I'm the worst Pld ever. v_v

[Donjo]

Would it be best to just fate grind or leve grind my way to 40 since I'm now 39? Also would it be advisable to never do roulette as Pld so I can avoid this issue in the future or does Cutter's Cry sync to 40 so it won't be a issue later on?

Cutter's Cry syncs itself to either 40 or 41, so it shouldn't be a problem in the future.

[Malicewolf]

Would it be best to just fate grind or leve grind my way to 40 since I'm now 39? Also would it be advisable to never do roulette as Pld so I can avoid this issue in the future or does Cutter's Cry sync to 40 so it won't be a issue later on?

Yup that'll work. If you haven't finished your hunting log, that will give you a substantial chunk. And cutter's cry is 38-40 level sync i believe. So once you hit 40, you'll never have to worry about that issue again. However, hakukke manor, brayflox and Qarn will become your tanking nightmare. I wouldn't say you shouldn't do roulette anymore, but just be weary that those 3 dungeons may be a nightmare for you as a PLD. But you can still tank these without your tank stance, just have to pay a lot more attention and spam flash a bit more (smaller pulls also recommended).

Your experience in cutter's cry is likely to be the worst case scenario you'll ever run into as that's when a lot of DPS can really get rolling on the damage and not having shield oath makes things difficult.

And I'm really surprised you heard DRK was worse than PLD on that other forum. On here, they're usually the one's who have to defend themselves as being "useful". Most categorize tanks as WAR > DRK > PLD. If you like DRK, keep using it mate =) It is still a great tank and can handle everything as needed.

For the most part, PLD's are better for mitigation against physical attacks and extra support utility in special circumstances (i.e. clemency, divine veil, cover, etc).
WAR are the DPS king of the tanks and have great means to self sustain via healing through damage given. So essentially, they upkeep themselves by dealing damage (and hence why DPS king).
DRK are more known for their magical defense over the other two. Which honestly, a majority of bosses use magic based attacks. They still have more than enough defense outside of magic based attacks too though as well as self heals.

So if you're only playing PLD because people said it was "better" for tanking, then don't listen to that bs. Any of the 3 tanks can do everything, it's just a question of what they excel at. The only thing I will say is that to tank, you must get to at least level 26 for gladiator to get provoke. It's pretty much a must for tank swapping, which is a big part of tanking in end game.

[Renryuu]

On the other forum, the results of my asking was Pld > War > Drk. I wouldn't say they said it's better, they just said it was most beginner friendly.

Mostly with Drk, while I have a ton of fun, I can't help but feel like people have a negative outlook on Drk and would rather I was Pld or War instead of another Drk. I dunno, maybe it's just the fact that I've been a dps in MMOs for so long that up and swapping to a tank is a tad frighting since I've always been a follower, a "tell me what to bash and I'll bash it real good" so being in a more leader like position makes me a bit nervous.

[Deathgiver]

In level 50 + content pld is definitely most beginner friendly. They have the simplest basic dps rotation and a good suite of defensive cd's that are pretty much error proof. War is slightly more complicated to do dps on and requires better knowledge of how your cds interact with each other, and drk has by far the highest skill cap of the 3 tanks (45-50 skills per minute offensively + defensive cds + mp management vs. 30-35 on war and pld).

[sonseray]

The majority of responses was that Pld was the best choice. I loved leveling Drk and tanking with it which is what has me wanting to commit to tanking, but I recognize that if I'm to be a good tank, I should play something that is more desirable and can self sustain so that healers don't need to babysit my health. From what I can gather and read on the matter, I find info that says that Drk is just meh in comparison to the other tanks which brought me to asking forums on tank suggestions.

I got Dragoon to 55 and tried DRK and never looked back. It's my only 60 right now, and I just got my rose lanner from Ravana EX last night. Dark knights outclass paladin at end game overall imo, though Paladin's do make slightly better main tanks against single bosses. While Warrior outclasses them both overall at end game, Dark Knight is by far the most fun to play, is completely viable, and is more viable than Paladin in my opinion.

[Malicewolf]

On the other forum, the results of my asking was Pld > War > Drk. I wouldn't say they said it's better, they just said it was most beginner friendly.

