Why more people should try tanking!

[Jollyy5]

...

You are correct, low level tanking does suck, it's boring and keeping aggro can be difficult, sometimes even against a single target if there's a level synced Black Mage for example.

But if you can tough it out until level 30 after which you can get your job and tank stance, tanking gets significantly better.

[Mekhana]

Tanking is terrible right now in FFXIV. I remember back in HW I'd queue up for stuff because it just felt really fun to play, same with open world content either group or solo.

Right now I just login to get my weekly cap and lockouts.

[InnerBeastMode]

Snip.

Facts. I spent 1.5 hours yesterday with virtually one group in O2S (never cleared). Different DPS kept dying to different things. One DPS was incredibly rude (while dying to weird sh*t) I tanked pretty good. Remained consistent for everyone. The mistakes I did make were recoverable. Adjusted when necessary. However, I floated a split second too late on long drop. RAGE QUIT DISBAND. Granted, I get that it's frustrating to f up a good run. (I was extremely apologetic and remorseful afterward). But consistency counts for nothing? Players (especially some DPS) really need to manage their expectations.

Also, you make a good point that "people expect you to lead" but got forbid you give a kind directive or constructive criticism then they start yelling about teamwork or "you don't pay my sub".

I usually just switch to BATTLE chat and follow the mantra "you pull it, you tank it".

[InnerBeastMode]

I have been tanking (WAR) since right before HW. I STILL get a little nervous for new content and even queue for savage completion runs. I look back on how dreadfully nervous I was the first time I tanked Sastasha and laugh. Good times. You'll look back the same one day. Anienai gave you some really great advice. Something that works for me is to study dungeon bosses and primals before my first encounter - it helps to take the nerves off some as well. But remember to have fun and enjoy. There are some incredible sights and players in this game that outweigh the crabs you will inevitably encounter. Good luck!

[Wyndam]

Flash 2x and start your aggro combos. Bards and MCH at that lvl can kinda dictate which mob you have to keep an eye on since they tend to pull b4 you do.

That's good. Even better: 3xFlash, 2x(filler GCD), 2xFlash, 1x(filler GCD), 1xFlash

What this does, aside from spamming Flash for enmity, is it applies the Blind and keeps it up all the way through the last Flash without clipping the duration. After the last Flash diminishing returns have set in and further Flashes won't apply the Blind. I'm not 100% certain but I think for low levels 2xFlash is more single target enmity than Fast Blade, Savage Blade. Even so, the filler can be an RoH combo to help single target threat, Riot Blade combo because you're dumping a ton of MP, or Total Eclipse for more AoE!

Manipulating the Blind helped keep Paladin tanking interesting for me, at any rate. This is totally overkill otherwise.

[Lynesse]

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Oops. I think I accidentally hijacked this thread. >< So sorry!

I wish I could upvote these more than once. I was going to stop playing GLD, but I'll stick it out. Thank you for the encouragement!

[BluexBird]

Honestly, tanking in this game isn't all that exciting. The moment you start having fights that are scripted, you remove any sort of skill required from players and just bring things down to whoever is able to memorize the fight. Perhaps if boss fights became randomized, things would be more interesting. It's part of why I loved Leviathan and Zurvan so much. You never knew what was coming - you had to react to it at the time.

The only reason I still find tanking to be mildly interesting, is to try and clear content I've already cleared, but putting out better damage than I did before. Coming up with optimal rotations for each boss is what keeps me interested, but I would much rather have the fights be completely randomized so that you would have to adapt your rotation according to what happens.

[Anienai]

https://www.youtube.com/user/MTQcapture

Short and sweet mechanics of the dungeons you will run.

[Zfz]

I changed my main from a tank to a DPS because the obsession with tank dps in this game has made end-game tanking just a DPS role with low numbers. Might as well play real DPS jobs.

IMO there's probably many "old school" tanks who have stopped tanking in FFXIV for a similar reason. Not that I'm demanding a change. That's just how tanking is designed in this game, so people who don't like it go, and people who like it pick it up. If it was the other way round, there would still be a lack of tanks.

[Zojha]

That's just how tanking is designed in this game, so people who don't like it go, and people who like it pick it up.

Which goes for every piece of gameplay, content-class-whatever.

Hence why it's always a good idea to give it a try! That includes tanking. And truth be told, I feel that really says everything that needs to be said on the topic: Give it a try, you might end up liking it.

And if not - no harm done! You can try something else. For me personally, I only really "liked" DRK for tanking and the way they took the design in SB doesn't appeal anymore, so I dropped tanking entirely. On the flipside, the removal of cast times made BRD (and briefly MCH before they pushed overheat) new favorites! Summoner fell off the map, tho'. You just gotta try around and see what you enjoy.
And if that leads to a role imbalance, frankly, I think that's for SE to address and fix, not the players.