Thinking of starting tanking, need advice.

[VenKitsune]

Easiest: DRK
Mild: PLD
Hardest: WAR

As for "Fun"
PLD and DRK.
PLD is a bit more of a challenge, but still plenty easy.
DRK is straightforward. (I actually find DRK boring as heck, but there's quite a few people who find the simplicity of DRK fun.)

PLD is the best in pretty much any situation, be it MT, OT, ease, fun, etc.

The only exception is lower levels, where maybe WAR is more fun, since it has berserk, and PLD lacks the fun abilities till closer to 50+

I really, really wouldn't call DRK easy at all. At endgame for a seasoned tank both PLD and DRK are fairly simple but DRK has a lot more options in regards to how they spend their MP and MP management. The only reason WAR is so difficult right now it because it's a little clunky and in all likelyhood we'll be seeing some changes in the coming month to make it both more fluid and more viable.
PLD has and always will be the simplest of the 3 tanks in the game.

PLD main here but i played all of them during HW.

Pld is the one that teaches you tanking the best in dungeons and instances imo, and is in a very good spot rn so i def recommend it but the other tanks are not bad either even if they might lack raid utility rn, this will hopefully be fixed soon

My advice would be 'try out pld and see if you like the principle of being tank' (don't be discouraged if you lose aggro sometimes esp before u get tank stance) and if you see that you like doing it, you can try the other classes and play around with them

Pretty much this. PLD is excellent at teaching how to tank as up to lvl 54 or so you only have one single target combo, and 2 aoe skills which have different functions. Meanwhile WAR is about managing the beast gauge and using Inner beast at the right time to mitigate stuff, and doing loads of damage when you can afford it. DRK is more about MP management which adds a great deal of complexity to the class.
Back in 3.x i would argue that DRK was the hardest of the 3 tanks but now i'd say that WAR has taken that spot as i mentioned because of its overall lack of fluidity which will likely be fixed. Again like i said in about a months time or so i'd wager that DRK/WAR will be the most complicated to a similar degree where as PLD will be the simplest, this is how it's always been and forcing people to swap which tank they play the most because they want to play the simplest for example is bad game design, it will be fixed. Ofcoure this is all about endgame and as far as leveling goes either of the 3 tanks are completely fine. i suggest OP just picks the one they like the look of most and look up some basic tanking 101 guides.

[Nikolas]

I guess because even now I think it's weird that a combo that requires TP to execute refunds TP.

Maybe a much more realistic expectation would be to have Overpower have a Combo Action off Skull Sunder to cost half TP (similar to how DRG Ring of Thorns used to cost half TP if used as a Combo Action from Power Surge.)



I'm glad that all your groups wait for you to finish 2 full combo rotation before they go all out on your spawns. People I meet are not that patient. A single Steel Cyclone is awesome, if you already have the BG, but with the amount of damage DPS are doing, it's not enough and you are likely to have agro taken away from you before you finish a second round, forcing you to throw quite a few Overpowers, or tomahawks all over the place.

Isn't that the truth. Sometime you don't even get a chance to gather the mob and use overpower before the dps are exploding everywhere.

[Claire_Pendragon]

any advice for starting to not piss off too many groups?

I mean this, there is NO way you can tank, and make everyone happy.

You WILL have people who complain you pulled too many mobs, and those who complain you pulled too few of mobs.
You WILL have people who complain you're not in tank stance enough, and those who complain ur not in DPS stance enough.
And so forth.


You're best option, is to turn party chat off, and pretend they arent there.

Spam ur AoEs, rotate ur CDs if ur high enough to do so. (otherwise 1 decent one at the start)
Then rotate ur single target threat for low levels, and single target DPS for higher levels.

Look at netflix, and dont look back.

DRK has a lot more options in regards to how they spend their MP and MP management.

ok, so every GCD that works with DA grants 140 potency with Dark Arts.
So Dark Arts can be seen as 25% of your MP should equate 140 potency or more.
Dark Passenger only does this in groups of mobs. So on single target, ignore dark passenger.
DA Dark Passenger has the same problem as above.

Now, the only move that generates more than 140 potency with DA is Carve n Spit, which is oGCD, so you'll always want to keep ur MP above 25%.
If you do mess up, you have better means to get the MP for it now, such as a syphon strike. (Waiting is still a DPS loss)

Thats your only means to mess up really.

Unless you count using Blackest Night, and the shield doesnt break, as that would be a DPS loss. Or hitting Dark Passenger Button.

Blackest Night is still a DPS loss for Blood Spiller, but something minimal as 1% or less, so technically u dont have to worry about it, just do it anyways, if u know the shield will break, helps the healers at least.

Unleash is terrible, unless the enemies are spread too far apart, where abyssal drain cant reach them.

So you just look at the priority for what to spend ur MP on.

