So i tanked for the very first time today and i've made up my mind.

[The_NPC]

As a person who "retired" from Tanking, with PLD, I can say there are just gona be "those days" especially when youre a Tanking greenhorn (ie: new to being a Tank Class) no one became the best without starting at some bottom level even with tallent & a tutior. That said I persionally would not think any less of you for giving up after 1 try because I did, granted by "give up" in my case it was more didn't qurry as a PLD for a few months until I got the nerve for try #2.

P.S.- by "retired" I mean: Gave up gearing PLD around 4.3 as I liked MCH more & finally came to termss that my healer friend I had on PSN wasn't coming back so I lost faith in Pug-Heals due to having a pocket-Heal for so long (& that gearing 3-4 classes with a system that has been mostly repeated since 2.0 the burnout finally hit me... also got like 6 other game to beat too lol, fyi not a high-level raider, just a B-rank casual: better then average but not "great")

[Varyntheos]

I just started playing FFXIV this weekend and jumped right into tanking on Warrior *just hit 30* And has been fun up to doing a Thousand Maws which I died for the first time on final boss, part of it was because the pre-video watched going into it said you had to kill all the pods *but that is a different story lol. But coming from WoW I think I am getting confused with all the talk of Stance dancing and most Warrior guides I find are for level 70 but after switching to the Warrior upgrade I guess I got confused on what CDs to use and rotation in general.

[ksuyen]

I just started playing FFXIV this weekend and jumped right into tanking on Warrior *just hit 30* And has been fun up to doing a Thousand Maws which I died for the first time on final boss, part of it was because the pre-video watched going into it said you had to kill all the pods *but that is a different story lol. But coming from WoW I think I am getting confused with all the talk of Stance dancing and most Warrior guides I find are for level 70 but after switching to the Warrior upgrade I guess I got confused on what CDs to use and rotation in general.

IMHO, stance dancing is not compulsory. But if you want to be a good tank, as a warrior you may opt to dps harder to kill faster, so i guess this is where you need to switch between Defiance and Deliverance.

Dungeons - Trash] For trash DPS AOE has gotten really strong to the point it can be tough to maintain threat if you mess around too much in Deliverance, especially against Red Mages. I try to keep ~50 Beast Gauge available at the end of each pull so I can open pulls with Steel Cyclone rather than Overpower, which is typically enough to establish threat indefinitely (and is easier to target when running through enemies). I find healers are able to contribute more reliable AOE DPS against trash when I'm in tank stance and using Equilibrium + Cooldowns -- I can go Deliverance to use Decimate every few GCDs, but the extra incoming damage means the healer needs to be 100% focused on keeping me up and can't contribute as much to DPS. So I don't think Stance Dancing is something you really need to worry about on trash pulls unless if your healer is dpsing their heart out and still looks bored.

[Dungeons - Bosses] I try to enter boss fights with 100 Beast Gauge if possible. Start in Defiance, run in, Tomahawk, and weave in Onslaught for a huge and instant burst of enmity. That'll put you at 80 Beast Gauge -- do one Storm's Eye combo to get your damage buff (and 100 Gauge), then swap stance to Deliverance. Heavy Swing, weave Berserk/Inner Beast, Fell Cleave, Fell Cleave, Infuriate, Fell Cleave, Maim, Fell Cleave, Storm's Path, Fell Cleave, Fell Cleave. Depending on Skill Speed you might be able to fit in the magical 7th Fell Cleave, if not just weave in Thrill of Battle + Upheaval to finish the combo. After that I usually just swap back to Defiance until Inner Beast's cooldown is back up to make things a little easier on the healer, but you should have such a massive Enmity lead that if the healer is comfortable you can probably spend the rest of the fight in Deliverance.

[Raids] I wouldn't bother stance dancing when you are still learning raid content, especially in Savage mode. Save it for progression and when you're up against a DPS Check/Enrage, and then do the same as above under Dungeons - Bosses. Stay in Defiance until you're up to 80 Beast Gauge, get to 100 gauge with your Storm's Eye combo, do your crazy Fell Cleave combo, then back to Defiance (unless you're very confident in your healer). If you are planning to spend more time in Deliverance I would make sure your OT knows to use the Provoke + Shirk combo frequently so you don't fall behind on aggro; even with all the Fell Cleaves and the early opening aggro spike it's easy for RDM and SAM to rip stuff off of you if you have to miss a GCD or two when avoiding mechanics.

In general, if you are going to be staying in Deliverance because you trust your Healer, you're going to have basically unlimited TP in boss encounters, so it is still worth swapping to Defiance briefly to pop Equilibrium in a pinch (Saving Equilibrium in OS1 helps a lot after Charybdis so the healers can focus more on picking up the offtank for that upcoming Twin Bolt).

