Learning endgame tanking

[MichaelAngelus]

I find Steps of Faith to be a very unique fight from a tank's perspective. Perhaps a preview of things to come in HW, but I speculate.

The Odin trial, while solo-tankable at higher gear levels, is a good fight to practice defensive cooldown management while in a tank-n-spank situation where you also need to avoid aoe damage by reacting quickly & repositioning yourself, keeping Odin steady in place for your monk /dragoon to be able to maximize their effectiveness (if present).

[Nyalia]

Here's some advice on tank-swapping in general that works well for me personally. For swapping in from OT to MT, what I find works best (as a PLD) is to use Fast Blade, Savage Blade (preferably used slightly before the swap is needed), then Provoke and Rage of Halone immediately after. By the time you hit Provoke, you want to be right where the other tank is/should be to avoid turning the boss (assuming the boss cleaves). When swapping from MT to OT, losing a little DPS really isn't a big deal. You should have plenty of aggro, so when the swap is very close, stop using skills. Or, when the swap mechanic hits, stop. Basically, make it so when the OT provokes, they can keep aggro even if they don't use a skill immediately. If you Rage of Halone right after they provoke, well, that's going to make the swap a little annoying. If you are better geared than the other tank, right after the swap, keep a close eye on your aggro and possibly refrain from using Rage of Halone for a rotation or two to let them get a lead on you. You may also want to swap from Shield Oath to Sword Oath. Keep in mind though when swapping back to being MT, Shield Oath cancels combos. So, don't do Fast Blade, Savage Blade, Shield Oath, Provoke, do Shield Oath, Fast Blade, Savage Blade, THEN Provoke.

At least, that's how I do tank swaps.

Many places where you need to tank swap, there's a natural time to do it during which the boss is not attacking so you don't have to worry so much about turning the boss and having it cleave the party. Titan Ex, for instance, if you're swapping, you can do so when standing underneath him for that stomp move he does. For T6 phases 1-2, you can swap when the flower appears and she's distracted with the devour move.

Garuda Ex Spiny Plume swaps are different from other swaps. With them, you never want to attack them because of how fragile they are. So, in theory, you should be able to pull the plume off the other tank by just provoking it. I usually flash too afterward just in case.

Here's a (non-complete) list of some fights where people sometimes do tank swaps (though many/most can be avoided by overgearing shenanigans): Moogle Ex (just the king), Garuda Ex (just the spiny plume), Ultima HM, Titan Ex, Ramuh Ex, Turn 6, CT second boss (I guess it counts?). I've heard of people swapping during T9 (like, in the middle of a claw so some hits hit one tank and some hit the other) when it was new, but I've only ever seen T9 solo tanked. To be honest, I'm a casual raider and haven't passed T9 yet, so I don't know about Final Coil.

[Casper]

HWhen swapping from MT to OT, losing a little DPS really isn't a big deal. You should have plenty of aggro, so when the swap is very close, stop using skills. Or, when the swap mechanic hits, stop.

To you and the OP: While this is good enough for a start, it is a horrible way to swap aggro once you have some experience. You are right that you want absolutely to avoid hitting Rage of Halone before the other tank got some aggro lead, but not doing anything is a terrible waste in the time being.


Riot blade is actually perfect here. Going fast blade -> Riot blade, you will continue doing a serious amout of damage, while not threatening to get back the aggro. Usually, when the other tank provoke from me and i am on Pld, i hit fast blade, riot blade, move away from the front, sword oath, fast blade, riot blade, then continue alternating RoH and RB combo depending if i am afraid i could get aggro -- if i am not 100% certain i can do RoH without taking back the aggro i will do a RB. But i won't stop doing damage either.

[Nyalia]

To you and the OP: While this is good enough for a start, it is a horrible way to swap aggro once you have some experience. You are right that you want absolutely to avoid hitting Rage of Halone before the other tank got some aggro lead, but not doing anything is a terrible waste in the time being.

Thanks for the advice As much as I tank easy stuff, I don't tank endgame stuff (meaning, T9-13) where a couple seconds of DPS from a tank changes anything. But yeah, the aggro from fast blade and riot blade are so minimal, it should be totally safe to use.

The only problem would be if the other tank is bad and does something like use Provoke during a GCD followed by a Fast Blade after the GCD (or, worse, Provoke -> Shield Oath -> Fast Blade (don't do that, provoke AFTER the fast blade)). And even then, they'll take aggro back ~3 seconds after the provoke when they finish their Savage Blade.

[Brightsayge]

Being unfamiliar with the fight, you will mess up when switching to shield from sword oath, guaranteed. switching cancels your combo, so id stay in shield, then time your combo so you can rage right after provoking.

id take it slow, stay in shield and once you know the fight and are comfortable, then you can stance dance. just dps slowly and pay attention to the bosses abilities, most bosses in ffxiv follow the same ability rotation.

[Cigz]

Good advice in here, thanks!

[stoxastic]

Fracture is also a low enmity skill that deals relatively high potency for PLD, using it after swapping into Sword Oath is pretty safe as well. Then use riot blade combo if necessary.

[dspguy]

Any extreme primal (minus Levi) is good. While most primals can be single tanked, if you join a pony farm group and just state that you'd like to do tank swaps, you'd probably find people willing to do that.

The actual "mechanics" of a tank swap are pretty easy. Switch to shield oath. Queue up Halone combo. Hit provoke then Halone/Scorn. Done. The harder part is knowing when to expect the swap. Since "best practice" might want you to have halone queued up, that means you have to time things. Switch to shield oath about 5s before the swap. Get up to Halone combo. Then do the swap. Of course, you can hold the halone for a few seconds before it expires.