From Healer to Tank

[GaiaGuardian]

This past week, I finally decided to start leveling a tank class, GLD to be exact, and never realized how difficult it was. Alerting the people in my party with me on my first tanking Guildheist that I was a new tank and may not do a good job was smart, because sure enough, I had no trouble letting the enemies run straight to the healer.

As a SCH main and WHM secondary, I now know the pain of trying to keep aggro off of the healer and DPS. It's certainly not that easy at low levels, and I have a new found respect for tanks out there.

Hopefully it gets easier as I level up more!

[VargasVermillion]

Pretty much what happened to me but the other way around. When I tried leveling healer in the DF and ended up with titan. I was so not prepared for it..then i realized afterwards that I should of unlocked WHM first lol.

Holding hate does get easier as you level since you get more tools, as a GLA you'll find it easier once you get the full combo, shield lob and provoke. The rest is flash and there's also circle of scorn at level 50. Warrior is easier to hold hate with since you get overpower and you get it early.

[File2ish]

I went from DPS(bard) to healer (whm, my main), then tank (pld). The jump from bard to whm to pld was easy for me, especially the jump to whm. I generally was a healer for multiplayer games with my friends (FFXI RDM and DNC, my main jobs, would be off[support] heals). Going to tank was daunting because of how the tank gets blamed most of the time though.

It get's easier once you get the full combo (rage of halone). Shield Oath becomes a must as a main tank for PLD level 40, holding hate becomes so much easier with it.

EDIT removed false information, see Lemon8or's reply to clarify.

[Lemon8or]

Provoke essentially resets the enmity on the mob and places you at the top (like everyone is set to 0 and you are set to +1)

This is false. Provoke only puts you 1 enmity above the highest enmity person, does NOT reset enmity whatsoever. I have my off-tank provoke off me in twintania for a second so he'd be second place on enmity bar and still outscale other people.

[File2ish]

This is false. Provoke only puts you 1 enmity above the highest enmity person, does NOT reset enmity whatsoever. I have my off-tank provoke off me in twintania for a second so he'd be second place on enmity bar and still outscale other people.

Ah, thanks for the clarification. I haven't tanked anything that required two tanks yet. I was kind of saying from what I've experienced (provoke a mob off the healer and all of a sudden that mob is on a DPS who wasn't as high up on the enmity gauge as the healer was).

[SpookyGhost]

I wish Provoke was that amazing.

[Citizen_Thom]

This past week, I finally decided to start leveling a tank class, GLD to be exact, and never realized how difficult it was. Alerting the people in my party with me on my first tanking Guildheist that I was a new tank and may not do a good job was smart, because sure enough, I had no trouble letting the enemies run straight to the healer.

As a SCH main and WHM secondary, I now know the pain of trying to keep aggro off of the healer and DPS. It's certainly not that easy at low levels, and I have a new found respect for tanks out there.

Hopefully it gets easier as I level up more!

I had SCH at 50... have i79 equipment. I'm always up for healing... but, a lot of the end game content is easier to learn as a tank, because you can off tank... and by the time you have the equipment, you'll be a very solid main tank from seeing it done by others. You don't get that chance to learn as a healer in end game. And while you get quicker queues than DPS as a healer, you don't get 1 minute queues like tanks do. So I leveled my PLD from 37 to 50 in a few weekends.

I expect you already have stoneskin from Scholar. I found that having stoneskin as a subskill let me assist healers when boss fights grew a bit hairy. Start off with a couple of flashes, and try to rotate between mobs, provoke, shield bash, shield lob, and cover (for melee dps) all help you accumulate hate. Sometimes, when a whm runs low on mp, I'll toss in stoneskins on the entire party while they recharge. Other than that, just do your best to remember what you saw as a healer and apply it to your tanking... the only thing I had to learn was positioning in the end.

[abzoluut]

Playing more jobs makes your main(s) better. I really suggest having at least 1 healer, 1 tank and one dps (if you have the time/motivation to lvl). I also like the game far better because now I can choose which job I'll pick for a fight, fun!!

[VargasVermillion]

Playing more jobs makes your main(s) better. I really suggest having at least 1 healer, 1 tank and one dps (if you have the time/motivation to lvl). I also like the game far better because now I can choose which job I'll pick for a fight, fun!!

Currently leveling a WHM and a MNK. I have to admit leveling a healer isn't the funnest thing in the world but i'll stick with it till endgame, plus it's be nice to be able to fill any slot when helping people out.

[Citizen_Thom]

Playing more jobs makes your main(s) better. I really suggest having at least 1 healer, 1 tank and one dps (if you have the time/motivation to lvl). I also like the game far better because now I can choose which job I'll pick for a fight, fun!!

I just can't pick a dps to level yet. My free company says that I should take blm from 26 to 50. I have SMN, but my stats are geared for my SCH. DRG or MNK would be fun... but that queue wait....