Making The DRK/PLD Comp Viable/Meta - Think They're Gonna Do It?

[SyzzleSpark]

Vengeance damage aside, what benefit does the MT role grant WAR that warrants WAR wanting to be in that position over DRK and PLD? Better yet, what benefit does MT role grant WAR over another OT WAR?

WAR has the highest aggro generation relative to their optimal DPS rotation. If a WAR tanks the boss even only for a small portion of the fight, they can use Unchained and get a Defiance/Unchained/Zerk boosted BB in and still fit 3 cleaves into that same zerk window (that requires burning Vengeance and RI though). When the PLD or DRK swaps off the WAR, they inherit all of that aggro and thus don't need to use Halone or Power Slash which are large tank DPS losses. Also Zerk boosted Vengeance procs are nothing to sneeze at.

snip

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...acter/8147282/ this is my main. Its b& because I told some whiney guy off that wanted this game to be like other MMOs and wouldn't shut up about it a long time ago.

Anyway, respectfully, I know how things were in 2.0. I also remember that thanks in no small part to players like Xeno WAR was not nearly as bad as people made it out to be for the better part of the 2.x series. WAR didn't suddenly become good in 3.0.

The MT/OT meta is toxic because it is inflexible and precludes the use of strategies that often turn out to be DPS, tanking, and healing efficient. It also limits us on an individual basis. The way things work in other MMOs is all fine and good, but in THIS game, a co-tank/co-tank mentality is more conducive to success than a main-tank/off-tank mentality. There's a tank that pulls, a tank that grabs the first set of adds, a tank that grabs the second set of adds, a tank that takes the 1st, 4th, and 6th busters, a tank that takes all the ones in between, etc. A particular tank may be better suited to a particular mechanic, like adds (i.e. DRKs like to tank a lot of little adds where they'd prefer their co-tank to tank the one big add) Shared tanking responsibilities not only makes both tank's mitigation tools more readily available, but it also tends to increase combined tank DPS and the same holds true for healers if they have the same mentality.

Very few fights in this game, at least currently, are not movement heavy for both tanks, and adds spawn at varying points and sometimes simultaneously, thus both tanks "tank the adds."

Its also a very poor decision to have 1 tank hold the boss for the entire fight, especially if the fight doesn't have many adds or the adds to not spawn while the boss is on the field. Relying on that tank's cooldowns alone causes them undue stress regardless of player skill; they'd take less damage if their co-tank wasn't just functioning as a gimped DPS that occasionally grabs adds and handles the same party mechanics the DPS do. Because that "main tank" has to have flawless cooldown usage (which can be derailed by variations in raid-DPS causing mechanics to happen sooner or later) it also gimps their DPS, again, unduly.

Many fights have "taunt swap" mechanics but yet a lot of skilled groups elect to insert their own un-forced tank swaps at predetermined points because it maximize tank and healer DPS, healing efficiency, and mitigation, instead of having one "main-tank" responsible for tanking 90% of the fight and dealing subpar DPS/requiring more healing because of it, and the other "off-tank" dealing good DPS (for a tank) but having left half their toolkit completely unused (and thus of no benefit to their group).

I haven't played many MMOs outside of XIV, but in my opinion, XIV's way sounds much more intelligent. It may be that other MMOs have their own strategic mechanics that require a different skillset and mentality and force you into that MT/OT mindset, but that simply isn't how it works (optimally) in this game.