Question: How do you tank?

[Foxkid]

So..I'm normally a healer (SCH) whose secondaries are dps (Monk, "SMN", and working on MCH). My FC lead wants to know if I can pick up Warrior to be an off-tank for him sometimes since he has a fully geared DRK (main) and PLD (rarely used) already.

Thing being is I've only ever "tanked" once as a drk in PoTD some 2 years ago or so and had no idea what in the world I was doing. I have a marauder at lv 12 from back when you needed it to become a rogue, but I never did a ton with it since I played it as another dps class.

But how do I go about playing what's basically the complete opposite of what I normally do as well as knowing that I'll need new placements and such?

[Risvertasashi]

Well start with dungeons. Learn the basics of holding aggro. Typically this is going to involve using your AOE enmity generator a few times, perhaps following with the single target one and when the mobs and comfortably locked down, you can then go all out on DPS.

Then do some extreme trials, so you can learn about tankswapping and having a cooldown plan for tankbusters and such.

There's a number of indepth youtube tutorials for each tank class if you'd like to study more.

[Kalise]

The very basics are much the same as playing a DPS.

Only, you sit in your Defensive Stance while you do so and make sure to hit every enemy in an encounter at least once, preferably with a skill with Enmity bonus on it so it attacks you. Also, one of the very basic mechanics for Tanks is make sure that enemies are facing away from your party, because cleave attacks are the most common mechanics used for Tanks.

Outside of that, much of the rest of a fight is just spamming your rotations to deal damage to things.

Once you get higher level, there starts to be more optimization you can do, especially for Full Party content, such as tankswapping for particular mechanics, Circle-Shirking (As the Off-Tank, using a taunt such as Provoke and then immediately using Shirk on the other Tank to instantly just generate a bunch of Enmity for them) and dealing with Tankbusters with your CD's effectively.

Though, honestly, if you're leveling up from level 12, you'll pick up most of the basics during leveling if you're doing dungeons. Once you get high enough level for additional things to matter you can play around with your tools and also look up some guides.

[Acelyn]

also, don't pull the whole dungeon and just focus on keeping the enemies on you.

[347SPECTRE]

Usually the WAR is going to be the pull tank (calling it the main tank/off tank is a little incorrect).

[Rasler_Heios]

So..I'm normally a healer (SCH) whose secondaries are dps (Monk, "SMN", and working on MCH). My FC lead wants to know if I can pick up Warrior to be an off-tank for him sometimes since he has a fully geared DRK (main) and PLD (rarely used) already.

Thing being is I've only ever "tanked" once as a drk in PoTD some 2 years ago or so and had no idea what in the world I was doing. I have a marauder at lv 12 from back when you needed it to become a rogue, but I never did a ton with it since I played it as another dps class.

But how do I go about playing what's basically the complete opposite of what I normally do as well as knowing that I'll need new placements and such?

If you haven’t done so, do the tanking training course at the Hall of the Novice, then start practicing at Guildhests and then dungeons.

[Violet_Galaxy]

So..I'm normally a healer (SCH) whose secondaries are dps (Monk, "SMN", and working on MCH). My FC lead wants to know if I can pick up Warrior to be an off-tank for him sometimes since he has a fully geared DRK (main) and PLD (rarely used) already.

Thing being is I've only ever "tanked" once as a drk in PoTD some 2 years ago or so and had no idea what in the world I was doing. I have a marauder at lv 12 from back when you needed it to become a rogue, but I never did a ton with it since I played it as another dps class.

But how do I go about playing what's basically the complete opposite of what I normally do as well as knowing that I'll need new placements and such?

Grab the enemies
Turn them away from the group
Count to the three (Your combo. Not literal counting.)

Hall of Novice is really good at teaching the bare bones basics of tanking.

[AppleJinx]

[Zol_blade]

Great insight!
But I still have doubts in the trail part like when should I predict to intervene. For now, I usually do dps as an off tank or tank secondary mobs while the main tank focuses on the boss.

[Phoenicia]

Tanking is simply melee DPS that has all its positionals as "front".

Best guide:

Read your tooltips. (Learn what builds enmity, what reduces damage and what is there for dealing it.)

Apply logic to tooltips. (Use enmity when you need it, reduce damage when you need to, deal as much damage as you can otherwise).

Check guides or ask other tanks for tips. (This is how you get better and teaches you how to play smarter).

????

Profit.
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Other things to note:

1- Too much enmity is a thing. Check the small bars under the class icon on the party list. As long as you are ahead, you are ahead. Choose a threshold before you know you need more enmity. If someone who's not your co-tank is approaching/passing it, build more by either asking your co-tank to provoke-shirk you or use enmity moves.

2- Too much mitigation is also a thing. Do not stack your defenisve cooldowns unless you really have to. In general stacking cooldowns diminishes their power and opens more periods of defenselessness.

3- Your damage matters. Yes, it is not our "main role" but it IS in the job description. You are still standing there swinging a giant axe, no? Also do NOT underestimate tanks' uptime, it is crazy.

4- Be smart, tanks' toolkits allow them to cheese some things not possible to other roles. Example: Remember that AoE that everyone dodges? You can use a defensive to continue DPS throw the damage as long as you won't need the CD later or get a nasty debuff.

5- Do NOT be afraid to Holmgang. It can soak massive amounts of damage. Yes it drops you to 1 HP, but you can self heal or ask healers to top you back.

Good luck.