Why do tanks have so many skills?

[BarretOblivion]

Am I legitimately supposed to keybind every one of these skills? Why are the combo skills not combined like Thancred's? I have ran out of space and I am afraid to run GNB because I can't use its full potential... Am I missing something? This just makes me wanna run back to my WHM and be unable to help my friends who need tanks...

...
Eh?
...
What?
Yeah um... you need to keybind those skills because they are COOLDOWNS you know... for tankbusters? Offensively tanks have the least amount of options for a rotation than DPS so a large chunk of it is used for cooldowns.

Seriously? Someone is complaining about too many skills on tanks. Need I need to introduce you to WAR right now? I have empty slots on my hot bar at level 80!

[Rakshazi]

...
Eh?
...
What?
Yeah um... you need to keybind those skills because they are COOLDOWNS you know... for tankbusters? Offensively tanks have the least amount of options for a rotation than DPS so a large chunk of it is used for cooldowns.

Seriously? Someone is complaining about too many skills on tanks. Need I need to introduce you to WAR right now? I have empty slots on my hot bar at level 80!

I feel you, mate. I feel you...

[Zfz]

I've only got the PLD at 80, and quite franky I don't mind them removing another 4-5 buttons from the PLD. I literally fill 3 rows of hotbars, with only 2 slots for markers ("1" and "2") and 1 for LB.

I consider this the bare minimum:

• 1 to turn on Iron Will that loves to turn itself off due to level syncs
• 7 role actions: all of them are used regularly
• 7 for core rotation: Fast Blade > Riot Blade > Royal Authority + Goring Blade + Atonement and Total Eclipse > Prominence
• 4 for mana dump: Requiescat > Holy Spirit + Holy Circle > Confiteor
• 2 for utility: Shield Lob + Intervene
• 2 off-GCD for weaving: Spirits Within + Circle of Scorn
• 6 cooldowns: FoF + Sentinel + Sheltron + Hallowed Ground + Divine Veil + Passage of Arms
• 3 others: Clemency, Cover, Intervention

A total of 32 buttons. Add to that Shield Bash, which comes in handy in very situational circumstances, but useful nonetheless, 2 markers, and a LB, and I have 36 buttons, exactly 3 full bars. One could perhaps say this is "perfect". Which it actually is, for me, as I actually do have 36 keybinds all accessible on my left hand without taking my little finger off the Shift key. But I do hope at level 90 they remove a couple of these.

I cannot bring myself to use "I didn't have it on my hotbar" as an excuse to failing a situation that I otherwise could have perfectly handled. I think that's failure not only as a team player, but also as a gamer.

[AmeiLotus]

I've only got the PLD at 80, and quite franky I don't mind them removing another 4-5 buttons from the PLD. I literally fill 3 rows of hotbars, with only 2 slots for markers ("1" and "2") and 1 for LB.

I consider this the bare minimum:

• 1 to turn on Iron Will that loves to turn itself off due to level syncs
• 7 role actions: all of them are used regularly
• 7 for core rotation: Fast Blade > Riot Blade > Royal Authority + Goring Blade + Atonement and Total Eclipse > Prominence
• 4 for mana dump: Requiescat > Holy Spirit + Holy Circle > Confiteor
• 2 for utility: Shield Lob + Intervene
• 2 off-GCD for weaving: Spirits Within + Circle of Scorn
• 6 cooldowns: FoF + Sentinel + Sheltron + Hallowed Ground + Divine Veil + Passage of Arms
• 3 others: Clemency, Cover, Intervention

A total of 32 buttons. Add to that Shield Bash, which comes in handy in very situational circumstances, but useful nonetheless, 2 markers, and a LB, and I have 36 buttons, exactly 3 full bars. One could perhaps say this is "perfect". Which it actually is, for me, as I actually do have 36 keybinds all accessible on my left hand without taking my little finger off the Shift key. But I do hope at level 90 they remove a couple of these.

