Question: How do you tank?

[Gemina]

This is gonna be a lot of homework to take in, its appreciated though, a lot.

Kind of odd your FC buddy wants you to pick up WAR specifically, especially for OTing. Not that they can't do it, or DRK can't MT, just weird because I think which tank you choose should kind of be up to you. Even more so if you're just starting out.

Anywho, it can be a lot to take in at first, but it's not too bad once you're in the water. When it comes to tanking 101, there is a quote I always like to bring up:

"Before I learned the art, a punch was just a punch, and a kick, just a kick.
After I learned the art, a punch was no longer a punch, a kick, no longer a kick.
Now that I understand the art, a punch is just a punch and a kick is just a kick."

-- Bruce Lee

Applied to tanking, when you look at an experienced tank mow through a dungeon, it seems simple. But when you break down their mechanics it suddenly becomes complicated. But after you get down and apply what you've learned, it becomes quite simple all over again.

This is my favorite tanking guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fS-FVrY74Y

Definitely start with dungeons, and do lots of them. Practice is key. The leveling stages are brutal, but important. All the experienced tanks have been through it. Some players will be patient with you. Others not so much. Never, and I do mean never pull wall to wall in a dungeon because you feel pressured to. You have to crawl before you can walk, and you have to walk before you can run.

Trash pulls in dungeons are one of the most threatening things you'll face while tanking. Managing the damage coming from a boss becomes much easier after learning how to manage the damage coming from 6+ mobs all at once. I do highly recommend Hall of Novice, and also the three 4-man trials to give you a bit of a taste of full on 8-man trials. In 8-man you won't have to worry too much about tank swapping outside of EX and savage. If you are OT though, always be prepared to take the reigns should the MT drop.

Good luck out there!

[Foxkid]

-snip-

Man life sucks.....

But, my FC lead already has paladin and drk but he really doesn't like the "feeling" of warrior despite how often he talks about how op/broken/good they are in contrast (you really can't tear him away from his MT DRK no matter how hard you try, minus learning a raid for the first time). I have my warrior at a very low level from the days you needed to be a marauder before you could even begin to be a rogue (lv 12 cause I took up mch, letting uncertain anxiety get to me about playing the exact opposite despite all the tips and advice given v.v;; )

I was thinking if it would be a good idea to practice in palace since the penalty isn't as harsh as a dungeon (and you can't be held as responsible....to an extent...)

But as for doing those giant pulls, I'm good on passing those up cause I can judge how a tank is handling smaller pulls as a healer vs judging my healer to literally hold my life in their hands, and I don't have a ton of co-healer I'd normally trust with that as is....
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To other statements:

Onionslicer: When I heal my tanks, I usually don't pay a ton of attention to much outside of incoming damage frequency, aoes, and who's being targeted for what..a very middling version of tunnel vision so I haven't compiled the list of tank busters and scripted attacks for myself..

Sakurakoji: Will the gear defense be enough to really keep up threat and keeping damage down if I'm not in tank stance though?

Tempo: Same question I asked koji, but as well, I have noticed warriors eating a ton of tp as I looked more often when playing as monk and mch, but for learning from the tanks' mistakes, I can't do it easily cause I mostly understand the basic skills of tanks (an area threat generator, single target, and cooldowns/death denial), but not a ton more than that.

Shikasu: I should consider attempting alliance raids as a tank, but boy am I scared of doing that plus mechanics....

[TaiyoShikasu]

Shikasu: I should consider attempting alliance raids as a tank, but boy am I scared of doing that plus mechanics....

Tanking alliance raids isn't hard. Most difficulty comes from the other twenty-three people doing things they shouldn't.

Using a recent Dun Scaith run as an example which I only ended up MTing because the person who tried to MT couldn't hold hate against me despite my being in Darkside, outside of rotating cooldowns, you do what you would do as a DPS. Don't get blown off, don't be in the middle for the insta-kill tornado thing and so on for the first boss.

Second boss depends on where people drop things on whether or not that will make your life difficult or not.

Literally who cares about Proto-Ultima.

Third boss, be in the center for meteors, off tank should grab the add and both it and the boss should be kept apart.

Diabolos is basically nothing with most of that fights difficulty coming in his second form which follows every second or so auto attack with a tankbuster and DRK at sixty has a horribly lacking defensive kit. Also one healer in my alliance was DCing a lot and the other was half out to lunch. Like the previous boss, be in the center for meteors.

And I tanked that whole run exclusively in DPS stance which does come with being over a hundred item levels above the content (my alliance also had a NIN which helped), but I've done the same in Rabanastre where you won't even see a number of mechanics at this point. DRK also has stupid high aggro generation.

Not that I'd reccomend going into any content as a tank and go exclusively in DPS stance without sufficient gear and confidence in your abilities. Or if you're a PLD because PLD's aggro generation is weak in comparison.