Learning endgame tanking

I've never ever tank swapped or really done much of anything outside of dungeons. I understand the theory behind swapping, carefully managed mitigation, snap add pickups, and so on but I'm worried about my ability to execute. To actually do those things. I've never done them.

So basically I need hands on practice...

DFs of ex primals don't get far enough for it to matter. My raid leader kinda wants me to learn trial-by-fire style: throw me right into fcob. I've used gear as an excuse until now but if RNGsus likes me enough or next week by poetics, I'll have i130 in the major left slide slots (Leg slot is the main deficiency right now...). So soon I won't have that excuse...

But I might choke on that much humble pie at once...

What's the best way to get that hands on practice, without pissing off 7 other people I will see again?

Are there any particular ex trials that are easy for a newbie to pick up quickly (but not faceroll) but will give practice with these things? Or other things like that?

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Originally Posted by Risvertasashi

"stuff you said"

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Pretty much all the Primals can be good practice. You really just need to find 7 friends who'll let you learn. Ifrit and Titan Ex are good lessons as well.


if your talking about Final Coil... then Turn 10 or Turn 12 are both great places to learn tank swaps. None of it is that hard, just gotta get out there and do it.

Feeling nervous on content you aren't experienced with is pretty normal but it all becomes easier once you know the fight. you'll screw up a few times on your early attempts but it'll all fall into place. Try and set up/join practice parties, DF primals and/or older coils, watch guides and research and you should be fine.

I'll suggest Garuda Extreme

Tanking Endgame content comes in "layers". You should not be so nervous -- your raid leader is right, there is no better way to learn to swim than to get into water deep enough for you not to touch the floor. Just don't go TOO deep, so you have a safety net :p



Turn 10 is absolutely perfect for that. With close to i130 gear, echo, staying in your tank stance, you have a huge huge huge margin for errors. Dps won't be an issue either. Hopefully you go Pld -- if you plan on going war, go pld first until you are comfortable with tanking. It will be much much much easier for you to learn.

With Pld your rotation will be 123123123, so you can do that mindlessly and just focus on everything else. You will need to do mechanics, but that is the same than any other job. Now you will need to focus on 2 things: tank swaps, and CD use. The good news is, with echo, 130 gear and on t10, if you miss a CD, you will survive easily, so you have training weels. When critical rip happens if you MT, stop hitting 123 and hit a CD -- rampart or sentinel or hallowed ground. If you need to go take a charge and you are MT, go around the boss, focus on not moving it, stop hitting 123 and just focus on your position. Once you are behind the boss, hit a CD button. Let the other tank focus on grabbing agro.

If you are off tank and need to take the boss, go in front of it before you have it, then hit provoke, and start doing 123.

When adds come, go exactly inbetween them (you should have a circle showing you where), and spam flash. Use it 2 times, then move a bit north, and use it a bunch more, then start doing 123 combo rotating between the two.

All of this is COMPLETELY overkill and suboptimal by a wide margin. But it will get the job done. Once you do it enough, you will start getting your "stage fright" off, and start optimizing stuff. Before that, just overdo everything and focus only on what matters -- using CD when needed, grabbing agro when needed, everything else be damned. Soon enough you will feel more comfy.

Risvertasashi, a great way to learn without the fear of "pissing off 7 people" is to practice with players who understand that you are learning, and will not judge you for it. If you wish to practice outside of your raid group, the above suggestion of making your own practice party is very sound advice.
Being a nervous wreck while learning, not only obscures your enjoyment of the game, but can also cause you to make more mistakes as well, leading to frustration. Be lighthearted about it... it is a video game. Harsh judgement from others is ALWAYS a reflection of their views, not of your skill or worth.
About Tank Swapping: I use a macro to announce provoke, this way both my co-tank and my healers are made aware of when it takes place. My sequence as a PLD is often FoF>bloodbath>FB(to preload combo)>Provoke>SB>RoH>Flash. This may be overkill, and there are other ways, but I like the snap enmity it provides. Experiment on your own, and most importantly, have fun while doing it!

