New tank looking for some tips to be a better tank!!

[TristanBlane]

Hi! So I decided to take up a tank job just so I can be a more well rounded player. I have multiple DPS jobs and all Healer roles at 60 but I never wanted to try Tanking just because it was so intimidating.

Well I decided to pick up gladiator and see how it goes! (Also , those short que times are quite attractive)

Firstly , I've been trying to see if there were any Paladin guides so I can better understand my rotation and the Do's and Don'ts of tanking as a paladin.

I had a lot of trouble dealing with multiple trash on mobs , often times having one of the monsters lose hate on me and attack one of my other team mates. Also, managing my MP when I'm constantly using flash to get back hate when the DPS are going too ham.

The other day I ran Hatali (NM) with TWO THMs D: lemme tell ya, they gave me a run for my money as I kept fighting to keep hate. Any tips on how to handle tanking with DPS that are known for ripping hate so easily ?

Also , finally. Are macros super important for a tank ?? I play on PS4 and have no clue how to use macros so I'm wondering if it's something I should try to learn how to use??

Thank you in advance for any tips and help!! DDD

[ChameleonMS]

Until you reach lv40 and get Shield Oath, maintaining hate is challenge for GLA/PLD.
Shield Lob and Flash to start.
Then begin FB > SB > RoH rotation. Change targets on a regular basis for SB and RoH, to keep the hate on you. Intermixing a flash after every second rotation will also help you.
Your hate is direct calculation of your damage, keep your gear up to date to keep up the damage.

Once you have Shield Oath, your life will get way easier.

[Jpec07]

Hi! So I decided to take up a tank job just so I can be a more well rounded player. I have multiple DPS jobs and all Healer roles at 60 but I never wanted to try Tanking just because it was so intimidating.

Well I decided to pick up gladiator and see how it goes! (Also , those short que times are quite attractive)

Hi there! Welcome to the club! We have cupcakes.

Firstly , I've been trying to see if there were any Paladin guides so I can better understand my rotation and the Do's and Don'ts of tanking as a paladin.

I'm not aware of any guides that are being maintained at the moment, but PLD is pretty straightforward. I'm going to go ahead and assume you've only ever played a caster class while I do my 'splainin, so I apologize if you know any of this already!

Melee jobs have combos, if you weren't aware of that. If you look at the tooltips, you'll see "Combo Action", which shows you which abilities ought to follow one another. Generally, until you're more comfortable tanking and keeping enmity, your Rage of Halone (RoH) combo is going to be your best friend, because it generates a tonne of enmity.

As you level, you'll want to try to always keep at least one cooldown in use as often as possible. In terms of effectiveness at mitigating damage, the priority goes: Hallowed Ground (HG) > Sentinel > Bulwark + Awareness (always use together once you have them) > Rampart > Foresight > Fight or Flight + Bloodbath (there is no compelling reason to not use these together) > Foresight. Generally, in earlier dungeons, you should be okay to save your bigger cooldowns for instances where the boss will do more damage, but you'll want to be sure to use them more on trash than on bosses (as I'm sure you're aware as a healer, tanks usually take more damage from trash than they do from bosses).

Also, even if you don't have Shield Oath yet, Sword Oath is still helpful, because any damage you deal will boost your enmity, and SwO adds ~50 potency per cooldown, which can help close the gap a bit.

I had a lot of trouble dealing with multiple trash on mobs , often times having one of the monsters lose hate on me and attack one of my other team mates. Also, managing my MP when I'm constantly using flash to get back hate when the DPS are going too ham.

The other day I ran Hatali (NM) with TWO THMs D: lemme tell ya, they gave me a run for my money as I kept fighting to keep hate. Any tips on how to handle tanking with DPS that are known for ripping hate so easily ?

