Easiest tank class for total newbie tank...?

[fm_fenrir]

Shield lob is kind of your only real choice if you're going to try to gather adds from a distance, at a level where you don't have access to Provoke. Once you have Provoke, you'd just use that instead and then a shield lob to make sure whoever it's hitting doesn't just reel it right back to them.

Like a lot of other people have said, Flash is your go-to for trash pulls as GLA/PLD. If you don't use at least two Flashes per pull as you rotate through targets with Savage Blade (and eventually Rage of Halone), you're going to be in for a Bad Time because you just won't have enough threat on stuff you're not directly attacking. Also, if you're tabbing through targets and see something about to peel away from you, hit it with Shield Bash so it's stunned as it turns red--this gives you 3 or 6 seconds to get some kind of enmity on it so it doesn't run away. If you get the timing right, nobody notices you let one slip away because it never leaves your side and you look like the Best Tank Ever.

[Artemiz]

My advice is slightly different to others but I'll give it for what it's worth. I'd start tanking with WAR not PLD as keeping hate is really easy thanks to Overpower living up to it's name and being overpowered. WAR is more about trying to self heal and manage TP but with hate secure you can concentrate on that and not worry about hate. WAR also gets it's tanking stance (with enmity boost) 10 levels earlier than PLD and will take you through Brayflox and Cutters Cy which can be challenging dungeons for a new tank so it does come in handy.

If you prefer to start with PLD though it is very viable, for stable hate I simply went with the Flash +1 rule and hate wasn't really a problem for the most part unless I got one of those troll parties that seem to try and make your life difficult. The Flash +1 rule is simple, pull with Shield Lob (not Provoke, only do that when you KNOW why you are) and then when the mobs group up at you Flash one more time than there are numbers of mobs, so flash 3 times for 2 mobs, 4 times for 3 mobs etc... At lower levels you won't fight more than 3 mobs at a time very often. Then start to rotate through the mobs with your enmity skills, hitting a different mob every time with your hate boosters as someone described well, earlier in the thread. That should be more than enough to hold solid hate and you can always use Riot Blade towards the end of the pull to replace MP if you need to. You don't need STR imo at lower levels so I'd go full VIT with your stats and keep your gear up to date, healers will love you for it and it will keep their hate down too. A decent HP pool is useful because healers are still learning as well at lower levels so for me VIT > STR below level 50 at the very least.

[Synestra]

I'd start tanking with WAR not PLD as keeping hate is really easy thanks to Overpower living up to it's name and being overpowered

This! Tanking as MRD at lowerlevels is by miles easier than it is as an GLD, and like Arte said it gets tanking stance 10 levels earlier than GLD makeing it even more easier. Braking points for GLD are lvl26(RoH)and lvl40(ShO), before lvl26 everything is pain to tank and at lvl30+ it gets painfully again. But if you are new and want to learn enmity control then go for GLD instead MRD, because nothing is given it needs to be earned. ^^

[Malicewolf]

Thanks so much everyone that's a big help. I actually did put a few in STR but the rest in Vitality for now. I didn't realize I should Flash after shield lob, I guess because as soon as I did shield lob on one mob they all run over to me, so I assumed I had them all. I try to check the aggro meter on the party list as well, just lots to track at the moment (healing was the same, now I wonder how I ever had issues lol). Just needs practice. Question though, if you're fighting say a boss and adds appear and you look over and have hate on all but one is attacking a ranged DPS. I've tried shield lob but it didn't seem to pull aggro back from them, but leaving the boss to run to the other side of the arena to use flash didn't seem good either. Would shield lob be what I'd use either way? Thanks!!

There's 2 things you can do if you have adds in a boss come out and are too far away.
1. Move a bit to get just in range with shield lob without turning the boss towards your party (so if you have them on the edge, just run along the edge and have him follow you till your in range). But I would ONLY do this if it is absolutely essential for you to grab that add. And if it takes you too long to get there, obviously a shield lob won't be enough alone to take aggro back.

2. This is where provoke shines. Provoke can be the weakest or the strongest enmity generator in the game pending how you use it. It's +1 of whoever is at the top currently (with the exception of a few enemies/bosses which provoke won't work). So you could go from 0 to 1, or from 0 to 100 with it.

But I will say this, usually mobs are so essential to grab in the lower levels. Get what you can and stay put. Most of the time, your DPS will focus on the stray and burn it quicker than you could make it there to grab anyways.


And as to those saying MRD is the better starter, the reasons you give are in a sense true, however, MRD is very reliant on GLD cross class, unlike GLD who is not very dependent on MRD's. Foresight is no doubt a big one for GLD to cross, but it's also a very early skill (lvl 2) and is just an extra (but worse) mitigation skill for a GLD. MRD/WAR will get HUGE benefits from provoke at all times. Flash is very useful at the start to help conserve TP, convalescence is amazing no matter what level, and awareness is a great cross for the high level WAR who likes to utilize Raw Intuition. That is more so why I suggest start leveling GLD first as it will teach you the basics of tanking with great mitigation tools by your side AND give you access to the necessary cross classes for the other tanks. A GLD on the other hand doesn't really need any of the MRD cross classes to help them out early. As I said, Foresight is a nice extra mitigation, but not necessary for GLD (and if you really want it, do the 1st mission for MRD and you'll be lvl 2 to be able to take cross). Skull sunder is useless. Fracture is ok early, but essentially useless (even for WARs at higher levels it's not worth using as it's less DPS then they can push out manually in the same time). Bloodbath is a great move... If you can AoE attack. Which GLD can't. So it basically turns into a very slight mitigation tool as it basically heals for maybe 30% of what you're getting hit by via enemy auto attacks. Mercy stroke is great early and decent later, but by no means necessary. Best part is just that it's oGCD.

Not saying MRD NEEDS the GLD cross class skills, but the amount of utility provided is substantially different. Leveling a MRD with all GLD cross skills available is 10x better than leveling a GLD with all MRD cross skills available.