New to tanking, nervous and looking for Tips.

[Steady]

What about cooldown usage. Any tips on those since paladins get so many?

Pre-50, you can use them pretty much any time you like. Ideally you use them when your about to get hit with something big. Generally those sort of attacks are followed with a cast bar.

But dungeons are pretty easy content to tank comparatively, because their objective is less about challenging you and more about teaching you.

[xenowind]

Usually, you only need to use one of the cooldowns at a time, then you can rotate your skills between pulls. Use more when big pulls.
For speedrun, you can use hallowed ground on first big pull, then you will have hg again at the end of instance for last group of mobs.
You need cross-skill from warrior, and you need to know which defensive cd is suitable for which situation.
For example, Bulwark increase block rate, you can only block frontal attacks, so keep mobs in same direction, and you can't block magics. Foresight increase your status directly, etc.
Read skill notes and try them. And if mobs have long-range skills, you will notice they do not move if they can attack you already, so it would be better to tank everything near the ranger, thus you can flash everything instead moving between two position or even deal with healer ot.

[Xenosan]

Some skills have real good synergy when used together, but you don't want to burn too many at once as that'll leave you naked later in the fight.

This is a contrast of Pld and War. War can react to incoming damage, where as Pld is more about preparing for it.

Tempered Will gets looked over a lot. Don't forget you have a free heavy/bind removal with that skill. (And it prevents knockbacks)

[rawker]

Since you've started as a BLM, you will now be on the receiving end of the stick when it comes to managing hate as BLMs and BRDs are one of the main hate rippers among tanks. You even have to resort into doing Flash + Fast Blade + Flash + Riot Blade, rinse and repeat, so that you are assured that when you have a raging BLM and BRD on your party, they won't grab aggro away from you.

[Runic]

Keep in mind your flash enmity is primarily based on weapon damage, ... keep your weapon up to date

[Swordphobic]

1) Keep yourself well geared, get drops and buy from merchants if there is stuff stronger than what you have.
2) Pull with shield lob, face pulls are messy.
3) When you got ranged mobs, shield lob the ranged, run to it and apply flash when you get near to get the melee mobs on you.
4) Cycle through the mobs to see their agro from time to time, sometimes your dps is doing aoe or targeting another mob, be better than them.
5) Don´t use flash on single target mobs, people will judge you for it.
6) There is no formula for aoe agro, you should produce enough to keep them off the healer and for DPS to cycle dots.
7) Don´t overspam flash just to lose agro on main target, people will judge you for it.
8) You dictate the rhythm and the route, but that doesn't mean you can't ask your group what they prefer instead of being a diva.

[Scorp6]

The biggest one I haven't seen here is to tell people in the dungeon you're new or its your first time running a dungeon. This can go very far and people will know to take it easy on DPS and not jump on you so quickly.

Also, take note not only of the red flashing squares and other shapes meaning you don't have aggro but also pay attention to the white bars directly under your party members class symbol in your party list. This is a gauge of how close they are in threat to you on the mob you have targeted. The more full it is, they closer they are to ripping the mob from you. I like to charge up my halone combo, flash while I cycle through mobs to find what mob needs some love and smack that one with the charged halone.

Like it's been stated, in dungeons, don't necessarily save your cool downs for scary moments, making the healers job easier throughout the dungeon is almost always better.Last thing that I do differently as a tank (also have a 50 WHM and 50 BRD) is to watch a guide for new content. Usually only a 5 minute breakdown to get a loose feel of what to expect. It always helps immensely. Telling someone you're new but have watched a guide is very helpful.

I also tank on ps4 (usually using my Vita on remote play) and a tip for that if you didn't already know is to enable the enhanced crossbar (not exactly sure of the name). This gives you another 8 slots for holding r2 and then holding l2 and another 8 for holding l2 then holding r2. You can also set these to display the same 8 slots if you wish for less complications.

Sorry for the wall and any misspellings (I'm on my mobile) but I hope I was able to help!

[NinoL]

What are cool downs? and how do you use them? And what stats do you focus on as well becoming a pali and then a warrior?

[SpookyGhost]

What are cool downs? and how do you use them? And what stats do you focus on as well becoming a pali and then a warrior?

Cooldowns are moves with a recast time longer than 2.5s (your Global Cooldown (GCD)). As an example, the first move you get as Gladiator is Fast Blade, that sits on the GCD and can be used every 2.5s. The next move you get is Rampart, which sits on a 90s recast time and can be used whenever as long as it's available. Rampart is a defensive CD, which means it increases your survivability - in this specific CDs case, it reduces your damage taken by 10% (later becomes 20% with a Trait). There's also offensive CDs, like Fight or Flight (Increases physical damage dealt by 30%) which you get at lvl 6. When you want to use what is pretty self explanatory once you start tanking - you want to use offensive CDs whenever they're available, and defensive ones when you know you're about to take damage that needs to be mitigated. Early on, defensive CDs are just used to mitigate regular damage, but later on there are mechanics bosses use to hit you for big damage and you'll want to save your CDs for those.

Your main stats as WAR and PLD are VIT and STR. You're given 30 total attribute points to freely put into whatever stat you want, but you basically want to either split between VIT and STR or pick one to put all your points into. VIT will give you more health, STR will give you more aggro/damage. Figure out what you think you'll need more of and use your points for that. I'd recommend going 30 STR and using VIT or STR accessories, but there's nothing wrong with going 30 VIT.

[NinoL]

Thanks. I think that's more than enough. I'm kinda nervous but with the info you jus gave me, I'm sure i'll be successful. Here I go...watch out marlboro!!! Here comes the most promising newb tank yet!!! Just be patient wit me tho....