Dont worry to much Id say.... I got to main WAR pretty much after hitting level 50 on it started with tanking CT for FC runs then got asked to join a FC raid for T1-4 (2.1 that was) with i76 was one of the highest geared tanks in FC but I personally always felt like a noob. But I managed to tank Cads split with being at 70% hitrate (youp I had no clue bout accuracy needed).
If you wanna start easy go first coils 1-4 try 6-8 and maybe T5 and 9 (havent tanked T8 n 9 thru myself as now maining heal... I have a personal gotta tank gotta DPS ranged/melee). Try EX primals.... I wanted to try tanking T10 i just went into DF with a friend... we killed (oneshot even) even tho my adds crakle hiss hit the other tank. I was excited but I just slammed my face into it.
Just dont worry try and have fun :)

Thank you all for your suggestions and tips.

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Originally Posted by Casper

Turn 10 is absolutely perfect for that. With close to i130 gear, echo, staying in your tank stance, you have a huge huge huge margin for errors. Dps won't be an issue either. Hopefully you go Pld -- if you plan on going war, go pld first until you are comfortable with tanking. It will be much much much easier for you to learn.

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It's PLD, yep (turtle playstyle appeals to me). And, those are some good points about T10... maybe I will start there.

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Originally Posted by MichaelAngelus

Risvertasashi, a great way to learn without the fear of "pissing off 7 people" is to practice with players who understand that you are learning

(...) My sequence as a PLD is often FoF>bloodbath>FB(to preload combo)>Provoke>SB>RoH>Flash. This may be overkill, and there are other ways, but I like the snap enmity it provides. Experiment on your own, and most importantly, have fun while doing it!

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It's more that I think they would have the expectation that I pick it up very quickly. If I tanked in other games maybe but... Well, I would just prefer something with some margin for error while I learn. But like Casper pointed out, T10 probably qualifies now.

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Originally Posted by Werhusky

Dont worry to much Id say.... I got to main WAR pretty much after hitting level 50 on it started with tanking CT for FC runs then got asked to join a FC raid for T1-4 (2.1 that was) with i76 was one of the highest geared tanks in FC but I personally always felt like a noob. But I managed to tank Cads split with being at 70% hitrate (youp I had no clue bout accuracy needed).
If you wanna start easy go first coils 1-4 try 6-8 and maybe T5 and 9 (havent tanked T8 n 9 thru myself as now maining heal... I have a personal gotta tank gotta DPS ranged/melee). Try EX primals.... I wanted to try tanking T10 i just went into DF with a friend... we killed (oneshot even) even tho my adds crakle hiss hit the other tank. I was excited but I just slammed my face into it.
Just dont worry try and have fun :)

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Honestly I wouldn't have expected DF groups to get as far as adds... maybe I just have too many bad experiences with it XD I might try that then. Or a preformed titan ex or something... hmm

Call yourself MT for Steps of Faith.
That one requires a lot more from the MT and MH than anyone else~♪

On your FC leader, being that he is the one suggesting it, if others start to vent he should be putting them in their place anyways. His idea and all that.

As for practice before then, I actually suggest Ifrit EX. Even with overgearing you still want tank swaps outside maybe your FC in very good gear, as each stack Ifrit puts on a player reduces their hp on top of making them take more damage. On top of that managing your cooldowns especially during nails with stacks since they explode on this version, when to use hallowed, when to provoke since sometimes its actually better to let the current MT take an extra stack since Ifrit jumping could ruin your provoke. Plus you can go for the pony while practicing!

Can't really say anything on Coils since I can't do FCoB yet.

I find Steps of Faith to be a very unique fight from a tank's perspective. Perhaps a preview of things to come in HW, but I speculate.

The Odin trial, while solo-tankable at higher gear levels, is a good fight to practice defensive cooldown management while in a tank-n-spank situation where you also need to avoid aoe damage by reacting quickly & repositioning yourself, keeping Odin steady in place for your monk /dragoon to be able to maximize their effectiveness (if present).

Here's some advice on tank-swapping in general that works well for me personally. For swapping in from OT to MT, what I find works best (as a PLD) is to use Fast Blade, Savage Blade (preferably used slightly before the swap is needed), then Provoke and Rage of Halone immediately after. By the time you hit Provoke, you want to be right where the other tank is/should be to avoid turning the boss (assuming the boss cleaves). When swapping from MT to OT, losing a little DPS really isn't a big deal. You should have plenty of aggro, so when the swap is very close, stop using skills. Or, when the swap mechanic hits, stop. Basically, make it so when the OT provokes, they can keep aggro even if they don't use a skill immediately. If you Rage of Halone right after they provoke, well, that's going to make the swap a little annoying. If you are better geared than the other tank, right after the swap, keep a close eye on your aggro and possibly refrain from using Rage of Halone for a rotation or two to let them get a lead on you. You may also want to swap from Shield Oath to Sword Oath. Keep in mind though when swapping back to being MT, Shield Oath cancels combos. So, don't do Fast Blade, Savage Blade, Shield Oath, Provoke, do Shield Oath, Fast Blade, Savage Blade, THEN Provoke.

