When did you start tanking?

[Pikachu_Pizza]

I recently started FF14 as a WHM, got to 60, ran all the 4 man dungeons once each at least but I'm not sure I can tank. I spent most of the time staring at health bars and the ground. I'm not sure I "know the way". But in other mmos I LOVE tanking. PLD and WAR also look super fun.

So when were you ready to tank? I have this anxiety about leading people almost blindly into stuff. Should I just say screw it and try my hand? Or should I level a dps first?

[Awful]

I started tanking back in WoW in Burning Crusade as a prot paladin was really fun in your face AoE tanking. Ran Karazhan EVERY week honestly my favorite raid of the time, eventually got to Wrath of the lich king and after that expac was over I stopped tanking for awhile. It wasn't till FF 14 came back with realm reborn and I lvl'd as a gladiator as it job classed to paladin, and it made me love tanking even more. As for leading people it comes naturally you've seen it from a healers PoV now you'll see it from a tanks, once you get familiar with your pulls, abilities, positioning it really comes naturally like you never have to think about it. And there's my love and joy of tanking I just hope people see it as I do. Hell maybe you might I strongly recommend tanking it's very addicting, it's my guilty pleasure in this game and I can never get enough of it.

[Isala]

I started tanking almost a decade ago, in Perfect World, long before I ever rolled a real tank class. It was about the time that I realized I enjoyed the thrill of holding everything down laughing as things tried, and failed, to kill me, that I realized I was a tank. My current class was not supposed to tank, being a pet class, but that didn't stop be from getting into the fray, and holding things down, using the abilities I had to force myself into the role of light tank. Way I figure, if they didn't want me to tank, they wouldn't have given me the opportunity to use my melee abilities to leech HP, and lower enemy accuracy. But I digress. That character, however, was the beginning. I enjoyed the thrill of being able to say "Come at me!" and take all those hits to the face. I eventually left that MMO, and started playing others, this time on an actual tank class, and haven't really looked back since. I play everything, sure, but my heart is truly in tanking.

[Kurai_Miu]

I started tanking in FFXIV after our static for the original BCOB broke up started as a PLD for new group in SCOB and ended up as WAR in FCOB. Now I'm DRK so done them all at some point. while I enjoy tanking I've done it in every game I've played that has that option so it really becomes second nature that is more of I can just chill and zone out half of the time. While it can be nerve racking being a first time tank it becomes second nature pretty fast and you realize you have a lot of time to just take it in and fully see what's going on in every encounter it's prolly why I tank.

[GeekMatt]

I started as a GLA on day 1 (sept '13) and loved it always. The learning curve and challenge really held my interest in FFXIV, my first mmorpg, as I read guide after guide and asked endless questions on FFXIVRealm. As a PLD I was focused on particular points of the screen as well, and I did my job well enough, but learning how to heal gave me new perspective and forced me to take view of things I wasn't so attentive to in the first place. Learning how to heal improved my tanking and taught me the importance of proper mitigation and how to work with my healers--who are essentially the most vital role in a party and are worth looking after. I can now recognize healer strain more accurately and adjust the way I buff and support the party for different types of healers in different circumstances.

Levelling CNJ/WHM was my biggest struggle of all the jobs, and it's not because its a difficult job, but it was so out of my comfort zone as a tank main. I then went onto SCH and am working on AST, with PLD still my main and currently most geared. If you want to level a tank, I say go for it--WAR is easier at low levels, and PLD's simplest at 50. DRK is a lot of fun and not too challenging in the earlier levels too. GLA has the most necessary crossclass skills no matter what tank job you intend to pick up, and realistically would be ok without any crossclass abilities if levelling alts is a concern for you, but your low aggro can really be overwhelming for more anxious newbie tanks in the early levels, like Deepcroft for example, which can be a real struggle before hitting level 26.

If you're going to level a tank just remember aggro is the most important thing to learn first off, and in the early levels managing your buffs aren't quite so important since a CNJ will heal you for 1/3rd your HP anyways. Get comfortable with aggro and then start looking deeper into survivability and proper usage of CDs--which is far more important than your stat builds.

Keep in mind that tanking isn't necessarily the most difficult role, but simply being in the position we're in results in our mess ups being the most noticeable and so tanks are targets more often than other roles when it comes to mishaps. But ultimately it doesn't matter how good or bad you are, there's always someone who'll try to make people feel small so that they can feel bigger themselves, it's best to not take jerks seriously--they're all jokes to me.

[Shikiseki]

I started out as Arcanist but I was mostly on my Scholar in dungeons. A few weeks later (after I finally recovered from the crafting fever...) I wanted to try out tanking but I couldn't decide which one. At the same time, I was looking at all the fancy cross class skills and decided to level Monk first. I usually don't play melee dps in such games but I strangely enjoyed it. Right after I hit 50, I picked up both tanks at once (since I was still undecided haha) and leveled them at the same time exclusively through dungeons. It was nice to see another perspective. To that occasion, I took my time to craft myself all the cool armour and weapons which made leveling double the fun. Of course that was also the time my character got his scars from so it was a good role playing progression too . So as fellow healer, just go ahead and try it out!

[OPneedNerfs]

I started tanking when I figured out I could have more impact in an instance than as a dps. (Tried healing, didn't like).

The number of times I get commended for simply doing what I feel was expected of a tank reaffirms it.

[Kerano]

DK in WoTLK, and then Monk in MoP. And now DRK in Heaven's Ward. That's the games ive been dedicated tank in, sure ive dabbled in it in other mmos but WoW is really the only other one where i was raid tanking and shit. Monk tanking was the most fun ive had since DK in WoTLK and now with DRK in FF im back in that style of tanking i love.

[MetalheroD]

I started tanking earlier this year, because I got the body armor off Odin and wanted to use it. So I finished leveling WAR, And ground out OLD.

[Drakin]

Originally? Back in FFXI, so 2004-ish, it was my first MMO so party roles were a new concept to me. I started as WAR, I'd never been much of a magic user in past FF titles so chose the weapon wielder, as it turns out I was apparently pretty good at tanking and eventually became a PLD.
In regards to XIV I started a MRD in XI but ended up playing BRD throughout 1.0 until around 2.4/2.5 when I started tanking again, jumping between WAR and PLD. Now, I'm playing DRK and really enjoying it.