I'm not sure whether to Tank or DPS

I'm not sure whether to main a Tank job or DPS job.

On one hand maining a tank would give me (usually) shorter queue times and while every part of the party is necessary and useful, I always personally feel more useful as a Tank or Healer just because your job is to make sure the others survive. I also feel a bit of an obligation to play a tank because I do somewhat enjoy it (not a huge fan of having to lead the party though) and they seem to be more needed since less people play them. Also it is pretty cool to be the one the boss is focusing on.

On the other hand, I do find DPSing a bit more fun and a bit less stressful. Not cause it is any easier for me necessarily but just because I don't feel like the entire party is watching my every move. However, I do feel like I don't contribute/bring as much to the party as a DPS, mostly because there is always more DPS than Tanks or Healers in a party. It also feels a little less climactic trying to face bosses backs and sides rather than head on, even of mechanically focusing on killing them feels a bit better than focusing on not letting them kill you. Longer queue times are annoying as well, but not the end of the world.

I'm definitely gonna to level at least 1 class of all three roles to mqx eventually, I just don't know which of these two roles to main because the both have a lot of pros and cons.

Play DPS.
Gameplay could be super boring on low lvls and dps are pretty much the most fun on them.

If you DPS to be more fun and less stressful, there's your answer. It's a video game and suppose to be fun. And don't worry about not contributing as much to a party. It's incredibly obvious when there's a good DPS in the party. As a healer, my comms go to them more often than the tank.

Well at least it's a FF job game so you can try both :D.

For DD if you want to feel different / important you may consider trying Red Mage for that dual cast raise sweetness, or maybe Dancer which gets a dance partner. Seems like a pure DPS like Samurai wouldn't be as much your style in terms of being unique (they deal pure damage), but of course each job does play a bit differently so I'm not saying mechanically you wouldn't like them as much.

For tanks I would say Paladin since they have a lot of support skills and are in a pretty good spot, you'll be noticed when you clutch cover or clemency, when you Passage of Arms, and Paladin's Hallowed Ground wont give your healer a heart attack unlike when you Living Dead / Superboilde. Especially Living Dead and a non White Mage lol (Bene makes LD easy but other healers may need to use a few skills to make it safe). Though all the tanks are pretty balanced in their differences, so large part of it comes down to theme too.

Tank damage is actually not that bad either (certainly not DD tiers but your damage does mean something lol).

Personally I'd suggest giving tanking a whirl on a few dungeons and if you can take the heat then you'll probably like it quite a bit since you've already said you're interested. I recommend reviewing content when you can before running it though as you can help make the experience a lot smoother by knowing the fight, if you like being entirely blind before running and you're not running it when it's fresh then that'd be easier to do as DD (where unless there is a DPS check DD get to hit snooze and basically no one will notice lol).

Also just let people know you're new, that helps a lot (healers will tend to keep you higher) and with your pre-read knowledge you'll look even better, and if it's duo tank content you might have a chance to watch the fight as OT before going MT. Just make sure to communicate because parties love it when tanks just sit there shyly and silently trying to mentally nudge the other person to take the reigns.. definitely love it.. haha :P. That and communicate if your healer is okay with big pulls or if you're uncomfortable doing big pulls.

As an aside if you play tank keep in mind the importance of defense on items, you don't need to be the bleeding edge all the time but at expansion transition points be careful staying in old gear too long as it can make your hp yoyo. Like if you're rocking shire gear (good level 60 gear) as you enter late Stormblood content, there could be some serious hp yoyoing going on in Doma Castle (67 dungeon). MSQ gives a lot of free gear though so it shouldn't be too bad to keep an eye on.

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Originally Posted by Heliantheae

As a healer, my comms go to them more often than the tank.

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:O You've broken the sacred tank comms the healer and healer comms the tank oath pact! Our gentle alliance has been forever fractured! lol :D

I had the same issue when I got ShB but decided that I would DPS this xpac due to always tanking. DPS can also feel rewarding if you learn the class and play to the best of your ability. DPS are a dime a dozen but good DPS stand out. It feels awesome getting comms as a DPS because that tells me that people noticed my positional and CDs

Did you try both?

If you don't do progression raiding with a static, there's no particular need for you to main anything.

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Originally Posted by Cythil

Questions

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1. Use fantasia
2. Switch to Fem Roe
3. Level Marauder to 30
4. Level Warrior to 80
5. Return to the forums and thank me later.

