Is there any tanks that feel like your playing a tank and not a DPS ?

[Canadane]

All jobs in FFXIV are DPS classes but tank and healers have some other duties

This. It would please the most people if you keep this in mind while playing.

[Vyrerus]

So far I feel like I'm playing a DPS class. My DK is only lvl 57 but almost all of the mitigation is made passively. I just try to deal as much dmg as I can while making sure that I keep aggro but I could be playing my samouraï and it would feel like its the same gameplay. My Warrior feel the same.

I just do lower numbers and I have zero queue time.

Does it change at higher level ?

There is other tank that feel more engaged ?

Nah, specifically within this expansion, more than ever before, tanks are all homogenized to more or less play like DPS, because that's what the playerbase drifted towards, and what their design efforts to help newbies out turned into in Stormblood.

They'd always had more or less made it a game of, "Use your mitigation at set intervals." cause tank design at start of 2.0 was something they didn't really have standardized. They got it standardized by 2.1, and then the only thing to really add was DPS stances to every tank starting in 3.0.

This lead a lot of higher end players to pursue even higher stretches of DPS by forsaking their responsibility/role, and trying to outsource the enmity regulation to other jobs. Demanding Elusive Jumps, Quelling Strikes, Shadewalker/Smokebomb etc.

Initially tanking in full STR accessories made enmity management almost a non-issue, but once they nerfed tank ATP with the STR/VIT change, non-WAR tanks had significant issues. Significant enough that a lot of "high end" tanks were unwilling to tank without a Ninja. This continued into Stormblood, where they added role actions to every DPS to mitigate or cut enmity, the intention being to help newbie tanks have an easy time, quickly abused for DPS profit like all prior skills had been.

So in order to get the responsibility of Tanks back in the hands of Tanks with no other options, they scrapped all of that and made tank stances x10 enmity modifiers, and made tank rotations more in line with those of DPS(though they always have been on some level). The idea is that DPS are the most popular jobs, so tanks should be more like them.

If you want to see the gameplay difference between a tank and a DPS, I urge you to play DPS and try standing in stuff you shouldn't be standing in and see if you live. Or maybe try a dungeon run of DPS x3 with Healer x1. It pretty much all comes down to damage taken. Tanks take significantly less damage, as they should.

[Hierro]

Why would you want to play a tank that DOESN'T play like a dps? That's not cash-money!

[ItMe]

If you want to see the gameplay difference between a tank and a DPS, I urge you to play DPS and try standing in stuff you shouldn't be standing in and see if you live.

PSA: everyone, please don't tank like this.

[Ultimatecalibur]

So in order to get the responsibility of Tanks back in the hands of Tanks with no other options, they scrapped all of that and made tank stances x10 enmity modifiers, and made tank rotations more in line with those of DPS(though they always have been on some level). The idea is that DPS are the most popular jobs, so tanks should be more like them.

A fair number of the changes that made the Tanks feel more like Dpses were changes to normalize the MT/OT dps/gauge generation. Gauges that increase and abilities that proc based on blocking/parrying/getting hit feel very tanky but end up forcing the tank that gets the most from these abilities into the MT position and the job that benefited the least into the OT position.

[Vyrerus]

A fair number of the changes that made the Tanks feel more like Dpses were changes to normalize the MT/OT dps/gauge generation. Gauges that increase and abilities that proc based on blocking/parrying/getting hit feel very tanky but end up forcing the tank that gets the most from these abilities into the MT position and the job that benefited the least into the OT position.

Minmaxing like that was pretty fun though, and it wasn't relevant for fights where auto-attacks are magical damage until Stormblood for PLD only. WTB Low Blow procs back.

[Liam_Harper]

Why would you want to play a tank that DOESN'T play like a dps? That's not cash-money!

In some other games you get to be an unkillable juggarnaut if you play really well, in a constant battle for survival, you vs the boss face to face. Now that was fun. Those both healers dead, 10% boss and squeezing every last bit from your toolkit ...and pulling off a kill, you lived for those moments. In FF14 you simply die. Your toolkit is just there to survive a TB and soften healer requirements while you mash out your bland 1-2-3.

[ItMe]

Those both healers dead, 10% boss and squeezing every last bit from your toolkit ...and pulling off a kill, you lived for those moments. In FF14 you simply die. Your toolkit is just there to survive a TB and soften healer requirements while you mash out your bland 1-2-3.

