PLD or DRK or no tanking at all?

[Syzygian]

why no love for WAR, it's my fav tank class atm because of deliverance switching

Wat. You can't turn your head in here without whacking your nose on somebody's love for WAR.

[Laurima]

Paladin is good fun with practise, it's not as easy with managing adds and aggro as say DRK is, but it's far from impossible, Also side note, PLD are used in Savage, my statics MT is a PLD.

WAR is a bit better, but it's a lot more involved if you really want to get the best from it I've found

I have a DRK at 33 and IMO I've found it to be pretty boring by comparision to PLD at the same level, spam unleash for mobs, MP gets low, hit syphon thingy rinse repeat -_-

[Freyyy]

I have a DRK at 33 and IMO I've found it to be pretty boring by comparision to PLD at the same level, spam unleash for mobs, MP gets low, hit syphon thingy rinse repeat -_-

All jobs are boring at level 33. DRK becomes awesome and very far from boring post 45-50. But it's a matter of taste. Oh and also, PLD at level 33 is pretty much spam flash, MP gets low, hit riot blade rinse repeat.

[vaitepiha]

Hello!


But I hear so many bad things about the Paladin. How he's useless and everything.

Remember in the early days of FF14 ARR, all the discuss about the war in the first turn of Bahamut coil. It was "Pally only".

You can bet on the come back of the palladin in the 4.0.

[Callidus]

Paladin right now is boring, DPS aside. It is extremely boring. It is 100% the most mundane job in the game. There's no variety. There's nothing unique. You manage your cooldowns, you use your combos, you maintain your DoTs, and that's it. Both DRK and WAR have much more variety to the gameplay, and require a bit more thought for actions used (rather than just RoH it to death).

This covers the gamut from fact, to opinion, to altogether wrong.

"You manage your cooldowns, you use your combos, you maintain your DoTs, and that's it." While this is fairly factual, you just described most of the jobs in the game. That would be like me saying "all you do is press buttons, so jobX is boring." If you chose to ignore the details and nuances, you can make just about anything sound lame.

Saying the job is boring, mundane, not unique, and has no variety is an opinion. I respect your opinion, but stating your opinion as if it were fact is a disservice to OP looking for advice. Many people, myself included, find PLD enjoyable to play. And that, too, is an opinion.

Finally, if you're just RoHing things to death you're doing it wrong. Once you get 60 and some decent gear, RoH should be your least used combo. We're not in 2.x anymore.

OP: You said you're not worried about Savage on your tank. PLD is just fine for all other content. With current gear, PLD is even technically viable (though not ideal) for Savage. Pick the job you enjoy, whichever one that might be. I'm sure if you invest some time and energy into any one of the tank classes, you'll find it an enjoyable change of pace from healing.

[AlexiIvaniskavich]

My recommendation OP is to get them all up to or around 50. Not only will doing this give you insight into the other tank classes, but it can also broaden your mind about the tank class you choose and what you can do with it. Each class has something to offer, but none of these classes should be judged on their "pre-50" tool kit. IMO paladin gets significantly more enjoyable at 50+ in comparison to the class sub 40.

As far as content viability is concerned, to date every tank class has cleared all existing content. Every tank class has the ability to hold aggro and survive every encounter in the game. There are differences between each tank class on these subjects, but they each have these capabilites.

If you get each class to 50, you may find there is one specific tank you love, and this is the one you should go with. If you find that you love them all equally, but in different ways.... welcome to my world.

[IndigoHawk]

Also, regarding the Str > Vit piece - ignore it. This only applies to endgame raiding, so Alexander Savage, Thordan Extreme, and I guess maybe the hard Diadem mobs? But for the overwhelming majority of content in this game, Vit and Fending Gear are going to help you survive much better than Str and Slaying gear. And while leveling, focus more of your gearing energy on Physical and Magical defense, as those two comprise the lion's share of your passive damage mitigation.

This is mostly wrong. Tanks automatically get phys/mag defense from better tank gear so the only "focus" is don't be undergeared.
Tanks hold aggro easier with more str. Flash gets stronger with too.
Back in 2.0 tanks often went vit. Now it's better for tanks to put their points into str and take 2-3 slaying accessories with the others fending.
Try to balance your gear for equal str/vit, then adjust from there based on how you feel about survivability and aggro.

[Alisane]

Hi OP! I am a SCH main, PLD secondary so hopefully I can provide some helpful insight.

I like PLD because it is the "party support" tank class. I have also leveled DRK to 60 and play it for roulettes sometimes, but PLD feels much more fluid to me. I main SCH so I wanted something with a little less micromanagement while tanking. If you are someone who likes to max DPS while healing, you may prefer DRK. The big thing that makes me enjoy PLD over DRK is that I always find myself missing my "party" skills on DRK. Divine Veil, Cover and Stoneskin are great utility skills. PLD struggles a bit more with enmity than the others so that is something you will have to be watching as well.

I also like the "sword and board" look more, personally. It gets a LOT more interesting at 60 since you end up with two additional combo pathways. BUT I am obviously biased since I prefer PLD! The best thing you can do is level both to 60 and see which feels better to you. Good luck!

[xvshanevx]

But I hear so many bad things about the Paladin. How he's useless and everything. But I won't see savage any time soon with the PLD anyway and DF is taking what it's going to get so I'm sure that's not a problem for me at the moment as long as it's not my main. I also hear a lot that the PLD is boring but I've never heard a proper explanation on why it's a boring job. Like, are people just not "getting it" and expect something from the job it isn't? Or do they have a point and the PLD is objectively boring?

No people are "getting it" and know what to do with it. The class really isn't "boring" anymore. It has grown past the "1, 2, 3, repeat" phase of its life. Even as a WAR main, I can tell you that PLD is a lot of fun right now.

The other option is the DRK which sounds like fun but I'm afraid I'll end up feeling like I'm just spamming buttons and not have that feeling of being that awesome tank that's just standing there like a wall no matter what. DRK also sounds interesting but I've heard he's very button mashy after 50 and I'm afraid I'll feel more like "spamming buttons to save my life" instead of actually being that brick wall the boss runs into. Also, the Paladin in general sounds more like my thing. I do feel less mushy with my DRK but he's level 32 and I actually went shopping for him.

I believe a lot of thier mitigation comes in forms of parry, evade, and magical damage debuffing, so when running dungeons you might feel a bit softer than a PLD. I don't play DRK, so this is just assumption.

The third option is to not tank at all. Maybe tanking in FFXIV is just not my thing. I'm not sure. Maybe I'm just not comfortable with tanking and the FFXIV engine (other games feel a lot more responsive but that might just be because I'm more used to those games). I hope that changes. Maybe somebody here went through the same thing and got used to it?

The engine, as I'm sure you've seen, is much slower in this game; plus the agro system is a bit more finicky. Once you know what to do, you might appreciate it a bit more

Also, that pushing for DPS. It's already weird on my WHM but it's less of a hassle there. Having to care about STR instead of VIT seems off. I know I'd probably have to care about accuracy for my WHM in raids but nobody complained yet (no alexander S yet). It just seems so off...

First of, for progression raiding, DPS was needed to clear content, which is why so many players emphasized it. Secondly, you don't have to start STR, you can go VIT until you feel comfortable. Also, the more STR you have (i.e. the more damage) the easier it is to hold aggro. Finally, ask your healers how much they can handle. If they are confident, then you can run full STR.

[Reynhart]

You can bet on the come back of the palladin in the 4.0.

WAR came back in 2.1...