At least, that's how I do tank swaps.

Many places where you need to tank swap, there's a natural time to do it during which the boss is not attacking so you don't have to worry so much about turning the boss and having it cleave the party. Titan Ex, for instance, if you're swapping, you can do so when standing underneath him for that stomp move he does. For T6 phases 1-2, you can swap when the flower appears and she's distracted with the devour move.

Garuda Ex Spiny Plume swaps are different from other swaps. With them, you never want to attack them because of how fragile they are. So, in theory, you should be able to pull the plume off the other tank by just provoking it. I usually flash too afterward just in case.

Here's a (non-complete) list of some fights where people sometimes do tank swaps (though many/most can be avoided by overgearing shenanigans): Moogle Ex (just the king), Garuda Ex (just the spiny plume), Ultima HM, Titan Ex, Ramuh Ex, Turn 6, CT second boss (I guess it counts?). I've heard of people swapping during T9 (like, in the middle of a claw so some hits hit one tank and some hit the other) when it was new, but I've only ever seen T9 solo tanked. To be honest, I'm a casual raider and haven't passed T9 yet, so I don't know about Final Coil.

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Originally Posted by Nyalia

HWhen swapping from MT to OT, losing a little DPS really isn't a big deal. You should have plenty of aggro, so when the swap is very close, stop using skills. Or, when the swap mechanic hits, stop.

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To you and the OP: While this is good enough for a start, it is a horrible way to swap aggro once you have some experience. You are right that you want absolutely to avoid hitting Rage of Halone before the other tank got some aggro lead, but not doing anything is a terrible waste in the time being.


Riot blade is actually perfect here. Going fast blade -> Riot blade, you will continue doing a serious amout of damage, while not threatening to get back the aggro. Usually, when the other tank provoke from me and i am on Pld, i hit fast blade, riot blade, move away from the front, sword oath, fast blade, riot blade, then continue alternating RoH and RB combo depending if i am afraid i could get aggro -- if i am not 100% certain i can do RoH without taking back the aggro i will do a RB. But i won't stop doing damage either.

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Originally Posted by Casper

To you and the OP: While this is good enough for a start, it is a horrible way to swap aggro once you have some experience. You are right that you want absolutely to avoid hitting Rage of Halone before the other tank got some aggro lead, but not doing anything is a terrible waste in the time being.

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Thanks for the advice :) As much as I tank easy stuff, I don't tank endgame stuff (meaning, T9-13) where a couple seconds of DPS from a tank changes anything. But yeah, the aggro from fast blade and riot blade are so minimal, it should be totally safe to use.

The only problem would be if the other tank is bad and does something like use Provoke during a GCD followed by a Fast Blade after the GCD (or, worse, Provoke -> Shield Oath -> Fast Blade (don't do that, provoke AFTER the fast blade)). And even then, they'll take aggro back ~3 seconds after the provoke when they finish their Savage Blade.

Being unfamiliar with the fight, you will mess up when switching to shield from sword oath, guaranteed. switching cancels your combo, so id stay in shield, then time your combo so you can rage right after provoking.

id take it slow, stay in shield and once you know the fight and are comfortable, then you can stance dance. just dps slowly and pay attention to the bosses abilities, most bosses in ffxiv follow the same ability rotation.

Good advice in here, thanks!

Fracture is also a low enmity skill that deals relatively high potency for PLD, using it after swapping into Sword Oath is pretty safe as well. Then use riot blade combo if necessary.

Any extreme primal (minus Levi) is good. While most primals can be single tanked, if you join a pony farm group and just state that you'd like to do tank swaps, you'd probably find people willing to do that.

The actual "mechanics" of a tank swap are pretty easy. Switch to shield oath. Queue up Halone combo. Hit provoke then Halone/Scorn. Done. The harder part is knowing when to expect the swap. Since "best practice" might want you to have halone queued up, that means you have to time things. Switch to shield oath about 5s before the swap. Get up to Halone combo. Then do the swap. Of course, you can hold the halone for a few seconds before it expires.