As PLD & WAR I've taken down the Qitana Ravel boss ALONE from 15%. Sure, it wasn't Savage, but there's plenty of testimony on this forum of tanks making clutch plays. Lemme quote one of my faves for you. It's someone becoming a DRK main from the thread "What did your favorite job used to play like?"

I would load into dungeons and be literally invincible due to the Abyssal Drain > BW Quiteus > TBN > Abyssal Drain loop, DRKs were rare, and healers were absolutely shocked, how incredible they told me, seeing my HP yoyo from half to full over and over and over again, without any intervention on their part. Good DRK's were rare, and I was starting to become one.
[...]
But in O6S, there was a moment that solidified me not as a DRK main, but as a DRK fanatic. PUG, weekly reclears. Cotank joins on WAR and asks me to switch off, nicely. I comply, O6S is primarily magic anyway, and I was looking for more DRK experience in Savage anyway. Few minutes pass, I Living Dead the stack marker per the standard strats at the time, and we're at that point in the fight where the boss goes to the NE side of the arena and places that MASSIVE tankbuster prey (Last Kiss) on a DPS you need to pass to the OT. However, the WAR isn't there. He's dead. And there's only me, taking double autos after a Demonic Shear tankbuster with another one coming in about twenty seconds. In total, I'm looking at multiple instances of high single target and raid wide damage with no Shadow Wall and no Living Dead.

There's only one option to save the DPS. I go into the marker position to take the prey. The DPS hesitates, I know he was thinking, "This guy is going to die, he can't take all this damage!" But he passes it to me anyway. Sole Survivor procs right after one of the AoE raid wides for some desperately needed health, I throw on Grit and Blood Price, Rampart, Dark Mind, Awareness and just start TBNing everything. AoE casts, I'm fine, TBN'd. The WAR is up at this point to take one set of auto attacks, but it's too late, I already have the prey. Prey explodes with another AoE on top, I'm fine, TBN'd again, Dark Mind coming in hot. Here comes that last tankbuster. Reprisal it! TBN'd I'm fine. This whole time my blood gauge is going wild, I'm just Bloodspilling nonstop from the constant +50 from TBN breaks, I have to BS under Dark Arts to avoid losing too much potency, good thing Syphon Strike gave increased MP under Grit or that would've never been possible. I came out of that fight shaking, people said "jesus christ how did you not die from all that damage when the WAR died."

At this point, I had fallen in love.

[Kabooa]

As PLD & WAR I've taken down the Qitana Ravel boss ALONE from 15%. Sure, it wasn't Savage, but there's plenty of testimony on this forum of tanks making clutch plays. Lemme quote one of my faves for you. It's someone becoming a DRK main from the thread "What did your favorite job used to play like?"

Feels like they aren't giving the scholar enough credit.

[OdinelStarrei]

Feels like they aren't giving the scholar enough credit.

Heyo, that's me. Good on you for being skeptical of this outlandish post, ordinarily I wouldn't be that expressive with an anecdote, particularly one from over two years ago that I didn't personally go and "verify/fact check". Just a couple of details I want to get across that I didn't include in that original post.

1. It was double WHM. Not only was it double WHM, one of them died to a Demonic Howl 15 seconds before I took Last Kiss damage. Turns out the Demonic Howl that killed the WAR is also what killed one of the WHMs. Neither of them Benediction'd me during that timespan, mainly because of the high amount of raid-wide damage being Cure III'd/Medica'd and the raising that needed to be done. But I did get a Tetra and a Divine Benison in right before I got slammed, with another Tetra after. Definitely shout-outs to those WHM's for pivoting and adapting to a changing situation, didn't give them the credit they deserved, even if one of them died to AoE.

2. There was only one Demonic Shear. Not two as I remembered. The second one was actually just another Demonic Howl, but it felt a lot worse coming after the Last Kiss damage. I could not have done it without healing, but the spike damage was uh, very concerning. I was yoyoing around the 40% HP mark for a good 40 seconds.

3. I didn't use Awareness, I used Convalescence, with no Blood Price, since I used Grit like two seconds before I blew up. (why am i so bad at this game) I also needed to switch this around, I DID have Shadow Wall, but I DIDN'T have Rampart. What felt like ten seconds really was spread out over a wide portion of that phase.

4. Just in case someone calls me out, yes, I know, it's PF Chadarnook for god's sake, not exactly the pinnacle of raid content. But it was a topic about feelings, so I said what I felt at the time. It's a powerful memory, but that's all it really is at the end of the day.

I'm not even really trying to defend myself, I just wanted to post today.