Quote Originally Posted by Navnav View Post
Hello there,

This is my first Forum post since starting the game a few months ago. I currently have all tanks at 70+, with GNB at 80. I was copletely baffled with paladin as it only has ONE defensive ability, if you discount the 30% variant all other tanks have and role actions.
And with that ONE defensive ability, it isn't even on demand... You have to wait for multiple auto attacks to even use it.
I'm not a fan of clicking on party frames or using F1,2,3,4 etc.. to target party members, in order to use utility on them. Macros in the game are EXTREMELY unresponsive, and keybinds are a premium in this game. So using party defensives feels exhausting tbh.

I genuinely struggle to understand how this tank is considered the best of all of them, as I personally find it borderline useless. A tank with 2 baseline defensives... And all the others literally either don't work on you or preven you from moving or hitting abilities. I mean like holy crud...

I was soo looking forward to sword and broad, it turned out to be sword and bored /w a helpless undertone. It could be I don't understand it's strengths fully, but as a former WoW player, I never had to deal with a tank that literally had nothing to offer for itself. Clemency maybe extremely good, but it has a cast time and mana cost, and unfortunately tank damage is such a major thing in this game, that you almost feel disgusting for using it. However it can save fights in dungeons.

In shortm I am really disappointed with PLD defensive toolkit, with it being the tank posterboy and all. Also if PLD is meant to be OT, why would everyone keep saying that all are able to MT, it can't just be OT then, so where is the MT tools. Hollowed ground is great and all, but what about those other exponential minutes in between.

Vexxed.
First off it's very clear you are green with your rant. Secondly it does take time to get used to using your defensive cooldowns correctly. Further, discounting what is shared between tanks is a stupid way to say a tank hasn't got defensive when it in fact, does.

Dungeons mean nothing, in terms of mitigation rotate your cooldowns from strongest to weakest, while mixing in on demands as they come off cooldown (get gauge) and role actions like reprisal and arm's length. In 8 man content, you have two tanks so you have twice as many cooldowns between tanks that if played right can significantly reduce incoming damage, that can't be seen in solo or light party set up. Tankbusters in casual 8 man content is usually spaced out enough you'll always have a cooldown plus on demand up just about every time you need it. Also the GCD window is big enough to use support skill/ targeting macros smoothly, 90% of the time without issue, just don't use other oGCDs before it.

And it is worth taking on what Canadane has also said, paladin has passive blocking while yes rng, still happens pretty frequently. Worth noting following Canadane's point, there is no MT/ OT designation in ffxiv, all tanks are capable of pulling and holding aggro, and mitigating damage, though there is varying degrees of efficiency between the tanks, it's negligible at best.