Beginner XIV Tank. Help?

I'm a career healer and tank in mmos. For some reason, I got intimidated by XIV's tanking lol.

I've decided to give it a go now that Stormblood's got 2 DPS classes. Dark Knight caught my eye.

Could I start with DRK or should I level WAR/PLD first? Thanks!

DRK is fine.

There are just a few good tricks.

-use your CDs, normally, don't stack em
-pull with your rangeskill
-with Grp-Mobs, use your AoE 2-3 times then:
-use your Aggro rotation like this
1) 1skill on 1mob
2) 2skill on 2mob
3) 3skill on 3mob
4) 1skill again... now on 4mob
You know what i mean? Just "rotate" your aggrocombo, spreading it on all mobs like, skill, tab, skill, tab, skill, tab

You begin with low level so you can train a little bit, it's not that hard.

Look that you can oversee the enemies and your group. Best situation is like
You --> <-- enemies <-- Party

Speaking from personal experience, DRK was the first Tank I played. Found it much easier to learn compared to going back and leveling WAR and PLD later on.

So yes, starting with DRK is fine. That it starts off right at level 30 means you'll have better equipment and more skills to learn the in-and-outs of basic tanking better than WAR or especially low-level PLD.

Once you've got a handle on it though, you are definitely going to want to go back and at the very least level GLD to 22 to get the "Provoke" skill. This will likely change when Stormblood comes out and implements the new Role-Based Skill Sharing, but until then...

Lv gladiator for the provoke skill, you'll need it.

You can start out with DRK, but when you get to 60 you're going to want to have gld and mrd leveled (not necessarily maxed though) enough to have access to cross class skills - to have access to all cross class skills you'll need PLD 34 and MRD 26.

Out of curiosity though, how do you mean tanking in ffxiv intimidates you?

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Originally Posted by CafPow

You know what i mean? Just "rotate" your aggrocombo, spreading it on all mobs like, skill, tab, skill, tab, skill, tab
Best situation is like
You --> <-- enemies <-- Party

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Hmm, I see what you're saying. Thank you! <3

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Originally Posted by ZhaneX

go back and at the very least level GLD to 22 to get the "Provoke" skill.

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Provoke increases aggro? :o

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Originally Posted by Spiroglyph

you'll need PLD 34 and MRD 26. Out of curiosity though, how do you mean tanking in ffxiv intimidates you?

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Ah, it's just there's so many skills that I'd need to keep track of. Plus pressure that I'll let my party down lol.

Provoke puts you at 1 enmity "point" (let's call it that) above the person who has the most aggro on a certain mob - this should always be used by another skill, preferably one that generates a lot of enmity (ideally your ranged skill or the third skill of your enmity generating combos) to ensure you grab firm hold of that mob.

This skill is mostly used
1) For tank swaps in end game
2) If a dps or healer accidentally steal aggro from you and you need to get it back

EDIT: At lower levels there's not that many skills to keep track of, and you only gain new skills every couple of levels. You have time more than enough to learn what each skill does at a nice pace and you'll be good to go when you hit 60 :)

Another good thing, read the tooltips carefully. For example. Take Warriors lvl 2 skill (the defenseskill, blue-ish icon with axe, dunno how it's called in english ^^)

It raises your defence by 20%, meaning, it's kinda your phisical armour. This results in
-0% magic reduction
- about 7% effective physic reduction. So, it's not like an "inner beast" which will give you 20% off of everything including unicorn-glitter...
Thats also... a tricky but interesting part. Which cooldown is pulled when?

But, don't worry, you'll learn it in time if you are interested and keep reading the tooltip-stuff. :)

As a tip you will need cross classes, both gladiator and marauder skills as CD's.

You want to make sure that your on top of your gear, under geared tanks can feel out of place and some picky players get really frustrated, Just a fair warning.

Personally I would also recommend do crafts so that you can repair gear in dungeons or raids.

Now as what kind well look at it this way;

WAR lots of HP , but need to know your skills to maintain hate properly. A bit more aggressive and in my opinion a bit squishy people get somewhat over confident do to the HP.

DRK is probably a fair and well balance tank. Nice Aoes to keep hate, just have to learn how to manage your mp pool properly with your aoes or you won't be able to recover hate right away.

PLD is great but low DMG output. Some healing involved as well and can be very useful in tight spots.

I would min try them all to 50 to get the cross traits and learn how each works for some tanking experience.

Focus on VIT, being that there has been a change and that determines DMG.

Most importantly have fun. ^^

Start with gladiator, it's kind of the "learning" tank. It has a hard time at low levels to help teach you how to generate enmity while also having the most basic rotation (single target = aggro combo, AoE = flash flash flash flash flash riot blade for more flash), so if you can tank as a gla/pld, you can tank as a mrd/war or drk.

On top of that, gla has the must have cross classes, convalescence, awareness and provoke. After that level mrd to get the other cross classes like bloodbath, foresight and mercy stroke. By the time you've done all that you'll have a good idea of how tanking works for levelling drk and have all the skills you need to boot.

You CANNOT play any tank seriously without provoke, it is a required skill for endgame due to tank swap mechanics. So regardless of if you want to, you have to level gla before you can play drk seriously, so you might as well do it first. Or wait for stormblood and the change to role skills.

Remember as a tank be polite and it's always ok to let people know your first time tanking a dungeon and such. Ask for tips, gives people a reason to stay and won't rage quit. If you have time, depending on your gaming style, watch a video before hand. Gauge your DPS, if mobs going down fast ask if it's ok two pull more groups, think of your healers capability. Normally 1-2 groups on lower dungeons is pretty good. In time you will learn later on and people love speed runs. Just don't over do it. :P

I would go with Drk too like others said it's the easiest one to learn and the easiest one to hold control in trash mob tanking. (provoke for endgame trials/raids).

If you are unsure you might test all 3 cls during a weekend in palace of the dead. you can't compare your experience there to normal content cause almost everybody just run through the (lower) floors but you can get in touch with the individual toolkits of any cls very fast down there. in any case don't know if someone already mentioned it PLD is a def monster and 99% you have to be the main tank in grp content, Warrior is the counterpart if you run content with another tank you most likely will play the off tank "dps" role – Drk is placed in between paired with a PLD you take the DD role, paired with a WAR you'll take the tank-role.

so it's up to you and which expectations you have on your very-own point of view of what you really wanna do as tank at all. Just tank? Dealing a fair amount of dmg? or something in between?


so long
Neela

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Originally Posted by Cabalabob

You CANNOT play any tank seriously without provoke, it is a required skill for endgame due to tank swap mechanics. So regardless of if you want to, you have to level gla before you can play drk seriously, so you might as well do it first. Or wait for stormblood and the change to role skills.

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As someone who's been playing as MRD the whole time so far in the game, this helps a lot :D

Cheers!