abilities.

Tanking is very new player friendly in this game. It is very easy to hold aggro.

Also, 99% of players will be happy to adapt to your tanking style. If you are new and want to take it slow just say so and it is highly unlikely you will get a complaint. If you are a big pulling style of tank then again, 99% of players will be happy. If you die or the healer cannot keep up then tone it down a bit, it's no big deal :)

The main this is to have fun :)