tanks not using cooldowns?

[Dzian]

There's really two classes of mitigation cooldowns that all tanks have access to: rotational cooldowns (decent effect, >10s duration, shorter cooldown, like Rampart, Foresight, Bulwark/Awareness, etc.), and tankbuster cooldowns (powerful effect, 10s or less duration, longer cooldown, like Hallowed Ground, Sentinel, DA-DM, Living Dead, Holmgang, etc.). The tankbuster cooldowns are the ones you should be saving, if anything, because they are the ones that can actually save you if the shit hits the fan. The rotational cooldowns are substantially less effective, and are more designed for smoothing out incoming white damage; they cannot and will not save you in a pinch. You absolutely need to break the mentality of "cooldowns are for saving my ass" and realize that that's not how tanking works in this game. The amount of damage you mitigate passive through your tank stance and through the gear you wear is a pittance compared to what you can provide by keeping up at least one rotational cooldown at a time. Especially when there are so many of them that last for so long, there is absolutely no good reason why you should not be rotating them.

From a tanking point of view I do not cycle cooldowns on general trash and even various phases in boss fights. I use them on an as needed basis.
From a healers point of view I hate tanks that cycle there cool downs Would much prefer tanks that tank similar to the way I tank.

As a scholar in a dungeon, it annoys the hell out of me seeing a tank use defensive buffs on pulls where even my fairy falls asleep from lack of damage to heal. it's a total waste of cooldowns. made even worse by that tank then making a big pull and not popping any defensive buffs because there on all cooldown. this includes convalescence. not technically a defensive buff but seeing tanks use it on small assed pulls that need next to no healing is really annoying. even more annoying are the tanks that pop convalescence half way through a big pull when 2/3 of the mobs are already dead and healing the rest is a cake walk...

On my Paladin I use them as needed. I won't use convalescence on a pull if I know the next pull in a minutes time is going to be a bigger one. it makes more sense to use it at a time where incoming damage is going to be at a peak. I won't use it and then run into that big pull without it. because it's in that big pull where it would provide the most help to the healer. I won't use rampart if a scholars fairy or whms regen is pretty much keeping me up.

Intelligent use on an as needed basis is much better than cycling or rotating them.

[Jamillion]

snip.

Intelligent use of cooldowns does involve cycling them though. Sure you don't use strong cooldowns unnecessarily but he's referring to people that save all their CDs then blow their load and die. Realistically, cooldowns exist for tankbusters, and for allowing healer DPS. Cooldowns are not for popping off in a chain at the last second.

[Jpec07]

As a scholar in a dungeon, it annoys the hell out of me seeing a tank use defensive buffs on pulls where even my fairy falls asleep from lack of damage to heal. it's a total waste of cooldowns. made even worse by that tank then making a big pull and not popping any defensive buffs because there on all cooldown. this includes convalescence. not technically a defensive buff but seeing tanks use it on small assed pulls that need next to no healing is really annoying. even more annoying are the tanks that pop convalescence half way through a big pull when 2/3 of the mobs are already dead and healing the rest is a cake walk...

On my Paladin I use them as needed. I won't use convalescence on a pull if I know the next pull in a minutes time is going to be a bigger one. it makes more sense to use it at a time where incoming damage is going to be at a peak. I won't use it and then run into that big pull without it. because it's in that big pull where it would provide the most help to the healer. I won't use rampart if a scholars fairy or whms regen is pretty much keeping me up.

Intelligent, anticipatory use on an as needed basis is much better than cycling or rotating them.

On this (bolded), I think we can agree (I also fixed to include "anticipatory," because thinking ahead is substantially rewarded here). Using Rampart on a low-damage 3-mob pull when you've got a high-damage 6-mob pull coming up is silly, and bad gameplay (though arguably, so isn't taking those three mobs by themselves and not pulling them to the next group). Effective cooldown usage is the greatest nuance of tank gameplay in FFXIV, and it's what separates the great tanks from the good.

Having a rotation is a good idea when you're taking enough damage to need it (i.e. start of a bigger pull, boss fights, etc.), but if you've only got one and a quarter mobs left before the pull is done, or the boss is one LB away from faceplanting, the incoming damage has been reduced enough to where not using a CD won't hurt you.