:)

Level up every class its the only way to know for sure... I played everything to 30 and then to 50... And so on... I still don't know what one I prefer lol

Don't worry about which is your "main" until you've worked on playing one of each to max level, since you plan on doing that anyway. If you want to make your first leveled job a tank for faster queues that makes perfect sense, but you might find that you enjoy one role more during the leveling process or at max level, and the only way you'll find out is by playing. Nothing ever locks you into one job until endgame gearing, and even that can be easily reversed every major patch.

Scratch that. New comment. xD

For tanks, your wait time will indeed be shorter, but honestly I'd just make friends with somebody who likes tanking sometimes also. People always talk like this game is a solo-game with the ability to queue, but there's a community out there. If you haven't found some in-game friends to do content with, you're missing out.

Regarding pressure on Tank vs. DPS, I don't really see a huge difference. On easy/standard content, nobody will be pressured because it's casual. On harder content, DPS can wipe the party as easily as the tank, because mechanics require everyone to do them. You'll naturally have some more attention as the tank since you aren't stacked, but if you're messing up as a DPS, we'll notice. Rather than trying to focus on a DPS vs. Tank, I'd play around with the specific classes themselves. My bard and Samurai felt quite different, as did DRK and PLD. A great way to play around with classes is to spam some Palace of the Dead. Good XP, and its a fast way to test out the classes.

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Originally Posted by Nixxe

If you don't do progression raiding with a static, there's no particular need for you to main anything.

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I'd say this is your best advice right here. I tend to bounce back and forth between everything. My current "main" is actually SCH lol.

Although I'm the exact opposite, I find tanking relaxing and DPS to be stressful.

Thanks for the responses everyone. I've decided to go with DPS first (specifically Dragoon) and then once I've gotten to max level on that I'll begin leveling Paladin to max.

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Originally Posted by Cythil

Thanks for the responses everyone. I've decided to go with DPS first (specifically Dragoon) and then once I've gotten to max level on that I'll begin leveling Paladin to max.

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Good luck and have fun! :)

Well I used to be a bard when Stormblood was the end game, I had fun being a ranged dps role for quite sometime and it started to feel boring, so I decided to try tanking and I picked Dark knight as a starter and now I became addicted to tanking, but well whatever you feel enjoying more go with it, I honestly love to lead and always call things out or try to control how the battle goes, so I prefer to play tanks. ^^

I would definitely recommend DPS first. It's a less stressful way to get acclimated to the game, learn the dungeons, learn the role dynamics, etc.

And right now with so many people playing GNB, the queues are not as instant as they used to be.

A good way to kill time during DPS queues is to level gathering/crafting jobs. But really there's no end to the things you can do while you wait.

I may be the odd man out but I actually find DPS-ing to be more stressful than tanking. You're expected to memorize mechanics as well as your rotations and maintain DoTs for the highest damage output. It sounds and looks easy but for me personally, once the AoEs, target markers and other fight mechanics start getting thrown out, it throws me off.

I've been tanking for years and yes, it seems like a daunting task but literally for dungeon pulls, you run head first into combat, AoE then focus on damage mitigation, postioning and dodging over DPS. Boss fights are mostly the same, point the enenmy away from the party and focus on reducing damage to stay alive. I find it really satisfying using a party-wide AoE shield or using skills like Darkest Night, Cover or Intervention protecting party members from damage. Honestly, with the changes made to Tanks, they feel more like DPS with enmity skills in my opinion.

I would try both. Tanking really isn't as bad as people make it out to be. It's actually really satisfying.

Do what you want to improve.

If you like optimizing defensive cooldowns, party-wide positioning, and enjoy thinking on a more strategic level then play a tank.

If you like the biggest numbers and want to find all of the ways to cheat death to make those numbers as big as they can possibly get then play dps.

If you don't want to take either path you don't want to be a dps or a tank. That doesn't mean you should play a healer.

If you don't want to improve, you don't want to play.

Go tank.

It's far more easier to achieve your 100% DPS then on a DPS job.
Tank rotations are the easiest there is in the game.

The extra bonus is that you don't have to wait +30 min for your story dungeons.

In my opinion...

go both but consider only for...

Tank for the causal dungeon contents so you can farm the tomestones faster.

DPS for the Raids so you can focus more on the boss and mechanics rather than boss, mechanics, team, your own HP, defense reduction time, and etc.


Tank Job is very heavy on responsibility when it comes to keeping yourself a live and trying to make things easier for the entire party but casual content should not have much issue with how you tank as long the group understands there should not be much of a big deal with casual contents since with small pulls healers have more room to DPS with the group and big pulls put Healer more focus on healing and less DPSing.