[Kalise]

I just started playing FFXIV this weekend and jumped right into tanking on Warrior *just hit 30* And has been fun up to doing a Thousand Maws which I died for the first time on final boss, part of it was because the pre-video watched going into it said you had to kill all the pods *but that is a different story lol. But coming from WoW I think I am getting confused with all the talk of Stance dancing and most Warrior guides I find are for level 70 but after switching to the Warrior upgrade I guess I got confused on what CDs to use and rotation in general.

Ahh yeah, guides for level 70 (Especially end-game stuff) will be confusing.

Basically, for leveling up to 70 (Also, at level 70 until you get pretty good gear) you'll want to be mainly having Defiance active while you're tanking.

Rotation should be Heavy Swing > Skull Sunder > Butcher's Block against single targets and Overpower against 3+ enemies.
Upon level 35 you'll gain access to Inner Beast, which you'll want to use as you fill up your Beast Gauge (You'll find out more about this as you hit level 35 so don't worry) ideally waiting until your next attack will put you over 100 gauge before using it (Though, if you need its healing/damage reduction use it earlier!)

Upon level 38, you'll get the skill Storm's Path which will take over as your main rotation. So you'll be using Heavy Swing > Maim > Storm's Path for single targets. Unless you notice that someone in your party is very high on enmity (Next to the members of your party, you'll see the enmity bars so if one of the people in your party has one that is very full they're at risk of getting aggro) then you'll use a Butcher's Block combo for the enmity.

Finally, upon level 50 you'll get the skill Storm's Eye which will then supplement your main rotation. Essentially you'll alternate between Heavy Swing > Maim > Storm's Path and Heavy Swing > Maim > Storm's Eye to maintain the damage buff provided by Storm's Eye (Typically it's about 2x Storm's Path combos 1x Storm's Eye combo. Generally is about what the duration allows for)

For CD's your main ones are:

Rampart (Role Action skill learned at level 8)
Reprisal (Role Action skill learned at level 32) - This one is for use when a boss does an AoE attack.
Vengeance (Obtained at level 46)

You'll also have some less generally useful ones that will provide you with some nice benefit in certain situations:

Anticipation (Role Action skill learned at level 24) is useful against groups of enemies and basically can be used as and when available. It's not guaranteed mitigation nor does it affect spells, so it has limited use to counter boss abilities.
Thrill of Battle (Obtained at level 26) will mostly be useful to you for the heal it provides. In end-game content its use becomes to help counter specific boss skills that burst for high amounts of damage.
Raw Intuition (Obtained at level 56) this is an awkward CD. Since often you'll want to use it alongside Awareness (Role Action skill learned at level 36) and much like Anticipation, it does not affect spells. Giving it limited use to counter boss abilities. Though it's great against trash mobs, provided you use Awareness (If you don't use awareness, this thing will kill you faster than you can say "Oops")

Have fun

[NameGoesHere]

You're seriously posting this and then not telling us the story? No fair!

[Jaywalker]

Valdima I hear ya 100%. XD I've found DPS feels most comfortable to me, but am cautiously branching to try my hand at healing with an alt. Tanks seem like they not only need to know their rotation, how to pace, how to direct aggro, how to position enemies, etc. but any steps needed to clear a dungeon too and that level of confidence in game progression can be a little daunting imo.

But for what it's worth. I've actually found that it can be helpful to level up like crazy as DPS (or theoretically as healer), get great gear and mana and fighting confidence. Unsync, then dive into the dungeon you want to learn as DPS. That front at least, if leading is the issue, you can make sure you're comfortable in all the steps needed to clear efficiently without inconveniencing anyone else. Rotation etc. is its own beast, but idk if this might help?

[Seraphor]

Seems to me that people who get put off Tanking are those who put far too much pressure on themselves.
Tanking might seem daunting at first, because there's a degree of responsibility there, but it's really one of the easier roles to play.

Tanks don't really have any rotation, their skillsets are simple and mostly straightforward, at least up until 60+, and they have an 'easy mode' called 'Tank Stance' where as long as you're using your emnity combo and AoE pull skill, you really can't go wrong at all.
It's ok to do just that when you're learning the role, and forget all about your DPS output. What's the worst that could happen? Some neckbeard gets a little irate that he finished the dungeon in 13 minutes instead of 10. Just be polite and tell them you're new to tanking.
The onus is far more on the Healer, providing you have adequate gear.

