A touch of concern from a would be tank main.

[Renryuu]

Go against the flow? Um yes? If you want to. Come on now. Its your life. Be who you wanna be. Forget what everyone else wants.

Well my problem is that because I've been playing MMOs for at least 10 years or so now, I'm so used to being a Summoner (warlock in WoW) that I default to it by instinct and with me finally having lost that instinct and being able to move away from casters into tanks and melee, I have no default to go to. I leveled Drk cause I like 2h swords and it's the "cannon" job of ShB. Pld, with the invisible shield glamour, I can enjoy it a lot more, but with all the skills and buttons it has at the moment compared to Drk, I end up feeling a bit overwhelmed and can't find comfortable enough spots with controller to map them all along with role skills. The only thing I do know is that I have no interest in War after I had leveled it to 60 in HW and Gnb does interest me alot since I'm sucker for sword users (which is why I'm doing Sam as one of my potential dps replacements to Smn lol). So at the moment, I just simply don't know if I genuinely enjoy Drk or if I would enjoy Pld more if I could just get a comfortable enough layout for controller. Basically I'm a lost little puppy now with no home to go to lol.

[Kanitezz]

Well my problem is that because I've been playing MMOs for at least 10 years or so now, I'm so used to being a Summoner (warlock in WoW) that I default to it by instinct and with me finally having lost that instinct and being able to move away from casters into tanks and melee, I have no default to go to. I leveled Drk cause I like 2h swords and it's the "cannon" job of ShB. Pld, with the invisible shield glamour, I can enjoy it a lot more, but with all the skills and buttons it has at the moment compared to Drk, I end up feeling a bit overwhelmed and can't find comfortable enough spots with controller to map them all along with role skills. The only thing I do know is that I have no interest in War after I had leveled it to 60 in HW and Gnb does interest me alot since I'm sucker for sword users (which is why I'm doing Sam as one of my potential dps replacements to Smn lol). So at the moment, I just simply don't know if I genuinely enjoy Drk or if I would enjoy Pld more if I could just get a comfortable enough layout for controller. Basically I'm a lost little puppy now with no home to go to lol.

I spent a fair amount of time finding a comfortable mapping for my controller. It might help you to look up controller mapping guides or something?

If worse comes to worse you could always just go through 5.0 MSQ with Dark Knight and worry about Paladin later. I dunno.

[Jeeqbit]

Don't listen to the negativity. The naysayers haven't even played 5.0 yet.

It doesn't matter which tank you choose. All of them will work in all content.

Play whatever you enjoy.

I'll give you an example. I main Paladin. Throughout time people have tried to say that Warrior is higher DPS. So what? I main and enjoy paladin and have had no trouble doing any content I want to with it. I've never seen people ejected from content on the grounds that they are not a Warrior, and nobody has ever even cared because it just doesn't matter in FFXIV.

[Renryuu]

Don't listen to the negativity. The naysayers haven't even played 5.0 yet.

It doesn't matter which tank you choose. All of them will work in all content.

Play whatever you enjoy.

I'll give you an example. I main Paladin. Throughout time people have tried to say that Warrior is higher DPS. So what? I main and enjoy paladin and have had no trouble doing any content I want to with it. I've never seen people ejected from content on the grounds that they are not a Warrior, and nobody has ever even cared because it just doesn't matter in FFXIV.

Well I do need to level Paladin to 70 and see if I can make it more comfortable to play and go from there. At the moment, even though it is simple in comparison to the other tanks, I do like Drk since because it's simple I can better react to mechanics and tank busters as opposed to trying to focus on doing multiple different combos and keeping up dots. Though using Salted Earth on controller is quite frustrating to put it nicely. x_x

[Kanitezz]

Well I do need to level Paladin to 70 and see if I can make it more comfortable to play and go from there. At the moment, even though it is simple in comparison to the other tanks, I do like Drk since because it's simple I can better react to mechanics and tank busters as opposed to trying to focus on doing multiple different combos and keeping up dots. Though using Salted Earth on controller is quite frustrating to put it nicely. x_x

You can make a macro that automatically casts salted earth on the target you have selected. You can set it up and put it on your hotbar. In battle make sure you have an enemy selected, press the macro and itll just pop up under the enemy. Its what I use for all abilities that make you select an area to target.

I think its like

/ac “Salted Earth” <t>

[Jeeqbit]

You can macro Salted Earth to place on the target automatically. I do. I think it should be...

/action "Salted Earth" <t>
/action "Salted Earth" <t>
/action "Salted Earth" <t>
/action "Salted Earth" <t>

Repetitions can help make sure it registers if the command is blocked due to finishing an animation.

Whether something is simple or not doesn't matter; whether you enjoy it does.

[Bright-Flower]

Well I do need to level Paladin to 70 and see if I can make it more comfortable to play and go from there. At the moment, even though it is simple in comparison to the other tanks, I do like Drk since because it's simple I can better react to mechanics and tank busters as opposed to trying to focus on doing multiple different combos and keeping up dots. Though using Salted Earth on controller is quite frustrating to put it nicely. x_x

Huh. It could just be because I've mained pld and only played DRK casually but I found DRK during my stint with it harder to keep track of everything.

[Renryuu]

You can macro Salted Earth to place on the target automatically. I do. I think it should be...

Whether something is simple or not doesn't matter; whether you enjoy it does.

oh, I use the macro myself, it's just a shame having to use a macro to make using ground targeting a bit less cumbersome on controller since macros kinda make it a touch harder to get the cast off as an oGCD skill. I mean, I do quite enjoy Drk, it made for a great transition job from casters to melee since it kinda acts like a caster in a way. It has been a very fun experience so far and I guess is why I haven't really rushed to level up the other tanks all the way to 70 lol.

Huh. It could just be because I've mained pld and only played DRK casually but I found DRK during my stint with it harder to keep track of everything.

Maybe it's because I had been playing casters for 10 or so years and since Drk is a bit like a caster in a way, it comes more naturally to me and thus feels much easier than compared to say Pld and War. Also as I play Drk more, I've been consistently adjusting my bars to make it more and more comfortable and have just about got it, all that's left is my debate on how important it is for me to have it within quick press reach or if I should relegate it to one of the L2/R2 combos and have something else up front. Also while on the subject of controllers and hot bars, I find it perplexing and a bit sad that we can't use L1 and R1 for hot bars. I mean, I know R1 is used for hot bar cycling, but with the addition of L/R combos (e.g. R2 + R3) we could make R1 + R3 cycle hot bars. It could literally double the amount of hot bar access we have now lol.

[Jeeqbit]

PLD is very much a caster, casting Holy Spirit and Clemency from miles away. It's going to lose cast times in L77+ dungeons in 5.0 while under Requiescat but they are still there outside of it, so Clemency will still have cast times.

DRK has spells too but there are no cast times and only Salted Earth and Unmend are ranged, so they aren't really what I'd consider a caster. I really enjoy that their attacks look and are classified as a form of magic on the tooltip though.

[Renryuu]

PLD is very much a caster, casting Holy Spirit and Clemency from miles away. It's going to lose cast times in L77+ dungeons in 5.0 while under Requiescat but they are still there outside of it, so Clemency will still have cast times.

DRK has spells too but there are no cast times and only Salted Earth and Unmend are ranged, so they aren't really what I'd consider a caster. I really enjoy that their attacks look and are classified as a form of magic on the tooltip though.

True, I don't know why I keep thinking of paladin as a physical fighter in the same vein as warrior. I will for sure give it a go to 70 and see how I feel about it.