Beginner's Overview to Tanking in FFXIV

[Jpec07]

Ok just the info I was looking for. How do you know when to tank swap? Or should I just watch videos before I queue...

One thing you can do for this is actually to make your debuff bar really big and to focus your co-tank (and make the focus bar big, as well). When you see a debuff on them, hover over it with your mouse and quickly read the tooltip. If it's something that would make them take more damage that has a timer on it, that's generally an indication that it's a tank swap mechanic.

Of course the absolute best thing you can do is ask your co-tank if they know if the fight you're doing has a tank swap, and at what point you should swap (and discuss whether or not you want to use Shirk - it can be done, but it doesn't feel all that essential). As others have said, the best way to swap is to use Tank Stance (if you're a little early with switching from DPS stance to tank stance, it won't hurt you that badly) > Enmity Combo 1 > Provoke > Enmity Combo 2 > Enmity Combo 3.


EDIT: Also wanted to say that there are definitely edits coming to the first few posts! There have been some excellent suggestions in here for things to include, and I've already got outlines drafted. I'm so glad this is helping people, and I'm also really glad to have other folks contributing to the discussion.

[Mixae]

Thanks so much

[Zfz]

Great work, but perhaps you should emphasize positioning a little more. Lately I've seen more and more tanks who just don't care about positioning. People "advising" that tanks don't have to worry about being hit in the back is a major factor in this bad practice.

I've been dipping into melee recently and there are a lot of tanks in the DF tanking packs of trash in the center of the pack with the pack spread evenly around them. It makes it impossible for many of the AOE tools (e.g. straight-line AOEs and frontal arc AOEs) to be effective.

Perhaps it should be stated explicitly and emphasized that enemies should be "bunched up together" and never left spreaded out. Not only does it annoy the DPS (including ranged/casters) players who are trying to do a good job, it obstructs and sometimes makes it outright impossible to do their job properly.

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Sad story: one time I was moving around all over the place on a spreaded out pack on my SAM because my AOE rotation is a mix of frontal arc and point-blank AOE, and the tank asked me to stop moving around because it's annoying...

[Jpec07]

Great work, but perhaps you should emphasize positioning a little more. Lately I've seen more and more tanks who just don't care about positioning. People "advising" that tanks don't have to worry about being hit in the back is a major factor in this bad practice.

I've been dipping into melee recently and there are a lot of tanks in the DF tanking packs of trash in the center of the pack with the pack spread evenly around them. It makes it impossible for many of the AOE tools (e.g. straight-line AOEs and frontal arc AOEs) to be effective.

Perhaps it should be stated explicitly and emphasized that enemies should be "bunched up together" and never left spreaded out. Not only does it annoy the DPS (including ranged/casters) players who are trying to do a good job, it obstructs and sometimes makes it outright impossible to do their job properly.

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Sad story: one time I was moving around all over the place on a spreaded out pack on my SAM because my AOE rotation is a mix of frontal arc and point-blank AOE, and the tank asked me to stop moving around because it's annoying...

This is a good point. I'm currently writing a section on pulling effectively, including the goal of any pull (which is to bunch up all of your enemies with their backs facing the rest of the group), and a few ways that you can accomplish this (LoS pulls, pulling back, etc.). Some might say some of that is beyond "beginner", but being able to pull well is a skill all tanks should have.

[Vhoxz]

Note on shirk:
For beginners yes, swap in tank stance no need to make it harder than it is. However the further you get into so called "end game content" the fewer tanks actually go into tank stance to swap. Why? DPS of course... Feels like tanks are more obsessed with DPS than the dps these days ... However this is where shirk can shine. A well timed shirk (AFTER the other tank provoked) just gives a ton of enmity and there's no real need for a stance dance.
Shirk can also be used from time to time to make sure the other tank keeps the enmity without having to go back into tank stance to build up enmity.

Hell, I rarely get out of sword oath. It charges your oath gauge faster and allows more frequent use of sheltron and intervention => you're better at what you do, mitigating damage.
So yes tanking and tankswapping in tank stance is easier. But being able to do these in dps stance makes you more efficient

[Aeducan]

Just thought I'd bump this thread because I found it very informative for new tanks and it made me a better DRK. One of my sprouts said he's interested in tanking, so I referred him to this thread. Thank you again Jpec for taking the time to write this guide, we need more of you tank mains out there

[Jpec07]

Hooboy, this is gonna need some changes.

Don’t worry, folks—I haven’t forgotten about it! Real life just got kind of busy, and I haven’t been able to put as much energy into this as I would have liked. There are a lot of changes to tanking coming in Shadowbringers, and entire sections of this guide are going to be largely invalidated. Will keep everyone apprised as I make these changes, though I’ll be waiting on most of them until I’ve gotten all four tanks to 80 and run some content there.

[MaraD_]

Hooboy, this is gonna need some changes.

Don’t worry, folks—I haven’t forgotten about it! Real life just got kind of busy, and I haven’t been able to put as much energy into this as I would have liked. There are a lot of changes to tanking coming in Shadowbringers, and entire sections of this guide are going to be largely invalidated. Will keep everyone apprised as I make these changes, though I’ll be waiting on most of them until I’ve gotten all four tanks to 80 and run some content there.

keep this thread as is for reference to 4.0 tanking.

make a new one (while linking from here as well) for 5.0.
(put at the top its for SB/4.0 only, and rename the new one "for 5.0" or something)

[Jpec07]

keep this thread as is for reference to 4.0 tanking.

make a new one (while linking from here as well) for 5.0.
(put at the top its for SB/4.0 only, and rename the new one "for 5.0" or something)

Not sure if this is the first FFXIV expansion you've been through, but the changes they're making go from top to bottom. Square Enix doesn't keep separate versions of the game intact for different expansions' content, but they do put a lot of time into making sure that balance is maintained in old content with each new change they make.

In other words, keeping this as a reference for 4.0 will only serve folks who are interested in looking at how the game has changed over time and how it used to be (not to mention, you can't change the thread title on the forum view without the help of a moderator).

[MaraD_]

stuff

what you said, was what i meant lol.
just for reflecting back on 4.0