I cannot bring myself to use "I didn't have it on my hotbar" as an excuse to failing a situation that I otherwise could have perfectly handled. I think that's failure not only as a team player, but also as a gamer.

That's exactly what I mean... It shouldn't ever require more than 2 and a half hotbars to be able to handle every situation. GNB fills all three hotbars and I can't use my side mouse buttons for anything beyond keybinding shift/ctrl to the mouse so my hands don't hurt really bad.

I have something wrong in my hands that don't like when I hold shift/ctrl on my keyboard so I have to use it this way... and even the side mouse buttons hurt if I use more than the two (I have a mouse with 12 side buttons). At least I tried but it doesn't work out...

Does anyone have a tank setup that really helps someone in my situation? I might end up leveling WAR, but so far PLD and GNB have too many skills for me to be able to handle.

[Dalmacus]

That's exactly what I mean... It shouldn't ever require more than 2 and a half hotbars to be able to handle every situation. GNB fills all three hotbars and I can't use my side mouse buttons for anything beyond keybinding shift/ctrl to the mouse so my hands don't hurt really bad.

I have something wrong in my hands that don't like when I hold shift/ctrl on my keyboard so I have to use it this way... and even the side mouse buttons hurt if I use more than the two (I have a mouse with 12 side buttons). At least I tried but it doesn't work out...

Does anyone have a tank setup that really helps someone in my situation? I might end up leveling WAR, but so far PLD and GNB have too many skills for me to be able to handle.

I can't advise you anything else if you find that PLD and GNB has too many skills except maybe you should pick other roles/jobs that better suits you instead?
Not everything has to be trimmed to be on your level if you can't do the utmost effort to achieve it. The devs has specifically stated that they designed GNB with a bit of a higher ceiling and dancer with a lower.

[Rivxkobe]

It shouldn't ever require more than 2 and a half hotbars to be able to handle every situation.

According to who? You? I'm sorry, but that literally means nothing.

[Maneesha]

hotkey mapping is for everyone different, i dont have any issues with the amount of skills on any class simply because i am used to games with a lot of skills to press.
i use "q,e,r,f,v,c,x,y("z" on english keyboards),<,^" as hotkeys since they are very close to "wasd" and i can all reach with ease. also "strg" and "alt" modifiers bound to mouse keys.
i wrote this as it might serve as inspiration for you how you could map your hotkeys. maybe you are not comfy with those and need to find your own way of mapping. also don't be discouraged if you struggle in the beginning, you will need time to get used to the new hotkeys and to build "muscle memory".

best of luck.

[Juzjuzz]

War doesn't have many buttons, same for drk imo.
If you really want to play gnb, maybe you can change you keybinds that way :
- I use a azerty keyboard so for me it's like 1,2,3,4,5,e,r,t,f,c,x,v( i use zqsd to move). I use "a" and two mouse buttons (S4,S5) that are not influenced by ctl, alt or shift : they are buttons for spamming/quick usage (you can do this for the continuation skill).
Here's how it's like in the end :
https://imgur.com/pNzwRTP

It's not much but i hope this can help you

[Nedkel]

OP could also play WoW if he/she doesnt like the way it is.

FFXIV has always been a piano-like game, you have 30+ skills to use on a different occasions and this is what makes this game so good and classes to diverse and interesting to play.
In WoW you spam few buttons and thats it, i think you will find yourself in it OP, try it out.

[Maneesha]

OP could also play WoW if he/she doesnt like the way it is.

FFXIV has always been a piano-like game, you have 30+ skills to use on a different occasions and this is what makes this game so good and classes to diverse and interesting to play.
In WoW you spam few buttons and thats it, i think you will find yourself in it OP, try it out.

wow used to be the same if not even worse in this regard, if you took different spell/skill ranks into consideration. sure nowadays its less keys to press, but i hope ff14 never reaches this state.
also there are other games which took the " less key's" approach, like gw2,neverwinter i think and some other. so i don't see the reason to recommend wow if op is enjoying ff14 and simply voices his opinion.