From dps to healer or tank?

[Hrimfaxi]

Hi guys! I wanted to try something different other than being a dps. I have dragoon, ninja and bard at lvl 60. Would like to know tank or healer will be easier for me to learn. I will learn the rotations by hard but would like to know several tips as well. Thanks!

[16bitBounty]

Why not both? Neither are particularly difficult to learn and it's always good to have one of each available.

[Laerune]

General tips:
- Untill you learn the ropes, Warrior and Dark Knight are easier to tank with when it comes to AoE tanking.
- If you level Arcanist, you will unlock SCH and SMN, so if you want to heal and get another dps to max level, level Arcanist.
- When healing, if you want to have a easier time healing, go WHM.
- Tanks need Provoke/Rampart/Flash and other defensive skills. Healers need Swift Cast (THM skill) and Protect/Stoneskin/Cleric Stance (CNJ).
- When tanking expect alot of players resisting your leadership, they will pull or ignore marks. You will fail alot, but this is part of the learning proces.

Tank tips:
- Always use defensive skills when they are on a cooldown, wasting them is pointless.
- Always make sure the mobs face away from the group.
- When having issues with keeping agro, do not be afraid and ask players to use CC and Mark the mobs for easier agro management.
- Eat food that increases STR and VIT
- Put all your stat points into VIT
- Learn to rotate between agro building skills and the ones that give debuff/buffs to the tank and mobs.

Healer tips:
- Use the cooldowns like Rouse, Divine Seal etc.
- Learn to know when to use Eos or Selene, the same can also be said for AST cards, learn what they do and which card should be used for which class. Using Ewer for example on DRK is pointless, since Darkside negates the effect.
- Speak up and tell the tank to grab more or less, if you dont say anything, nothing will happen.
- Learn to control the pets, untill level 50 you can keep her on auto, but learning to control her at lower level will make it easier for you.
- When you have more then 80% mana and you know that it will stay like this, put on Cleric Stance and help the group by dealing damage.
- Put all your stat points into Mind.
- Same with tank, when leveling make sure you eat food with mind, piety and spell speed etc.

I hope these were usefull.

[VanilleFang]

- When healing, if you want to have a easier time healing, go WHM.

I'd have to disagree with this. SCH is actually, by far, the easiest healer to use in the game if you are just learning the ropes. Yes, you have to use CNJ until level 15 anyway, but a SCH is far more lenient with its DPS and healing because of the fairy. So if you are coming from a DPS I would think that the most logical next step, if you want to transition to another role, would be SCH. In the early parts of the game it mostly functions as a DPS who can heal.

[SpiritMuse]

I'd have to disagree with this. SCH is actually, by far, the easiest healer to use in the game if you are just learning the ropes. Yes, you have to use CNJ until level 15 anyway, but a SCH is far more lenient with its DPS and healing because of the fairy. So if you are coming from a DPS I would think that the most logical next step, if you want to transition to another role, would be SCH. In the early parts of the game it mostly functions as a DPS who can heal.

CNJ/WHM is the most straightforward healer though. It's just powerful healing with no extra stuff like pet management or various different rng-dependent buffs.

[VanilleFang]

CNJ/WHM is the most straightforward healer though. It's just powerful healing with no extra stuff like pet management or various different rng-dependent buffs.

Yes, but if we're talking about transitioning from DPS to Healer, a SCH is the closest to a DPS class, and it has a huge amount of lenience when it comes to healer, far more so than a WHM. I understand that a WHM is "straightforward", but that doesn't make it the easiest.

[Rivxkobe]

CNJ/WHM is the most straightforward healer though. It's just powerful healing with no extra stuff like pet management or various different rng-dependent buffs.

This is not what is being asked though.

OP wants to know what Healer/Tank is the easiest for them to start as after using Three DPS, not which healer is the most straight forward. With SCH both coming from a DPS class, and having their Fairy, they are both the easiest to level as/use in low level content and the easiest to start with if transitioning to a Healer class from using only DPS classes. Just because WHM is the most "straight foward" does not make it the easiest, and definitely doesn't make it the easiest Healer to use for one who only knows DPS.

Granted they are going to have to Conjurer to pick up core Cross Class skills, but that's a whole other thing.

[Aomine1992]

Just make sure you start with the core classes so you dnt miss essential skills I.e. Conj for protect, Gld for provoke, thm swift cast...and you should be successful playing either or

[Reinha]

This is not what is being asked though.

OP wants to know what Healer/Tank is the easiest for them to start as after using Three DPS, not which healer is the most straight forward. With SCH both coming from a DPS class, and having their Fairy, they are both the easiest to level as/use in low level content and the easiest to start with if transitioning to a Healer class from using only DPS classes. Just because WHM is the most "straight foward" does not make it the easiest, and definitely doesn't make it the easiest Healer to use for one who only knows DPS.

Granted they are going to have to Conjurer to pick up core Cross Class skills, but that's a whole other thing.

He wants to try something different from dps. If you can fully do damage and not heal until level 30 as SCH that's not different from dps. You don't get used to healing by letting someone, or something, else do it for you. You learn healing by healing. The difficulty curve of SCH is steeper than that of a WHM because you're basically carried by the fairy until you no longer are, and at that point you should have somehow learned MP control, to judge the power and speed of your heals and to estimate incoming damage. WHM introduces core concepts of healing early on and that's good. It makes learning the role easier. The point is not to avoid healing as long as possible, it's to hop right on it and start from the basics so you have them down when you need to learn more difficult things.

I'm not saying he should go all the way to 60 as WHM, but like you said there are cross class skills at the least. Around 34-40 CNJ/WHM has already given a pretty good introduction to the role and at that point I'd say anything goes.

[Singularity]

For one starting as DPS, tanking will be closer to what you know than healing. The principle of rotating weaponskill combos on mobs will be the same as on your NIN and DRG. The only totally new thing to learn is mitigation.