As someone who dabbles in all three roles at end game, I have to say that DPS and Healers have a far tougher job of it. Healers have to be much quicker to keep everyone alive, and DPS are under more pressure to perform well to achieve their numbers.
Before endgame? There's more slack on Healers and DPS sure, but the Tanks aren't exactly more difficult to play, there's less cause to use your big ticket migitators for one thing as deadly tank busters aren't really a thing.

There's only a few rules you have to follow:
Be the first to attack an enemy.
Face enemies away from the party (unless they have a rear attack)
Don't move the boss too much unless absolutely necessary.

[Novak_04]

Tanking can be very intimidating when starting out. I found that many groups are in a go-go-go mentality and have no patience for those who are learning. I'd like to tell you this subsides after a particular level, but I encountered these types of groups all throughout my leveling experience. Having said that, many struggles of the new tank typically stems from a lack of confidence. Unfortunately, the only way to remedy this continue tanking.... that's the only way to build that confidence and experience. Yes, you're going to have crap groups. Yes, you're going to wipe. Yes, you're going to cause the wipes from time to time. But.... you'll learn from it. It helps to make you a better tank. Try not to get too discouraged. Prior to my Warrior, I was a dps main. Leveling my Warrior was rough. We inherently take more damage than the other tanks due to our tank stance not providing a passive damage reduction. I was getting trucked in just about every dungeon, regardless of the CDs that I popped. I was close to just giving up when I came here for some guidance. People told me the same thing I'm telling you.... it happens. We all go/went through it. It gets better.

[Kalise]

their skillsets are simple and mostly straightforward

To be fair, sometimes simplicity is actually complexity.

Especially for Tanks where you need to be able to respond to things happening.

FFXIV's Tanks "Simple" kits actually make things more complex to deal with.

One example is Paladin, they don't get AoE damage until after level 40 when they pick up Total Eclipse at level 46 (Also Circle of Scorn at level 50) this means before that point, in any AoE situation they have to choose to spam Flash or to use their ST combo to deal damage. This adds complexity due to the "Simple" nature of trying to not add too many skills early on (Then after 46 they have the issue where their bonus enmity is tied to Flash and not Total Eclipse so they choose between AoE enmity or AoE damage...)

Another thing is only DRK has a persistent AoE effect. Which means that even IF you know that adds will spawn from over *there*, you can't do anything about it because all your tools are PBAoE/Cones. While your healer will be generating global enmity on every target in combat irregardless of where they are.

So you have to be able to move to intercept (Then also try and get the game's spaghetti code to actually have all of the targets notice that you used an AoE and not have some of them get missed and continue charging at your healers face) or somehow figure out how to position where they spawn in the first place.

You also have few to no oGCD actions that you can use. Meaning if you're not prepared with the correct skill to use to pick up targets or you've just picked up targets after having an AoE skill miss so you picked up a straggler with your ranged skill, then you're delaying putting notable enmity onto the targets, which can be a problem with trigger happy DPS, especially those that can alpha hard with a bunch of oGCD damage skills (Heck, even healers will burst heal with oGCD heals)

So yeah... Simple skillsets can sometimes cause more complex gameplay because you have to try and brute force that simple skillset to adapt to different situations even if it's not designed with that in mind.

So you get things like tabbing through packs with your enmity combo... Sometimes you might have to go run and stand on the healer to make sure your AoE hits all the adds that have spawned and rushed right for them... Sometimes you need to pick up adds but it's too dangerous to go stand by your party because cleaves, so you're forced to toss ranged skills at adds one at a time and hope a single hit does enough enmity because Provoke has a long CD...

Really the moral of this is that sometimes making Tanks "Simple" actually makes them harder because you then lack good tools to deal with situations. Meanwhile, we have a plethora of bloat skills that are hyper situational...

[Katie_Kitty]

It'll get better. Tanking gets easier the more experienced you get.
As a fresh tank my friends made it sport to pull off me at every turn. Hell I did the same to my girlfriend when she tanked the first time.
But it made me a better tank; they still try at times, but fail miserably.

This doesn't sound like a recipe for building a good tank to me. In fact it sounds like your "friends" intentionally hindered your progress and attempted to mold you into a shield-oath-and-aggro-combo-only turtle in a shell instead of a real FFXIV-style tank. If DPS are "trying to pull off me at every turn" and intentionally not attempting to reduce their own enmity generation then those DPS are dicks who are holding the whole party back. More enmity does not mean more DPS. You can do amazing DPS without ripping hate, not on accident and certainly not on purpose. Similarly, when DPS are being dicks and actively trying to rip hate off the tank, then they make it impossible for the tank to do decent amounts of damage. AKA they slow the whole run down for no reason other than to ignorantly stoke their own ego.

Get better friends.