Mostly with Drk, while I have a ton of fun, I can't help but feel like people have a negative outlook on Drk and would rather I was Pld or War instead of another Drk. I dunno, maybe it's just the fact that I've been a dps in MMOs for so long that up and swapping to a tank is a tad frighting since I've always been a follower, a "tell me what to bash and I'll bash it real good" so being in a more leader like position makes me a bit nervous.

Well, in that regard, can't say I argue. But the learning curves are different for each. PLD has an easy rotation as even at level 60, you only have 2 to choose from pretty much. Your DoT (goring blade) combo or your enmity combo (Rage of Halone). You do have Royal Authority that can replace Rage of Halone for more DPS. And the timing for goring blade dot is pretty much, 1 of each combo. Repeat until boss is dead. The hard part with PLD is weaving in utility via all the extra support abilities they have. The difference between a good PLD and an ok PLD is easily seen when they tank for you, but both will most likely get you through the content.

Essentially, a PLD is simple. But with it's simplicity, it's also got it's faults. It's often called boring and lackluster. But based off everything you've written so far, I'd say you should stick with DRK. They have a larger learning curve to maximize it's potential, but they are very fun and if done right, can be extremely good. The issue with DRK is that you have to manage more, especially your mp. You could more easily flop as a DRK on some runs if you aren't paying enough attention. But that could be said for any tank.

[Fernosaur]

Paladin is generally thought to be the easiest tank to play because it has no gimmicks or any complexities to their rotation. DRK has a LOT of buttons you need to keep pressing all the time, while also worrying about tanking, mitigating, positioning, resource management, a DoT that's out of your combo rotations, and the like. Warrior is simpler than DRK, but it relies on a very binary system that requires you to take decisions to go full offense or full defense on the fly, and this can greatly affect the outcome of both your damage and the damage you take (or whether you live or die).

Paladin in comparison is very straightforward, but its simplicity also punishes the class in the sense that it has less ways to improve and push its DPS. If you think you're staying soft/midcore, however, I think PLD will be fine for you. As everyone else has said, once you get Shield Oath holding hate will be super easy, and in general Paladin's defensive Cooldowns are more straightforward and relatively more powerful than WAR and DRK's, even though they all can achieve the same results easily.

The biggest advantage Paladin has on boss fights is that the simplicity of your rotation and lack of oGCD actions makes it so you can pay a lot of attention to the immediate needs of your party and also to encounter mechanics.

As a final message: don't be discouraged by awful runs!! Everyone has brain farts sometimes, and even then it sounds like you were trolled by the job's levelling tragedies of not having tank stance soon enough. That, and you're also learning, so have patience

[Renryuu]

As far as the amount of buttons Drks press and resource management, I do play other games that feature frenetic style of combat with some form of resource management in one way or another. Games like Tales of series (e.g. Tales of Zestiria, Tales of Symphonia, etc) Devil May Cry, Valdis Story and other games where position matters such as Monster Hunter 4U. As far as content, until I can find a way leave my friend's dead FC without dealing the potential aftermath (since he is a friend in real life) or find a new server to start over on, I'm basically limited to just dungeons and whatever success there is to be had from the dungeon/raid finder system with maybe the occasional party finder if I can find a group on Famfrit that doesn't require you to have beaten something 5 minutes after it's release or else you'll be kicked (aka bonus tomes = kick).

[Fernosaur]

Just for the sake of clarification, when I said PLD's defensive cooldowns are moderately more powerful I meant in the way they work individually. Sentinel outclasses its equivalent on WAR and DRK by 10% damage reduction, and Hallowed Ground's only disadvantage is its awfully slow activation time, whereas Holmgang makes you still take damage and binds you in place, and Living Dead can cause you to die if your healer can't top you in time (it can happen to a Scholar who's running out of tools if they're not careful, though a WHM will never give a crap). Of course, the drawback in both of these moves is a ridiculously long cooldown.

In comparison, WAR has way more damage reduction uptime for scripted tank busters with Inner Beast, apart from instant and sustained self heals. DRK has Dark Mind as an answer to Paladin's Shelltron, although the later is much less reliable than the former.

Sorry I'm just rambling by now :P

[Genaxx]

Well your not the worst PLD ever since you actually acknowledged that you weren't keeping aggro. The issue was, like most have said, is that you don't have your tank stance yet. Try running it again when you get it and you'll notice a huge difference.