Bad idea having first character as a tank?

[Vulcann]

i started as a paladin and i have felt that groups have been ok with me being a bit noobish. of course i always watch a video of an upcoming new dungeon before i enter it ... so that i know the basic strats of the bosses.

[Steelbreeze]

I dunno, dps first can be good, since most of your first job leveling is done via MSQ anyhow, so there's not really much need for the instant tank queues.

[RopeDrink]

I started FFXIV by levelling Gla/Pal -- aside from the slower-paced combat (ie. hitting like a wet noodle with 3-button rotation back when enemies took about 5minutes to actually attack you with cone-animations and/or before classes were streamlined), this led to me getting a bit bored. Like every role, it all blossoms at 50 when classes expand and the dungeons start throwing you into bullet hell for fun, but by then you should have the fundamentals of your class-choice already sorted out. You'll have absolutely no concerns while solo and won't really feel any kind of dungeon-sting until much later, so just take the levelling process as a means to explore your class and learn the basics. When you reach the 40-50 range and really enjoy your choice, would be wise to do a little research before the pace increases and the class starts opening up.

TLDR: Only you can determine whether levelling X before Y is a bad idea as it will mostly be relative to yourself and how you view the class/role you're playing, eg. "Not fast enough" or "Too many concerns", everyone thinks differently.

Tanks:
Shortest queues, variable responsibility (low-level dungeons don't really need a tank so you'll often get people just bullrushing without a care), slightly less rotational concerns compared to actual melee DPS. Survivable - usually one of the easiest for solo'ing content. It takes a special someone to be a bad tank - would require being completely oblivious to the enmity mechanic and/or no awareness and/or no class knowledge and/or no content knowledge. This loosely translates into tanking not being overly difficult in and of itself provided you're making any kind of effort, so don't be one of those people who 'fear responsibility' and avoid it thinking it's going to be a nightmare.

Healers:
Short queues, relatively high responsibility (you don't need to heal that much in the grand scheme of things, but some just aren't prepared for above-mentioned bull-rush), little-to-no rotations at all. Survivable - easiest to solo content with for obvious reasons, being semi-DPS who actually heal. Healing is my preferred role as I love flitting between life-saving and getting things dead. It is (slightly) more stressful than tanking but that isn't saying much given how telegraphed the game is and how no role is truly difficult unless you're looking for absolute peak-performance whilst inside the utmost difficult content available.

DPS:
Longest queues, low-to-no responsibility outside of their own optimization (give or take helping with raises or various other utility buttons), much more rotational to compensate. Typically less survivable in terms of solo'ing, but also the quickest at killing (which go hand in hand). Should have no issue with solo-content except for some exceptions. DPS is the type of role where you can be largely left to your own devices up to and including a lot of the group content, so there's next to no fear of 'screwing up' as the only way in which DPS can typically do so is by eating every mechanic under the sun and/or being extremely poor with rotations or class knowledge to the point of barely hitting harder than their own tank/healer (or worse).

The reality is that there is no real easiest to choose from as a lot of the factors will boil down to personal preference/perception. I have no fear of tanking or healing and absolutely love when brand new content hits and I have to keep people alive without myself even knowing what to expect. DPS have the freedom of not having to worry about such things, yet also (usually) have to spend more time worrying about themselves and their own performance. Tanks (assuming they aren't a yo-yo-healthbar who can't hold enmity) simply have to ensure that enemies are hitting them as much as possible (and not the rest of the team). Once comfortable doing that, all three eventually just boil down to DPS with different functionality.

[Senden]

From the sounds of things, you'd probably be better off as a DPS. I went through the entire game as a DPS and never bothered researching anything until the final battle in the MSQ for Stormblood. Having said this though, I do think tanking is a great way to learnt the game but requires slightly more effort and patience. I recently started tanking and going back over older dungeons and taking the time to learn the boss mechanics properly and there was so so so much I never even knew. It's been satisfying and has made me a far better player for it too however it does require taking the time and looking up guides and such. Just know that really almost all of the level 50 content is relatively easy and after that things ramp up in difficulty where most bosses have mechanics that can wipe parties if they don't know what they are doing. As a DPS, you can get by without knowing any of this stuff, most experienced players and a healer worth their salt can compensate making it a smoother ride for you. If however you enjoy tanking and stick it out, FF14 is one of the best games for this, most players are friendly and patient with newer players, I've made tons of mistakes tanking still yet nobody has called me out on it or complained.

[OcieKo]

IMHO, Tanking is the hardest spot to learn any group content from, Healer is the easiest. Simply based on view of the area and amount of focus required elsewhere. It is possible I'm a bit skewed since I've been a healer main since about 2003... But Healer generally has the most available "downtime" to see whats going on everywhere, I tend to most learn all 4 roles at the same time when I go as a healer, where as with the others I can really only learn bits and pieces of the ones im not learning as.

Healer > Ranged DPS > Melee DPS > Tank.

Boss fights are generally pretty easy to get the basics worked out, but you idea of what's actually going on in the arena is usually pretty bad, gets worse as the sheer size of the boss just blocks your view.

Tanking requires the tightest timing on encounter mechanics out of the 3, but generally has the least amount of mechanics they actually deal with, given that most AoEs ignore the tank.

If you're enjoying it, continue, like others have said make sure to mention you're new. Personally i think watching an instance before doing it is killing the enjoyment of learning it. Sometimes I deliberately just want to learn it as it happens, trial and error = fun. As long as you keep at it and master the basics, most things the game throws at you will be relatively familiar. After 2 or 3 complete rounds of a fight you should most likely have a good enough idea of everything going on to at least only get hit by AoEs because you messed up, not because you didn't realize what was going on.

[aqskerorokero]

It's a great idea even if you choose to main a dps so you can understand how many things a tank has to deal with.

[Hierro]

So I am playing a tank and currently loving it, but sadly my team mates doesnt always like it.

Why? Because I am a beginner. Of course, theres nothing wrong with that since I know my role (having enmity at all times and know my rotation), but after reaching higher level the enemies has more difficult tactics and arent just tank and spank.

I was in The Sunken Temple of Qarn today, and I know its a low level dungeon, but there it really started to get difficult for me. Each boss has complex tactics (when you havent been there before and dont know anything about it).

Should I go there as a DPS first, or read up and down about every boss fight before entering a new dungeon? Will it only get more complexed from now on?

reading? who wants to actually be informed on what they're doing? nah bro, you just do you and who cares what happens

[Varyntheos]

I started off with a tank as well and am still learning, I say if you love it stick with it in my experience that alone will motivate you to get better and learn it rather than switching to another role you don't really want to play and be meh. I research dungeons as I go and watch the Videos of each dungeon on Youtube so I am not going in blind.

[evanlima95]

That's what im doing, looked up all the classes and thought warrior was the coolest so I've been playing as that. Ive usually been a tanks in other mmo's so that may help me with the basics. All content has been pretty simple so far (im only at heavensward so im sure it will get harder in the future). So far ive been winging it in dungeons and for raids ive watched a quick youtube video before hand. Have had 0 problems yet and if i do make a mistake, no ones ever been toxic or mad in the parties yet (which is crazy since im coming from tanking in wow). So i say its fine starting as a tank

[347SPECTRE]

If you plan on playing tank, there's no time to learn like the present.