Best SB Tank?

[Riardon]

The one you like the most.
You can't play good something you don't like.

[Astrus]

I currently have all my "inactive" jobs sitting at 30, among them the three tanks.
I don't like tanking but if I did and had to pick one of the tanks to level it would probably be the PLD.
... For no real reason in particular now that I think about it, it's probably just the aesthetic.

[Niyuka]

I play all three tanks. I would suggest warrior, because its the best off-tank. Chances are, we will not see that many instances where you need 2 main tanks, and the warrior offers so much more than any of the other two, its not even close. Its also easier to play when half-asleep on your 10th dungeon run of the day, its better in solo due to higher DPS, and with the new charge, it will likely feel the most comfortable.

Also, a lot of benefits of the warrior are built-in, not needing 10 different cooldowns (hi DRK) or casting times.

And then there is the PvP utility of holmgang ....

[Paladinleeds]

To me it'd be Paladin. There's something about the walking wall aesthetic and that it is very defensively focused that attracts me to it. I actually feel like a tank with it.

[LineageRazor]

I play all three tanks. I would suggest warrior, because its the best off-tank. Chances are, we will not see that many instances where you need 2 main tanks, and the warrior offers so much more than any of the other two, its not even close.

Be wary of this - while it is undeniably true now, WAR's vast superiority as an off-tank, coupled with being a perfectly viable main tank, is such common knowledge you can be certain that Stormblood is going to close the gap. WAR has been king of tanks for pretty much all of Heavensward, and SE is not blind to this. If the changes to Heavensward do not bring the other tanks up to WAR's level, then SE has flubbed, bigtime.

[Antonok]

With shields being able to block magic damage in Stormblood, Paladins are going to get a huge jump. Especially now that we also get what seems to be a spammable AoE attack.

[Moonlite]

Samurai???

[Laerune]

The Fell Cleave calls for you, go Warrior.

[Venjenz]

Go with the playstyle you prefer. I main a WAR and have a GLD and DRK being leveled in the background. For SB, the WAR will get maxed first for sure, but I will eventually have all three tanks maxed. I like the tanking role and every part of gameplay associated with it, and each of the three has a certain strength over the other two.

The only place I'd disagree with my fellow tanks is the lazy DF tanking being the province of WARs. Thing is, in DF groups, AE enmity is a big key for lazy tanking. WAR get Overpower ad that's cool and all, but it uses TP, and uses it fast. PLD and DRK do MP based AE enmity, and they both have MP generators. WAR don't have a TP generator until level 58, and even then, you have to drop tank stance and it is good for regen of 3 Overpowers every two minutes.

For the random jobs and skill levels you get with DF group DPS players...sometimes that AE aggro thing, if we are trying to be lazy now, does not favor WAR, and does favor DRK and PLD, who can cycle AE enmity generators almost infinitely, so long as they drop a few MP regen combos here and there. To me, that makes them better "lazy DF" tanks.

I am leveling all three, and will eventually playtest this theory in SB, with my goal to be as lazy as possible and still tank properly. It just feels like DRK will reward my laziness the most.

EDIT - saw this and it added to my post:

With shields being able to block magic damage in Stormblood, Paladins are going to get a huge jump. Especially now that we also get what seems to be a spammable AoE attack.

Spammable AE attack that does dmg, plus blocking physical AND magical dmg? Yeah, for lazy DF tanking, that might be a huge winner. That could be some proper "push these 4 buttons in this order...forever" style of laziness.

[Seigfried_Folles]

I'm really excited about the direction they seem to be taking paladin, so I would hop on that train if i could