One of the best things I can recommend for this is to Flash frequently. Until you get Shield Oath at level 40, you'll want to start every pull with 2-3 Flashes, and then work another one in between each RoH combo. In general, that should be enough in most cases, but if you're going in NQ white gear, you might need to work a little more. What I like to do at those levels is cycle each piece of the RoH combo onto a different enemy. So I'll hit one enemy with Fast Blade (FB) and Savage Blade (SB), tab to the next target for Rage of Halone, Flash, then tab to the next target for FB-SB, and so on. It can take some getting used to, but tabbing targets like that to spread your enmity is one of the best tricks you can learn (especially in your level 60 roulette as a freshly-capped tank, it will help you hold hate off that iLvl 240 SMN that you got).

Keep in mind, too, that Provoke is not like WoW's taunt; it only puts you just on top of the enmity list, so you need to follow it up with something like Flash or Shied Lob to re-establish your enmity lead. I've found that usually if a mob gets away, I can just use Shield Lob, so I can save Provoke for the rare instance when that doesn't work.

The other thing you can do is mark your targets, but that only works for single target DPS, and not for jobs that have at least halfway decent AoE.

Also , finally. Are macros super important for a tank ?? I play on PS4 and have no clue how to use macros so I'm wondering if it's something I should try to learn how to use??

In general, no. There are abilities that you always want to use together, but especially on a PS4, you should have more than enough slots for every action you have access to.

The only exception would be a marking macro of some kind, to help the DPS and healer know which targets you intend to prioritize, but I'm not sure how readily available that would be on PS4.

Thank you in advance for any tips and help!! DDD

You are most certainly welcome! Hope we've been able to help! Don't hesitate to ask more questions!

[SpookyGhost]

It's been upwards of a year since I actually leveled PLD, but a general rule of thumb for me was to always open with:

Shield Lob -> Flash -> Flash

at low level. You can try marking your primary target with "1", though eventually (nearer to 50) this'll be less necessary. If you find that people are focusing down multiple targets, focus on Flashing and spreading out your RoH combo. If they're only focusing down your primary target, then try to focus your enmity on it and spread out once that target is closer to death. The more you level up the easier it'll be to maintain hate, especially at lvl 40 when you acquire ShO (as ChameleonMS said). Make sure you're keeping your armor and weapon up to date, as those affect how well you maintain hate - especially your weapon.

[Geula]

I'm also in process of levelling paladin and as mentioned earlier, shield oath makes a world of difference. The incread hate generation and damage reduction is just that great. It was pretty hellish to maintain hate before I got it but now that I got it's really smooth sailing.

[Jhett_Magnum]

Want to be a better tank?
Level a Tank to 60.
Then level a Healer to 60.
If you manage that get a DPS to 60.

You need perspective.

[Anzer]

Want to be a better tank?
Level a Tank to 60.
Then level a Healer to 60.
If you manage that get a DPS to 60.

You need perspective.

Going into a thread about getting advice as a new tank, not reading the first sentence in the OP: Priceless.

For everything else, there's Mog Card.

[Anienai]

1. Get marauder up to 26ish for all the decent CC abilities.
2. Mark targets and tab using RoH combo.
3. Learn the motto that's been handed down from mother to daughter and father to step-son:
You spank it! You tank it!
4. Keep your weapon close to your level.

[Torunya]

We have cupcakes.

Yes. Yes we do.

On topic, just follow the advice that has already been posted by others here and you'll do fine. ^^ Good luck!

[Canadane]

The only thing that I could add to what's already been said is, get comfortable with consistently changing targets.
Not just for new adds incoming, but for an already pulled group. AOEs are aplenty and you can't always count on your DPS to focus what you had intended. So keeping an eye on the enmity bars on each player of the party as you select each mob is something you would want to get used to.
At lower levels, generally this is easier because there's less AOE damage outgoing, so unless your healer is overhealing you, you can see the damage on mobs and would have a good idea that someone may pull it off you soon. But at higher levels, you need to be aware that your comboed up Rage of Halone might be better off used on Mob D rather than your currently selected Mob A.