Best SB Tank?

[ErikMynhier]

Paladin because he has been putting time in at the gym and drinking so much Red Bull it literally gave him wings.


Special recognition to Warrior for learning to grab enemies by the collar and seriously punch the bejesus out of them like he's in a Texas road house.

[Kosmos992k]

It's hard to say for anyone else. For me, I'm a Paladin, it reflects my personality, and the way I want to play. I want to be the protector, I'm not interested in doing the most damage or anything like that, I am interested in protecting the party and keeping the attention of the enemy.

Once SB arrives and we get a feel for it, we'll know. But it seems to me that the changes to PLD lean very much into that idea of being the protector. So I anticipate that PLD will - as it has always been - be the tank with the least damage potential, but greatest defensive potential. Because of that and the tendency for many players to like being able to do massive damage, I expect that PLD might start off a bit more popular than WAR or DRK, but after a couple of weeks, I anticipate WAR or DRK to emerge as the favorite, probably WAR. But that's OK, it should really be a case of choosing the best tank for the job. PLD never made a good OT, it was always a better single target tank. I don't think that's going to change. but at the same time I also think that Warrior is leaning more heavily on it's ability to cause damage - which looks awesome - loving the whole "so mad your eyes glow" thing.

DRK I think will be similar to WAR (without the eyes...), but I think that it will be kind more non-physical than WAR. I think it's going to go like this; WAR is best for physical defense and damage, DRK is best for non physical defense and damage, and PLD will balance physical and non-physical damage, being best an neither, but will be best defensively against both physical and non-physical threats. Ideally all 3 should have similar aggro generation capability because that is the one thing that each tank truly needs to be equally good at.

All of that said, in 4-player content, all 3 will work great, and in 8 player content a lot will depend on encounter design, I would hope that each dungeon or raid with 8 or more players (and hence 2 or more tanks) will include encounters biased toward physical, non-physical and balanced mechanics to give all 3 tanks the opportunity to shine in the MT role, and all3 to function in the OT role also.

But hey, what do I know, I'm an optimist who plays PLD...

[Venjenz]

In stormblood switching stances costs about half our current wrath.
You can see it in the job trailer when he switches, he goes from 80 to 40 so it's asumed it either costs half our gauge or fixed 40.

Which means knowing the fight is at a higher premium, because there is a cost to stance dancing. Okie doke. Won't change the fact that in tank stance, there are defensive CDs aplenty.