Easiest tank class for total newbie tank...?

[Artemiz]

My advice is slightly different to others but I'll give it for what it's worth. I'd start tanking with WAR not PLD as keeping hate is really easy thanks to Overpower living up to it's name and being overpowered. WAR is more about trying to self heal and manage TP but with hate secure you can concentrate on that and not worry about hate. WAR also gets it's tanking stance (with enmity boost) 10 levels earlier than PLD and will take you through Brayflox and Cutters Cy which can be challenging dungeons for a new tank so it does come in handy.

If you prefer to start with PLD though it is very viable, for stable hate I simply went with the Flash +1 rule and hate wasn't really a problem for the most part unless I got one of those troll parties that seem to try and make your life difficult. The Flash +1 rule is simple, pull with Shield Lob (not Provoke, only do that when you KNOW why you are) and then when the mobs group up at you Flash one more time than there are numbers of mobs, so flash 3 times for 2 mobs, 4 times for 3 mobs etc... At lower levels you won't fight more than 3 mobs at a time very often. Then start to rotate through the mobs with your enmity skills, hitting a different mob every time with your hate boosters as someone described well, earlier in the thread. That should be more than enough to hold solid hate and you can always use Riot Blade towards the end of the pull to replace MP if you need to. You don't need STR imo at lower levels so I'd go full VIT with your stats and keep your gear up to date, healers will love you for it and it will keep their hate down too. A decent HP pool is useful because healers are still learning as well at lower levels so for me VIT > STR below level 50 at the very least.