Keep 25% Mp for Blackest Night on TB, or for CnS.
above 25%, hit Dark Arts, because sooner or later you'll syphon strike, soul eater, or blood spiller. (Soul Eater scales its heal downward if u use dark arts, so there is 0 reason to pick which move should be DAed.)

It's easier to pull aggro off a PLD since they don't normally use Flash that often being a zero damage skill

Just wanted to mention, Flash might not do dmg, but its treated as if it does, as it has potency attached to it, that scales off attack power. (I think its 100 potency, if i remember correctly. It currently generates twice the threat Unleash does, but unleash might have had its multiplier raised to make up for it being cut in half, along with darkside raising it 20% more.)

EDIT: Bloodspiller potency went up, and is now a DPS increase with blackest night.

[VenKitsune]

snip

I feel thats a bit of an oversimplification but we're comparing DRK complexity to PLD. What you've said there is already vastly more complex than PLD which is litterally; You learn most of your rotation by the time you hit lvl 60, and the only addition going up to 70 is holy spirit spam. PLD is still objectively easier in every way.

[Camiie]

Good thread. Not to hijack here but I did some low level marauder tanking before jumping into a healer and leveling. Just finished the SB story and am considering picking up tanking as an alt class. Since I skipped most of the dungeons with potd spamming (bad I know) any advice for starting to build that tanking confidence and not piss off too many groups?

Thinking DRK or War tank.

I'm in a similar situation as well. What's a good recommendation for a "get your feet wet" sort of dungeon in the level 60 range? Or should I jump down to something lower?

[NosValk]

I'm in a similar situation as well. What's a good recommendation for a "get your feet wet" sort of dungeon in the level 60 range? Or should I jump down to something lower?

I certainly feel like POTD might ease you into a tank role, but that might be my dumb opinion. As far as regular 60 dungeons go Balsaers Wall was one of my favorite places to expiriment in HW. Or you can go trial by fire and tank A8 Brute Justice solo.

[Camiie]

I certainly feel like POTD might ease you into a tank role, but that might be my dumb opinion. As far as regular 60 dungeons go Balsaers Wall was one of my favorite places to experiment in HW. Or you can go trial by fire and tank A8 Brute Justice solo.

Thanks! I ended up just jumping into a PF for Sirensong Sea that welcomed new players and it went OK. Main problem I had was rounding up the jellyfish mobs in the first room. Ran a 50/60 roulette later and got Sohr Khai. That actually went a bit worse, but I learned a lot and we got through since the DPS could just melt everything.

[ShariusTC]

I really, really wouldn't call DRK easy at all. At endgame for a seasoned tank both PLD and DRK are fairly simple but DRK has a lot more options in regards to how they spend their MP and MP management. The only reason WAR is so difficult right now it because it's a little clunky and in all likelyhood we'll be seeing some changes in the coming month to make it both more fluid and more viable.

well, has all tank at level 70 and i really like to use DRK to do expert/50:60/leveling roulette, aside from mp manage (which you pretty much know 1 or 2 thing about it if you level up DRk normal through dungeon) DRk has some really great skill for AOE tanking which make trash pull in dungeon feel quite smoothe compare to PLD and WAR, also the blackest night is really the best defensive cd ever, can't say about other tank now because they increase enmity generate abit for all tank but as in 4.0 DRK really my favor for daily dungeon

[Claire_Pendragon]

I feel thats a bit of an oversimplification but we're comparing DRK complexity to PLD. What you've said there is already vastly more complex than PLD which is litterally; You learn most of your rotation by the time you hit lvl 60, and the only addition going up to 70 is holy spirit spam. PLD is still objectively easier in every way.

due to my post going boom, and too lazy to repeat it, PLD plays the same way DRK does with watching MP, as it has to try to get its MP to above 80%, while keeping it below 90%, as to maintain DPS, and switch between magic of phsyical dps buffs.
IMO PLD edges out DRK slightly in difficulty.
Its not by a lot, but enough to say DRK is the easier one.

[VenKitsune]

due to my post going boom, and too lazy to repeat it, PLD plays the same way DRK does with watching MP, as it has to try to get its MP to above 80%, while keeping it below 90%, as to maintain DPS, and switch between magic of phsyical dps buffs.
IMO PLD edges out DRK slightly in difficulty.
Its not by a lot, but enough to say DRK is the easier one.

huh? sorry im going to have to disagree.
At lvl 70 PLD it's litterally Requiescat then spam Holy spirit basically until you're out of mana (you can usually safely bottom out on mana as switching stance is cheap on PLD), then its back to your lvl 60 rotation. boom thats lvl 70 PLD which is extremely easy in terms of actually doing your job and how they deal damage.
DRK on the other hand actually has a gauge to manage with a priority system all the while maintaining atleast 40%-50% MP for any surprise TBNs and stance switching that may be needed.